It all started with a flash of a camera.
It was a fine summer day at the Academy for Highschools, inside the tenth graders' classroom, a raven-haired boy remained silent, casually scrolling through his phone, reading through his messaging app and reading his father's messages about random things before shutting it off, deciding to listen to his friends who were talking instead. His name was Yashiro Jin-Woo Kwon, a seemingly normal highschool student who just wants some peace and quiet.
"Ah, jeez, It's the last day of school." A sigh left the complaining boy's lips, banging his head on the hard, cold wood of his empty, clean desk, his green eyes bored into the cold wood. His name is Gavin Han.
"So what about it?" Eivan Hinata, one of Yashiro's friends asked, casually flipping over the pages of his Robotics book.
"He won't be able to see Yuna for a while is what he means." Alistair Jeon answered, referring to Vin's girlfriend, chuckling at the thought of his clingy friend, Gavin ranting about not seeing Yuna again.
"With the way you're talking, it's like you don't have girlfriends and problems! Frederic, because of his addiction to games, Shaina never contacts him anymore. Alistair, because it's the last day of school today, you're going to miss how Lisa pinches you when she's annoyed. And Eivan-"
"And why did you decide to include me?" Eivan interrupted as his amber eyes glared, irritated that his immature friend would include him in his annoying little rant again.
"Whatever, Eivan is going to miss Yami." Vin shrugged, sweatdropping at the intensity of Eivan's glare, looking away from his ticked off friend's amber eyes and directing his gaze on their chuckling friend, Frederic Kim who was currently slapping his own knee, unable to stop himself from laughing.
Unlike them who were included in section C, their girlfriends, Yami and Yuna were in section B while Lisa and Shaina along with their other friend were in section A which makes interacting with them during class hours almost impossible, the reason why they had to settle with only talking to them during break times or lunch.
"Hey, Jin," Alistair called, gaining the attention of the said quiet male, "Why are you so quiet?" He asked, his curious and concerned gaze directed to his friend.
"That guy is always quiet, isn't he?" Vin said, scratching his cheek lightly.
The said male sighed for the nth time that day, his peace and quiet obviously disturbed by his friends. Yashiro always thought that his friends are eccentric and very energetic but he also always thought that the only normal ones in their own friend circle are himself and Eivan.
"That's because he doesn't have a girlfriend. Why don't you go out on a date with one of Yami's friend, the quiet one whose name I can't remember. Let's see, I think her name is... um, what was it again? Jia? Jina?" Frederic said, tapping his chin while trying his best to remember the friend of their girlfriends.
"Idiot, her name's Ji-Hyun." Alistair answered, hitting the back of Fred's head harshly.
"Ow! Sorry, I always forget her name. She doesn't speak much, how was I supposed to remember?"
"She only ever talks to Eivan, their close friend Glen and me. She doesn't speak to any of you because you're all idiots, especially you, Fred." Gavin said, shaking his head, remembering about all those times said quiet girl spoke to him since he's one of the calmer ones in their friend group and because her best friends are their girlfriends, possibly the reason why she thinks of them as friends as well.
"She and Jin both suit each other. They're both very quiet. Who knows, maybe they're destined to be or something." Eivan said making the quiet raven-haired male to turn to him only to see him grinning.
"Yeah, they might look good together." Fred laughed along before soon, all of them, except Yashiro, were laughing.
Yashiro could only sigh, yet again but decided to just sit quietly and shrug. It had always been this way, his friends would find random girls to date him and he would refuse. It happened so often that he's so used to it already.
Out of being out of place and because he found it awkward that they want him to date someone that he doesn't know, Yashiro decided to stand up and leave when someone blocked his way.
"Hi, Jin!" Hannah, one of their classmates, greeted.
Yashiro only nodded in response.
"I was just thinking, maybe we can go out sometime? Maybe when you're free or something. We're graduating, so I figured that I might not have any other chance to talk to you after this. So, I decided to take it." She smiled.
Yashiro is not dense to not notice how Hannah looks at him, he know that she likes him. He always noticed that she was always staring at him and smiling.
"Sorry but--"
"It's a 'no', isn't it?" Hannah asked, her tone changing and her smile turning into a frown, "Why? Don't you like me?"
Yashiro internally sighed, not wanting to deal with a drama again but figured he should at least give her an honest answer.
"It's not like that, I just don't want to date someone right now. You know that, right?" Yashiro answered, his brows furrowing as he tried to deal with the situation calmly.
"I know that. I'm pretty too, aren't I? Why don't you like me? At least give me one chance. Please." Hannah begged, trying not to let her tears flow down. She really liked the male in front of her for quite a while now. She couldn't even sleep at night thinking about him and her feelings for him.
"I'm sorry." Yashiro bowed before patting her shoulder, whispering another apology before he went on his way and left the classroom, walking through the hallways, wanting to get to his destination as soon as he can.
After he arrived at the school garden, he stood in front of the fountain and sighed. For the thirty ninth time this school year, he rejected another girl again.
He does feel guilty, but he just can't accept their feelings like that, it'll hurt them more.
He just can't just accept their feelings and agree to be in a relationship with them. It's not right, it will only hurt them more and make him feel bad, he'll have a hard time and he obviously doesn't want to feel compelled to respond positively when it comes to love confessions. He doesn't settle for superficial relationships, both parties would only have it hard.
Well, he is right about that, no one should settle for relationships like that.
Yashiro ran his fingers through his hair, releasing yet another sigh.
*Flash!*
He heard a camera and felt a flash making him turn to the direction it came from.
To his surprise, he saw a girl with beautiful honey eyes and dark brown hair, her camera in hand with the strap around her neck.
Their eyes both met as he immediately felt everything going in a slow motion, as if the world slowed down, the breeze flowing with both of their hair and he stared as she blinked ever so slowly, it was like twin flame recognition, love at first sight.
"Are you okay?" She asked in the softest voice he's ever heard his whole years of living, knitting her eyebrows together.
'Her voice and the way she moves are so gentle, Is she an angel or a goddess?'
"Um, is something wrong? You're not really hurt anywhere, right?" She asked.
"A-ah, y-yeah. I'm fine." Yashiro answered after finally snapping out of his trance, mentally cursing himself for stuttering.
"Are you sure? You looked like you were in a daze earlier."
"Yeah, I'm sure. I'm really okay." Yashiro said as he smiled at her.
"Alright, that's a relief," The brunette softly spoke, "So I'll just take my leave now, farewell." She bowed before she left, her camera still in hand.
"W-wait! What's your--"
Before he knew it, she was out of his sight.
"Name..." He sighed before face palming.
'Great job, Shiro, you didn't even get to know her name.'
With another sigh, he began walking back to his classroom, sitting back down with his head resting on his hand, thinking about the girl from earlier.
"Yo, what happened to you?" Frederic asked, slinging an arm around Yashiro's shoulder.
"This and that." The ravenette answered.
"How descriptive." Eivan said sarcastically, flipping over the pages of his book again.
"I saw a girl earlier." Yashiro said causing all of his friends look at him.
"Bro, is she pretty?" Frederic asked.
"Yeah, the prettiest girl I've ever seen."
"So you do find girls attractive, I was worried you were gay. I was about to yell 'no homo!' earlier." Eivan casually said, earning a glare from his raven-haired friend.
"What does she look like?"
"You mean 'how' does she look like." Eivan sighed, rolling his eyes at his friend's mistake.
"Yeah, whatever, smarty-pants." Vin shrugged.
"Let's see, She has long dark brown hair with bangs and fringes, honey brown eyes, long eyelashes, pink tinted lips, pointy nose and she was carrying a camera." Yashiro answered, visualizing the girl from earlier. No matter how many times he thought about it and visualize it, her face looks really soft and gentle. Very beautiful yet mysterious. She also seemed very kind. Like an angel. She looks like one, sounds like one, acts like one and is like an angel to him.
Eivan grinned, surprising his younger friend, "Did you ask for her name?" He asked with his eyebrows rising.
"No, I was late."
"Poor you." His grin widened.
"Dude, do you know her?" Frederic asked, curious about the mysterious girl's identity.
"Maybe yes, maybe not. Who knows?" Eivan said while he was shrugging, "But I do know that she doesn't have a boyfriend. Maybe you stand a chance." He gave a smirk to Yashiro.
"Shut up." The said male quickly averted his gaze from his teasing friend, feeling his own cheeks redden.
"Congrats, you're finally becoming a man, my dude." Eivan said, tapping the ravenette's shoulder.
"I think he now has a crush." Gavin laughed along with Frederic.
"Happy for you, man." Alistair smirked, slinging his arm around Yashiro.
"Shut up." Yashiro glared at Alistair before resting his chin on his hand, staring outside the window.
'I wonder who that girl is.' He thought to himself, mentally sighing yet again.
'Well, whoever she is, I hope I can see her again.'
----
"Jihyun Utsuru Chou, there you are! Where have you been!?" The brunette turned only to be tackled by her short haired friend, Yuna Min, almost making her drop her favorite and beloved yet expensive Pentax 645Z camera.
"Yuna, calm down." She said in a soft tone.
"We've been looking for you for a while! Where have you been? Seriously, whenever you're hiding, we can never find you, I swear it's annoying." Her pink-haired friend, Lisanna Choi said, arranging the romantic comedy books she was holding.
"I was just admiring the um... the cherry blossom tree. I find it nostalgic since I used to watch the cherry blossoms in Japan and Korea. I couldn't help but admire how rare it is to see it here." Jihyun answered, her camera still at hand only to be grabbed by her red-haired friend, Shaina Joo.
"You're saying that but the recent pictures here says otherwise. You were clearly looking at the fountain and-- Eh!?" Shaina exclaimed out of shock after seeing a picture of a certain raven-haired boy.
"Jihyun, why?" Shaina grinned, shaking her head, her ponytailed red hair shaking along as well.
"I-It's not what it looks like..." Jihyun defended herself, trying to sound intimidating only to sound soft-spoken like usual while grabbing her camera back.
Shaina's grin widened before whispering something to their obnoxious black-haired friend, Yami Yusaki who was watching and who have also seen the picture.
"Oh, my dear, Jihyun." Yami shook her head, her onyx eyes staring right at her teased friend's brown ones.
"What?"
"What is it?" Both Yuna and Lisa asked.
"You're becoming more and more mature and lady-like as the days pass by. Now, I think I know the reason why." Yami grinned, wiggling her eyebrows.
"Stop it, please."
"Well, good luck with your new... hobby. I hope everything goes well." Shaina smirked, her own pair of onyx eyes staring right at her soft-spoken friend.
"Shaina..." Jihyun whispered.
"Stop denying stuff, dear." Yami grinned ear to ear before laughing at her flustered friend.
"I, like, have zero idea about what's going on right now. How about you, Lis?" Yuna turned to their pink-haired friend who shook her head.
"Me neither."
"Well, whatever. Let's just get back to class." Jihyun said, rolling her eyes playfully as her friends continued laughing.
'Geez, Yami and Shaina are teasing me again. Can't they stop it? That boy though...' Jihyun thought, remembering her little moment with the handsome black-haired boy from earlier.
"I hope I see him again." Jihyun muttered before going back to class with her friends teasing her while she continued defending herself to no avail along the way.
Little did Yashiro and Jihyun know that that particular encounter was only just the beginning of something... new. Something that will change their lives.