if there's anything she and minju are good at, it's shopping, at least in ahyoung's opinion. she went into the christmas market today with nothing in particular in mind to buy, but with full intentions to look around at everything she could. naturally, it's ended up sort of like the target trips she used to go on back in california: she's ended buying way more than she intended to. it's fine, though. they're christmas presents for herself, and if she ends up deciding she doesn't need some of this stuff, she can gift it to someone else. a foolproof plan.

she has a handmade bag she bought for a reasonable price on one shoulder, all of the other stuff she bought so far inside of it, because she's resourceful. you can't live in california and come out of there still wanting to use plastic or paper bags you can't reuse.

in the other hand is some hotteok that was pretty cheap, apparently on sale for the festivities. all good deals, as far as she's concerned.

as they walk, eventually, her bag starts slipping off her shoulder, and she still has food in one hand, and struggles to get it back onto her shoulder with the arm it hangs off of alone. "hey minju, can you fix my bag?" she asks, holding her arm out horizontally so her friend can situate it on her shoulder again.

to be fair, ahyoung could probably just carry it in her hand, but she doesn't want to risk dropping it or it dragging on the street because the street looks disgusting.

they happened to pause in front of one of the fanciest parts of one of the department stores' light displays, and ahyoung gets distracted by it momentarily. "i guess this part of it is kinda nice," she says. "the part with the light up santa that we saw a while back is corny, though."

sua's art style is constantly changing, adapting. intaking other people's artistry and seeing what they're doing to improve her own has helped with her skill just slightly. there's still an obvious style to her own art that one could pinpoint to be her, but she feels like she's getting better. slowly, but surely-- even if she excels in the more cartoonish and childish sort of choices.

people are still a little hard for her. it's one thing to sketch up princess zelda from memory-- but to draw someone real and in the flesh feels like another hurdle she has to get over. sua's attempted landscapes and interior portraits with some success, but trying to capture a person's beauty and individuality and transcribe it onto media feels like a bit of a challenge. which, sua doesn't mind.

minju does feel like the perfect person for it all, though. she's incredibly beautiful, in a way that feels something straight out of high fantasy. magical realism, maybe. she's both the perfect muse to draw in terms of fitting what she wants to attempt, plus giving her enough challenge so she feels like she's learning.

she finishes the general outline. there's little details on her sketch of minju, but she needs to make sure that her muse also likes the direction she's going in. her pride would take a dent if she did all this work just for minju to grimace at the sight of it.

starter for @minjube

siwoo has quite honestly, never been big on halloween. even when he'd lived in london, he didn't quite grasp the popularity of it, not being able to see the appeal of it all. still, it wasn't like he had any amount of disdain for it, if anything it just meant a lot more pumpkin flavoured food to eat. so it's more than a little odd that despite his lack of appreciation for halloween, he was now standing next to a fully dressed alien, walking through the streets of gangnam.

he hadn't planned on it, of course, to be roaming the streets of gangnam with a complete stranger dressed as an alien by his side. though his friend had drunkenly bumped into said alien, spilling her food, and feeling completely embarrassed by his friend's drunken state and apologetic to the alien, siwoo had done the only thing he could – called his friend a cab to get home safely and promised the alien that he'd get her another set of snacks and drinks.

"again, i'm really sorry about that," he says, bowing slightly to the stranger. "i think he got over excited and well... he's an idiot so... i'll scold him in the morning," siwoo sighs. he makes a mental note to yell at his friend tomorrow. and then another to make better friends. "i'll make it up to you! was what he dropped expensive? do they sell it around here?" he asks, furrowing his brows. he really does feel terrible for putting the alien in such an odd spot, especially when he assumes she'd just been trying to enjoy her day.