The Phantom Sunset | Short Story (with reading)

On the evening of a holiday where I had done nothing, I went outside wanting to move my body a little, and found someone painting in the riverbed park. They were sitting on a small chair, moving a brush across a drawing pad.
—I wonder if they're a struggling artist.
I approached quietly from behind and peeked at the drawing pad... the paper was completely white. I could only hear the sound of the brush running across the paper, swish, swish.
—Oh, I see. Just pretending to paint.
Perhaps noticing me, the artist turned around.
"Oh, excuse me. I was just wondering what you were painting..."
The artist smiled brightly, framed the drawing pad, and held it out to me.
"Here you go. Please throw it away if you don't need it."
"Huh? Oh, thank you..."
I couldn't refuse, so I ended up taking it back to my room.

"I don't need something like this..."
The moment I threw the picture onto the bed, I was shocked. The drawing pad, which had been blank until just a moment ago, now depicted a magnificent sunset.
—No way! How!?
I'm not knowledgeable about art, so I don't know if it was an oil painting, a watercolor, or a colored pencil drawing. But it had an incredible intensity that words cannot describe.
—They really were an artist.
As I stared at the painting for a while, it suddenly vanished.
—I think I'll go see them again next week.
I hugged the blank drawing pad to my chest.

(End)

It was read by Mint on stand.fm.
Thank you very much.

Please check this out as well.

I received a CONGRATULATIONS for the theme "Creation"!