#v x anne-- we're both in charge of the ship

[cafedanslanuit]

pairing; v x anne

authors; @sunshinejihyun​ & @cafedanslanuit​

words; 50k slowburn 1.7k

playlist; available here

notes; happy birthday anne! thank you for being a great friend. with all our love, bryn & allie <3

“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways”. ~Oscar Wilde

Being an artist without being able to see color was something that proved difficult on its own, but combining that with searching for your soulmate at any given turn just to be able to see color was even more difficult. Jihyun Kim was the only person in his advanced art class in his sophomore year of college who couldn’t see color.

“Jihyun, I know the color theory doesn’t apply to you right now, but you may want to pay attention for when it does.” His teacher’s stern voice had pulled his head from his sketchbook and he nodded his apology. Either she didn’t notice or didn’t care, Jihyun had no idea, but she continued her lecture and Jihyun tried his best to show he was paying attention, though his fingers were working to quickly sketch something new before the idea left his brain.

Most people like Jihyun, people who hadn’t met their soulmate yet, focused on drawing and painting in either black and white or grayscale, but not Jihyun. No, he had a fascination with color and it didn’t matter if he could see it or not, he wanted to portray that fascination in his painting. Besides, what does it matter if he can’t see color? Every color looks good together; they have to, why else would colors be so important in everyday life? A lot of people have described what colors go with emotions, so Jihyun tends to go with that when he paints. Emotions are funny things, especially when they’re used to show emotions.

As time in the class was diminishing, Jihyun’s professor made his way towards him and he quickly slammed his sketchbook shut as she cleared her throat. “There’s going to be an art showcase tonight and I have to select a student from each of my classes to have art on display. I want to display some of your work. The color choices are… unique and I think your story would be well perceived.” Jihyun nodded his head and the teacher gestured towards his canvases he spent the last semester creating. “Go ahead and choose three pieces of yours for me.”

He spent his time choosing. There was one that he particularly liked that he had named Envy. The colors of it were green and red, or so he was told, and it described his feelings of being one of the last people he knew to meet his soulmate. He painted this after Jumin had met his. Her name is Allie and she was sweet, kind, and as Jumin described, all the best things in the world combined. It wasn’t that Jihyun was jealous of Jumin for having her, he was jealous because he wanted a person to call his own too.

The next one was based on sorrow; it was all blues and oranges and it expressed Jihyun’s feelings of losing his mom. How he wished they had more time, how he wished he hugged her and told her he loved her when he had the chance.

The third one he decided on was one that he depicted what he thought was love. It was all reds, pinks, and purples. This one was drawn based off of how other people described love: passionate, sweet, and filled with happiness. Flowers, hearts and delicate swirls were the main focus in this piece. This was his favorite, it showed everything he longed for and everything that he would someday have to himself. It showed more than love, it was filled with hope.

“Those are some of your best works, very good choices.” At the professor’s words, Jihyun’s heart swelled with pride.

“Thank you, professor, I will see you tonight.” Jihyun promised and he quickly exited the room, biting back a smile at the thought of his art being showcased to anyone who could walk in.

It was one of those days.

The kind of days where there wasn’t anything really wrong happening, but you just need the day to change. The sky was always grey -had been for as long as they could remember-, but it felt extremely colourless as they made their way to the Engineering and Architecture building. They had a test the next week and figured it was as good a day as any to try and get some reading done.

The walk to the buildings was just like any of the other times, listening to music while getting lost in their thoughts as they crossed campus. It wasn’t really cold, but most people were wearing scarfs and there weren’t as many people as usual walking around. That helped a big part in Anne being able to notice the small poster on one of the buildings she walked past.

Curiosity made her stop in her tracks and come closer to the poster.

It was announcing an art showcase happening in a close building. It was supposed to be an important one, by the way the poster had highlighted the ‘carefully selected students only’.

Anne pursed their lips, pondering their choices for a moment. They looked at the sky one more time, its dullness giving the last bit of motivation she needed to change directions and go to the Art building.

There weren’t as many people as they pictured, which was good, knowing they wouldn’t have to accidentally bump into anyone as they went over the art pieces. Appreciating art was a challenge when you couldn’t recognize any of the colours the artist used, but the different hues of grey were usually a big help. It couldn’t be that different from actually seeing the colours, right?

A few of Anne’s friends had already found their soulmates and would go on for days about their newly discovered ability, and while they were happy their friends had found their soulmate, they couldn’t help but wonder when would it be their time. Maybe it was bound to happen in college, maybe it would happen at their first job, or during their weekly shopping trip. Anne tried not to put too much thought into it, but the art collection she was admiring at the moment made her daydream about that moment one more time.

Someone who would get them. Someone who would find the perfect balance between acceptance and encouragement to become their best self. Someone who would evoke a laugh on the chilliest days and would be a key element to the special type of quiet that was a great element to blissful weekend mornings.

As Anne kept walking around, they spotted a young couple. The woman was petite and thin, long and wavy hair falling to her waist and the sweetest smile Anne had ever seen. The young man was facing the other way, broad shoulders and probably one of the tallest people they had ever seen. The young woman kept talking to him as she pointed to one of the paintings, the man just nodding and scratching the back of his head.

Before they could notice anything else, Anne’s phone buzzed, forcing her to take it out their pocket and look at it. It was an email from a professor which, considering an assignment for his class was due the next day, it was probably urgent. Anne kept walking as they clicked on the notification to read the whole email.

They had read only the first words of the email when they crashed against someone, their arms and phone crashing against their chest.

“Sorry! Sorry, I wasn’t looking. Didn’t mean to--” Anne started as they looked up to the person they had just bumped into just to find a beautiful set of mint eyes looking back.

“I’m so sorry I--” Jihyun cut himself off as his world exploded into color. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Rika was still chatting away, not even noticing that Jihyun had stopped in his tracks a few paces back, his eyes locked on the person standing in front of him. “I’m Jihyun.”

The person in front of him - no, his soulmate blinked once before they shot him a bright smile. “Anne, nice to meet you.”

“So, soulmates, huh?” Jihyun scratched the back of his head, something he always did when nervous.

Anne nodded and behind Jihyun, a painting caught their eye. “Is this yours?” Jihyun turned toward where they were gesturing and cringed as his eyes met some of his artwork. 

“Yeah… I liked it much more in black and white. I guess my professor was right, I should have paid more attention when they taught color theory.”

It was a bad joke, a really bad one, in Jihyun’s mind but Anne must have thought it was funny because they laughed, which caused Jihyun to laugh because he just couldn’t believe that he was standing next to his soulmate and they were laughing together. It was something out of his dreams.

“Jihyun,” an annoyed voice brought him back to reality and he met eyes with Rika’s green ones. “I was talking to you and you just disappeared.”

“Oh, Rika, my apologies. This is Anne, my soulmate.” Rika blinked once before her eyes filled with tears threatening to spill and she plastered on a fake smile.

“Soulmate? I just… I thought--” Rika shook her head and smiled sadly at the both of them. “Nevermind what I thought. I’m happy for you, both of you.” With one last glance at Jihyun, Rika walked away and while the thought that Rika could be hurting upset him, he knew that right here, with Anne, was where he was supposed to be.

Sometimes, days were still grey. And dull.

But as Anne felt Jihyun putting his scarf around their neck to protect them against the chilly weather, they thought maybe it was fine after all.

It was the hues of grey in everything that made the colours of his soul shine even brighter.