Midsummer's || dks + pcy || discontinued

Autumn Rhythm

|| Morgan ||

The sound of footsteps broke the silence that settled over the gallery. Chanyeol's loud, echoing steps paced the room, speaking volumes of his boredom. It was a Thursday; no one ever came to the art museum on Thursdays. Most everyone is at work, getting ready for the weekend. So it was just Chanyeol and I. Looking over my shoulder, I gazed at him. He was playing with his phone, most likely finding something new on Spotify. He never really enjoyed it here, and had always said that it was too quiet and that he would rather be surrounded by people than paintings that just hang on a wall. We saw some things differently, I guess.

I shifted my attention from Chanyeol to the ceiling. It was mostly made up of windows so the natural lighting could show. Once in a while, there would be an art installation of some sort and the rays from the sun would bounce off of it, casting oddly shaped patterns of light on the white walls and floors. This time, however, the room was simply filled with paintings that lined the walls and a gigantic Jackson Pollock piece toward the exit. It had just come in, and I was surprised at the fact that not many people had come to see it. Oh sure, there were your art appreciators, but not really any others than that.

I turned and grasped Chanyeol's wrist. "Let's go back there." I suggested, tugging his arm. The giant pouted, his bottom lip protruding out. I sighed. "We can leave right after, I promise. Then we can go get some pork or something."

The promise of food brought a smile on my boyfriend's face, just as I knew it would. He willingly moved back to the painting with me, his long strides making me walk faster than I usually did to catch up with him. Yeol stopped in front of the painting and squinted his eyes, trying to make sense of it. The piece was called Autumn Rhythm, one of Pollock's drip paintings. Chanyeol glanced down at me. "Is it supposed to mean anything?" There was a hint of skepticism in his deep voice.

"Mmm. I'm not really sure." My hand absent-mindedly moved from his wrist to his hand, slowly intertwining our finders together. He noticed my hands were cold, as well as his, so he shoved them both in his coat pocket. I tilted my head up at him. "Do you think it means anything?"

His eyes moved downward and he set his mouth in a straight line; he often did this while thinking. "I don't think so," he finally said."It just looks like he flung paint at a canvas. Chanyeol looked at me, trying to confirm that what he thought was right. I just shrugged. He looked back at the painting. "I bet I could do that. It's just slinging paint, isn't it?"

"It's a bit more complicat—"

"Can we try it?" Chanyeol's eyes lit up at the idea and the corners of his lips pulled into a smile. "Please?" He plead. "It'd be cool and we can even hang it up on the apartment when we're finished with it."

I smiled. "Okay, okay." Chanyeol taking an interest in something besides his music would make me agree to anything. In his childlike excitement, he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed, almost hard enough to make me loose my breath. I tapped his arm. "Yeol.."

"Sorry," he let go of me, concern showing on his face. "Did I hurt you?" He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, the tips of his ears turning red in embarrassment. "I guess I was too excited," he mumbled sheepishly.

"No, it's okay," I grabbed his hand. "You're fine." My eyes lifted to his face. He had a hat pulled down over his hair, making his ears all the more noticeable. I was fine with that. I liked his ears.

The silence of the gallery was suddenly broken again by the echo of footsteps, this time multiple, along with a hushed chattering. "Guys, you have to be quiet, okay?" A voice called out over the chattering. A familiar voice."You don't want me to give the principal any bad reports do you?" A chorus of  "no"s and "no ma'am"s rang out in the room, followed by a loud "shhh."

"Hey isn't that.." Chanyeol spoke softly. I put my finger to my lips and peeked around the corner. Sure enough, it was Ronnie, followed by about a dozen or so small kids. Lingering behind the group, was Kyungsoo, who held a camera in his hands. "She teaches little kids?" I nodded. Chanyeol lifted his eyebrow. "But I thought she worked at a donut shop?"

"She only works at the donut shop part time. Teaching kindergarteners doesn't really bring in much money." I explained.

"Oh, okay." My boyfriend pulled me out from around the corner. "Why don't we go say hi?"

"Eh. I don't really want to interrupt their field trip or anything. We don't have to say—"

"Oh come on. I'm sure she'd be happy to see you. And look, Kyungsoo over there looks like he's dying of boredom, the kids probably are, too." Without letting me get another word in, Chanyeol pulled me over to the group.

Ronnie looked at us in surprise. "You're here?" I nodded and Yeol laughed out loud, possibly scaring some of the kids behind her with his laugh that reverberated across the room.

"We've been here for a few hours, actually. Morgan always drags me here on Thursdays," he explained glancing at me in amusement. "You're here on a field trip?" Ronnie nodded, smiling as Yeol crouched down so he was at eye level with her students. I was never one to like being around little kids all that much, but Chanyeol loved them.

"Yeah, and Miss Wolfe brought her boyfriend," a girl with short black hair and bangs whisper-shouted, sending the rest of Ronnie's class into giggles. Chanyeol smirked and ruffled her hair.

"Really?" He leaned down to her ear. "Do you think he's cute?" The little girl was silent for a second, as if she was thinking about her response, and then slowly nodded her head. Chanyeol stuck out his bottom lip, feigning disappointment.

The little girl laughed, her eyes turning into half-moons. "I think you're cuter." She whispered.

Chanyeol lifted his eyebrows. "Really?" He picked her up and swung her around. "I like her," he said to Ronnie, a pleased smile on his face. He turned to me. "It looks like you have some competition."

I smirked. "I guess I do." I watched as the children seemed to crowd around my boyfriend, waiting for their turn to be swung around. We'd probably be here for a little bit longer. Not that I minded.

Ronnie made her way over to me and chuckled. "They seem to like Chanyeol a lot more than they like Kyungsoo," she mused, crossing her arms. "He hasn't really interacted with them much and then when he tries, they kind of just.. brush him off."

"He doesn't seem like the type to take to kids," I observed. I looked around the room for him and couldn't find him. Perhaps he had wandered off. "Chanyeol is practically a child himself, so of course they'd naturally gravitate toward him."

Ronnie began to say something else to me, but looked back at the kids and frowned. "Taeoh, don't grab onto his leg like that," she called, rushing over to remove a fairly chubby cheeked boy with silky brown hair from Yeol's long leg. I sighed and meandered around the room. With Yeol distracted, I could stay for a bit longer.

I hummed to myself and settled on a nearby bench, fishing my sketchbook out of my bag. Flipping through it, I noticed that most of the things I had drew were half-finished like the drawings back home. It was quickly becoming the norm these days; I couldn't bring myself to finish any of them. I sat there for a few minutes, and a couple of times I would hear a soft noise that sounded similarly to the click of a phone camera; which was crazy because I wasn't near any paintings for someone to be taking pictures. Eventually, I stood up and walked back over to the group to see Chanyeol talking to Ronnie, who had the same boy she had pulled off of his leg minutes ago.

Chanyeol grinned at me. "We're going to have lunch with Kyungsoo and Ronnie after they take the kids back to school," he announced. Kyungsoo appeared behind him and looked toward Ronnie.

"We are?" He questioned, his voice almost a murmur. He glanced at me and quickly looked away, clearing his throat.

She shifted Taeoh on her hip and a small smile. "You were just saying that you were hungry. I didn't think you'd mind." The look on his face told me otherwise. Chanyeol looked down at him and grinned, placing his hand on Kyungsoo's narrow shoulders.

"It'll be fun."