The Town With A View Of The Sea
Title: The Town With A View Of The Sea
Pairing: Sooyoung/Donghae
Rating: G
Genre: AU; Fluff
Sooyoung lies down on the grass, her arms outstretched beside her like wings. A palette, clasped between her tired fingers, sliced through the velvet grass on her right. Her left palm is open, the paintbrush she was holding lay stationary against her skin.
She squints her eyes as a ray of sunlight streams past the gaps between the leaves of the tree above her. The wind hums a lullaby and the rustling of leaves grow louder. Sooyoung sits up to avoid the sudden pool of lights filling up the grassy earth. She dips the brush into the blots of paint once again and faces the empty canvass in front of her. She lets out a frustrated sigh as the brush hovered motionless in the air, unable to conjure a single image of something she has no idea of.
“It takes tremendous amount of patience to create something beautiful. Especially if you are not in the mood to do so.”
A clear voice breaks the stillness. She looks up and her eyes meet the warm, brown orbs of Lee Donghae. Sooyoung sits up straighter as the boy takes a seat beside her. He gives her a kind smile, folds a knee towards his chest, and leans his back against the woody bark of the tree.
“You don't mind if I stay here, right?”
He asks her with his eyes closed and she nods her head quietly in reply. His appearance so sudden it took her a while to realize that she is still holding the paintbrush in the air, its tip almost touching the blank sheet.
Lee Donghae arrived at their large, crowded high school two days after the first snow has fallen. Sooyoung can still remember how he introduced himself unblinkingly in front of the class. Lee Donghae - the boy with the white-starched uniform, perfect hair, and deep, mysterious eyes. She had always observed him from afar. He fitted himself perfectly into the school like a missing piece of a puzzle, as if the school has long waited for him. He made friends easily and was always surrounded by them. Lee Donghae was the popular new boy and Sooyoung, the odd girl who lived in her own world, found herself wondering why she never made an effort to fit in just like he did.
“Do you paint?” she breaks the growing silence between them.
“Somehow...” his reply a bit louder than a whisper. He opens his eyes and stares at the world before them --- beyond the glimmering distance where the earth meets the sky, the long stretch of space where the sea of blue collides with planes of brown and gray.
“Is that the old clock tower beside the school?”
Donghae stretches a finger and points at a lone, alpine structure breaking the monotonous stretch of gray that was dusty streets and sun-burnt rooftops. Sooyoung opens her mouth to answer but the boy speaks on.
“Do you always spend your time on this hill?”
“Yes. Sometimes. Not really.”
Sooyoung wonders why she is suddenly tongue-tied; but his laughter reminds her so much of a gurgling brook during spring that she wonders instead how to make him laugh again.
“Which of the three is the truth?” he cocks his head on one side, a smile playing on his lips.
“I always spend time here back when I was young. Our house used to be located at the foot of this hill. Then high school started and we moved farther south. There...” she uses the brush to point at an unknown distance ahead of them. “...four streets away from our school. It takes me ten minutes to get here by bicycle so I only go here when there is no class. Or when I feel like I need some time alone.”
She is talking too fast she fails to catch herself before the last sentence ended.
“You don't mind if I intrude with your 'time spent alone', do you?” his voice is quiet.
“Oh no. I mean, of course I don't mind. Why would I? Right?”
She forces a laugh and turns her attention back to the empty canvass so as to distract herself from the awkward atmosphere. The boy, on the other hand, looks perfectly comfortable with the situation. Sooyoung was about to try her luck when Donghae speaks again.
“Paint me.”
At this point, Sooyoung lowers the wooden stick she was holding and faces the boy.
“What do you mean?”
“When I was young, my grandmother often told me about the hill with the view of the sea. I always thought she was referring to a coastal town.”
Donghae pauses as the leaves rustle with the passing of a summer breeze.
“Before she died, she left me a letter. The letter led me here.”
Sooyoung waits patiently for him to continue but he doesn't. Instead, he makes a pillow with his hands and lies on his back against the grassy earth. As if the inspiration has always been there, she finds herself moving the paintbrush in fast strokes across the once empty sheet of paper.
She thinks that the boy must have fallen asleep because he remained motionless and silent. She looks at him and then back at the piece she was working on. What was before a seemingly endless stretch of white is now colored green. A field of green broken by the form of a boy with his eyes closed and his face calm.
“It's done.”
He stirs at the sound of her voice, sits up straight, and looks at the canvass before him. A smile crosses his features as he gazes at the image of himself perfectly captured between the colorful strokes of her skilled hands.
“Thanks, Sooyoung-ssi.”
She blinks fast and stares at him.
“How did--- how did you know my name?”
He answers with a smile. Her confused expression doesn't falter.
“My grandmother's letter told me about the pains of living in a place she never wanted to stay at. That the reason why she never left is because it is where she has lived the happiest with her husband. When my grandfather died, halmoni wanted to stay with us right away. But she was torn between doing so and leaving the memories of harabeoji and that sweet young girl who always visits her and brings her bread everyday.”
“Hal-halmoni?”
Her expression softens as tears start to form behind her eyes.
“You say your old house is at the foot of this hill, right?” he stretches his arms and looks at her. “That's where I'm living right now.”
“Y-your the boy Lee halmoni often told me about?”
He moves towards her, pulls something out of his pocket, and places it in her hands. She looks down to see an old photograph, yellowed and curled on the edges, of lines of green, gray, and blue broken by the lone figure of a young girl with her hands up in the air. Her face was upturned, facing the blue, blue sky and the wind playing with her hair made it seem like the photograph itself was alive.
Sooyoung feels warm tears roll down her cheeks as her memories fly her back to the day back when she was eight. Cheerful and full of hope, in company of an elderly woman she has formed a special friendship with.
“I realized that the sea she was referring to in the town she was describing me was a sea of promise and hope." He extends his hand towards her direction and gives her the purest smile he has ever given someone.
"It's nice meeting you at last, Sooyoung-ssi.”
On a windswept hill
by a billowing sea,
my destiny sits
and waits for me.
~Robert Brault
---
A/N: written especially for unknowntoyou18 :) thanks ken for pushing me to write this and breaking the dry spell that has fallen over my journal. I know it's not much but I hope you'd still like it :D
Pairing: Sooyoung/Donghae
Rating: G
Genre: AU; Fluff
Sooyoung lies down on the grass, her arms outstretched beside her like wings. A palette, clasped between her tired fingers, sliced through the velvet grass on her right. Her left palm is open, the paintbrush she was holding lay stationary against her skin.
She squints her eyes as a ray of sunlight streams past the gaps between the leaves of the tree above her. The wind hums a lullaby and the rustling of leaves grow louder. Sooyoung sits up to avoid the sudden pool of lights filling up the grassy earth. She dips the brush into the blots of paint once again and faces the empty canvass in front of her. She lets out a frustrated sigh as the brush hovered motionless in the air, unable to conjure a single image of something she has no idea of.
“It takes tremendous amount of patience to create something beautiful. Especially if you are not in the mood to do so.”
A clear voice breaks the stillness. She looks up and her eyes meet the warm, brown orbs of Lee Donghae. Sooyoung sits up straighter as the boy takes a seat beside her. He gives her a kind smile, folds a knee towards his chest, and leans his back against the woody bark of the tree.
“You don't mind if I stay here, right?”
He asks her with his eyes closed and she nods her head quietly in reply. His appearance so sudden it took her a while to realize that she is still holding the paintbrush in the air, its tip almost touching the blank sheet.
Lee Donghae arrived at their large, crowded high school two days after the first snow has fallen. Sooyoung can still remember how he introduced himself unblinkingly in front of the class. Lee Donghae - the boy with the white-starched uniform, perfect hair, and deep, mysterious eyes. She had always observed him from afar. He fitted himself perfectly into the school like a missing piece of a puzzle, as if the school has long waited for him. He made friends easily and was always surrounded by them. Lee Donghae was the popular new boy and Sooyoung, the odd girl who lived in her own world, found herself wondering why she never made an effort to fit in just like he did.
“Do you paint?” she breaks the growing silence between them.
“Somehow...” his reply a bit louder than a whisper. He opens his eyes and stares at the world before them --- beyond the glimmering distance where the earth meets the sky, the long stretch of space where the sea of blue collides with planes of brown and gray.
“Is that the old clock tower beside the school?”
Donghae stretches a finger and points at a lone, alpine structure breaking the monotonous stretch of gray that was dusty streets and sun-burnt rooftops. Sooyoung opens her mouth to answer but the boy speaks on.
“Do you always spend your time on this hill?”
“Yes. Sometimes. Not really.”
Sooyoung wonders why she is suddenly tongue-tied; but his laughter reminds her so much of a gurgling brook during spring that she wonders instead how to make him laugh again.
“Which of the three is the truth?” he cocks his head on one side, a smile playing on his lips.
“I always spend time here back when I was young. Our house used to be located at the foot of this hill. Then high school started and we moved farther south. There...” she uses the brush to point at an unknown distance ahead of them. “...four streets away from our school. It takes me ten minutes to get here by bicycle so I only go here when there is no class. Or when I feel like I need some time alone.”
She is talking too fast she fails to catch herself before the last sentence ended.
“You don't mind if I intrude with your 'time spent alone', do you?” his voice is quiet.
“Oh no. I mean, of course I don't mind. Why would I? Right?”
She forces a laugh and turns her attention back to the empty canvass so as to distract herself from the awkward atmosphere. The boy, on the other hand, looks perfectly comfortable with the situation. Sooyoung was about to try her luck when Donghae speaks again.
“Paint me.”
At this point, Sooyoung lowers the wooden stick she was holding and faces the boy.
“What do you mean?”
“When I was young, my grandmother often told me about the hill with the view of the sea. I always thought she was referring to a coastal town.”
Donghae pauses as the leaves rustle with the passing of a summer breeze.
“Before she died, she left me a letter. The letter led me here.”
Sooyoung waits patiently for him to continue but he doesn't. Instead, he makes a pillow with his hands and lies on his back against the grassy earth. As if the inspiration has always been there, she finds herself moving the paintbrush in fast strokes across the once empty sheet of paper.
She thinks that the boy must have fallen asleep because he remained motionless and silent. She looks at him and then back at the piece she was working on. What was before a seemingly endless stretch of white is now colored green. A field of green broken by the form of a boy with his eyes closed and his face calm.
“It's done.”
He stirs at the sound of her voice, sits up straight, and looks at the canvass before him. A smile crosses his features as he gazes at the image of himself perfectly captured between the colorful strokes of her skilled hands.
“Thanks, Sooyoung-ssi.”
She blinks fast and stares at him.
“How did--- how did you know my name?”
He answers with a smile. Her confused expression doesn't falter.
“My grandmother's letter told me about the pains of living in a place she never wanted to stay at. That the reason why she never left is because it is where she has lived the happiest with her husband. When my grandfather died, halmoni wanted to stay with us right away. But she was torn between doing so and leaving the memories of harabeoji and that sweet young girl who always visits her and brings her bread everyday.”
“Hal-halmoni?”
Her expression softens as tears start to form behind her eyes.
“You say your old house is at the foot of this hill, right?” he stretches his arms and looks at her. “That's where I'm living right now.”
“Y-your the boy Lee halmoni often told me about?”
He moves towards her, pulls something out of his pocket, and places it in her hands. She looks down to see an old photograph, yellowed and curled on the edges, of lines of green, gray, and blue broken by the lone figure of a young girl with her hands up in the air. Her face was upturned, facing the blue, blue sky and the wind playing with her hair made it seem like the photograph itself was alive.
Sooyoung feels warm tears roll down her cheeks as her memories fly her back to the day back when she was eight. Cheerful and full of hope, in company of an elderly woman she has formed a special friendship with.
“I realized that the sea she was referring to in the town she was describing me was a sea of promise and hope." He extends his hand towards her direction and gives her the purest smile he has ever given someone.
"It's nice meeting you at last, Sooyoung-ssi.”
On a windswept hill
by a billowing sea,
my destiny sits
and waits for me.
~Robert Brault
---
A/N: written especially for unknowntoyou18 :) thanks ken for pushing me to write this and breaking the dry spell that has fallen over my journal. I know it's not much but I hope you'd still like it :D