Sentience

51

Never once did he ever imagine that he would be contemplating his own stance, his own decision. For all this time, he was certain that everyone was overreacting. Nonetheless, it became a different thing when Sunwoo dramatically appeared.

That boy had been so worked up to convince Changmin that he was wrong. That Arabelle, in his eyes, was a girl and not a mere friend.

Normally, if it was Chanhee who was talking, Changmin could easily ignore it. And despite it was what he planned to do with Sunwoo, he couldn't. For, Sunwoo had pinpointed something strong for him to deny.

"I am Arabelle's friend and I don't do everything you do for her," the racoon boy said.

Strangely, the stance had given Changmin a new sight of his life; a path that he had never seen before miraculously appeared in front of him. It was colourful; the path was full of memories which only had Belle in them.

And that, Ji Changmin started to doubt everything. Sometimes, he would stand in front of the mirror, seeing his own reflection and wondering. He wondered how he could see feelings on other people's faces but not his. How could he constantly deny his feelings when others kept saying that he had feelings for Belle?

His best friends; the boys, had pointed it out. Even a stranger like Mother and Sunwoo also had said the same thing. So, how couldn't he realize it?

However, despite that, Ji Changmin didn't easily believe what they said. He would reconsider it until he could see those feelings on his face when he looked into the mirror.

For him, Arabelle was just someone who would always bring comfort and a smile to people's faces.

Just like him right now, while he decorated the small space allocated for him for the festival. He couldn't wipe the dimple from his cheek away as he hung Belle's picture on many occasions. Although she didn't do anything in those photos, she was just smiling at the camera; Changmin found himself smiling as well.

Her smile definitely was contagious.

Among those photos, he had his favourite. The one he took while they were once went for an outing. It happened a week after Brianna's passing, and Arabelle in the photo was flashing the first smile after a week of grieving and crying.

He had been keeping the photo for quite some time; he had never shown it to anyone, and it wasn't included in the photos he uploaded to his social. He kept it for himself as a trophy.

For he had succeeded in making Arabelle smile.

As he drowned in the beauty of the single picture, from the corner of his eyes, he saw a figure parked next to him. Even if he didn't turn around to find the face, he knew who it was. Chanhee was ready to shake his world to dust.

Chanhee flickered his gaze from Changmin's space to his own; photos of scenery of many occasions, just beside the latter's and though he didn't want to admit it, he still said, "Yours look better than mine."

And it was accompanied by a sigh and an eye roll.

"I was about to say that yours looks the best," Changmin glanced over at his dramatic friend. "You are Choi Chanhee after all. You have touch in your photography."

"Well..." Chanhee cupped his thin waist. "We both deserve high grades."

Then, the two hi-five each other, agreeing right away to avoid any conflict. If they needed to be honest, they had completely different tastes when it came to photography. While Changmin was more to capture random pictures, Chanhee, on the other side, preferred to take pictures of humans.

But, today, for the festival, the two seemed to have swapped personalities. Changmin was living as Chanhee and the latter was living as him.

"You two!"