This was so beautiful! It went beyond a simple one-shot, but truly told a great story about the simple reality of loneliness while portraying a picturesque love story. Oh, I genuinely hope you write more like it! You are very talented! Sometimes it's the simpler stories like this one that tug at the heart and implant themselves in a person's mind the most, and you've written just that. I don't think I will ever look at a street painting, or a sort-of street painting atmosphere, again without being reminded of this story, or the feelings it gave me. Like a remarkable short film, it displayed just the right things: no filler, and just a perfect combination of real and fiction that blended beautifully. You are a writer. You don't put words on a page, you instill ideas, and a thought, and a story into others. Even if the translation is a little different than what you originally thought as you wrote it, because nobody reads the same, I think I understand the emotion behind it. I've read great authors whose work is renowned, and some of this, in two hundred pages, didn't leave as much of an impression on me as your little story did. It makes me escape to Paris for a little bit, to be reminded of how ironic and sometimes even chimerical the world can seem to be. I saw the paintings. I saw myself in Francis as an artist who lives and breathes their emotion through there work, yet I also saw myself as Arthur, who reads into work and openly criticizes it in the best ways possible. It was romantic and gave me butterflies, but I wouldn't consider this fluff. It wasn't cliche. The focus was right. The central factor rested on more than simply our protagonists realizing they love each other, but the process in getting there. As a writer, I'm sure you've heard of "show me, don't tell me", and that's what you did. This "show me" allowed me to see the process, instead of immediately leading my mind three steps ahead to how the story would end. I wasn't anxiously waiting for the story to get to that happy ending, rather I enjoyed just taking it day by day with Francis and seeing the process of this love story, picturing the eyebrow paintings, imagining the longing for a lost companion that our protagonist slowly allows to become his muse (even if it's a bit of a depressing inspiration that comes out of it), and through all of this, seeing his love for the critical man. It didn't have two thousand plot lines, but just one, and that's all it needed. It didn't try to overcompensate and be something it wasn't, which made it many things to many people. I see hope in this story. I see a once smeared image of warm tones darkening to blues, grays, and greens that match and complement Arthur's eyes, before it turns to white at the ending, as I imagine the blanket wrapped around Arthur, the walls of the room because maybe, just maybe Arthur did something about that awful wallpaper, or not, and the white surroundings were more a figment of myself remembering the lights on the Eiffel Tower mentioned earlier in the story, when Francis was happy, in a place he tells Arthur about when they first meet. It could even be white because my imagination loves finding symbolism and white is like the purity of their love. It's just brighter, opposite of when they were apart. I know I'm probably reading too much into this, but I truly loved this little story. It was very well written and I hope to read more like it!

I haven't read any FrUK in so long, life just got away from me, but this was just so right, thank you.

Love This story. Paris in spring is enchanting

Oh, that was so sweet! I particularly liked the idea that Arthur is the only one deeply understanding Francis (or Francis' paintings). I also enjoyed seeing Francis being vulnerable there at the end.

My love for fruk has grown by 300%. I loved this! It was so cute and gah. Is it just a one-chapter thing or will you be continuing it?