2 AM Tales

Behind the Camera: Part - 2

Coffee, the one beverage that you like and don't like at the same time. For you, coffee is neutral, but you wouldn't go out of your way to order it. So, when Kim Namjoon asked you for coffee, the only answer you could come up with was 'a coffee sounds like a good bargain.' 

You don't even drink coffee. 

That nagging echo of yourself reminded you about your unusual preference.

 "Um-" He glances your way as both of you are walking side by side. He stops and turns towards you.

 "Yeah?" His dragon-like eyes filled with curiosity.

 "Actually, I don't drink coffee," you admit. He looks taken aback, and before he could speak, you start, "It's not that I don't like coffee. It's not a bad drink. I just don't care about it. But that doesn't mean that I hate it. I can drink it occasionally, but I get jitters after drinking them so I avoid it. But that doesn't mean that you can't order it, I am just giving you a heads-up. Why am I even giving a heads up? It's not like you are going to drink from my cup—"

 He cuts you off by laughing. His laugh is as beautiful as his eyes, and those dimples you swear to poke them if you get a chance. His laughter makes you irritated, but the smile on your face interprets something entirely different than irritation.

 "Sure, go ahead and laugh. It was so funny when I got all awkward and started rambling again. Ha. Ha." Sarcasm slips through your tongue, but the smile brightens, as he breaks into another fit of chuckles. 

"I'm sorry. The thing is you remind me so much of myself when I get nervous, I start to ramble and just keep on going. Usually, I am super calm and quiet, but sometimes I get super overwhelmed with everything and the nerves take over so I just start speaking and it's hard for my rambling to stop. See, even now I am rambling, cause one side of my brain is like 'did I hurt her feeling? Another corner is like 'but she is smiling.' The front part of my brain is going about how I am going to mess this up. And the back of my head is thinking about how cute you loo—" 

This time you're the one who cuts him off with your laughter. He stops and looks at you for a minute and starts laughing himself. Both of you are standing on the sidewalk, looking at each other and laughing together. 

"Well, now I know why all of my friends say I am cute when I ramble. I see you." You smile at him as you calm down. 

"I see you too." And that melts your heart. 

"Now let's get coffee and whatever it is that you drink." You nod and both of you start walking without asking where he is taking you and him asking where you want to go. 

The walk is fairly quiet at the start but as the sunsets, you warm up to each other. You learn that he is also a student, and pursuing Biochemistry. You tell him about your pursuit of nursing school. You share the hardships of both streams and share your passion. His music and your photography. He tells you about his friends, who are also his band members, and how they meet and blow off the stress by playing together. You tell him how this is your first solo trip and he listens. This goes on until the moon has taken its place in the sky, and there is no trace of sunshine. You both passed several restaurants and cafés but neither took notice and kept walking.

 Slowly, side by side. Finally, you end up where you began. Where you took the photo of him. 

"Oh, did we walk in circles?" You ask him. 

"Seems like we started where we left off. It would be poetic if we part way here." The same bench where you were sitting when you saw him is now occupied by him. You sit next to him. 

"That would be a bittersweet end." You look at the shining moon and question whether this will be the bittersweet ending for both of you as well. 

No words are spoken and you don't know if he is deciding to say something or just soaking in the peace of a foreign land and wondering about the girl he met. 

What the girl he met didn't know was that he saw her behind the camera, multiple times. In Tokyo, in Osaka, in Kyoto. And every time he saw her, she had a camera hiding her face. So, when he made his way in front of her camera, he really wished she would come out of her hiding. 

"When are you going back?" He asks, hoping the girl behind the camera knew that he wanted her to stay. 

"In a week." She answered, hoping the boy in front of her camera was asking her to stay. 

"Let's spend the next seven days, like it will be our last." 

"Okay." 

The boy next to her was the same boy that she couldn't have met if she wasn't behind a camera.

fin. 

Thank you for reading :)