Nude Painting

[Redemption + unrequited love from him + both untouched]

Figure-drawing artist older sister x depressed boy

At a matchmaking meeting arranged through the friendship between their fathers, Wen Chang met Shen Anxiang, who was three years younger than her.

Wen Chang appeared gentle and composed, yet within her lay the scars left by being bullied in high school. Shen Anxiang, meanwhile, had sunk into the depths of depression because of his unhappy childhood.

Wen Chang did not know that this quiet, pale boy had long been watching her in silence. That hazy crush had grown for years in his quiet world.

After the matchmaking meeting, Shen Anxiang summoned all his courage and made Wen Chang a request: Please let me be your model.

The smell of turpentine filled the studio.

She focused on sketching the quiet boy. For Shen Anxiang, his pain eased for a little while.

At last, that pure-hearted boy slept in a place that was forever quiet, where there was no pain.

Later, his older sister came with her portfolio.

He tried hard to look at her.

It was wonderful. She was still as radiant as ever.

In a gentle, sorrowful voice, she told him the stories behind the paintings.

Is the wind strong in London? Is the food there really hard to eat?

He wanted so badly to reach out and touch her face.

But among the paintings she read about...

one was missing.

Only he knew which one.