Hwang Hyunjin || Hyunlix

Shards of Dawn

Dark, inky blots spread across the paper like bleeding wounds. Hwang Hyunjin sat in the psychologist's chair, feeling the weight of the world pressing on his chest. In his hands, he held a charcoal pencil, with which he was drawing yet another embodiment of his inner darkness. His black, frightened eyes, his thin, graceful fingers gripping the tool like a weapon—everything about him screamed despair. His dark beauty seemed to be merely a cover for the abyss into which he sank day by day. "Hyunjin," came a quiet but confident voice, breaking through the fog of his mind. "Look at me." Hyunjin slowly looked up. His psychologist, Lee Felix, sat before him. His appearance was the complete opposite of Hyunjin's: light, slightly tousled hair like a cloud, freckles scattered across his face like summer stars, and eyes full of tenderness and compassion. Felix radiated a warmth Hyunjin had never experienced in his life. "We've been trying to get to the root of this pain for so long," Felix continued softly, looking at Hyunjin's drawing. "But today, I don't want to talk about the darkness. I want you to look at the dawn." Hyunjin merely shrugged. Dawn? For him, it was just a fleeting phenomenon, passing somewhere out there, beyond his own twilight. "I know it's hard for you to open up," Felix said, his voice like a balm on the wounds. "And I'm not asking you to tell me everything right now. But I want you to try to imagine..." Felix took a clean sheet of paper and placed it next to Hyunjin's drawing. He took a soft pencil and began drawing thin, elegant lines. "Imagine this is dawn," Felix whispered, and the outline of the rising sun began to appear on the paper, delicate colors flooding the sky. "Imagine the rays breaking through the clouds, the world beginning to awaken..." Hyunjin watched Felix. For the first time in a long time, he'd seen someone else put so much warmth and sincerity into creating something.