Too late...

Title: Too late...
Writer: purple_lilly
Requestor: sarapyon

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Sangrae stared up on the ceiling. She couldn't think of what to paint. She was in the Art room of her university, and was trying to complete her unfinished masterpiece - a project due in three weeks. Being the girl she was, she couldn't wait for the painting to be completed. The task was to paint something (anything) that the pupil wanted. As long as it held some sort of life. Their teacher gave examples of flowers, water, or fruits. But none of them seemed to interest her. She just stared at her plain canvas and hovered the paintbrush dipped in black paint. Inspiration seemed like a dream that she needed right now. Thinking that inspiration wasn't going to come to her in the room, she left and went outside.

Lee Kiseop, a really good dancer in the University had just left the dance studio for a breather. He wanted time to think and to relax. There was a really big competition happening within a span of two months and his team was practicing their routine non-stop. He felt like he needed to have a breather, which is exactly what he did. The smell of fresh air hit his nostrils making him realize that he was free. Free from the heavy beats, and the thoughts of nearly having dehydration. Somehow, his feet led him to an Art studio. Actually, the art studio. He opened the door, only to find that no one was there. 'I guess I'll just stay here. I'll just relax and rest for a while, until I've taken my breather.' Kiseop thought, leaning against the wall.

"Excuse me, are you supposed to be here? You don't seem like an art student." He heard a voice from the doorway. 'Omo, what should I do? Leave? But... I don't want to leave just yet...' "Actually, I'm a dance major here. I'm just staying here for a breather and a place to think. Is it alright with you that I stay for a while?" He asked. "Sure, just... try not make this a habit okay?" She asked. Kiseop nodded and sat cross legged on the floor with closed eyes. 

Sangrae had felt the impact of inspiration shower down on her like a heavy rock, and was now painting away. She was painting a landscape, an imaginary one. One she wished that she could walk through. She could hear the river's waves crashing as if she really were there. She also felt as if the breeze which caused the trees' leaves to move was making her hair move too. However, halfway finished with the sketching - which she'd paint over - she couldn't help but glance at the boy. "Yah, what's your name?" she asked. "Lee Kiseop." He answered, "how about you?" he asked, eyes open once again. "My name is Park Sangrae." She replied.  

The school day had ended, so the both of them exited the art room together. "Look, Kiseop, I hope that tomorrow I won't see you there again. Dancing is an important major to be in. And, I can see that you've got quite a reputation in it, and wouldn't like to be the cause of it. Please don't come back again." Was what Sangrae wanted to say, however, "Nice meeting you Kiseop." came out and when he asked if he could come back in following days she said, "sure." And later facepalmed herself. 

Sangrae felt a vibration from her pocket and took out her phone. 'Park Sangrae! I'm waiting for you outside the school gates. Please hurry, I've got a date to head off to, and can't wait for you too long. Please try not to ruin this for me, she's really cute.' -- Micky oppa. She rolled her eyes. "Kiseop, I've gotta go. It was nice talking to you, bye. See you around." she waved at him, and disappeared. Kiseop waved 'bye' but he was too late, for she had already gone.

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Sangrae was already at home, with her brother in his room getting ready. Though, he kept popping in and out of her room, asking whether he looked good or not. She just told him to be himself, and if they were going to a restaurant, wear a suit, and if a theme park or just a park, wear something casual that he would usually wear - which would be alright either way, since he was a really stylish person. She was staring at her sketchbook, unaware that she had drawn an outline of a face. 'Bwoh? Why, did I draw this, and whose face is it?' She wondered. Later when she did the eyes, she found herself drawing no one other than... Kiseop.

"Bye umma! I've got a date to go to, and will be a while back. Not a minute after midnight though!" and the door slammed shut. The force was what got Sangrae to come back to Earth. She accidentally created a deep line all over Kiseop's face, and sighed. "Aish, that brother of mine. I guess I shouldn't focus on him that much, rather my Art project..."

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Kiseop dropped down lying flat on the floor, heavily panting. Dancing seemed to be a bit more difficult that evening.  'Aish, I can't get... Sangrae out of my mind. The way she draws... no the way she is, it gets my attention...' Kiseop wiped the sweat off his face, and stood up again. The rest of his crew 'U-Kiss' had already regained their breathing, and were back on track. Kevin however was next to him, and watched him. He stopped dancing and walked over to Kiseop.

"Hyung, why aren't you joining in with the dance?" Kevin asked, truly concerned. "Oh, sorry. I was just dreaming about. I'll join you, don't worry." Kevin pouted, "you didn't answer my question!... aish, fine... I'll be waiting for you okay? And don't forget, you're at the center somewhere in the middle, Kibum will wonder where you went off to again, and where did you go during this afternoon's practice?" Kiseop was running out of excuses and stood up and started to dance. Kevin had his mouth open, wondering what the sudden change in his hyung was. But Alexander looked at him, telling him through his looks that he was to join the dance immediately.

After practice, all the boys bid farewell to each other and went their ways home. Kiseop stared at his watch and saw in green neon numbers, '21:56'. "Aish, umma's going to be upset that I stayed out late again. But, this dance battle is really important to my team, we have to keep practicing or else we might end up failing... But, why can't I get Sangrae out of my head?" Kiseop dismissed the thought and made his way back home.

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The following day, Sangrae was back in the art studio, painting away at a new canvas. She had managed to complete the painting yesterday because the inspiration never left her head. Now, she was painting something found in a domestic home, a bed. A bed that hadn't been properly made yet and was lacking three pillows. She used a plain color - white for the bedsheets and grey for the outline of the whole thing, acting as the metal which kept the bed together. She wasn't given it as an assignment, but just felt like painting randomly. She had just wanted to spend time, because she honestly didn't have any other classes for the day. Only art, and she had already submitted her project...

The door opened, and Sangrae turned around to see Kiseop again. He smiled and waved, raising an eyebrow she asked him, "what are you doing here again?" Kiseop shrugged, "I don't know, I guess I wanted to see you again... is that so bad?" He asked, this time raising his eyebrow. "Not really, just... oh forget it. Whatever, I don't care. Just don't disturb me..." Sangrae then turned back to her painting and continued.

She then decided that maybe adding red sakura as the design on the bedsheets would look nice. She had to be careful of the different shades of red, from auburn to bright red. She paid attention the contrast of light and dark, and blending it together with a wet brush. The pillows looked realistic and three-dimensional. The strokes from her hand was soft and elegant, and made Kiseop watch in wonder. She looked like an angel in the making, painting something that seemed impossible to paint - yet she could do it.

A little while later, Sangrae felt pleased with what she had painted, turning around, she expect Kiseop to still be there, but he had long gone ages ago - since Alexander had called him over to practice over the steps some more. Alexander was a pretty convincing guy when it came to dance practice, anything else...not so much. Slightly disappointed, Sangrae started to pack away her utensils and left the art room. The room, even though she hadn't realized it, had felt empty without Kiseop, when she thought he was still there, it felt lonely, but when she checked and saw that he had gone... 

Whilst walking out the the art building she had been pounced on by Jiyoon her best friend. Jiyoon grinned at her, and dragged her off to the cafeteria. It was already four in the afternoon, and like usual, Jiyoon needed her food. The two girls walked over and talked about their classes and random things. Although Jiyoon had taken the singing part of the Arts University, the girls always kept in touch with each other. During their meal, Sangrae couldn't keep it to herself. She stared talking about Kiseop, not revealing his name though...

"Jiyoon, what happens when someone meets you every so often, and you start to get fond of them. However, you don't know them that well. Instead, you're just there watching them. And... what if as soon as that person is gone, you're lonely? I'm really confused right now Jiyoon. Your assistance in this department of boys is much needed..." Sangrae buried her head in her hands, careful to not touch the food with her hair though.

Jiyoon sucked air whilst gasping, "OMO! Is this the Sangrae that swore she'd fall only once? What's going on? You feel lonely? And whose this boy you're talking about?!!?" Sangrae sighed, she didn't want to tell Jiyoon Kiseop's name at all. But she had to if she was to get anything out of her friend. However, much to her luck, Yoochun started to call her. "Wait for a second, oppa's calling me."

"Oppa? Your date got cancelled?"

'Err... something like that. Where are you? I'll pick you up.'

"Oh, I'm in the cafeteria with Jiyoon."

'Really? Would you like me to pick you up later?'

"No, its alright. I'll come out now, just tell me where you're at." Jiyoon glared at Sangrae, seeing that she was escaping the question.

'I'm at the front, I can go over to the cafeteria if you want...-'

"No, it's alright. I can get there." Sangrae hung up and smiled sheepishly at Jiyoon, "I gotta go. Sorry Jiyoon, maybe next time?" Jiyoon rolled her eyes but smiled and waved her off.

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It had been a while since Sangrae had seen Kiseop. She didn't mind though. Her teacher was ecstatic with the masterpiece she created. Her happy mood went low as she saw that Kiseop wasn't visiting her. Not that she minded, at least she could concentrate on her work, rather than to be conscious about someone looking over her shoulder constantly. However, during the times of Kiseop being there with her, she unconsciously sketched him in her small A5 sketchpad since the one she did before had been ruined by her brother. It wasn't much but looked very lifelike. Taking her canvas and sketch pencils she started on doing a larger scale of Kiseop on it - glad that he wasn't there...

She worked on the piece for nearly a week, adding colors and making the tones match real life. Smiling at the real life picture she turned off the lights and covered it with cloth before going to bed. She covered it, because her parents would find it weird that their daughter painted a guy. They'd think she'd have a crush on him, when she didn't... right?

However Kiseop was having a hard time. His friends knew about him going to meed Sangrae and didn't want to risk them lose the competition. They explained the situation and told him that he couldn't miss any practices anymore unless he wanted U-Kiss to lose. Of course he didn't want that to happen, so he had no choice but to stay with his friends. U-Kiss wanted him to be happy, but they couldn't risk the dance competition...

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It has been over three weeks now. Sangrae was bored, she was in her math class and like usual didn't find it that interesting. So she chose to pay attention to Jiyoon's rant about how rude lat night's date went. Sangrae couldn't care less but when she saw the Jiyoon started to tear she had to find out what was going on. Being the good friend she was, Sangrae consoled Jiyoon in the most sensitive way she could. And thankfully, before the lesson had ended, Jiyoon was back to being her happy self already organizing the night's date. 

Sangrae sighed on the cafeteria table. She was currently eating lunch with Jiyoon who didn’t stop for a breather while talking about how great her new date would be when she suddenly brought up a conversation that hadn’t been spoken about for quite some time.

“So… who’s that guy you were talking about that you said you liked huh?” Jiyoon started, leaving the spoon in her mouth watching Sangrae’s reaction of surprise.

“Oh him? Well, he’s old news now. Besides, I haven’t seen him in a while, I guess he’s just busy…” Sangrae avoided Jiyoon’s gaze but knew that her best friend would have it out of her in seconds. “Alright! Alright! ‘He’ happens to be Kiseop… why are you giving me that look?”

“Aigoo… Sangrae, no wonder you’re confused. Kiseop is a really popular guy! I’m not sure how you never figured it out. He’s a really popular dancer here, but I guess you’re too busy with your painting that you never came to think of Kiseop and any other people who were great at their majors. Kiseop has been popular since the day he arrived here. So… it’s pretty much easy to say this: he hasn’t seen you since he’s too popular and has to practice for this really important competition happening in just a couple days. Of course he won’t have time to be talking to you! He’s got other things to think about as well you know!”

Sangrae stared agape. Kiseop… was popular? Why didn’t she ever know that? And… a popular guy had been visiting her and wanting to stay but she kept pushing him away. Feeling stupid, she facepalmed herself with a sigh. But… why would a popular guy want to visit her anyway? She wasn’t special (as she thought). She didn’t look pretty (in her eyes) so why would he want to see her in the first place? To stare at while having a break? Sangrae soon understood why he didn’t visit anymore and stood up, losing her appetite.

Kiseop sat down and stared at the ceiling. He hadn’t danced non-stop like this in ages. And because of it, he realized that he needed to become more fit so that he didn’t feel more tired. He started doing sit-ups and on his tenth one decided to stop since his arms were aching. The contest was only a couple days away. ‘Oh how nice, just two days before my birthday too...’ he thought. He had trained hard and long and if he had any distractions all that hard training would go to waste. None of U-Kiss wanted their training to go to waste, so he stood up and gathered the boys around for another round of practicing.

Sangrae sat down in her room. The day had ended and she was now facing the completed canvas with Kiseop’s face on it. Confused, she traced Kiseop’s face… ‘I can’t possibly like him can I? It’s impossible… I barely knew him, barely talked to him as well… so, why am I feeling like this? Why do I feel sad that I never knew that you were popular? And now that I know that you’re popular, why do I feel like this painting doesn’t deserve an audience like you to see it? This is a sad sad day…’ she tried to digest the fact that Kiseop was actually one of the ‘A-List’ people, but she couldn’t. Every time she saw him it was as if he was some random normal person from the hallway. ‘Maybe… maybe I’ll give it to him, but on his birthday… as a present… then, I’ll just disappear…’ Sangrae went over to her table, picked up her black sharpie pen and signed on the right-hand bottom corner ‘happy birthday~ Sangrae.’ Sure, she didn’t know him well, but Jiyoon knew his birthday…

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The day U-Kiss had been waiting for finally came. The seven of them looked at each other and smiled, they had practiced hard and in three minutes they would be up to show off their moves. Kevin and Dongho practiced some last-minute moves while Kibum was trying to console and nervous Alexander. Kiseop stared at Soohyun who seemed to be the most relaxed person in the room until the organizer came in and he started to panic trying to join Kevin and Dongho with the practicing. Truly it was Kiseop that was the most relaxed now.

It was time. U-Kiss had been called and were now on the stage. Smiling at the people who came to support them, they danced their hearts out and gave it their all. They gave extra effort not because they had to but because they wanted to. They loved to dance and showing it to other people was what they wanted to do the most.

Meanwhile, Sangrae had just found the perfect frame for the painting and placed it inside. She then walked out and smiled at the people walking by. She then heard squeals of girls from a corner, wondering what was going on she followed the voices. She wasn’t the type to eavesdrop but curiosity got her.

“AHH! U-KISS IS PERFORMING NOW! WE HAVE TO SEE THEM AND SUPPORT THEM! I MEAN, WHO KNOWS! MAYBE THEY’LL SEE US AND WANT TO TALK TO US THEN WE’LL BE THEIR GIRLFRIENDS THEN WE’LL GET MARRIED!!!”

“Calm down… but you’ve got a good idea! Let’s go!”

The two girls left and Sangrae, looking both ways, followed them. The steps echoed in the empty hallways until loud music blocked it out. She was soon facing the gym, which had posters and pictures of groups smiling. She spotted a few, Infinite and Big Bang being some. The one poster which stood out for her was U-Kiss since she saw Kiseop’s face on it. She walked closer to the door and opened it. The music blasted through her and she felt herself moving her head to the beat. She was at the very back, however she could see the heads of seven boys moving in sync. Pushing her way to the middle she finally saw them. U-Kiss. Kiseop. Sangrae was agape at the group’s dance moves and swayed along with the other girls when U-Kiss did moves which melted them into Jell-O.

Sangrae paused, seeing what was happening. If Kiseop had continued to visit her, then it was possible that he wouldn’t have been dancing as good as he was right now. She frowned thinking that she could have been the reason as to why U-Kiss might have lost the Dance Battle. Thinking of this, she decided her place in the crowd should’ve been filled by someone else so she just walked out, not wanting to look back and stare at Kiseop whose gaze could probably make her stay longer. Fortunately for Kiseop the dance ended within ten seconds of Sangrae leaving so as soon as they ended, he went through backstage and tried to follow Sangrae.

He saw her walking but she took turns and twists that he didn’t know where she ended up. Finally giving up, he just let his feet take him anywhere – which happened to be the Art room. He hovered his hand over the handle and contemplated whether she would be in there or not. Thinking it was possible, he opened. Only to find it empty. He was about to leave, when he saw the moon’s reflection against some sort of glass. Curiously he walked over to it and stared…

“Oh my gosh…” he murmured, seeing a perfect painting of him staring back. He looked around and strained his eyes to see if there was someone around. He went to the left and flicked the light switch on so he could observe it more. He covered his mouth in awe because of its accuracy. Everything on the painting seemed real, like he was looking in a mirror. His hand traced the whole thing until he came across some writing…It was the greeting from Sangrae. He smiled, then frowned. ‘Where is she?’ he wondered, looking around.

Sangrae quickly hid behind the shadows. ‘He… he saw the painting… what happens now? Will he think of me as a stalker? I’m not a stalker… just someone who stupidly fell in love. Oh well, at least he saw it. I’m glad that I can finally disappear from his life. I wouldn’t want to bother him anymore…’ with that final thought she left the room from a secret door at the back that only staff (and her) knew.

“…I’m too late…” Kiseop murmured, picking up the painting… “I was going to say that I liked her…” Too bad Sangrae already left or else she would’ve heard him…

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a/n: I am so sorry for the delay and if it doesn’t match what you had in mind. However I still hope that you enjoyed it and do request from us again J