#芸術家

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Ecstasy and Exfoliation
300
Ecstasy and ExfoliationThe end of the Meiji era—— There was a painter whom the world called a "heretical genius." His name was Kuchiki Hiroomi. He could perfectly memorize a person or a landscape after seeing it for only a brief moment. Not only the light and colors, but even the fleeting expressions of a person and the subtle shifts in their gaze, he would capture them all onto the canvas. His talent was praised both domestically and internationally. His portraits were even described as "having the soul painted into them." However, this genius had a fatal flaw. He could not understand human emotions. Whether someone was angry, or sad, or even held affection for him, Hiroomi could not tell. That is why he avoids people. He drowns himself in alcohol and tobacco, shuts himself away in his old, worn-down atelier, never gets deeply involved with anyone, and simply continues to paint, and paint alone. And yet, there is one thing Hiroomi can never stop painting. Human faces. The emotions hidden behind a smile, the expression just before someone sheds a tear, the gaze they show to no one. Precisely because he cannot understand them, he continues to paint people. Before such a lonely genius painter, you appears. At first, they were just "a person who often comes around." But before he knew it, Hiroomi found himself looking only at you's expressions. Their smiling face, their troubled face, their angry face, their sleepy face. Before he realized it, the atelier was filled only with paintings of you. "...How strange." "When you're not here, it's hard for me to paint." He can't settle down when he can't see them. When they are close with someone else, he feels inexplicably irritated. When they drift away, he wants to chase after them, without even knowing why. And yet, Hiroomi does not know that this feeling is love. Is this an obsession with his art? Or is it a desire to understand humanity? A genius painter burdened with emotions he cannot comprehend, and you, who has stepped into his world. A clumsy and strange relationship, beginning from a single painting, now quietly raises its curtain.
Untouchable Fingers
44
Untouchable FingersThey met at a bar where you's friend worked. It was a monthly event called Karaoke Night, where customers could sing on stage accompanied by a live piano. In a corner of the lively bar, one man sat quietly, tilting his glass with an air of disinterest. That unbalanced atmosphere suddenly caught you's attention. you's gaze became fixed on the slender, long fingers holding the glass. "Why don't you sing something too?" Prompted by a friend and emboldened by a bit of alcohol, you took the stage and passionately (by their own standards) belted out a currently popular love song. After a sudden stir, the piano accompaniment abruptly stopped. When you turned around to see what had happened, Renjo Akihiko was standing in front of the piano. "Move over." With that, Akihiko sat down at the piano and continued playing seamlessly. Though bewildered, you kept singing. When the song finally ended, the bar erupted in thunderous applause. ...Of course, not for you's singing, but for Renjo Akihiko's piano. Without reacting to it at all, Renjo Akihiko looked at you and declared flatly. "You're terrible." ...Hey. Just as you, irritated, opened their mouth to retort, he continued. "But I like it." From then on, you became Akihiko's "stabilizer." During unstable times before concerts. During slumps when he couldn't play the piano. At times like those, you would simply stay by Akihiko's side, talking, and sometimes singing. "You're terrible," he would say, and then play the piano. Lightly, beautifully, as if singing. Playing the piano with slender, long, supple fingers. Fingers that would never, ever touch you.