[M. Footsteps Challenge Entry]

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-1-

The sun hit my tired eyes unforgivingly as it peaked through the soft blinds of my curtain, waking me up to start a new day. Days have never been this tiring. I looked at the clock and realized that I only had three hours of sleep. Being a hard-core photojournalist of the University's school paper isn't easy, most especially at moments when the issuance of a new magazine is getting to the deadline.

But still, a part of it is okay. I love photography. It's my life.

Capturing the beauty of life is my hobby. And I never get tire of it. There are lots of beautiful things in this world that meet the eye but only few have the ability to appreciate them. I'm glad I'm of them.

It's six o'clock in the morning. I have to hurry up or I'll be left out. Why do they have to schedule the annual summer tour in such a date? I have lots of papers to accomplish and they're stacked about a foot high on my study table. That stout, bald, shabby man we call our dean really love to make things complicated. Good for him who's always sitting on his swivel chair, doing nothing other than signing papers. And he does have a logical choice. It's either he would sign those paper works after tainting out a large portion of the paper with an incredibly huge "REWRITE" red mark or throw them on to join his canopy of overlapping crumpled papers on the trash basket.

He doesn't have a thing with nerdy girls and guys, that's why I, like the other three in the University, always get the harsh treatment. We're almost faced-out. Our kind, that is. And he doesn't even give tribute to reconsider in order to preserve the nerdy specie of dedicated students.

Wait, I still have to wake up that pea-headed best friend of mine. He's one of my liabilities. Yeah. Liabilities. One of the thousands.

I barged in the room next to mine and fished for the spare key of his room. This is my house so I have keys to every other room. Besides, there are only three rooms in this house. One, occupied by me. Next is occupied by Minho. And the other one? Oh. It's a small guestroom.

Like what I expected, Choi Minho is still sound asleep. He covered his whole body with the comforter and a pillow is above his head. I bet he's already expecting me nagging him to no end. It's like his eyes are all glued that he can't even open them up if his hours of sleep is less than 15 hours.

A heavy sleeper, he is.

"Choi Minho! Wake up now! We only have forty-five minutes to prepare for the trip! Nine minutes and forty-eight seconds to brush your teeth, ten minutes and seventeen seconds to take a bath, six minutes and thirty-two seconds to dress up and that left us with eighteen minutes and thirty three something seconds to rush to school using your motorcycle if you're gonna run it in sixty miles per hour. We still have to minus my approximately five minutes of talking and computing on air here, so that left us with barely thirteen minutes and thirty three something seconds to rush to school using your motorcycle if you're gonna run it in sixty-three miles per hour on a semi-heavy traffic," I narrated while I kept my eyes piercing through the person curled in deep slumber under the cover of the striped black, white and blue comforter.

He doesn't seem perturbed at all! Oh that's it!

One.

Two.

Three!

I fluffed down next to him on the bed, causing the springs to bounce him off the bed. A loud thud created by my forty-nine kilogram figure echoed in the room, followed by a frustrated groan of a grumpy man.

"Jung Krystal!!!"

I laughed mightily and turned to reach the door. Unfortunately, he's faster than my 50 inches per second velocity and caught me by the waist, only to tickle me mercilessly.

I laughed hysterically, not knowing what to do. I tried to pull away but he wouldn't let go. "Hey! S-stop-p it-t!" I begged in between laughs.

"That's what you get for disturbing my sleep. I'm dreaming about my dream girl, do you know that? And you cut it out exactly on the scene when I'm about to kiss her!" he said, tickling me some more.

"S-stop! I-I'm sorry but... b-but we're gonna b-be... l-late!"

He stopped his actions and I was relieved. He asked, "For what?"

I rolled my eyes on him while trying to steady my breathing and said, "For the Annual Summer Tour you dummy!"

"Oh shoot!" his eyes widen as he looked at the clock and scrambled to the bathroom when he finally released me completely.

Yeah. He's always like that. And I'm used to it since he invaded the privacy of my domain two months ago. He got kicked out of the boy's dorm for not paying the bill for three consecutive months. His fault, you know? He bought a motorcycle with the money he's supposed to pay the dorm keeper.

But it's quite advantageous on my part. Apart from having company, I can also have a free lift to school.

-2-

"Good morning people! It's already seven sharp. Please hurry up and load yourselves and your belongings in," Professor Kang announced.

That was a relief. At least we arrived two-minutes before the departure time. I was seated next to Minho. He was kind enough to offer me the seat near the window. He knows that I love sceneries.

But he doesn't know that I love him too.

I don't know when it started but I can't be mistaken. I'm a nerd, yes. I have thick-rimmed spectacles, incredibly bad sense of humour, dark and dull hair. How would someone who's my total opposite fall for me? I don't even have that much charm. People pass by me as if they don't see me at all. They can only see me during examination weeks. Mind you, it's not because they needed a tutor. It's because they needed me to coach them the questions during examinations. Well, I got used to it somehow.

I don't even know how Choi Minho got interested in being friends with me. It's not that I don't like being friends with him, but I'm just curious. I get emotional at times too, you know. After all, I still consider myself human.

"Hey. I want to ask you something," I said as I look at him.

He looked at me and offered me a pillow, "You can ask me anything but not one of those trivia, again. Please."

I laughed at his reaction as I reached for the pink pillow. I hugged it tightly and burried my face in its softness. Well, he had anticipated it wrongly. Yes. I love asking him trivias to make use of the time. He would always make a face when I ask him those. Most of them are general knowledge, though. And we're only high school students so it's useful. Out of the hundreds of trivias I asked him, his right answers are just enough to fill the spaces between my fingers. Don't give me that face. He may be dumb when it comes to class but when it comes to real life, it's my turn to be dumb. And he's my tutor.

I smiled when I recalled the time when he thanked me for answering a question correctly. It was one of the trivias I asked him that happened to be the question he picked during our recitation.

"Don't worry. I don't want to spoil your mood today. After all, we're supposed to enjoy this trip," I assured him as I stare directly on his eyes.

He nodded in affirmation, "Yes. Truly. Now, about the question?"

I nodded in contemplation and thought about how I'm supposed to deliver the thought using the proper words. I have the tendency to get paranoid sometimes, "Do you even wonder how we became friends?"

He looked at me with mouth hanging open. I bet he hadn't expected me to ask such a question. After a while, I heard him laughing out loud.

I frowned in confusion. I never thought that it sounded more like a joke to him. I thought it was a solemn question. A sentimental one. "What is so funny?"

He shook his head helpessly. "Nothing but... what has gotten into you?"

I snorted in his face, "Is it an insult or a compliment?"

"Neither," came his short reply.

"Just answer the question already!" I demanded impatiently. He really have the tendency to annoy me when he doesn't understand me. I don't even know how we became the best of friends. Aside from our obviously huge difference in IQ level, we also have very different views about life. We have different hobbies. We have different interests. We have different goals.

I sighed when he succeeded in stilling his abnormal breathing. "Well, no I don't."

I felt a sudden surge of pain pinched my heart. I froze as I feel the pain radiate and intensify. It's like the feeling when salt is rubbed on your open wound. I frowned. I thought the heart has no pain receptors.

I unconciously rubbed my chest.

"Why?" I forced myself to ask as I tried to look directly at him. I felt like I'm the only one concerned about our friendship. Come to think of it. He doesn't even care how everything started!

"Because it's not even something needed to be dug in the first place! I'm contented about our friendship, okay? Why bother about the other details?" he told me frankly and boldly.

I don't understand. If something is important to you, you must take time in understanding how and why things happened the way the did so that you will be familiarized with every detail. "I don't get it. You're contented though you don't even know the whole thing in the first place?"

He nodded numbly and ped his bag to get some chips. He offered me one but I refused. "No thanks."

"By the way, that's a question that demands an explanation," I added, pertaining to my earlier statement. I know that he forgot about it once again.

He looked at me and said, "Why do you always wonder about the simplest of things?"

I looked at him grimly, "So our friendship is 'simplest' to you?"

He rolled his eyes and I scoffed loudly. "Jung Krystal! I should lend you some novels, you know?! You're too much of the scientific sense! Science can't explain everything," he told me.

I nodded understandingly. "Yeah, I know that. In fact I experienced one just now," I said as I looked outside the window.

"Really? What is it?" he asked nonchalantly.

"With the tone of your voice, it seems like you're not interested. You're just forcing yourself to ask me what it is so that you won't feel sleepy while traveling the five-hour ride up to the campsite, aren't you?"

His eyes immediately shot at me, wide in confusion. "You know, you really have the tendency to over analyze things. Just because I'm not looking at you when I said those words doesn't mean that I'm not interested," he countered.

I adjusted my spectacles, "Don't give me that. Do you remember our lesson two months and three days ago in English? Communication. How would you know if someone is interested in the topic? Of course he or she is looking at you intently."

His mouth twitched in a distorted angle and combed his hand on his messy-styled hair. "I was able to rebutt your views, you know? Tell me how I was able to do it if I wasn't listening all along?"

I raised a brow at him and my spectacles dropped to my nose, "I didn't say you weren't listening. I said you weren't interested. They're two different things, you know?"

He sighed. Defeated. I raised my spectacles again and smiled in triumph.

"Believe whatever you want to believe in. Just tell me what it is," he said.

"Fine. About ten minutes ago, I felt like something pinched my heart. I don't know. I thought the heart has no pain receptors?"

He looked at me intently, "Really? Your heart was hurt? Like it was broken?"

I nodded, contemplating the feeling once again.

"What?"

"It's normal. You're heart broken."

I frowned. "Heart broken?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Like you're hurt because someone said something that hurt you."

I frowned again, "What?"

He shrugged his shoulders at me.

"I thought hypothalamus is the one responsible for our emotions. Not our heart. If someone said something that hurt me, shouldn't it be my brain that would hurt?" I asked him innocently.

He rolled his eyes again and looked at me. He opened his mouth to say something but eventually shut it close and shook his head.

I frowned again and looked outside the window. I was missing the scenery! I hurriedly fished for my camera and took several shots.

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*P O S T N O T E S:

The mood of this story is a little lighter compared to Unforgettable memories and Rooftop. Unforgettable Memories is a little too tiring to make. Seriously. I have to rephrase the sentences every now and then to make them appear poetic. I'll be a little natural in this fanfiction. I'll make the words and sentences simpler than my other fanfictions. (:

Thank you to those who commented. I'm not really sure how to describe these characters. I do not know any drama they are into. I'm just doing this because I love the plot. Oh yeah. At least I tried, thank you very much. (:

[rossEureka]
082310|7:51,
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