Paint Me as Beautiful as I See You

Chapter 1

"Turn that alarm off, Jisung, or so help me, I will throw it out the window." Minho mumbled into his pillow and rolled over, pulling the blankets up over his head.

"That's very violent of you, Minho." Jisung said sleepily. "The phone could fall on someone below and kill them, you know." Jisung finally smacked his hand around on the table beside him until he found his phone and silenced the alarm.

"I would apologize profusely to the family, explain the circumstances, and then they would agree with me that I made the right choice." Minho groaned from the under the blankets. "Hurry up and wake up so I can go back to sleep."

Jisung shimmied his way under the blankets and snuggled up against Minho, wrapping his arm around him and snuggling his face into the older boy's neck. "Why would I wake up when I'm so warm and happy right here?"

Minho sighed, not wanting to push his boyfriend away, but really not wanting his next alarm (that he knew was coming any second) to go off. "Jisung, you always tell me to not let you go back to sleep and you always do anyways. You seriously can't be late today." Even though Minho said this, he made no move to stop the cuddling.

Jisung tightened his arm around his boyfriend. "Don't wanna." he whispered, obviously already nearly back to sleep.

Minho gave himself one more moment to enjoy the snuggle before he wriggled his way out. Jisung whined in protest, scooching after him and trying to cuddle more.

"Jisung," Minho grunted. "Jisung, you have the interview for the showcase in less than an hour. You seriously need to get up."

Jisung finally peaked one eye open and squinted in the light coming in from their crappy blinds. "I'm nervous, hyung." he whimpered.

Minho melted, pulling Jisung back against him. "You have worked so hard for this, 'sungie. You are going to do amazing." He reached up with his free hand and pushed Jisung's hair off his forehead, kissing him softly on his skin. Just as Jisung relaxed with a calm sigh, his next alarm startled them both out of their comfy positions. "Ok, I really think you should get up now." Minho planted one more kiss on his forehead and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. "I love you, 'sungie."

Jisung sat up and turned off his alarm, then turned back to smile down at his hyung. "I love you too, minnow."

______

Jisung sat in the waiting room, clutching his paintings to his chest. His foot tapped anxiously, and Jisung wished he wasn't holding his canvases so he could bite his nails. He was absolutely terrified.

"Hey--dude? Sorry, but could you stop that?" Jisung shook himself out of his head and turned to the boy sitting on the other end of the bench. Jisung creased his eyebrows, confused.

"Huh?" he said dumbly.

The boy just smiled and gestured toward his bouncing leg. "It's bouncing the whole bench." he explained.

"Oh!" Jisung flushed a bright red. "Sorry. Sorry. Just--sorry. I'm really nervous." Jisung sputtered.

The boy chuckled softly. 'It's ok man, so am I. My name's Felix, by the way. Are you here for the showcase interview?"

Jisung nodded quickly. "Yeah, I am. I'm Jisung. Er-what art do you do?"

Felix lifted a worn sketchbook from his lap and waved it gently. "Pencil drawings, mostly. I love bringing people to life on the page with nothing but some lead and an eraser. What about you? I see you have some canvases there, do you paint?"

Jisung tapped the canvas his hand was touching lightly. "Yeah. Sceneries mostly, but I love to try portraits when I can."

Felix gave him a warm smile. "That's really neat! Maybe if we both make it in this showcase, we can pose for each other sometime." he gave Jisung a wink.

Jisung choked and coughed awkwardly. "Er-I--that's really very nice of you, but I have a boyfriend." Jisung felt his skin burning as he looked down at his feet. He looked up as he heard Felix laughing.

"Hey, that's all good man! You still seem cool." Felix's head shot up as he heard his name called out. "Break a leg, I hope to see you on the other side!" He jumped up and gave Jisung a quick wave as he quickly walked over to the woman who called his name. Felix followed her through a door, and it slammed behind him.

Jisung went back to tapping his foot.

_______

"Oh my God, Jisung! I'm so proud of you!" Minho picked up his boyfriend and twirled him around, not even caring how cliche they looked. Jisung was smiling so wide he thought his face would split in two.

"I can't believe it, hyung! They said my paintings were some of the best they'd seen this year! They want me to have a front spot in the showcase!" Minho hugged Jisung even tighter, their smiles mirroring each other.

"I never doubted you, not even for a second." He stopped smiling only so that he could plant a loving kiss on Jisung's lips. "When do you leave for New York?"

"Three weeks. I need to paint one more painting, they said they want an even number for the position that they're putting me at. They said that there will be actual art critics there, hyung. Like big ones. And buyers! I need to set prices for my paintings and everything!"

"Sorry, you're going to have to tell them they aren't for sale." Minho said sternly. Jisung frowned, confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Minho gave a giant grin. "Because they're priceless to me." he said, his voice dripping with honey.

Jisung rolled his eyes as far back as they could go and punched Minho in the arm with a loud laugh of exasperation. "Oh my GOD, hyung!"

Minho just laughed brightly and twirled Jisung around, pulling him into a hug from behind. He lowered his voice, whispering into Jisung's ear. "You're living your dream, and I am so proud of you."

Jisung shivered and felt his ears grow warm, and he knew he was blushing. Even though he and Minho had been dating for over a year now, his boyfriend would never stop making him feel this way. As if they had just discovered each other, and only just fallen in love. He would never get tired of it.

He loved Lee Minho with all of his heart.