✧ quad

@✏ ⋮ kim sooyun。 Cameras are expensive - the really nice ones, at least. Minjae has a small number of them that he's either received as gifts or bought himself after saving up enough money. He treats them carefully, to the point that his family have joked that they were his babies. (They are, thank you very much.) But sometimes, when the inspiration strikes him, he can forget to take his usual precautions.

Right now is such an event.

Minjae has one of his DSLR cameras held up to his face, turned sideways to take a long shot down the university quad. The sun is shining just right and casting a sparkling beam across the green lawn. He wanted to get his pictures before another cloud rolled in and the moment ended, and in his haste he didn't close his bag or pull on the neck strap attached to his camera. The camera shutter goes off a few times and he pulls it away from his face to view the photos. They're good, but he wants a tighter shot. Minjae fiddles with the camera and removes the current lens. He drops it into his bag and searches for another one with a higher focus, preparing to attach it when something hits him full force and knocks both items from his hands, and Minjae himself to the ground.

There's a terrible cracking sound and a harsh thump as Minjae lands half on his bag, his camera and lens a few feet away on the concrete of the sidewalk. His elbow and palms burn from scraping against the ground and he hisses painfully as he sits up, taking a moment to recover before figuring out what the hell just happened.

@✏ ⋮ chey hyeon。 rolls my eyes playfully at your statement then I go back to my drawing
sketching every detail out and getting the points where the shading is
and I nod to your question

"yes I have another class in 2 hours then I'll be done for the day how about you?"

turns to look to you awaiting your response then I nod again when you ask me if
I have eaten or not

"yes I have eaten I bought a sandwich with me so I ate it during my break so I'm not
too hungry right now and I was here at around 9am this morning"

@✏ ⋮ song minhee。 “It is my job to state the obvious!” replies Hyeon as he stares at the drawing on Minhee’s lap. “Today’s colour gradation is so interesting. It always makes me wonder like what is on your mind? The fact that you can combine odd colours to create this piece. Simply wonderful!” Hyeon finds it incredible. The first time they met, she was drawing something so beautiful that even made him asked, the reasoning behind her painting. She simply said, she felt like painting so.

That is why he finds the art student interesting, creative and so precious. “Do you have any class after this?” he asks, trying to distract his friend from her drawing.

“Have you eaten? Or you have been here since early in the morning?” It is not a strange phenomenon if Minhee has been here since the moment she wakes up. She just loves art too much, perhaps more than herself.

@✏ ⋮ chey hyeon。 my class had just ended and I gather my things getting up from my seat walking out in the class making my way to the quad area to get some inspiration and when I arrive there I take a seat under the tree taking out my sketchbook along with my sketch pencils picking a HB pencil as I begin to sketch the scenery in front of me being really concentrated that I don't notice that someone is seated beside me until I hear you call me I jumped a little looking at you letting out a breath

"wow thanks for stating the obvious Hyeon" I let out a playful chuckle nodding to your question as I
look up at the sky blocking my eyes from the sunlight
"yes the sky does look a tad different today with all the different cloud shapes"

@✏ ⋮ song minhee。 Classes have just ended, and the now carefree Hyeon is making his way to one of his many favourite places on campus, the quad.

For others, it might just seem like a place they pass by to get to classes, but not for Hyeon. After the conversation he had with Minhee months ago, the quad no longer appears ordinary; instead, it is a place where perspectives play a role in depicting the beauty of nature. It is funny how he never really thought about it before – to him, the sky is blue, perhaps changing to oranges and pinks at sunset, but still just colours.

The conversation they had was precious to Hyeon. He never realized that the tall buildings bordering the quad seemed to frame the sky like a picture. The same place he walks by every day suddenly looks different – it never occurred to him that such a view could provide a sense of calm and serenity amid the urban landscape.

As soon as he reaches the quad, he squints to look at the sky above – a vast canvas of blue, dotted with fluffy white clouds lazily drifting by. The buildings surrounding the quad loom overhead, creating a stark contrast against the peaceful expanse of the sky.

“She's here again,” Hyeon chuckles as he makes his way to Minhee, who looks like part of the view, the beauty. “Wake up, Minhee – If you keep admiring nature, it will eat you up one day,” he teases as he takes a seat next to her. “Drawing again? No, no – I should not be asking that. Of course, you are here to find inspiration for your next masterpiece. Let me rephrase my question: Do the movements of the clouds appear different to you again, making you happy to see such subtle changes?”