More Than A Friend

Ch. 2

"Pointless..." Wei Wuxian stopped, eyes wondering. "What do you mean? Is my doubt pointless or is showing you an example is?"

Lan Wangji stayed silent, pencil gripped in her hand with the choices of words she wishes to say yet they can not be chosen. Wei Wuxian furrowed her brows, closing her eyes as she placed her sketchbook back in her bag. "I'm sorry."

Lan Wangji flinched, turning to talk but Wei Wuxian smiled at her with a toothy grin. "I didn't mean to doubt myself. I'm sorry if that made you uncomfortable."

She was silent. It felt like Wei Wuxian understood her and saw her choices, taking the path that was clearer. It was like Wei Wuxian knew what Lan Wangji was thinking at the momment. "Growing up is weird, you know?"

Wei Wuxian stood up, walking towards Lan Wangji's example of Vincent Van Gogh's self portrait. "You know, I also used this as a reference."

"Huh...?" Lan Wangji was speechless, wonder in her mind.

She smiled, sincerely. "Back then, I was not the best of who I was. I always dreamt of saving a person that I lost because I couldn't do anything because they stopped me. Like Van Gogh's mindset during the times he painted, I was also in self doubt. I mean- Van Gogh is the epitome of self doubt." She stood infront of the painting, blocking it from Lan Wangji's sight.

"I could be a bitch and tell you a million reasons why, but, all I have to say now is what reason you may have right now. I'm going to guide you but, I chose this painting because back then, I kept asking myself if... if I was ever good enough." Wei Wuxian smiled, walking over as she took her bag.

"Enjoy the things you want to do in life, don't push yourself too much. Don't go cutting your ear off now." She walked out of the room, waving by the door before her silhouette disappeared into the hallway.

Later that day, Lan Wangji walked towards Hua Cheng's desk. "What is it, Ms. Lan?" Hua Cheng gathered her hair up for a ponytail, red lipstick remarkable to her students.

"May I ask where Wei Wuxian's self portrait is?" Hua Cheng stopped for a second, unmoving with the sudden question. She moved her hands away as her hair fell back down. "Have your eyes been elsewhere recently?" She asked, smirking.

"Excuse me?" Lan Wangji was offended. Hua Cheng used her hand as support as she leaned on the table. "Wei Wuxian's painting is the 150 x 100 painting in the art hall. She's won over the Dean with it." Hua Cheng sighed. "That child..."

Lan Wangji pondered with the sudden revelation for a momment, not knowing what to say. Moments later, she was running down the hallway, stopping when the doors of the art hall greeted her with open arms.

Each steps was a white flower petal falling from the magnolia outside, into the art hall. Lan Wangji had walked in this same hall before, but she never really saw what was outside of the other painting. She stood before the canvas that bled colorful ink, eyes sparkling with interest and amazement. Each detail was primordial and the loud booming emotions of the story behind such art reeled a space of her own. As she touched the art piece, it was like she was transported inside of the painting. Witnessing the tears Wei Wuxian shed behind those clouds of a thousand universes. Her body a sculpted masterpiece of broken jade the God's once touched in silk. The ink splattering loud thumping drops of the question she longed asked herself, the answer far from reach as if it were in the bottom of the water she was slowly drowning in.

"What are you doing?" A voice startled her, causing her to pull her hand back, returning to the real world.

A boy taller than her stood behind her, looking curiously. "If you damage that, you'd have to pay the artist and the Dean." Lan Wangji turned around. "I wasn't trying to do anything." She  defended herself, gripping her bag tightly in cautious hands. "Who are you?"

The boy had droopy eyes, his lip had a piercing and his nose also had a ring on the right nostril, a stud to the lower left. His ears had countless and when he spoke, a notable tongue piercing matched with his braces. "Qi Rong, bitch. Remember that. And if you touch that painting again, you're dead."

He cleared his throat. "What are you even doing here, kid? School ended, what? 30 minutes ago?" She looked down. "Can looking at paintings in the art hall not help as pointers?"

"You're a freshman. And I guess that fucker Hua Cheng suggested you go here? Hah! That bitch..." Lan Wangji knitted her brows. "Why were you angry when I touched the painting? Are you the one who painted it?"

Qi Rong gagged. "I can do better. But, no, it was my cousin. I bought the canvas for her and I don't want my savings going to waste."

Lan Wangji bowed her head, walking pass the boy. "Well then, it was nice knowing you." Qi Rong's mouth was agape. "Hey- What?!"

Before Qi Rong could speak, Lan Wangji was already leaving the door. "What a rude girl... Definitely sapphic." Qi Rong scratched his head, going the opposite way and up the stairs.

His tracks stopped by the second year's, class 2-1's room. Inside was Wei Wuxian, who's tears slipped down to the paint pallet that sat on the floor. Qi Rong always feared when this happened. The emotions Wei Wuxian could not comprehend on her own and the impulse decisions that will end up making her art beautiful yet unexplainable made it hard for Wei Wuxian's mental health, and her soul. Qi Rong knew Wei Wuxian was talented in her own way, but the mere presence of blood and tears in the color she uses, is scary yet so intriguing. It was strong yet it was the epitome of voided emotions. Her paintings had the simple explanation of "This is the end of all the endings." And she never failed to show it.

Her wrists stroked clean lines of tear splotched paint on the canvas as the setting sun reflected the golden hour in her eyes. Her mind elsewhere as  million colors introduced themselves in her monochromatic world, turning everything into shining diamond city lights. On the canvas was yet again another painting ongoing. A painting of a woman with golden eyes, and a heart made of ice that yet to clear and evaporate to reveal gold.