full stop. jungri

01./ flower

Snap!

It's a cloudy day when it all starts.

A  young man with dark hair and blond highlights looks left, right, then left again and begins making his way across the street, trying to blend in with his surroundings. He's wearing everything that is considered "the norm": a baggy h&m jacket, grey worn-out jeans, and a black face mask coupled with a bucket hat; he looks like another blank face you come across on the streets, another person who won't appear in your memories of that day-- this man is just another piece of the puzzle of the bustling city that is of Seoul.

But even as he's trying not to be noticed, he feels like the world is watching him, and specifically, only him-- his fingers are twitching around the camera he's holding, a skip in his step, a nervousness that an onlooker would notice if they'd only pay attention. So, he walks on. Step after step, he seems to be no closer to his goal.

A cloud parts and the sunshine illuminates everything, light bouncing off from the shop display windows, the pavement, and consequently onto him, highlighting the slope of his nose, his blond tips of hair, and jet black eyes that seemed to be adorned with thousands of little stars-- but just like stars, they seem strangely far away.

He tugs his face mask up, bucket hat down, and continues walking. Scanning the crowd, waiting.

Ah, a familiar mop of hair enters his view-- the person he has been following for quite some time.

Long strands ebony hair thrown into a messy braid, an oversized red hoodie, coupled with a beige tote bag. He can hear her silvery voice from where he's walking; they're so close, yet so far away. Due to reflex, he almost brings his camera to eye level, a breathy curse escaping from his lips; he doesn't need to take photographs of the back of her head anymore-- he's got enough of those already-- he needs pictures of her face, because that is why he's following her.

She turns her face slightly to the left, silhouette barely visible, and his heart picks up pace.

Snap!

Immediately after taking the snapshot, he takes two steps right to hide behind a tall pedestrian to avoid being caught, and in one fluid motion passes the taller person, trying his best again to mingle with the mass.

Not a second later, she turns around, scanning the spot where photographer was just walking, eyes narrowed and for the first time, the young man sees the entirety of her face: full cheekbones, sharp chin, soft and round lines that paint her face ever so delicately--he'd never been so mesmerised by a face, at least not one so hard to describe. There wasn't any apparent way in which he felt he could describe her features. Yes, she was beautiful, but there was something about the limpidness of her eyes--the clarity of them was too jarring, in a way that made him uncomfortable.

(He discovers, later, that her eyes are also tired.)

This continues the whole day-- here walking in front, oblivious to him, who's following her, him taking pictures here and there. At one point during the day, she stops at a street food cart, revealing her profile completely visual for the first time. And while he is truly mesmerised by the sheer elegance of the way her body language and the way she acts, he also has a job to do; if the young woman would've listened carefully, she could've heard a snap! in the background.

This resumes until it's late in the evening-- the sun has gone down, the clouds unveiling a silver moon, the streets are getting less crowded, thus he has to start to keep his distance more and more when an unexpected twist happens: The young woman stops in her tracks, looks around, and makes a phone call. Though he is too far away for her to see him-- he can barely see her through his zoom-in feature of his camera-- but a seed of worry starts to twist inside of him.