Artistic Sin

PART 1 - MAKE IT EDGY!

Koichi POV

"OH MY GOD KOICHI ITS HUGE!!!"

"I don't think I can.. I can't .. ah.."

"Koichi really, it's massive.. I'm scared!!"

"Please, Koichi.. koichi.. KOICHI!!"

Hmm?

"KOICHI FOR FUCKS SAKE PLEASE GET THIS SPIDER OFF OF MY BAG BEFORE I DIE ITS FUCKING HUGE!!"

I looked up from the art I was working on, across the room to see Genki stood on my sofa, fists clenched by his side, wide eyes locked fiercely on his bag on the floor next to him as a spider casually made its way across it to try to climb up the spfa. He looked so pathetic and I couldn't help but throw my head back in laughter.

"KOICHI FUCK YOU! REALLY, FUCK YOU."

Putting my sketchbook and pens to one side, I stood up and went over to where the spider was.

"Hurry up!! Hurry up oh my god it's coming for me!!" I laughed more as Genki's voice quivered in fright next to me. The best part was that he was being genuinely serious about his fear.

Scooping up the little spider, I carried it to the window and let it crawl outside before turning round to see Genki stood in shock staring down at me from the sofa.

"You just touched.. it."

Tears were threatening to escape my eyes from laughing so much at his reaction.

"Get back to work for the love of god we need to get these merch designs done!!"

He slumped back down onto the sofa grumpily, his face the epitome of annoyance. I chuckled, ruffling his light brown hair before going back to my sketchbook.

"How far have you got?" He asked.

I held the page up to him, revealing a half finished sketch of himself that I felt rather proud of. He got up slowly from the sofa again and came over to my workspace, taking the page from me and inspecting it closely.

"What do you think?" I was expecting him to like it – well, I thought it looked cool anyway and I liked it myself. But he furrowed his eyebrows and brought a hand up to his chin as he sighed, obviously disappointed.

"I don't know..." he started. My heart sank a little.

"What do you mean?" I questioned, "That's a great design for posters and ads, right?"

"Yeah but.."

"You did say you wanted to use my art more for 8P-SB." I reminded him, reiterating the fact that it was his idea after all.

"It's just.."

"What. It's just what." I asked bluntly.

"It's a bit.. you know.. cute?"

"Isn't that what you want?!" My heart sank more. But he was cute! How could I draw anything not cute about him when Genki was one hundred and ten percent adorable?!

I looked up at him with sad puppyish eyes, not caring if I made him feel guilty about what he said. How dare he tell me my arts bad!!

Genki sighed, and I felt the effort of the sigh as the air brushed past my bob and displaced a few strands of pink hair.

"Look, I love it - but we can't keep up this cutesy image up constantly. We need to add some edge to it somehow now that we're catching people's attention.. we need something that will make us stand out, not just your pink hair.."