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“Aria, look here!”
I turn, and before I can even blink I am blinded by a searing hot white flash.
“Yah, do you want to die?”
He giggles like an idiot as he scurries away from me, holding the DSLR out of my reach as I attempt to grab it from him. “It’s a good photo, I swear!” he laughs out, finally showing me the viewfinder, which displays a very blurry, overexposed photograph of some human being wearing a hood. I let out a sigh.
“Pass me the camera, fool.” He wordlessly obeys and I adjust a few dials, lowering the exposure by increasing the shutter speed and decreasing the aperture. Then I lift the camera to my eye. I don’t even have to say anything before he starts posing with peace signs and what I assume is a supposed cute “aegyo” face, but it just makes him look constipated and a little high.
“There, see? That’s how you take photos,” I scroll through the gallery of photos capturing Taehyung’s cringey aegyo, although in this one photo he doesn’t look too bad…
I am suddenly aware of his proximity as he leans over my shoulder to look at the photos, breath like a wispy feather fanning my neck, heating my cheeks…
I inch away, a strange prickly feeling sweeping over my skin, and practically punch him with the camera as I hand it back, getting rid of it like a hot potato. However the only hot potato here is me. This is why I prefer to be alone, without the risk of becoming a blushing embarrassed mess. But in order to complete this assignment for our media studies class, it has to be done in pairs, something I never considered when enrolling in this class. You can’t share a camera. It restricts one of creative freedom, and right now it feels like I am tied down by this person right here.
“Let’s go to the park!”
He waves me over, camera dangling from his neck, but I don’t budge. “Are you five or something? Let’s just stay here on campus!” I call.
“Come on! Park! Let’s go! Here is boring!” he calls back, even though we’re only ten meters apart.
“We have to go back to class, you know!” I remind him. “We’ll be late!”
He seems to think about this for a second, before ambling over to me and grabbing my arm, dragging me effortlessly along. “Yah!” but he just ignores my objections to his kidnapping, not letting go of me even as we cross the road. Pedestrians watch us in bemusement, and I scowl, glad that I have my hood up so no one can see me. Once he does let go of me, I fume.
“You -“
click.
“Oi – “
another click.
“I’m going to ki-“
click click.
“Stop!”
We stop. He lowers the camera, pouting. “You’re very no fun, you know that?” then he grins. “Now smile!”
click click cli-
I snatch the camera from him and run, probably the fastest run in my life, all the way to the garden just outside the university apartments. I slow down as my feet bounce atop the spongy green grass, falling into a seated position. The sun is behind him as he comes into view, a tall silhouette surrounded by a golden halo. He towers over me with a mock-stern expression.
“You’re fast,” he exhales, and I smile, feeling flattered.
“You’re slow,” I reply wryly, examining my fingernails.
I feel him plant himself down beside me, leaning back on his palms and observing me. When I feel brave enough to return his gaze, I find that he is in fact eyeing the camera in my lap. His eyes look between mine and my lap, almost comically, and I cradle the camera protectively.
“You’re not using it until I delete all the photos you took of me – without my permission,” I shoot him a look, but he just watches me with an unreadable expression. Why is he so hard to read?
Once I successfully erase myself, I give him back the camera. He fiddles with it, changing some settings, then raises it to his eye, pointing it to me. Again.
“What did I tell you about tak – “
“Stand there.”
“What?” I am rendered speechless as his voice adopts an authoritative tone that sends a shiver down my spine.
“Just go, Aria. This’ll be good, trust me.”
Oddly, I find myself standing up, brushing the grass from the seat of my jeans, and following his order. Trusting him. I am curious to see what he has in mind, and we still don’t have a theme for our assignment.
I stand, straight as a pin, clasping my hands in front of me like the awkward thing that I am, but Taehyung begins fluttering his hands about to direct me, kneeling on the grass with one leg stretched out as he too tries to find the perfect position. And then he does.
“Perfect,” he sticks the camera in my face, and I blink, focusing on the image before me. A gasp hitches in my throat.
It looks ethereal.
The flyaway wisps of my ponytail, the soft golden light of the sun that glows from behind my profile, the dark mass of trees in the background, a perfect contrast of dark and light. I gaze at the picture, and then I gaze at its taker. He squeezes a grin.
“Told you it’d be good,” he practically sings, and I roll my eyes. I hate when people prove me wrong. Not that I was wrong about anything. You did call him a fool and an idiot many times. Well, okay, other than that.
“I guess you do have some talent, then.”
“Me?” He presses a palm dramatically to his chest, thick eyebrows raised. “No, no, no, the talent is right here, in the subject,” he taps the screen that continues to glow with the photo of me.
“Seriously?” I scoff. He must be joking, right?
“Well, of course, the credit is mine,” he says, flicking the end of his shaggy hair with flair. “I’m using this for the assignment.”
“What? No, you’re not,” I shake my head. “What’s our theme going to be, then?”
Taehyung ponders on this for a second, before replying, “Light.”
“Light?”
“And dark,” he demonstrates broadly with his hands, as if painting a picture. “We will explore the differences between light and dark, and how two very different things can exist in harmony together. How about that?”
I blink several times, feeling dazed. Did this five year old trapped in a twenty year old’s body really just say all those big complicated words – in a sentence?!
“Uh, that’s very, uh, wow, I -“
“Great! Now let’s go on the playground!” Taehyung once again grabs my arm, this time by the sleeve of my hoodie, and I am unwillingly pulled along like a tiny tugboat towards the playground which is ironically set in the shadows, blocked from the sun’s warm rays by a thicket of trees. He clambers up the spider net and is on top within seconds, waving for me to join him. An icy breeze slides past as I climb, deftly, gradually, shaking slightly from the height, even if it isn’t that high up. Taehyung notices.
“Are you scared?”
I arrange myself in a safe seated position, gripping the ropes tightly as I face him. “Nope.”
click.
“You look scared,” he shows me the picture, and once again, he has taken a great shot, despite my ugly face starring in it.
“This is a great location for our assignment,” I comment, diverting our attention away from the photo.
“Yeah, I love parks,” Taehyung nods, smiling contently. The smile quickly disappears, though, and he looks down, pressing his lips together into a fine line.
“What’s wrong?” I dare to ask.
He looks up at me sheepishly. “I’m scared of heights.”
For the first time that afternoon, I laugh. “Me too.”
★
If you couldn’t tell already, this story is going to be incredibly fluffy and cute because cute and fluffy just warms my heart uwu
Aria seems to be warming up to Taehyung ah I love this slow development so I can savour every cute moment 😊
Dedicated to Jamsnbun my lovely wattpad buddy 💖
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