candid clicks | lee heeseung

022: anachronism of the click

YESEUL STEPPED into her apartment, shutting the door softly behind her. The familiar silence of the space enveloped her, a stark contrast to the whirlwind of thoughts swirling in her mind. She tossed her bag onto the couch, running a hand through her hair as she let out a deep breath. Her eyes wandered aimlessly around the room until they landed on something that sent a strange chill down her spine- the vintage camera.

It sat there, innocently perched on the shelf, exactly where she had left it. The camera had always had an odd allure, ever since the old man handed it to her. She wasn't sure why, but now, with everything going on, it almost felt like it was.....watching her.

Without thinking, she picked it up, the weight of it familiar in her hands. There was something about it tonight, something unsettling. She turned it over, her fingers moving to the compartment were the photos could be stored. Her heart beat a little faster as she pulled out a photograph.

Her breath hitched.

It was a picture she had never seen before. In fact, it was a picture that should not have existed.

The photograph was from her senior year of high school. She could tell by the familiar surroundings- her old classroom, the way her desk was always cluttered with books, and the soft glow of sunlight streaming in from the window. She was there, sitting at her desk, dozing off, her head resting on her arms.

But what froze her in place was the other figure in the photograph.

Heeseung.

He was standing next to her, a gentle expression on his face, as if lost in thought. His hand hovered just above her head, carefully brushing away a stray strand of hair from her face. The gesture was intimate, tender even, in a way she had never associated with him back then.

"What?" she whispers to herself.

Her hands shook slightly as she studied the picture more closely. She didn't remember this moment. How could she? She had no memory of this happening at all. And more importantly, how did this picture end up here? In this camera?

She stumbled back, collapsing onto the couch as she clutched the photo in her hands. The longer she stared at it, the more questions flooded her mind. How was this even possible? The camera was supposed to capture moments she took, not moments from her past- especially moments she never witnessed.

Her heart raced as a wave of unease washed over her. The intimacy in the photograph was undeniable, but the fact that she couldn't remember it made it all the more disorienting.

Did it even happen? Why don't I remember? And why is this photo here- now, of all times?

She glanced at the camera again, a sense of dread filling her chest. The cryptic messages, the strange photos....what did it all mean?

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The cool night air drifted through the open window of his apartment bedroom as Heeseung sat quietly on the edge of his bed. His mind was wandering, unable to shake the strange feeling that had lingered after the photoshoot earlier in the day.

He couldn't help but replay every interaction with her in his head. She was different now- more softer, maybe more open. But still, she was guarded, as if there was a wall built between them that she didn't even know she had built. He wasn't sure why it mattered to him, he found himself paying attention to things about her that he'd never cared about before.

He ran a hand through his hair, sighing to himself. Maybe it had always been like this, and he just hadn't noticed.

His phone buzzed on the nightstand, snapping him out of his thoughts. It was nothing important- just another message about some campus event. But as he stared at the screen, his mind shifted back to high school, to that one moment he had never talked about, not even with Sunghoon.

It was a quiet afternoon in their senior year, and the classroom had been unusually empty. Heeseung had stayed behind to finish an assignment, while Yeseul, as usual, had fallen asleep at her desk after lunch. He didn't know why he kept glancing at her, but something about the peaceful way she slept- head resting on her arms, the faint rise and fall of her shoulders- had caught his attention that day.

It was strange. They hadn't been close back then. In fact, they had barely spoken unless it was to bicker about something or gloat about their scores to each other. But there was this one moment, a fleeting second, when he had acted on instinct.

He had gotten up from his seat to turn in his paper when he noticed a stray strand of hair falling across her face. Without thinking, he reached down, carefully brushing it away. He wasn't even sure why he did it. Maybe it was because she looked so different when she was quiet, like all the usual sharpness in her expression melted away.

He hadn't given much thought to that day after it happened. It was just a passing moment, something that didn't mean anything.

At least, that's what he told himself.

But now, sitting in his room, he couldn't stop thinking about how things were shifting between them. How the tension had changed- not disappeared, but morphed into something else. Something he couldn't quite define.

He shook his head, trying to push the thought away, but it was stubborn. Just like she was.

Maybe this was the problem. She wasn't supposed to matter this much. But the more he saw her, the more he couldn't ignore the way his chest tightened around her, especially when she wasn't looking.

His mind wandered back to that day in the classroom again, a flash of warmth in the midst of everything else. He had never been one to dwell on the past, but suddenly, he wondered if that moment had meant more than he was willing to admit.

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(a/n: will be going on a hiatus as my exams are starting soon!! there's more fun chapters to come with more drama😽🙏)