“Hey, can you take a picture of me?” Said a voice from behind.
Those words, carried by the wind, reached Jun’s ears, while the wind created a draft, tossing his unkempt hair around in a dance with the petals of cherry blossoms that traveled a long way in their journeys.
Jun turned his head to see a girl wearing his school’s uniform. The fresh, allergy inducing spring wind whistled, filling in the awkward gaps of silence between them.
“Hey, can you take a picture of me?” The girl repeated, stepping up a bit closer this time.
“…” Jun stayed silent. Instead of a response, he grabbed his phone from his pocket and started typing. The girl tried to look over and take a quick peek at what he was typing, but the bright sunlight prevented that from happening.
“You go to Keiron High right? I saw you a couple of times in the photography department when I was walking by,” she said, trying to strike up a conversation.
The atmosphere grew more awkward until Jun showed what he typed on his phone,
‘Yeah I can take a pic if you want. Btw I’m mute so I can’t really speak that well.’
“Oh, thank you. Also, in that case…” the girl said, signaling for him to bring up his phone.
“Here!” She said, tapping the head of her phone to his. A little vibration came in with a satisfying animation, showing that they shared their contact information.
“Jun Kagehara! What an interesting name. Technology’s amazing right? Stuff like this’ possible now. Of course, only if you have a product from the walled garden of Apple.” She said, snickering at her own joke.
Jun looked down on his phone,
‘Keiko Akita’
It was the name of the girl brightly (and slightly airheadedly) smiling in front of him.
‘J- Hey, didn’t u ask me to take a photo?’
Keiko stopped laughing to check her phone and see the message Jun sent.
“Oh yeah, you’re a photographer right? Part of the photography club.”
Jun nodded.
“Yeah, uhm just… here’s my phone. I wanted to take a photo for my first day of school. Take like a really flattering photo of me,” Keiko said, shoving her phone onto Jun.
He stood there in silence, not sure what to do. He raised her phone and started to take pictures. None of them were professional though.
Jun gave Keiko her phone back after a bit and she immediately rushed through her gallery to see the results.
“Wow, these are really great! The angle here, like you can really see how the cherry blossom petals overwhelm the scenery if you point the camera like this. But… you can do better than this can’t you?”
Jun started typing on his phone again.
‘J- What do you mean?’
“Your name’s Kagehara right? I saw your photo from the contest last year. If you can shoot something like that, surely you can do better.”
‘J- Yeah, but those are only possible when it’s natural. I’m usually kinda bad at taking photos of models n’ stuff. I like to capture more natural things. Kinda like capturing the moment instead of capturing the person.’
“Capturing the moment instead of the person, wow, how shakespearean. Ok, then how ‘bout this? I’ll stay with you until you find like the perfect moment, and you can snap that picture.”
‘J- Didn’t you say you just wanted to take a picture for the first day of school?’
“Yeah, but that’s not all. Uhm this is kinda embarrassing but I want to be a model, and I need a portfolio. So, I need like a bunch of really cool pictures of myself.”
‘J- Like I said tho, I capture the moment, not the person’
“It’s ok, don’t you need a model too? Like for photography?”
After contemplating for a bit, Jun replied,
‘J- Ok fine, but are you sure you’re ok with staying n’ hanging around with me?’
“Yeah, of course! Why would that be a problem?”
‘J- … Nevermind. Anyways, we’re gonna be late for school. Look at the time.’
“Oh crap, well cya!” Keiko said, running off to the school. Jun followed closely after.
“Hey, why’re you followi- Oh yeah, we go to the same school. Duh.”
Jun looked at her with a puzzled look on his face.
“By the way, can I call you Jun? Jun-kun? That rhymes haha.” Keiko asked, snickering to herself.
Jun nodded.
They both made it on time for the opening ceremony.
Points: 1688
Reviews: 18
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