Conversations; All In Blue

Four

"Do you carry that everywhere?" Junhui smiled as they crossed the road to the cafe. "I do," Wownoo looked down at the camera slung around his neck. "I'll never know when something will inspire me." His eyes caressed the sleek steel and glass like it was made of gold and diamond. His eyes flashed behind steel rimmed glasses as they looked around, perceiving, observing everything within range. Junhui felt clumsy beside him, plain and dull, unsophisticated. He felt like standing in front of a camera could never measure up to standing behind one.

Wonwoo opened the door of the cafe and looked around before they walked inside. He seemed to visibly relax when it was mostly empty and a huge smile broke across his face when he spotted the handsome barista behind the counter.

"Hi Seungcheol!" he waved and Junhui marvelled again, the incredible duality of the man beside him, the complete transformation on his face when he spotted someone familiar. "Hi Wonwoo," Seungcheol said brightly before spotting Junhui beside him, "oh, a friend?" Why did it sound so much like a question?

"I remember you now!" The barista leaned forward onto the counter and peered at Junhui from under the thickest lashes he'd ever seen.

"Did you find what you needed at the hardware store?" "I guess," Junhui smiled as he braved a glance at Wonwoo out of the corner of his eye. "Mingyu sent me to the bookstore."

His smile was barely returned as the barista handed them menus from the counter. "Sit wherever you like," he gestured around the mostly empty establishment and Junhui walked over to the window. "Here," Wonwoo shook his head and pulled a chair out by the wall instead and Junhui followed him without question.

"So," Wonwoo's eyes were like steel as they bored into Junhui's from across the table. "What do you do for work in the city?" Junhui decided his best bet was honesty. "I'm a model." "A model what?" Wonwoo was obviously waiting for the rest of the sentence and his blank cold stare made Junhui giggle awkwardly. "A model, you know, fashion magazines and advertising...." With anyone else, in a former life, Junhui would pull out his phone and pull up his best pictures without hesitation. Something about the man across from him was intimidating and he felt inexplicably shy.

"You make a living doing this? People taking your photo?" Wonwoo seemed disbelieving and Junhui nodded. "Show me?" Wonwoo removed the camera from around his neck and put it on the table and Junhui found a few of his recent photos. Posing with a luxury BMW, smiling in a flower crown selling his own exclusive skincare line, walking a runway in a three thousand dollar suit.

"This ones overexposed," Wonwoo scowled at the skincare advertisement like it was a personal affront. "Your skin looks washed out."

Junhui didn't know how to answer that so he just looked at the menu in his hands. Panic began to build in his stomach at the descriptions of food, so much cheese and sugar and bacon. Literally everything seemed to have bacon. He wanted to order a black tea with no sugar and purge it into the toilet and he hadn't even tasted it yet. But something else pulled at him as well, something inside his chest, higher than his churning stomach.