BoywithAntlers

“The Flowing Sky”

This painting was created especially for a charity auction benefiting the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the forests, rivers, farmlands, and natural landscapes of central Pennsylvania. Since 1982, the conservancy has helped preserve thousands of acres of land for wildlife and future generations. I am honored that this painting can contribute to their mission of protecting these beautiful places.

The food theme for context ^ they will be a lot more cleaned up in my not-condensed style ie. smth like dis

with persnaps some adjustments 2 their outfits. We will see. I'm also wanting to do Inho (cinnamon) & Saebyeok (grapes) tho the amount of stands will depend on initial interest!

Sang-woo receives a phone call in the middle of the night from Gi-Hun, his old childhood friend who had left south korea a few years ago to have a new life in the states with his husband, Hwang In-ho.

He had been in love with Gi-hun since they were teens and thought that since Gi-hun had gotten married to another man, he wouldn't have a chance to be with him.

In-ho drank more often than he used to and became more distant as months go by. No matter what Gi-hun tried, In-ho would be cold towards him.

What ended up being the final straw was the rare occasion where In-ho would be warm enough towards to Gi-hun that they had sex that night. In the middle of the act, Gi-hun hears his husband moans an woman's name under his breath.

After that night, Gi-hun had decided that he can't be in this marriage anymore but didn't know how to bring this up to In-ho as he had no idea how he would react. He made excuse to go back to Seoul to see his mother when he knew In-ho would be going on business trip and figure things out when he's there.

After visiting his mother, he makes the decision to call Sang-woo for some advice on how to handle the situation as he believes Sang-woo is smart enough to come up with solution for him.

He continues to see his mother and meet up with old friends to keep himself occupied and not think about Sang-woo.

One night, he scrolls through social media and sees his husband on unknown women's post. She has her arms around him, both looking happy in the photo. He continues to search further into her page to see more pictures of them together.

Gi-hun has never met this woman before In-ho never talked about his friends before or seemed interested in talking to other people at social events. Apart from his step-mother and Jun-ho, In-ho insisted he was only happy to be around Gi-hun.

Gi-hun reassures him that he was just as responsible for what happened that night and he should have talked to Sang-woo earlier about it instead of giving him the silent treatment.

After some chatting, Gi-hun reveals that he suspects In-ho had been cheating on him with a woman but only has few things to indicate the dishonesty to support this claim. Shows him the woman's page with In-ho's pictures alongside it.

Sang-woo tries to argue maybe it's misunderstanding on Gi-hun's part and should have conversation with In-ho instead of him.

Gi-hun gets pissed off at Sang-woo for that, argues he didn't seem bothered about In-ho's side of the story when he was taking his clothes off that night. Sang-woo points out he isn't the married man in the situation who was encouraging him to fuck him that night. He states In-ho should be the woman instead of Gi-hun, at least he would have someone faithful to him.

He made a fool of himself to believe Gi-hun would pick him over In-ho.

He looks around to see other customers were starting at him with judgemental look, sang-woo takes this as his cue to pay up and leave.

On his way home, he can't help but think about the evidence that Gi-hun had presented to him. There was something odd about the photos that stuck out to him, but he didn't know what as he was paying more attention to Gi-hun at the time.

Why he would be on In-ho's side when they never got on in the first place ?

They both had been cold and rude towards each other since the beginning when they thought Gi- hun wouldn't notice it.

Even sang-woo never even showed up at the wedding and kept his distance away when he and in-ho still lived in Seoul before the big move to the States.

Maybe he is making deal out of nothing ?

Gi-hun ponders as he pours out a glass of soju and drinks in one glup, the sweet liquid burns the back of his throat.

He checks his phone and sees that In-ho hasn't messaged him. Gi-hun had spent whole week in Seoul and still hasn't heard word from his husband yet.

The old In-ho would have texted and called him every day just to tell him that he missed him and beautiful he was. These days he was lucky if In-ho texts him if they had whiskey left over from the previous night.

Gi-hun hesitated,but lets Sang-woo in his room. They set out the food and quietly ate together, keeping their focus on the food.

Sang-woo breaks the silence with his apology for his behaviour the day before. It wasn't something that he meant. In-ho should have been happy man for having Gi-hun as his husband.

Whatever Gi-hun decides to do next, he is there for him and whatever support he needs along the way.

This puts Gi-hun at loss of words, it makes him emotional to hear that from Sang-Woo, it reminds of how In-ho used to be that he feels tears swelling in his eyes as he starts to cry. Sang-woo rushes to his side and holds him tightly against as mumbles out of apologies again to try soothe him.

Gi-hun can't help but laugh at this ridiculous situation. Sang-woo stares at him with confusion at his friend's behaviour, Gihun can't help but find it charming.

He presses his hand against Sang-woo’s cheek as they both stare into each other's eyes for a moment. Gi-hun leans forward to kiss Sang-woo gently on his lips, the movement was slow and tender. It took the other man a second to register on what's happening and kisses Gi-hun back, his arms warping around his hyung's body.

He met his husband at bar one night after shitty day of trying to find a job with a decent pay, after having no luck, he went to the nearest bar to drown his sorrows, thats when he met him.

At first, he thought the older man was loud, annoying and full of himself, but as the night went on he started to enjoy his company.

Gi-hun had that way with people, so bright and sweet that made his teeth ache. They drank the night away, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. They had stumbled out of the bar when the manger kicked them out and ended in bed together at his one room apartment.

And rest of was history.

He had manged to get job overseas and married Gi-hun the first chance he got. In-ho thought he had everything going well for him till his debt finally caught up with him.

The loan sharks had threatened to hurt him and Gi-hun if the debt wasn't settled within the month which left In-ho with no where to turn to. He tried to work out with some sort of payment plan but ended up getting beaten and dumped in the street like trash.

He thought life couldn't get any worse till someone walked to him as he tried to get himself up from the ground.

An Korean man in formal business suit with his hair slicked back and brief case by his side. He told In-ho that he had been searching for him for long time, they had lost track of him since he moved to us.

Now that he found him, they can finally play a game together. In-ho scoffed at this weirdo and was about to walk away from him when the strange man started to list of his personal information like it was shopping list, recycled act that he had done before. Then he gets to Gi-hun and their marriage, where their home was located and how much the debt that was about to destroy their lives.

The strange man asked again if In-ho wanted to play game, this time he accepted his fate. After humiliating game of being slapped around by this stranger, In-ho had finally won a game and ended up with small amount of money.

It wasn’t scratch to the amount of the debt was owed but it was enough for him to accept the strange man's business card and entered himself into the games.

The games had been blood bath. He watched his peers die one by one till the final night when he got pulled aside by the game master and was offered a knife to kill the final players.

He can see remember the way the knife had cut through their flesh as each one died in their beds, eyes opening to him as he stood by them and continue stabbed them till they finally stopped moving.

Nothing was the same afterwards.

The debt was paid off but he still carried the heavy weight of guilt and shame as he tried to continue with his life with Gi-hun by his side. He couldn't sleep or eat for the next few weeks, always on edge that something could knock on his door and rip this life he had built up away from him.

An month later, he was fired again after poor work performance and ended up being unemployed.

He had not told Gi-hun about his winnings, he didn't know how to. The way he had been acting and revealing huge amount of money of nowhere would have made the older man highly suspicious of him. It wasn't something he wanted to deal with right now.

Days had went by till he got an card tucked in his car's windshield, three small shapes that had haunted his nightmares stared up at him as he took the piece of card between his fingers. He flips the card to see location and time stamped in the middle with black letters.

Whomever had put there, wanted to see him.

A part of him wanted to push him and let the older man gather his thoughts and deal the situation with his husband first. It seem hypocritical to be engaging in adultery when Gi-hun is suspicious of In-ho cheating on him and is still in relationship with him.

But something deep inside him decided to give in the temptation and let himself have this moment with Gi-hun. Maybe if he played his cards, Gi-hun would see he's better off with him instead In-ho.

His mind wanders back to the photos again, he hadn't been able to find the account that Gi-hun had shown him. Despite looking through every profile with the same name, maybe whoever posted the pictures must have deleted or private their page since Gi-hun was last on it.

It just seem too convenient to happen so soon. Maybe someone was tipped off or In-ho had seen the photos and had her take them down incase Gi-hun had came across.

❝ One thing I notice nowadays is how fast people in general move on from fandom. And I’m not sure if that’s actually the case or if it’s just me. What I’m talking about is:

1. New media gets released. New popular show. Everybody’s talking about it. Every fanfic and fanart of that fandom gets loads of kudos and comments.

2. Time goes by. Not that long. Maybe a month. Maybe a couple of months. People stop talking about the show. Fanfic and fanart of that show get less kudos and comments. And if it’s been, say, a year—which is still not that long—fanfic and fanart about that show barely get any kudos and comments anymore. It’s like almost everybody has moved on to newer fandoms. And the circle continues. ❞