He is Enchanted

Paint With Him

If Ethan could be honest.

For people who don't like sitting for long periods while repeating the same things repeatedly, like Ethan, painting is tiresome.

Ethan even thought about spilling black paint intentionally to kill his boredom, but when Ethan wanted to nudge it with his elbow, Roman quickly grabbed Ethan's elbow with his arm, stopping his movement.

Then he moved the black paint in front of Ethan, far away from his elbow. "You have to be more careful, okay?"

Ethan frowned, looking around to see if anything was interesting to see or do, but the thing he did was useless.

While Roman had completed his painting, he even made it look a thousand times better than it should have been. Whatever Roman did, he managed to make the paintings feel more alive.

Ethan decided to get up. He stretched his body, then returned to the painting of the insect world.

"Mr. Pearson."

"Yeah?"

"When will this painting be finished?"

Roman raised his head, and then he found Ethan standing in the painting. "Depends on my mood," said Roman.

"I want to see the final result immediately."

"Then, don't ruin my mood."

Ethan scowled, then he decided to drop down on the couch. Then he leaned on his side while watching Roman making a sketch using colored pencils.

"Since when did you like painting?"

Roman didn't answer Ethan's question right away. He took out his shaver and sharpened his green pencil. "Since high school, but when it comes to drawing, I've been doing it since elementary school."

"Why do you like that?"

Roman blew out the remaining colored pencils in his sketchbook. "You don't have to talk a lot if you want to be able to draw, and people won't ask a lot of questions when they see you're busy drawing things."

Ethan frowned. Did he hate humans that much?

"I don't understand, but it's okay. Even if you explained it, I wouldn't understand."

Roman shrugged his shoulders. "I also never understood why people like you can spend a lot of time interacting with other people."

While Ethan suddenly remembered what had just happened, he realized that he had said the exact same thing as that witch.

She justified herself, casually saying that Ethan was a kid who wouldn't understand even if she explained it.

Just wait until all his friends find out. She will definitely get a lot of inappropriate words.

Roman suddenly lifts his sketchbook in the air, at eye level. Before finally showing it to Ethan.

Ethan exclaimed, seeing a portrait of a lizard standing on its back legs like a human. Even though the picture is only dominated by pencil and some green gradations, the sketch is outstanding.

"It's lizard people, right?"

Roman looks at the picture again while Ethan gets up, recalling some memory.

"I had thought that lizard people was the name of a new clothing brand. It turned out to be a conspiracy theory," he said with a laugh.

When he first visited Roman at the Early rise coffee bar, Ethan remembered asking Roman about lizard people.

"You remember?"

"My memory is good, you know."

Ethan giggled before finally getting up and sitting back in his chair. "I thought you forgot," Ethan said, propping up his chin, elbows on the table.

"Mr. Pearson."

Roman glanced at Ethan.

"Can you draw someone's face? Like the painters on the street, you know, you sit in a chair, and later they will make a sketch that looks just like you. Can you do that?"

Roman knew where the question was leading to.

"I don't want to draw your face."

Ethan clenched his jaw. "Why don't you want to draw my face?"

"Why should I want to?"

What an obnoxious cranky old man, Ethan groaned.

"If you want, I will exhibit your work in my bedroom. Let me guess, your work has never been displayed anywhere, right?"

Roman laughed skeptically. "My work is exclusive. I don't want to give my work to some people carelessly."

Ethan frowned. "You, you annoying old man!"

Ethan stepped on Roman's feet. Roman laughed while softly stroking his feet. After that, Ethan took his brush and continued his painting.

But Ethan paints with a heavy breath, and it feels like Ethan wants to break the brush in his hand; unfortunately, this brush belongs to him, so Ethan can't do it.

Roman, who saw Ethan was upset, got up instead and took a set of brushes, acrylic paint, and a palette. Then stepped in front of the insect world painting.

Roman took out black and white paint. He also took out several other colors, such as red, blue, and yellow.

Ethan, curiously, looked at Roman, who was mixing colors on his palette.

"Then, if the painting is finished, can I have it?"

"No, you can't."

Roman laughed in satisfaction.

In the end, Ethan managed to finish his painting, while Roman put his palette on his desk to see the results of Ethan's painting.

Ethan is definitely not a patient person, and some colors are out of the line. But the result exceeded Roman's expectations.

"You know, even the twins' painting is better than that."

That sentence earned Roman two punches in the thigh, which hurt quite a bit, but he laughed instead.

"I want us to exchange paintings," said Ethan as he took Roman's because the painting was finished earlier, the paint had already dried, and Ethan quickly put the painting into his bag.

Meanwhile, Roman holds the edge of Ethan's because the paint hasn't dried yet. "Did you do it on purpose to get my painting? Or do you want to ruin all my works by making me have this painting along with my other paintings?"

Over time, Ethan had gotten used to his joke, much like his older brothers David and Carter.

Roman was picking up the colored pencils scattered on the table. Not long after, he heard the sound of someone running down the corridor in front of the room.

Moments later, laughter and the door opened. Ethan got Miles and Niall in their pajamas and messy hair.

"Ethan!"

Ethan happily stretched out his arms to hug the two of them tightly, but he didn't carry anyone.

Ethan was fed up with yesterday's incident at the zoo. His waist felt sore at that moment.

"What are you doing here?" asked Miles.

"I was painting."

But Miles and Niall just giggled while looking behind Ethan, and after Ethan turned around, it turned out that Roman was shaking his head with a mischievous smile.

And finally, a ruler made of rubber flew towards Roman.

"Ethan likes to paint too?"

Ethan, without the slightest bit of hesitation, nodded his head. "Like, I'm just getting started."

Niall nodded his head. "If you keep practicing, later you will become a great painter like dad. Have you seen all the paintings? It's awesome!"

Ethan laughed, then whispered into Niall's ear. "Unfortunately, he is a great painter but mean and annoying. I can't stand it."

And after that, Roman's hand hit Ethan's head from behind as he walked to Miles and carried him.

"What do you want to eat today?" asked Roman as he picked up Niall before he burst into tears.

"Odette is ordering fried chicken," Miles said.

Roman nodded, then glanced at Ethan, who was staring at him scornfully, while rubbing the back of his head, which Roman had hit earlier.

"Would you like to join us for dinner?"

Ethan then looked at the clock on his phone. It was already 6 pm.

Ethan was silent for a moment before finally shaking his head. "I'll go home," he said.

Having dinner with Roman is not a pleasant experience for Ethan, so Ethan decides to leave.

After all, he couldn't bear to see Liana, and moreover, right now, Ethan couldn't control his anger when he saw that witch.

Roman nodded while looking down. "Okay then, be careful."

Ethan walked past Roman, stomping his feet, then he ran. Roman laughs. He puts Miles and Niall down and runs after Ethan.

But Ethan managed to escape. He managed to get out of Roman's house.

"You annoying old man, I hate you!" he shouted as Ethan made his way through Roman's fence while he was standing in the doorway of his house.

Roman hopes that the other neighbors won't hear him.

***

"I'm speechless."

"That crazy woman."

As Ethan suspected, Mrs. Pearson got a lot of cursing from his friends. Ethan smiled with satisfaction. He knew his friends would always be by his side.

"Luckily, I can still hold myself back; otherwise, I would have grabbed her fake hair."

Next, Ethan tells the happy part, where Guen tells about Roman and how he brought avocado and painting for them both. While Ethan was telling this story, Emma made instant noodles and washed the dishes.

Then when she told him what had happened today, everyone started going crazy.

"Oh my God, Ethan. Are you holding the phone?"

"You even have the number now."

"Have you tried texting him?"

Ethan shook his head, and suddenly everyone was telling Ethan to try sending Roman a message.

"But should Isay? I don't have anything to say to him."

Everyone laughed mockingly. Ethan didn't have anything to say. It sounds so wrong in many ways.

"Okay fine, just a minute."

Ethan just saw Roman's w******p profile picture. He's a really boring old man down to his profile picture. He's wearing a blue suit and smiling at the camera.

In contrast to the profile photo, Ethan used a picture of him in front of the falls a year ago with Isaac, Dante, and Judith as they went on a hike.

"I have sent the message."

"What did you send, Ethan?"

Ethan smiled awkwardly. "I asked that old man if he was asleep or not."

A pretty good question to start a conversation.

"Is he online?"

Ethan shook his head.

They were all waiting, but Roman still hadn't replied to Ethan's message. Now their conversation turned back to Mrs. Pearson.

"I imagined how her eyeliner would come off when she cried because she was exposed. She must look horrid."

Ethan laughed by just imagining it.

"Why do I imagine she's like a clown?"

Ethan laughed, shaking his head.

"Why don't you tell Mr. Pearson, Ethan? I would love to see Mrs. Pearson that looked like a clown."

Ethan sighed. "I don't feel like I have the right to reveal it because basically, I'm also his affair. After all, we don't have evidence, and after all, how do I find that evidence?"

"How about this," said Hunter, grabbing everyone's attention.