If Araki would choose a word to describe Nakajima, she would have said he was an ambivert. He was such a complex creature and she was sure that he contradicted himself far more than he thought he did. He was an enigma. What she didn’t expect was the fact that he was just as transparent as how veiled he was.

Talk about contradiction.

“How can I look different in front of the camera?” she mumbled, hands fumbling on the SLR camera, left by a staff on the bench. The weather for their filming that day was rather cold. She had to put on a winter jacket to keep her warm.

“Why do you want to look different?” Nakajima questioned, taking a few gulp of water to quench his thirst.

“Because you do,” her attention was still full on the camera with wonder etched heavily on her face, hands rotating the item a few times to inspect the features.

“I do?” he blinked, ignoring the shooting staff busying around them to prepare their setting at the school ground. They were supposed to act a rice sack jump scene, and Nakajima wasn’t sure how this conversation would help them.

She nodded once, eyes still fixed on the item in hand. “You look better behind the camera.”

Nakajima cleared his throat. “You’re trying to tell me that I’m not photogenic?” he was slightly irritated. They were both models. Telling that they didn’t look good on camera was practically an insult.

“That’s not what I meant,” she slapped his shoulder lightly, pouting. “I just felt like your photos look too superficial. The real you look far more complex than in the photo.”

“Complex?” he frowned. “I do?”

She didn’t answer when the staff called them out, saying the setting was ready for the take. She quickly put back the camera and rushed back, answering cheerfully. And Nakajima stood and caught up with her. His hand reached out behind her, then playfully tugged her hairband, letting her ponytail came undone. Araki yelped—loud. And he laughed.

Just like that, the tension lifted up.

“Tomorrow Never Knows! Mr Children!” Araki squealed excitedly, guessing the song Nakajima played with the guitar.

Nakajima laughed. “Are you sure you can’t play music? You seem to know a lot of chords here,” he plucked again, in a different melody this time.

“I don’t know the chord but I know the music when I listen to it,” Araki pouted, leaning closer as he changed the melody again. “Namie Amuro, Can You Celebrate? I love this song!” she squealed again, guessing the current song he was playing, and Nakajima grinned.

He loved how she would always laughed brightly, even when he was bullying her. Well, not exactly the evil kind of bullying, but just a little childish teasing was more like it. He liked her, he decided. She was cheerful, and positive—stark contrast with him. They may have a lot in common, but not exactly the same either.

“I want to play too!” she reached out a hand, requesting for the guitar.

“I thought you don’t know how to play?” Nakajima was baffled.

“Well, then, you teach me,” Araki shrugged.

“Eh?” he laughed. “Are you serious? That’s impossible.”

“You don’t want to?” her smile faltered a bit.

“No, that’s not it. But we’re in the middle of filming and you definitely need more than five minutes to learn how to play a guitar,” he quickly reasoned. Somehow, he hated how he was the reason that she lost her smile.

Her eyes shifted around the university ground where they were supposed to be filming the scene in between their ‘supposed break up’ in the movie. And then she sighed and pouted. “Okay. Next time then?”

He could feel his heart drumming wildly in his chest. “Yeah. Next time, okay?”
 

“Cut!”

Nakajima slowly let go of Araki as he heard the director, releasing the petite girl from his embrace. She stood up again, still on the table in the room as the staff prepared for the next scene. He offered her a hand for her to step down from the table.

“Nakajima-san’s hands are very strong,” Araki stated as she comfortably sat on his lap.

“Eh?” he raised his brows, shifting a bit to a more comfortable position for both of them.

“When you hugged me just now, I feel like I was engulfed by a huge teddy bear.”

Nakajima burst out laughing. “Teddy bear?”

“It was comfortable,” Araki’s tone sounded protesting, as if she offended by how Nakajima laughed at her statement.

“Fine, fine. Teddy bear, it is,” he was still grinning, letting her play with his hands by her side as the director started to brief their next scene.

“A skinny teddy bear,” he heard her added.

“I don’t even know whether you’re complimenting, or insulting,” he rolled his eyes; even if he knew she wouldn’t see it.

She chuckled, before whispering; “Strong.”

“Because I play drums,” he whispered back, mainly because he didn’t want to interrupt the director’s briefing.

“Hmm,” she hummed. “I like it.”

He badly wanted to hug her there and then. Why couldn’t he? She was there, sitting on his lap. He just needed to wrap his arms and she’d be in his. But he needed to be professional. They were in the middle of a job. And he already got his plate full as it is.

He decided not to.
 

Araki moaned in appreciation. “This is really delicious,” she exclaimed happily as she munched the grilled meat. “It’s so soft and sweet. This is my first time eating the original Kobe beef.”

“Well, it’s my first time after so many years as well,” Nakajima chuckled, shoving some rice into his mouth. They just finished their movie promotion at a local Kobe radio station and decided to get a dinner together.

“But you ate once. That doesn’t count,” she argued.

“I was in a school trip. It does count,” he insisted.

“But you had a taste of it before.”

“I’ve already forgotten.”

“Not my fault that you’ve gotten senile.”

Nakajima badly wanted to pull out his hair. This girl was constantly pushing him to the limits. The only thing that he hated more was the fact that he actually loved it. Once their promotion for their movie is done, would they still be able to eat out together like this again?

“If I say I have forgotten you, it would mean that during that time, it was my second first time meeting you, right?” he quipped.

If they parted ways, will they be able to talk like this again? Will they go back into strangers like the first time they met when they started their movie? Will she miss him?

She looked taken aback at his jest. “Do you intend to forget me?”

He couldn’t. “Do you?”
 

You look like a bimbo girl in Code Blue 3. He texted her. He followed the drama close enough since it was aired.

You watched? She replied almost immediately. And Nakajima could almost imagine her blushing cutely and grinning brightly like the sunshine she is.

Every single episode. He replied.

Did you watch it because of Arioka-san, or did you watch it because of me?

He grinned, contemplating for a few seconds before replying. Both.

Ah, this is embarrassing. Did Arioka-san say anything about me?

This time, he raised his brows. Does he need to say anything?

No, I’m just embarrassed. He was such a pleasant man.

And I’m not? Nakajima could feel himself getting a little bit jealous—but just a little. Well, if she could get jealous over another actress’ fried chicken, so can he.

You were naughty. She chided and he could almost imagine her cute expression getting mad at him. And Arioka-san never made any promises he couldn’t keep. Came another reply.

He raised a brow. When did I break my promise?

You promised to teach me how to play drums and guitar. It’s been a year and nada! Her exclamation mark was followed by a cute angry emoticon.

He laughed. I did NOT promise to teach you drums. Don’t add unnecessary responsibility on my shoulder!

You said you play drums!

I do! But that doesn’t mean I promised to teach you.

You don’t want to teach me?

Nakajima bit his lips, contemplating on his options. He wanted to see her so badly though. They didn’t spend any time together since their promotions ended. And he was busy with his new drama filming since then too. Fingers hovering above the screen of his android, he finally typed his reply.

Would you like to come to my place?
 

“This. Is. Insane,” she gasped, fingers trailing along his cameras and lenses collection stacked in a huge cupboard before picking up a camera. “Do you actually use all of these stuff?”

“Of course I do,” Nakajima ped a bag on the table and pulled out a guitar, settling it near a chair. “It’d be a waste if I don’t.”

She leveled the camera to her eyes and peeked through the viewfinder, aiming towards Nakajima. “Wow, this SLR viewfinder looks different than usual.”

He looked back at her and chuckled. “That’s not SLR. That’s a mirrorless camera with hybrid autofocus system,” he approached her and reached the camera, another hand scanning for the lenses before picking one and attached to the camera. “You don’t need to adjust the focus too much with this type of camera,” he leveled the viewfinder to his eye, one hand balancing the base of the camera, facing her. “Smile.”

She did.

And as he showed her the result, it was breathtaking. The background of his cupboard was clear, but the focus enunciated her image with brighter color, and her eyes looked dark and clear. Somehow, he had centered her right eye in the middle of the photo, making it look like she was staring deep forward.

“I look more beautiful than I really am!” she acclaimed. “Actually, don’t this look so much like a professional photography? How did you do that?”

“Thanks,” he grinned. Though he would say that it was her beauty that contributed more to this. “It’s the magic of an 85mm f/1.2 prime lens. It has ideal focal length and wide apertures. That’s why the background can be isolated from the model with compressed perspective,” he inspected the lens that was still attached to the camera.

“Oh,” clearly, she had no idea what he was blabbing about.

And, well, Nakajima had learned long ago that this subject wasn’t really suitable for everyone. “Bored?” he teased.

“Not really,” she shook her head. “I was just thinking,” she said before moving to sit on his drum throne, rather absentmindedly.

He scoffed. “Didn’t I tell you that I was going to teach you guitar? And here I went through the trouble to borrow Keito’s guitar for you.”

Araki pouted. “I thought you wouldn’t mind teaching me.”

Setting his camera back into the cupboard, he approached her and ruffled her hair. “One by one, princess. Guitar or drums? Make up your mind.”

“And you?”

“I already know how to play both,” he shrugged.

“Then?” she prodded. “Why did you finally choose drums?”

He looked away wryly, wondering which answer he should give her. “Because it’s cool?”

She laughed. And he grinned. “Is that it?” she asked again.

“You don’t think so?”

“And why camera?”

“Hmm?” he hummed questioningly.

“Why did you choose to be behind the camera when you are a model yourself?” she elaborated.

“Oh,” he pursed his lips. “Because I enjoyed taking photos. Capturing the moment people wanted to savor in a beautiful picture somehow seems appealing to me. And there are also moments I want to keep to myself. You smiled to me in that photo, right? I want to keep it. Your sunshine bright smile that spread happiness to people around you.”

“But you wouldn’t be in the photo yourself then.”

“Hmm,” he nodded. “But I had my fair share of photos taken because I’m a model too. So I guess it was fine.”

Araki smiled, seemingly satisfied with his answer. “As I thought, you really are an ambivert.”

“Ambivert?”

“You’re like a balance in everything—positive and negative blend into one. You wanted to socialize, but you wanted some alone time as well. You’re childish outside, but very mature on the inside too. You keep things to yourself, but your expression never lies either. You wanted to capture the moments of others, and you wanted to be captured as well. You wanted people to see you—“ she gave a long pause then, before looking up into his eyes and smiled. “And you want to see people too,” she finished. “That’s why you love the drums. Because at the far back of the stage, you can totally see all of them.”

Nakajima would have lied if he said she wasn’t the most beautiful then. Her eyes were the brightest, her smile was the prettiest, and her expression was the most honest he had seen. She described things the way he never could, down to the T. He wanted to kiss her again. Well, on his defense, the only time he kissed her was during their filming. Which shouldn’t have counted. She would have argued over that point though.

He bent down close before pausing just a few distances away from her. Should he not? Would she mind? Perhaps he shouldn’t. He decided to pull away.

But not too far as she suddenly grabbed his collar and pulled him down, clashing their lips together. He quickly kissed back, on her soft lips and pushing them open. The taste was nostalgic. Except this time, there wasn’t any meal involved.

“I’ve decided,” she whispered to his lips when they finally pulled away.

“What?” his eyes casted down to her moist lips, and he badly wanted to crush those lips again.

“I want to learn drums,” she nodded in determination.

“Eh? Why?” he looked up to her in surprise.

“Because I want to see things from your view. I want to see things you usually see,” she reasoned.

Nakajima blinked, even more confused. “Well, it’s not that I mind, but—“ he sighed. “Never mind. I’ll send the guitar back to Keito first thing in the morning.”

The End.