Steal His Heart - Hyunlix

Pay Your Dues

When Hyunjin stepped foot inside his apartment, the first order of business, was to heat up the food. Considering he woke up so late in the day and only had an apple before leaving home, he was admittedly starving.

He leaned over the counter while his food was turning in the microwave with a smile.

He knew it was silly, and honestly, had it been three weeks ago, he would have been scolding himself for smiling like an idiot over a phone call. Over five minutes and one single word that made him melt.

"Cute"

He couldn't help himself though. Ever since the beach day, his boundaries simply dropped.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the beeping of the microwave. The smell of tomato and basil filled the room when he opened the door to retrieve the small container.

Hyunjin felt ready now. Since arriving here, he just wanted to take some time to get inspired, settle in, look around and literally smell the roses. And now, he was staring at six paintings in front of him without a home. Well, 5 paintings. The latest one he created, was not going anywhere. That one was home.

After taking a bite of the food, he put the container down on the arm rest of his couch and squinted at the paintings, studying them carefully.

Hyunjin started to notice a pattern. He had always painted in a more neutral pallete. Not that he didn't use color, because he did, but the colors were rarely vibrant. There were no bright colors, only neutral tones of all colors. That had changed.

Despite the continuation of a neutral palate in his new works, each one also had a singular bright color mixed in. As he looked down the line, with each painting, the bright color blossomed and took over more space on the canvas. It was like a gradient but with each layer, the color was different. There was a growth to it, like the crescendo in music.

He had a pretty good idea what the growing speck of brightness was, and it made him smile.

Hyunjin took another bite of the food and used his newly inspired state to pull out his laptop and start what he knew he needed to do, but didn't want to face yet. 

"Guess you have to start somewhere.." He mumbled to himself as he opened up the top page that popped up. It was time to call in his first payment.

-

Felix looked down at his phone with a mixture of a smile and nerves, not really knowing what the artist meant. He looked over at his brother and best friend cuddling on the couch none the wiser. It felt like he was a teenager again and sneaking around his parents.

With a gulp, he typed up the best response he could muster.

                          HYUNJIN

JINNIE:
Hey..
I was wondering if I could steal you away for an hour or so tomorrow..?
read Mon 9:51 pm

ME:
Steal me..?
Should I be worried?😅
read 9:52 pm

JINNIE:
Maybe... 🤫
read 9:53 pm

Felix blushed lightly and looked over at the couple on the couch to make sure they were focused somewhere else, really not ready for an interrogation.

He started to panic. How was he supposed to respond to that..? Yes he was flirty before... but that was before..

To his relief, he didn't have to panic long, as his phone buzzed again in his hand.

JINNIE:
I'm just kidding..
I wanted to turn in my hours to cash in some of yours.
If that's ok?
read 9:55 pm

Felix inhaled deeply in realization, completely forgetting about their agreement with everything else that had been going on.