Miss Imperfect // lee minhyuk (#24)

9

MinHyuk

Flashback (This chapter is the entire flashback of Minhyuk's past 4 years ago.)

I sat down on a chair facing the easel and the canvas that was on the easel, it is still uncompleted and it has been there for a week or so. This is the last painting that I have to complete before I could send them off to an exhibit that I had organized, the curator told me that we have to launch the exhibition by latest next Friday and it is already Monday.

The theme was dreams and I have been creating art pieces that showed that different kinds of dreams that people have, the bittersweet dreams that don't end off a good note, nightmares, daydreams, lucid dreams which are dreams that occur when you 'wake up' when dreaming, nightmares, recurring dreams, prophetic dreams and more.

I have done all of the dreams except for the bittersweet dreams that I still didn't know how to convey it in paintings visually, maybe I have not actually experienced any sort of major bittersweetness in my life.

My life has always been easy for me, I already knew that I wanted to be a painter or someone who will be working in the art industry. My career path has already been set down for me by my parents and my role is just to fulfil it, there were no obstacles for me to get there.

In order for me to pursue my dreams as a painter, as an artist, my parents have enrolled me into art schools ever since I knew what I was going to be, they wanted the best for me so they would pay whatever price just to see me be a painter in the future.

And surprisingly, I decided to give up that useless dream of mine temporarily when I was in high school as I wanted to focus on my studies. While I was excelling in my own fields, my academics were failing drastically and it would affect my place at a college in the future and that would mean that my dream as an artist would be over if I don't graduate college with a arts degree.

I studied really hard but I was still failing my subjects, I just didn't have the talent to sit down and study just like everyone else in the class. I wanted freedom for me to do whatever I wanted but high school doesn't allow me to do so until I met her while passing by the art club.

She was an artist like me who does pottery and makes excellent pottery pieces from her thin and delicate hands that I swore it was the most beautiful hands that I have ever seen in my entire lifetime.

We met and fell in love, she told me to continue to pursue my dreams despite the fact that I was bad in my studies and she tutored me as well nearing our exams. She was a great tutor and that helped me to improve greatly with her patient teaching and unique teaching methods, when I graduated, I was at the 40th placing in the whole student body, a placing that I never thought that I would get if I hadn't met her.

Needless to say, she was my saviour to my artist dreams. Despite that the fact that I was slow in understanding, she helped to break up the difficult parts and explain to me in such simple ways that an elementary school student would understand.

A knock signalled the arrival of someone important and I turned around only to see someone walking up to me with a frantic facial expression. "What are you still doing here?" She asked me.

"Working? You should go and rest, you need to rest well." I told her but she still didn't smile.

"You too. We are getting married tomorrow and you are still here painting?" She reminded me and I let out a sigh of realization as I remembered what today is for the both of us. "Are you serious, Lee MinHyuk?"

I placed down the palette and my paintbrush on the table, I stood up and placed both my hands on her shoulders. "I'm so sorry... I promise that I won't forget ever again."

She had a doubtful facial expression on her face. "What about the tuxedo? Have you ironed it?" I gave her an awkward smile as I tried to remember where the tuxedo was last placed at, I had brought it back last week after the wedding photoshoot.

Shoot, I forgot to wash it...

"Of course, I washed it and I had already ironed it," I replied. "I'm sure that it is not lost somewhere in this apartment."

She didn't say anything but instead walked to the laundry room where I do my laundry, fished out for the tuxedo that was supposedly washed and ironed. She held the tux by her fingertips and glared towards me. "Explain this."

I sighed and confessed. "Fine, I had completely forgotten about it." I took the tuxedo from her and I threw it in the washing machine, I switched on the machine and the water started flowing into the machine.

"Let's call off the wedding, I'm tired of this." She announced and she turns away from me, I grabbed her wrist. "Let go of me, you bastard."

"SoHye-ah, I'm terribly sorry... I won't do it again."

She turned to face me. "Is this the only excuse that you can think of every time you do something wrong?"

"I'm just too busy with work and me--"

"And you completely have forgotten that we are getting married tomorrow because of your goddamned work!! I had applied for a whole week of leave and you couldn't, that is how you prioritised your work instead of me!" She raised her voice and her eyes were already glistening with tears.

"At least I'm making money out of it! What about you? Nobody would want to stare at porcelain pieces all day long when they can only use it to put their flowers in. My paintings don't even create much space and can be hung on the walls."

"Lee MinHyuk is this how you see of me? A useless woman who is useless in her line of work and is probably useless to you as well?" Her lips were trembling from anger and I have to stop her from being angry.

"Sohye-ah..."

"I hate this. Let's end this..." She yanked her arm and she took off, never turning back to face me. I as well didn't do anything to make her come back. I was useless like she said... Even more useless than her...

She didn't turn up for the wedding the next day and I was certain that she didn't turn up for anything else after that night. She left for America that very night after all the efforts that she has prepared to be Mrs Lee.