Narrator
Y/n always watched Pham Hanni from afar.
For the last 2 years, Y/n would walk past Hanni's favorite coffee shop, drive past her house, and show up to her gallery for any new exhibitions.
You might consider Y/n to be a stalker...
But when you've fallen in love with a mere painter who has no connections yet paints like a dead artist... you might as well have fallen in love with air.
- Y/N POV -
My life has always been so bitter. It's stale and hard for me to enjoy.
Coming from a family of Chaebols has never been easy. I've had to acclimate to a lifestyle and beliefs that I never wanted.
It's almost torturing.
I wanted to leave it all behind...
And one day I almost did.
I was getting ready to jump off my parents' company building. I had set everything I needed in place and was making my way over to their building late at night...
But then...
There she was.
"The night can be a little daunting, huh?" The random girl asked.
I froze.
"She isn't talking to me, is she?" I asked myself.
The tears in my eyes were making it hard to get a clear look at the girl, but even though I was having a hard time seeing...
I could see the painter's apron tied around her waist.
"What do you think? Does this portray that?" The girl asked, showing me the fresh oil painting in her hands.
I wasn't sure what to answer.
I wasn't even sure if this girl was really right in front of me.
"I think it says just what I want it to say," The girl gave her painting a proud smile.
I managed to get my mind unfocused from my main goal for the night and decided to give the girl's painting a bit of attention.
"Wooahh," My heart sank at the beautiful painting right in from of me.
It was a girl.
There were shades of red, yellow, and orange.
The picture as a whole was eerie.
But the most capturing thing.....
Was the girl suspended in the air right next to a building that seemed oddly similar to my parents' company building.
"Do you think she'll survive?" I unconsciously asked the girl.
I watched as she took a long breath.
The girl stared at her painting for a while and before she could answer me... I saw a tear running down her cheek...
"Yes, I think any angel who takes a fall that great is bound to survive in one way or another," The girl said with a soft but sad gummy smile.
My soul sighed in that moment.
It felt like I had taken my first breath in life.
"Here, I want you to have it! When I become the greatest painter in the world, I want you to be the first one to say "I have a P.H. Original"!"
I tilted my head a bit confused.
The girl simply handed me the painting and walked into the night.
I stared at the painting for a while before deciding to take home.
On a night when I was heading over to my death...
This girl had managed to distract me enough to save me.
It didn't take long for me to use all of my resources to find the girl from that night.
Her name was Pham Hanni.
She had recently graduated from the "Royal College of Art" in London. Prior to that, she had been a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard's "Biological Sciences in Public Health" department.
Miss Pham had recently, at the time, submitted a request to join the "Modern Arts" exhibit at my family's museum but was rejected, because quote.....
"She wasted her life with painting instead of graduating from Harvard".
Miss Pham's request included the quote... "I want to save someone's life with my paintings. I have always wanted to save lives and I think that science isn't the only way to go about it."
After my initial research, I was so intrigued that I did a deeper look into Miss Pham's life.
Unfortunately, I was left a bit disillusioned with her background.
You would think that Miss Pham was well off just by the sheer fact that she attended such prestigious schools... but that was far from the truth...
From what I could find, Miss Pham was in South Korea on her own. She was living in a small studio and had to borrow a lot of money to open her own gallery.
Unfortunately, this didn't work for me.
It wasn't because she was not wealthy or known or anything of the sort... it didn't even have anything to do with me really....
It's because, I knew, my parents would never even approve of me having a friendship with a commoner.
My statutes did not allow for such fruitless relationships.
But I didn't care,
By a pure and wholesome painting... started a wonderful... yet one-sided... relationship.
- Hanni POV -
It had been 2 years since I opened up my gallery.
When I got rejected from the "Leeum Museum of Art", I had lost all hope in life.... but that day changed my life.
I was walking down to the museum owner's headquarters to just jump off the building... but I got entranced by the beautiful fiery sunset that appeared to be engulfing the building I intended to jump off of.
As my last statement to the world, I pulled over. I took out my easel, canvas, and paint.... and just started to paint on the canvas like I knew this was my last painting.
When I was done, the sun was down and it was now a dark and eerie night.
I started to put my things back in my car, once I was finished and looked for a place on the sidewalk to leave my final painting.
I wanted my painting to really make a statement... but the darkness of the night... was making it a little hard to just leave my painting anywhere.
That's when I noticed a person, they were dragging their feet, they seemed intoxicated or possibly on something.....
"The night can be a little daunting, huh?" I asked out loud.
That person seemed to be having just as hard of a day as I was.
I didn't expect anything more but for the person to ignore me and walk past me.... but to my surprise.... they stopped.
"What do you think? Does this portray that?" I asked, trying to make sure I wasn't just imagining the fact that this person had actually stopped to listen to me.
It took a few moments, but the person stepped a little closer to look at my painting.
I wasn't getting a response, so I spoke up again... "I think it says just what I want it to say,"
I think I just wanted validation that it was a shitty night. From anyone.... even a stranger....
But my heart sank when the stranger asked... "Do you think she'll survive?"
I stared at the painting for a bit and realized it was a self-portrait of what I was about to do to myself.
I took a deep breath, almost like finally accepting everything in my life, and replied... "Yes, I think any angel who takes a fall that great is bound to survive in one way or another,"
I realized then that I wasn't talking about anything but the fact that I had survived so many hardships in my life and I was still standing.
Even if a little part of me died every time I had a really bad moment in my life, I had still survived.
In that moment, I had a change of heart.
I didn't want to die anymore...
And as a form of gratitude, I handed my panting over to the person that had just helped me move on from a really painful moment in my life.
After that, I got in my car and made it my mission to open a gallery.
I had a hard time getting loans and finding funding to achieve my dreams but I never gave up.
When I finally opened my gallery,
I had one visitor.
Just one.
A really creepy one.
They came in dressed in black with a black overcoat, black cap, and black mask.
They stood in my gallery from opening till closing, staring at one particular parting.
It was a panting of the sidewalk where I had once stood with a stranger.
After that, I kept opening my gallery for new showings and little by little people would show up.... including the weirdo who dressed in all black....
After 2 years of seeing the "ghost in black", it's what I called my biggest supporter, they banished.
It truly made me think that all those times... I had just been seeing a ghost or maybe I was in such a bad mental state that I had created a friend.
I was doing much better now.
I had millionaires all over South Korea buying my paintings and they would always say... "Y/n recommended me your gallery and you did not disappoint".
I always found it odd that the maknae of the biggest chaebol family in South Korea would say that.
Y/n had never ever come to any of my showings or even to my gallery in general.
I always just shrugged it off as rich people saying nonsense to try to get my paintings to rise in value.
I never had much hope for being a great painter like Vincent Van Gogh or even Andy Warhol.... I was just happy that I now lived a comfortable life and made art for a living.
I think I had lost my way a little when it came to money.....
I had lived in such poverty my whole life,
That I had obscured from the reason of why I started to paint in the first place.
That's until one night,
I was hosting my last showing of the year.
As always, Millionaires, students, art collectors, and so on.... attended the showing.
But not the person I wanted.
The ghost in black had not attended any of my showings for the last 3 months.
I had convinced myself at this point that I had just imagine it all.
"Another great show!"
"Pham, you have outdone yourself!"
"If someone bids higher for that painting, I will go even higher!!"
Everyone was elegantly exiting my gallery as they always did.
I always got the highest bids for my "Daunting Night" painting...
But that painting was too special for me to sell.
People always said that it was eerie or of a tortured soul. That it resembled Van Gogh....
But I never deserved such praise.
I most certainly did not like that one of my most painful and joyful moments in life was being bid on... as if my experience of that night was not priceless.
"You gotta sell it to me!!" The owner of the owner of The "Leeum Museum of Art" said as he stumbled out of my gallery.
It was crazy to think that the man who had rejected me two years ago was now begging for my paintings.
I was starting to close up my gallery, turning off the lights, and closing up windows and doors... but I always made sure that "Daunting Night" stayed lit throughout the night, so I never turned off its light.
I let out a deep sigh of relief and sorrow as I took out my keys out to close up the front door.
"I wish you had come, even if you're a gh-"
I was thinking to myself when someone suddenly ran up to the door.
"I'm so sorry I'm late!" The person yelled through my glass door.
I was so confused that I wasn't even sure what to do.
Before I knew it, the person had managed to get inside my gallery.
"I'm sorry I missed so many showings. I was out of the country on business! How did it go?" The person asked.
"Is the 'Daunting Night' still in its original form?" The person asked a bit frantically.
In that moment, I couldn't respond.
I couldn't believe who was in my gallery.
It was Y/n themselves.
In a flesh and acting as if they knew every panting in my gallery.
"I couldn't keep it to myself and had to fly over here to tell you myself!!" Y/n-ssi seemed panicked and excited.
"Umm- umm-"
I couldn't get any words out.
"You're gonna be in the Musée d'Orsay!!" Y/n-ssi ecstatically announced.
"Right next to your favorite artist, Vincent Van Gogh!!" Y/n-ssi added.
I was so shocked at the fact that Y/n was standing righ it front of me.
Y/n's name had been linked to my work numerous times.
It's what drew so many people to me.
It's what made my paintings so valuable.
To have the maknae chaebol themselves in my gallery was like a dream I didn't even know I had.
"W-wait, I'm s-so-sorry what?!" I finally managed to get words out of my mouth.
"Okay, so I was in Paris and I went to the Musée d'Orsay to visit the Van Gogh exhibit and I was showing the curator your paintings and they absolutely loved them! They saw it as the most indicative signs of modern painting of the century!! They want to sign a contract with you and get your paintings in their museum!!" Y/n-ssi kept excitedly yelling as if we had been friends for years.
"What?!!" I asked in pure amazement.
"B-but we've never even met each other!!! How can you even know that?!!" I was jumping up and down in excitement.
My smile faded when Y/n-ssi turned to look at "The Daunting Night" .....
It seemed like Y/n had just pulled some strings to be able to buy my painting and display it on a famous museum.
I wasn't having none of it.
"That painting is not for sell and I have never put it up for sale. Your father has asked to buy it at 5,000 times the price it cost me to buy the supplies and I have never let it go. So, if this is a sick ploy from your father to buy my painting then I reject!" I coldly made my point across.
*AHEM*
Y/n-ssi then clear their throat.
"I'm sorry. I think we got off on the wrong start," Y/n-ssi cleared their throat again.
"I'm Y/n-ssi... and.. I would love to share your paintings with the world," Y/n-ssi answered.
"But why should I trust you?" I quickly rebutted.
"You have never even seen any of my paintings!" I felt offended for some reasons.
"I-I-"
Y/n-ssi seemed to choke up.
I saw Y/n take a deep breath and pull out a black cap to place over their head.
I felt so nostalgic with that hat.
"I have a P.H. Original," Y/n whispered, with a gummy smile.
"And I'd like to pair it with the "Daunting night" as a collection," Y/n added with a choked up voice.
I knew then,
Y/n-ssi had been the person to save me that night....
The person I had probably saved too.
I couldn't do anything but start choking on my words.....
"Do you think she survived?" I asked with tears rolling down my cheeks.
"I think she did," Y/n gave me a teary yet gummy smile.
"Did you?"
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