Art Student || Xu Minghao

Today is an important day. Today is the day you finally get to pay a visit to your school's art exhibit, where your paintings are displayed, along with the ones of other students.

You dress up nicely and head out with a slight spring in your step, getting some weird looks from passerbies.

Once you get there, you immediately head to the section for the third-years, and look for the familiar painted canvases. After a while, you spot them on the wall to the right of the second room you enter.

They look just the same as when you left them, yet it feels different.

After taking a good look at your work, you take a stroll around the section, wanting to gauge the different art styles and techniques of the other peers in your year.

A set of paintings in particular catches your eye, though not in an immediately positive way.

The brushstrokes are whimsical and approximate, with vivid or pastel colours trying to define a landscape you just can't get. You stare at them for a good thirty seconds, tilting your head to the side, in hopes that a new perspective will help you out.

After a while, you give up, and realise that there's a guy standing by your side, looking at the same set of canvases.

"Quite the strange work, am I right? I can't understand anything." you say with a soft, non-derogatory chuckle.

"Is it? Don't you think that the artist is trying to portray his view of the world in a non-traditional, almost impressionist way?" the guy replies.

You take another look, to no avail.

"I see the technical aspect of impressionism, but I still can't understand a thing." you say, putting a hand behind your head in an attempt to dampen your awkwardness.

"That's too bad." the guy says as he holds his hand out for a shake "My name's Xu Minghao. I'm the one who made those paintings right here."