My brows furrowed. Behind the glass lay a thick stack of folded white sheets. I couldn’t tell what they were.
Carefully, I turned the frame again, slid out the wooden backing, and pulled out the folded papers. Dozens—no, maybe even hundreds—were bound together.
My fingers trembled as I unfolded them. “What is this…?”
My eyes widened as the contents revealed themselves. “What…” My breath stopped short, stunned and awed all at once. “This is…”
My hands shook as I held them. Heat surged in my chest, squeezing until my eyes burned. I opened sheet after sheet, my heart racing faster with each one.
“Wait…” I swallowed hard, trying to process.
I opened more, slower this time, as my tears welled and my chest heaved with the flood of warmth and longing.
Oh God.
“This is beautiful…”
I brushed my fingers over the sheets, my whole body trembling as my gaze couldn’t tear itself away from the papers.
They were drawings ofme.
From when I was small—four, maybe five years old? All the way to my teenage years. From cute little sketches to breathtakingly detailed portraits. So full of color, gradients, vibrance. “Oh my God…”
“When? How?” My voice shook as I flipped through them. “Zioh never showed me any of this.”
I’d never even known these drawings existed. Had he always sketched me, even when I was so young?
Whenever I caught him drawing, it was always landscapes, buildings, or sometimes his family, and I had never seen this at all. I opened more, staring through tears. Each one lovelier than the last. “So beautiful, Zi… Why did you never show me this?”
There I was—studying, sleeping, eating, singing, dancing, lying on the grass, us in costumes. A thin laugh escaped me, and I covered my mouth with my hand, tears spilling as I brushed them away.
More—me in my school uniform, running after Zeraiah, with Yellow, with Tsabinu, playing golf. And then—
A drawing of the two of us.
I was painted in color and light, while he was merely black and white.
There were too many for both my hands to hold.
I wept, clutching the papers, and my tears fell onto them. “I would have been so happy if you’d shown me…”
But then I realized.
Only me…
I was the only one in color.
I flipped through again, checking carefully. It was true. In every drawing with other people, I alone was given color,even in one with all four of us. It was a drawing of our photo from Hyde Park Winter Wonderland in the UK. The first time I had set foot there.
Zeraiah, Tsabinu, and even Zioh himself were all black-and-white. Only I was colored.
“Why, Zioh…” My thoughts were shattered by the sound of a door opening, sending a jolt through me.
Oh, no.
He was done showering.
Moving fast, I stuffed the papers back into the frame, snapped it shut, and darted away just as his door opened.
