Crafting The Lust

✨15✨

Now, it looks like the space of the chamber was stretching, as the silence grew wider. Hyunjin stared at the painter, without even blinking. Measuring his moments or what the opulence he was seeing in that painter who was just in an ordinary apron. Maybe the way with passing time his growing focus, his flickering gazes from the canvas to the queen, how his lashes fluttered.

The lights of the chamber were focused on the canvas and queen, as the reflection of golden rays fell upon the painter's face, it glowed like he was enveloped with a divine aura. Felix's eyes measure the symmetry, the beauty, the royalty. His breathing was slow and relaxing. But as a skilled painter he was seeing more than he wished he saw, the facede on the queen's soft appearance.

There was more beneath the beauty that was reflecting and Felix could see it, as the essence. He could see the warmth that radiating from the queen was more like one which burns others not which gives warmth to others. He sighed deeply, just sketching her postures as a reference.

Hyunjin's lips curved into a smile that he wasn't intentionally wanted to show, as he rested on his one elbow, legs stretched, his head rested on his own shoulder. The strange pull he was feeling was so eccentric but for sure he knew that this painter might be more useful for him than he was here for. No matter how sharp his gaze was, how determined his focus was a displeasure growing in his chest that the painter was neglecting his presence, he wasn't even reacting to his vicious smirk he offered to his figure.

The king's eyes narrowed slightly as he tapped his fingers against the mattress, the soft thuds filling the silence. His smirk was meant to provoke a reaction, to unsettle Felix, but the painter didn't even flinch. He continued with his work, seemingly oblivious to the king's presence, to the weight of Hyunjin's gaze on him. It was as if Felix existed in a world of his own, where only the canvas and his subject mattered.

Hyunjin couldn't deny the growing displeasure in his chest. He was used to being the center of attention, commanding a room with just a glance, but Felix barely acknowledged him. The painter's focus was entirely on the Queen, and that irritated Hyunjin more than he cared to admit. But at the same time, there was something thrilling about it—this challenge, this unintentional defiance. Felix's disregard for Hyunjin's presence only made the king more determined to capture the painter's attention, to see if he could break through that wall of concentration.

Still, there was something else, something deeper that intrigued him. This painter, this man standing before him in a simple apron, had a presence of his own—subtle, but undeniable. Hyunjin wasn't sure if it was Felix's talent or his quiet confidence, but he knew that Felix was more than just a tool for creating art. There was potential here, something that Hyunjin could use, if he could just find a way to reach it.

A small, almost imperceptible smile tugged at Hyunjin's lips. Yes, he thought to himself, "this painter might be more useful than I first imagined".

"Yongbok, is my Queen difficult to portray?" Felix's hand halted at the canvas as the king interrupted the silence. Queen Anna flickered her gaze upon her king who was staring at Felix as he was waiting for his answer, more like wanted to hear the painter's voice.

Felix gulped, his reluctance gaze turned to King, as if he just realised he had been watched all the time. His chest was tight but still holding upon his courage, he answered, "No, not at all, your majesty." The defiance in his voice made the king's smirk grow wider, Hyunjin nodded, more like in mockingly.

"But why I'm seeing.... you're struggling?" Hyunjin again spoke, his voice draped with eerie velvet-ness, trying to distract Felix by his all might. "I'm not struggling, your majesty," Felix's eyes followed the queen who hadn't interrupted them, "it might be because of the change of perception of an ordinary person and an artist." He completed his sentence with slight confidence.