Yatora's posture is wrecked: shoulders curled forward, spine curved like a question mark, head hanging heavy over the sketchbook in his lap. From a distance he might look like a drunk who lost his way home.

The sketchbook pages are a mess. Not bad, exactly. His work is never bad, not anymore, not after Mori-sensei's corrections and his own relentless, grinding effort. But they're not right either… As if something’s missing. Something crucial. He's been chasing it for weeks now, this thing he can't name, this quality that separates art from art, that makes people stop and stare and feel something instead of just nodding politely and moving on.

His hand moves across the page anyway. The pencil finding paper almost automatically now, like the way his feet find the path to cram school, the way his thoughts always circle back to the same questions: Is this good enough? Will I ever be good enough? What's the point of trying if I'll never—?

The drawings on the page are of nothing in particular. Studies, mostly: a corner of the bench, the way light falls on gravel, his own hand, rendered over and over from different angles, each version trying to capture something the last one missed.

That's the problem, isn't it? He can copy, he can learn, he can absorb techniques and apply them and produce work that meets every technical standard. But when he looks at Yotasuke's pieces, he understands the distance between them. Yotasuke doesn't just paint what he sees. He paints what he is. And Yatora doesn't know what he is anymore. (And honestly, maybe he never did).

Used to be easier, he thinks. Before art school, before this obsession took root in his chest and started consuming everything. Back when he was just a regular kid with excellent grades and a decent social life and a future that made sense...

When Yatora hears someone calling out his name, he thinks he'd fallen asleep in this god forsaken park. But then he sees you: dazzling as ever, with expression untroubled like you've given up on everything long ago. Sometimes he feels jealous of you. That even with all your unseriousness, your art still resonates with him so deeply.