She massaged her head. "Fottere. That is not part of the plan, Yohan."
"But I can look around there. Near your home, I might find something important that can help. Please calm down and hear me out." I tried to convince her.
"I clearly told you, you should go with your itineraries, and treat this as a side goal when you're inside art galleries. Going to the place where I used to live is not part of the picture! Argh this is stressing me out." She was walking back and forth in my living room.
"Calm down, Iseul. Why don't you want me to go there?"
She already told me some background information but it's just superficial. I believe there's something more that's why she reacted like this.
"It's a remote island for a reason! If I find this place like hell, then that place is worse than that. I never told you to put your life in danger!" I tried to avoid getting her angry but I did upset her. I messed up so bad.
"Nothing bad will happen. You told me, hurting people from the East is forbidden. Change must have happened there." I said. She was enraged, I was a bit frustrated too. But I remained calm while talking to her, I don't want to put fuel on the flame.
"Yes! Hurting people from the East is not allowed. But Eastern people hurting Eastern people is a different story! Stop this stupid plan of yours, kid. I forbid you to go there!"
"Alright... calm down, please." I gasped and raised both of my hands in defeat. "I won't go there, I'll tell my friend to not book tickets anymore." I lowered my voice.
"You even planned to bring a friend?! Stupido! Did you also tell your friend that you and I are having conversations?"
I coughed and looked away. "Y-yes I did."
"You mother fu-"
"My friend is not a bad person, alright? I trust her and you can trust her too. Please, she has no intentions of hurting you, she just wants to help."
She sat down, trying to calm herself but she's still glaring at me.
"I don't even trust you yet... and now you're telling me to trust a friend of yours? That's absurd!" she shook her head in disappointment. "You're not going there, do you understand? Capisci?!"
"Okay, fine... I won't go there. Calm your nerves, Iseul. I swear, I won't set foot in your hometown." I gave her a reassuring smile.
Looks like we're not going to travel there anymore. I don't want to upset Iseul more, she's been through a lot. I shouldn't be stubborn about it. Right, Yohan?
There was silence for a few moments until she spoke again. "Youth are annoying." she said and rested her head on the chair.
"You can say that... but the youth also bring changes in the world for the better, you know?" I said.
She raised her eyebrow. "Says the stubborn one around."
I laughed. "I know, sometimes I'm stubborn but it's always for a good reason. I want to make changes, especially for you."
"How long have you been here again?" she asked.
"Uh, six days now."
"Six days... six days and you want to risk your life already. Citizens lived here their whole life, but never wanted to create changes. They just want to please people with their talent, what a waste."
"Does that make me better than them?" I joked.
"You're stupid." she said and rolled her eyes.
I went back to painting, she's still here resting on the chair. I'm adding details to this portrait of Iseul. She may have appeared here already, but my art's unfinished yet.
"Chingus are hard to find." I heard her talk from behind. "I only have one."
"You mean Nari? She's your only friend and you kept calling her stupid."
"Shut up, Yohan... It took me a year before considering her as a chingu. Youth are fast at making friends, you trust people easily. You've been here for a short time and now you're telling me you have a friend that knows about you talking to a ghost."
"It's easy to tell if someone's trustworthy and genuine." I said based on my experience. That's why I only have a few friends.
I didn't need to know more about Sai. She has background knowledge about Iseul, and she accompanied me to all the galleries that I have visited. Then there's Luke who's my neighbour and a good friend who brings me food sometimes and chats with me.
"Well wait until that person betrays you and pull some evil tricks behind your back. You will regret trusting that friend of yours."
I exhaled a large amount of air. "If that person has bad intentions it means they're not your chingu."
"Oh yeah, talk about the hundreds of traitors I met as a ghost." she scoffed.
"Then those are not your friends. They're just people who took advantage of your situation. You needed help, you were lonely, and you're a ghost. There's no doubt others would use it against you."
I couldn't blame her for thinking like that. She's been through things she didn't even deserve. Now she has bad insights about friendships. It's never too late to unlearn what she thought friendships were. She just trusted the wrong people. But yeah, you can't really tell if your trust was given to the right ones and wrong ones.
I grabbed all of my brushes, palette, and glass cup to the sink so I can wash them. I placed my paints inside my wooden box and wiped some spilled paints.
"Does a stupid person like you deserve to be called my chingu?" Iseul asked. She's now staring at her portrait that I made. She was looking carefully, as if she was judging it.
"That certainly depends on you." I said while drying my art materials using a dry cloth. I'm standing behind the kitchen counter, and she's there looking at the painting.
"You must prove you're deserving of that." she scowled at me.
"I've got nothing to prove." I shrugged. "But I'll paint you every night if you'll let me."
"Speaking of colore, why do you summon me by painting? This took a lot of tempo e fatica." she coughed. "I mean... time and effort. You could've just sketched my face."
"I thought you'll appear if my paintings look great." I formulated that theory inside my head randomly.
"Tch. Right, I told you you were rude for rushing your paintings last time. You can rush it again, I don't care anymore." she sat back on the couch.
I sat beside her organizing my things. I didn't feel as if someone was sitting beside me. I remembered she's a ghost, of course she has no weight.
"Time and effort are never wasted when it comes to creating artworks. I'll take note of what you said, but... I'm a painter, I prefer painting you."
"Stupido, you'll just waste your time." she said before disappearing in front of my eyes.
If I'm wasting my time, then why did I buy canvases a while ago just so I could paint her for the next few days. I'm doing things on my free will, Iseul.