The park was quieter than usual. A soft breeze carried the fallen petals in spirals across the stone path, collecting like snowdrifts around the benches. Eunji sat beneath her usual tree, but this time, her sketchbook was closed on her lap, untouched.
She stared out at the lake beyond the blossoms, her thoughts distant. Her fingers idly traced the spine of the sketchbook, but she made no move to open it.
“Hey.”
She turned at the familiar voice.
Seojin stood a few steps away, the sunlight catching on the strands of his dark hair. He looked the same—buttoned-up but slightly undone in that way he only seemed to be around her. In his hands, he held two cups of coffee again.
“I thought I’d find you here,” he said, offering one of the cups.
Eunji smiled faintly, accepting it. “You’re getting good at finding me.”
“Maybe I just know where quiet people go to think,” he replied, sitting beside her.
She didn’t answer right away, sipping the coffee. Vanilla, again. Sweet. Comforting.
“You’re not drawing today?” he asked gently, nodding at the closed sketchbook on her lap.
Eunji shook her head. “Not today.”
“Artist’s block?”
“No,” she said quietly. “Just… didn’t feel like putting anything on paper.”
He glanced at her, sensing there was more beneath the surface. “Want to talk about it?”
She hesitated, then said, “You ever feel like if you try to capture something, you’ll ruin it?”
Seojin stayed quiet.
“I came out here thinking I’d draw,” she continued, her voice low. “But everything felt too heavy. Like nothing I put on the page would match what I was feeling. So I just… didn’t.”
Seojin nodded slowly. “I get that. I think sometimes we force ourselves to do it, when all we really need is to feel.”
Eunji looked at him, surprised by the understanding in his tone.
“I’ve been thinking a lot lately,” he added, looking out at the lake. “About what matters. What feels real. And honestly, I think moments like this… they’re enough. Even if we don’t capture them.”
Eunji followed his gaze. “Do you ever worry you’re missing something important? Like, you’ll look back and realize you didn’t see what was right in front of you?”
“All the time,” he said. “Especially lately.”
A silence fell between them, but it wasn’t empty. It was full of shared reflection, the kind that didn’t need to be filled with words.
“I think that’s why I didn’t draw today,” Eunji said softly. “I just wanted to be in it. Not record it. Not analyze it. Just feel it.”
Seojin smiled gently. “Then maybe you created something after all.”
She glanced at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
“This moment,” he said. “You didn’t draw it. But we’re in it. And it matters.”
Eunji felt something warm unfurling in her chest. She didn’t know what to call it. Not yet.
But maybe it didn’t need a name.
Not today.
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