Checkmate ⚢

Chapter 39 Subjects

A/N
Sorry about the delay! Had been re-editing a lot! Also, thank you so much to the people who left comments on the last chapter!!! I love them all seriously and they always make me smile. They are all so wonderful :)!! Bless you, guys, <3
Please check out my other upcoming story "The Witch's Doll".

The next few days or so are simultaneously some of the slowest and fastest of their lives. The days blended and Althea and Hana moved through them, sustained entirely by discipline and routine with a dash of spontaneity and curiosity. Under the strict guide of Professor Oakley, they forced themselves to perfect their craft and build Hana's repertoire the whole week they were excused from school.

As a result of the non-speaking terms with Professor Andrea—or now Andromeda, Hana had to work harder to catch up with the missed classes and lessons when Monday rolled. Hana particularly had to focus on the assignments for school, pay attention in class, and on reviewing for exams. Every time Hana almost succumb to the sweet call of sleeping while studying, she considered pinching herself on the arms, as Althea took it upon herself to forbid any excess caffeine and energy drink for her. Hana took a few deep breaths and resumed at an even faster pace than before.

After exam week, Hana and Althea are allowed to dwell their attention on the second priority and they were faced with their greatest challenge yet.

The ideas didn't come. All their energy in the past few weeks has been used up completely on exams. They had three more weeks left before the art competition and two days hence was Christmas.

Despite how it's basically Christmas break, Hana only allowed herself to have fun once she exhausted herself with spending countless hours sitting at her desk, scribbling down ideas and sketches that never manage to coalesce into one.

"Aargh!" Hana yelled diving to the sheets of Althea's bed. "I'm tired. I literally have no idea how to be unique in combining painting and photography within the same piece. How about you, Althea, you must have some idea."

"Well," Althea was browsing books for inspiration while wearing an ugly Christmas sweater. "Since there are various collections of paintings merged with photographs, we must explore our own style ourselves."

Hana pushed her upper body to sit and search for her lover's eyes. A slight blush appearing in her cheeks at the sight of the silly sweater she forced Althea to wear. "You didn't answer my question though."

Althea chuckled. "Take it as revenge for this sweater."

"Why are you so offended by it?" Hana gushed. "It looks good on you! And besides, we're matching!"

"It is not even Christmas yet!"

"So? You're still doomed to wear it every day until then!"

The blonde merely rolled her eyes, flipping the pages in the book.

Hana puffed her cheeks. It was weird to see Althea being stubborn so she reverted the topic. "What did the other photography and painting artists do before?"

"In the past, the many ways modern and contemporary artists have mastered this form of mixed media through involving photographing camouflaged paintings, which is widely practiced in social media. Others feature photographs that have been directly painted on, some were altering a photograph image with painting, some make it a college, and some were arranging a scene to include painting as an integral part. Most, however, are digitally-altered composites."

"Let me guess," Hana raised her chin, imitating her. "The selected works predominantly span surreal portraiture and whimsical landscapes. No matter the method, each artist proves that painting and photography is a perfect match."