She didn’t know what had gotten her to push open the doors of the museum and step in but there she was anyway instead of going home, wandering through the several rooms where paintings were exposed for the public. Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse… All of those names gathered a lot of people and Gaeul slowly came to understand why throughout the years, their art lived on; it made feel things. Whether it was a positive or negative reaction, paintings or even art in its entirety brought emotions to people and she wasn’t an exception.
A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips at the reproduction of a painting she had seen in a drama and she made a mental note to buy more books about arts and paintings when her eyes caught sight of an exposition about stars. That would definitely be interesting to see. She loved the stars, the sky and the whole universe: it was so full of mysteries and unanswered questions which, in all honesty, was something someone as curious as Gaeul couldn’t help but to be attracted to.
Stepping into the rather dark rooms, she felt like a shift in the mood. Maybe it was the way the paintings were lightened up, or the lack of noise but it all gave her a sense of peace and calm she didn’t know she could reach at a museum. Her feet brought her to the painting of a dark blue sky full of stars, so bright that it looked like they were alive. It was beautiful. Someone stepped beside her and Gaeul just gave a glance over to the person before her attention went back to the painting for several seconds but she was soon looking back at the man, blinking several times.
“Oh– Taekwoon-ssi? Am I right? It’s been a while. I don’t know if you remember me.”
Galleries had never been a draw to Leo, and he was at a loss when explaining why. In all respects, they seemed to be a perfect prospective haunt for him; art and quiet thoughts in a space removed from the rush of the outside world. Yet it was the first time he’d found himself in such a place in many years.
He wandered around with wide eyes, like a child seeing a rainbow for the first time. Except here, Leo was among the stars. Dozens and dozens of galaxies, all laid out for him, close enough to touch and taste, but without the need to. He could feel their yawning, lonely expanse simply by gazing at them. He was entranced. Enthralled. The detail in each painting was a sight to behold in itself. The intricacies of watercolours he was familiar with. Less so when it came to acrylics. If he wanted, he could have stood and counted each stroke of the brush and the motion it left on the canvas, windswept swirls over an ocean of colours. Leo smiled at the contradiction of the thought. An ocean of a sky. Two opposites, one that reflects the other in order to make it blue to the human eye, the blue of the sky an illusions to begin with, the stars stretching beyond it...
His mind was reeling, drinking in the eternity that he was witnessing with his feet still on the ground. He took a few small steps closer to the painting, careful not to obstruct the view of anyone else. He needn’t have worried. It was her voice that pulled him away from the fantasies in his head. Leo looked to his left. Taekwoon? No, that wasn’t right... “Leo,” he corrected softly, a shake of his head followed by a hint of a smile. “But I remember. You’d be rather hard to forget.” It was a small encounter, back when he’d been more afraid of himself, and afraid of others. She had talked with him, walked with him without hesitation. Her name... her name was... “Gaeul. It seems we are beginning a habit of chance meetings.”
