(Risking My Life) Proposing to Miss Hazel - Chapter 64
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 64
Baron was the perfect plaster statue… no, model.
Once he took a pose, not moving even the tiniest muscle was basic.
Even his sense for striking poses was outstanding.
“This time, could you lift your head slightly and twist it to the left?”
“Should I bend it a little more?”
“It’s perfect like this. Please hold still for a moment.”
“I won’t even breathe.”
“…Please do breathe.”
I began warm-up sketches, drawing from various angles – front view, side view, low angle, high angle, and complex perspectives.
This was closer to doodling than actual drawing, but since it had been a while since I drew with a real person in front of me, I was honestly excited.
It was even more so because the model was Baron.
He was very similar to the perfect male anatomy specimens I’d seen in art class.
No, he had even broader shoulders and longer limbs.
Moreover, this was a point I didn’t particularly want to know…
Baron was handsome even down to his nostrils and ear canals.
This was a point I never would have known if I hadn’t observed him from various angles to draw his portrait.
‘Wow, this is really amazing.’
How could he be handsome even in the extremities of his body?
I swallowed my amazement moment by moment and worked my pencil diligently.
I couldn’t waste even a single minute or second.
If I hadn’t set an alarm, I might have forgotten the passage of time and drawn all night.
Ding-dong, ding-dong.
The wall clock I had set an alarm on announced 9 o’clock.
“Ah…”
I let out a regretful sigh and put down my pencil.
‘It feels like I barely drew anything.’
Since I had been immersed almost in a trance, four hours felt like four minutes.
But it wouldn’t be the same from the model’s perspective. I knew well how tiring it was to sit in the same position for dozens of minutes, having been Matilda’s model before.
Besides, in an hour, Felix would come to pick me up. To prevent the disaster of them running into each other, I had to stop now.
“Thank you for your hard work, Baron.”
I tore off the last drawing I had made and handed it to Baron.
Among today’s drawings, it was the only one that could be called a work rather than a doodle.
A portrait drawn from the front, nearly symmetrical.
He in the portrait wore an enigmatic smile.
At first glance, it was just the typical sly smile of a city person, but the more you looked closely, the more you could feel a certain wistfulness and nostalgia in that smile.
I don’t know how many times I corrected the corners of his mouth to capture that mysterious expression.
‘But the answer was to correct the eyes.’
When I added subtle trembling to his pupils and adjusted the angle of his eyebrow tips, the drawing was completed as I had intended.
To observe that trembling, the time I spent making eye contact with him grew longer.
Each time, my fingertips seemed to tremble along with it, but I couldn’t look away.
His red pupils were persistently drawing me in as if pulling me toward them.
The flow of air became subtly warmer, and my mouth grew dry and rough.
The strange silence where only the scratching sound of the pencil could be heard remained etched in my mind.
Somehow, when I think of Baron in the future, this moment will probably come to mind first.
Baron tilted his head at an angle and silently admired the drawing.
Even without commentary, I didn’t feel nervous.
The look in his eyes as he gazed at the drawing was infinitely warm.
‘Baron is definitely not a bad person.’
There was something both my art teacher and Matilda had said in common.
When you draw a portrait, you can see that person’s inner self.
Only today did I understand what those words meant.
Baron is very suspicious and sometimes scary, but not dangerous at all.
At least not to me.
I glanced at the clock where the second hand was moving busily, tick-tock, and casually spoke to him.
“How is it?”
Baron’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. It was the face of someone who had been absorbed in admiring the drawing and was forcibly pulled out of their immersion.
He wore a shy smile and moved his lips lightly.
“It’s wonderful. I thought your still life paintings were excellent, but your portraits leave me speechless.”
Perhaps because he hadn’t spoken for a while, his voice, which had been darkly subdued, tickled my ears pleasantly.
He must have felt embarrassed hearing his own voice too, as he turned his head and cleared his throat awkwardly.
“So this is how I look through Miss Hazel’s eyes.”
“What do you think it looks like?”
“Like a beast trying to be loved.”
“I didn’t… draw you like a beast though.”
When I trailed off in confusion, Baron let out a deflated laugh.
This man really likes to joke around despite not looking the type.
I rolled my eyes slightly and continued primly.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t make you look more handsome than you actually are. They say it’s difficult to make already handsome men and beautiful women look even better. Now that I’ve tried it, I understand what they meant.”
Since he was already a finished product, it wasn’t easy to capture the perfect moment and put it in a drawing.
This was also something my art teacher, who was once a painter but became a farmer, and Matilda had said.
In that sense, today’s drawing was a bit disappointing. Well, you can’t get full from the first spoonful.
However, Baron’s reaction to hearing my explanation was quite unusual.
He brushed his mouth with his hand, then kept scratching the back of his neck. His lost gaze dropped to the floor. His forehead and the back of his hand seemed to have reddened a bit.
‘Why is he acting like that…’
His restless behavior was very unlike Baron.
I was also at a loss for what to do, when Baron asked an absurd question.
“Am I handsome?”
…
…
I was speechless for a moment, then carefully asked back.
“Don’t you have a mirror?”
“I was wondering how Miss Hazel sees me.”
“You’re handsome. Morphologically perfect. Enough to replace a plaster statue.”
Of course, that didn’t mean he was my ideal type.
But handsome is handsome.
Such absolute truth shouldn’t be denied.
When I spoke matter-of-factly, Baron’s large body shrank like a bean beetle.
‘Could he be… embarrassed?’
While a pretty woman might not know she’s pretty, a handsome man can’t not know he’s handsome.
Aren’t men the type who mistake themselves for handsome even when they look ordinary?
It was quite refreshing to see a usually shameless handsome man get embarrassed from being told he was good-looking.
Refreshing enough to want to tease him more.
“Shall I tell you what parts of you are handsome?”
He nodded eagerly.
I pushed aside the drawing in his hands and praised Baron’s beauty in the portrait from various angles.
While watching Baron’s fingertips turn the color of his pupils.
***
A refreshing morning…
Not really, more like a sluggish morning.
My whole body ached, literally. My neck and right shoulder were especially troublesome. The inside of my eyelids felt heavy and sticky, making it difficult to even open my eyes.
No matter how voluntary it was, extra labor seemed to be harmful to the body.
As I squirmed in bed for a while, unable to get up, Felix approached my bedside carrying soup.
“Are you hurt anywhere? Do you want to rest today?”
“It’s not that bad.”
“Should I feed you the soup?”
“Am I a child?”
“You are a child. You accepted being fed just fine yesterday.”
“I wasn’t lying down then. Not the soup, I want that thing. That…”
You know, that soft and cool thing.
While I fumbled around unable to find the right words, Felix amazingly understood what I meant and went to get ‘that thing.’
Then he playfully brought the dewgrass gel to my eyes.
Hiss, the heat subsided and a cool sensation spread across my eyelids.
Not only did it wake me up, but it felt like the fatigue was being washed away.
‘This isn’t just my imagination…’
I pressed the dewgrass gel firmly against my eyes and asked Felix.
“Are you hurt anywhere? Like your whole body aching?”
“Hazel.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve never once in my life felt like my whole body was aching.”
“…Right.”
That would make sense for Felix, who never missed a single day of school throughout his student years.
I squirmed around just a little bit more, then suddenly sat up. My whole body felt sluggish, but it was still manageable to move.
Then I should go to work.
Because I’m diligent Hazel.
…Or so I resolved.
“Geez, this fool.”
Felix pressed down on my forehead and pushed me back onto the bed.
The back of my head dropped softly onto the fluffy pillow.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————