A Watercolor Life

The traffic was terrible. She kept fidgeting her fingers and folding the corner of her sleeve, desperate to get to her destination. They were close, yet so far away. She knew that maybe if she hadn’t taken so much time on her make-up… well, that wasn’t true. She just put on a baggy knitted baby pink hat, and an oversized beige sweater. In fact, she was still tying up one of her boots before dashing into the car.

She felt her nerves consume her even more when she saw the studio near them. She had worked with celebrities once. Well, not precisely, she only attended the photo shoot, got a photo of them, formally greeted them and e-mailed them the final results of her digital work. This was a whole new experience. Well, not really. Maybe. She didn’t know.

She wanted to bail.

“We’re here, Miss Andrade.” She hated being called like that. It made her feel old. She didn’t even look her age. But she still smiled and politely thanked the driver. It never killed anyone to be polite, right?

“Ah, this way, please.” It was a man in his mid-thirties, sleek black hair and smart glasses perfectly matching that sharp looking suit he sported. The redhead immediately fell underdressed, and she nervously tugged the end of her beige sweater. It wasn’t cold anymore, but she couldn’t even dare take off the sweater to show off her brightly colored blouse. It had a cute bear on it, but still. She wondered if she could pull off the ‘I’m an artist’ card as an excuse for her messy attire. Well, not messy, but more like cute. She always worked with cute; it was part of her style.

And, well, no amount of cute could prepare her for the sight she was about to behold. The man, who she learned later one was named Hyo, opened a double door and guided her through a maze of cameras and cables and buzzing workers. Lary instantly felt her nerves jump to her throat, and a tiny smile tugged her lips as she tried to sooth herself. For some reason, she couldn’t help but feel that she was too still for comfort.

“We’re terribly sorry, Miss Andrade.” Don’t call me that. “It seems that the shooting yesterday wasn’t correct and they must repeat it.” The man looked more displeased than sorry, but she wisely kept silent. She then informed him that it was okay. It wasn’t, really. She woke up early for nothing, and then dressed like a blind bat, and had to sit through the worst traffic imaginable. But she said it was okay, and she didn’t really know why. The man then told her to please sit and make yourself comfortable, and she did. She wasn’t comfortable at all, and the sleeve of her sweater wasn’t distracting her long enough.

And that’s when she noticed the girl sitting beside her. The girl was surprisingly young, and had what some people would describe as ‘international features’, as she couldn’t really tell where she was from. She felt her eyes widen as the girl turned around and pounced from her seat.

“Oh! Oh! You must be Larythzza! You have a beautiful name, you know.” Her grin was huge; her cheeks pushing the end of her smile, making her round eyes look slightly Asian. “I’m Chantal, but you can call me Chan. By the way, I love your art. I can’t draw like that worth shit.” She immediately frowned and started to have a small panic attack accompanied by laughter. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to curse. I’m just so nervous and- and.” She covered herself and doubled over, covering her face and laughing even more nervously.

Lary laughed. “It’s okay! It’s okay, don’t worry!” This time, her hands didn’t twitch and the palm of her hands didn’t feel so hot anymore. This girl was like a fresh breath of air. “Your name is also pretty.”

The girl was too flustered to look at her in the eye, but she did say a silent thank you and sat back down. Lary decided that it was time she befriended someone while she was here, and so she turned to the girl.

“You can call me Lary, by the way.” The girl was still silent and looking around. “I won’t bite, you know. Unless you ask me to.” She grinned even more when the girl snapped her head towards her.

“You’re really pretty.”

Lary blinked and hid a smile behind her hand, giggling and thanking her. Chan then asked her what she was doing here and the redhead informed her about the project she would be working on. The young girl seemed interested, and she was commenting on how incredibly awesome her website was until-

“Holy. Shit.”

Her eyes were glued to somewhere beyond Lary’s face, and being the curious girl she was, she turned. And holy shit indeed. Coming out of an adjacent room, five men filled the room with all their glory. But there was one that shone above all. At that moment, the redhead didn’t know his name, but only his essence. And that was more than anything. She wondered if this was how the fan girls felt when they saw him singing or dancing or playing the guitar. She still didn’t know snitch about their boy-band group, but with faces like those, she could see how they reached popularity.

“That’s Seungho.” She snapped back to reality. Chan was already standing by her side, staring straight at one of the guys. “He’s really sweet.” She turned to the older girl and smiled. “I can introduce you to him, if you want. But by the look you’re giving me I’d take it as a ‘hot fucking shit yes!’”

“I don’t think they have-” time. Too late, as the young girl bolted through the studio and started to talk in a frenzy of Korean and English alike to one of the guys. Immediately all five heads looked up, and the girl pointed at the sitting girl. Oh, how she wanted to grab that girl and choke her and flip her off to the worst places in he-

They were approaching now, and now Lary could see why Chan acted so goddamned carefree around them. She was holding one of the guys hand, a very cute and sweet looking guy. But by the sound of his laugh and shinning eyes, Lary immediately knew he was an energy ball. She couldn’t help but feel a stroke of envy shoot through her. A beautiful girl with a beautiful boy. And that greek god who was approaching her with an amiable smile. Too perfect.

“You must be Larythzza?” Too charming. “That’s a very peculiar name.” Too polite. “We saw your art, and we immediately knew you were the one.” Too suave. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. You look even prettier in person.” Too pleasant. Too captivating. Too alluring. Too tempting. And she had to remind herself how to breathe.

“The pleasure is all mine. Oh! I’m sorry, I don’t… know your names. Well, only one. Seungho, right?” She grinned. She tried to mirror the excitement and politeness aimed at her, but her erratic heartbeat screamed at her that it wasn’t enough. “Chan told me.” She gave the girl a pointed look, one that looked sincere and even sweet. But deep inside she was reciting macabre chants from hell. Everyone didn’t seem to notice, only Chan. She was smug enough to smile back and mouth a small ‘told you.’

That little-

“That’s right. I’m Seungho, this is Thunder, G.O., Lee Joon and Mir.” Face by face, Lary felt her face go from politeness to unabashed incredulousness. They were all so pretty.

“You’re all really pretty.” She smiled at them, her remark innocent. Deep inside she mentally decked herself for saying it out loud. Seungho only smiled and laughed, it was a rich sound that resonated in her ears, made her crave for more. Chan seemed to clutch Mir even harder, tugging his hand and arching a brow when she noticed his blushing face. Thunder also blushed, but Joon and G.O. only seemed to mirror a smirk of arrogance that just screamed ‘I know.’

Seungho was staring at her, and she felt her hands start to twitch again. She wondered if she did her eyeliner right, and was about to ask if something was on her face when a loud crash interrupted her thoughts. Chan immediately did a sound that resembled a squeal and jumped right out of her skin. There were many curses and the lights flickered off, only to be replaced with emergency lights. Everyone could hear how Hyo roared and literally ate up the workers like Godzilla itself.

Mir and Chan were already gone. For some reason, she wasn’t particularly surprised. What she did feel was like tearing down the hallway when a hand landed on her shoulder. “Follow me.” She could barely hear his voice over her erratic heartbeat. She turned to Seungho and asked him what happened. He shrugged. He never let go of her shoulder, and she never got around to asking him why.

There were just too many.