He scooted to the edge of the couch, leaned toward Jiyong and whispered, “But nothing will leave this room, got it?”

“Yes, now let’s get to work.” Jiyong said as he hopped up from his chair and grabbed his camera.

“I just want you to get comfortable with talking to me while I snap a couple photo’s, so let’s start with some of the basics.”

Vick sat on the couch, astounded at how quickly this man changed personalities. He went from shy guy on the street, to a demanding professional, to someone who seemed to care about him. It was kind of overwhelming but he decided to put it in the back of his mind and get on with the shoot. Getting up off the couch he looked over at Jiyong, who was standing underneath a light, changing settings on his camera. Vick stared at the shadows that played across the young man’s face. Taking his distraction, he used it as an opportunity to study his features.

Jiyong was slightly above average height. He had a solid build, not overly so, just defined. His hair was a light blonde color that stood up, away from his eyes. As he continued to stare at his face, he saw how concentrated Jiyong was, and he felt something at the edge of his mind. Like he had seen him make this face before, but how could he, he only just met him 2 hours ago.

There was just something about him that seemed familiar.

Jiyong finished setting his camera and turned to find Vick staring at him. He thought it was out of nervousness so he said, “It’s ok, relax. Let’s just start from the beginning.” He brought the camera up and started clicking.

Vick broke out of his thoughts and asked, “Where do you want me to stand?”

“Right there is fine, just doing some test shots.”

Vick stood still not knowing what to do as Jiyong took pictures and messed with his camera some more. Then Jiyong finally asked, “So, what’s your name?”

Vicks eyebrows furrowed when he heard the question and replied, “Um, you should know that? Why are you asking?”

“Just go with it,” Jiyong said as he moved to the left.

Still having no idea really what was going on he said, “Ok… My name is Vick.”

“Surely that can’t be your real name, right? What’s your real name?”

“Only my family and a select few at my company know that.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I have problems with my family and I don’t want to be associated with them anymore. So my company agreed that I could use a stage name.”

Vick’s stance started to tense up, so Jiyong put that information into the back of his head as something to bring up later. He changed the subject and continued with,

“Ok. What is your favorite color?”

Vick relaxed a little, glad that he didn’t push the name thing further and answered with a smile on his face, “Pink actually.”

Jiyong was happy to see Vick loosening up a bit and gave a little laugh at his response.

“Well that wasn’t the answer I was expecting. What did you do for fun in high school,” he asked as he moved to the right.

Vick smiled at the thought of high school. He was such a crazy and angst ridden teenager, as most are. He thought back to all the crazy stuff he did in high school and how it was around that time he got scouted as a model, which was really his first job.

When Jiyong noticed Vick smiling to himself, he started taking as many pictures as he could. Glad to be finally getting real emotions out of him. He could tell that Vick was starting to feel more comfortable, so he quickly asked a follow up question, “You were the popular kid in high school, weren’t you?”

Vick laughed at that.

Jiyong’s stomach did a little flip at the sound of his laugh. Unlike how their initial meeting had turned out, Vicks laughter was so soft and warm. He was beginning to think that Vicks real personality was something completely different then what he showed to people.

Vick cleared his throat and answered the question, “I was actually the quiet kid in high school.”

“You? Quiet?”

“Yeah, I know. But really, I was the guy who all the girls thought was hot just because I was ‘mysterious’. All the guys in the school hated me cause all the girls liked me, so there wasn’t much friendship going my way. But that was only the last year of high school. Before that…” He let the sentence run off and shook his head not really wanting to continue. He wanted to get away from that topic, so to switch things up he asked Jiyong a question, “What’s your story? Daesung told me you were from America, but when I saw you, you weren’t anything like I pictured.”

Jiyong was taken off guard for a minute and stopped shooting. Since Vick was opening up to him, he thought it would be best to talk about himself as well. He looked down changing a setting on his camera and said, “I was born in the states, but when I was around 8 I moved here for a couple years. Then some family stuff happened and I had to move back to the states when I was 12, almost 13.”

“What made you come back again?”

“I don’t know really. I mean I had job offers and shoots that I did when I first came back. But I think I just missed this place. I guess I was like you in high school too, I was the quite kid with no friends. But when I was little I did have one friend, he lived here. Suwon, I think, that’s where I lived when I was in middle school.”

Both of them gazed at each other for a minute. Jiyongs stomach did a little flip again, so he fiddled with his camera, shying away from Vicks intense stare. He regained composure and got back to the photo shoot. He brought the camera back up to face and asked his next question, “So you said something about how high school was different from your last year there, how so?

Vick realized that this was probably where Jiyong would start to ask him more personal questions, so he sighed and reluctantly explained more about his past.

“Well, my first years of high school were hell at home. My parents divorced when I was in middle school and both of them remarried in those first 2 years.”

After he said that, Jiyong saw something in Vicks’ eyes he’d been looking for the entire shoot.

Vulnerability.

In mere seconds this grown man looked like he was a small little boy, and his heart started to ache. With this kind of reaction to this topic, Jiyong knew he had found what he needed to break Vick down emotionally. He snapped his camera multiple times, stopped to review the shots, and then looked at Vick saying,

“I think this photo shoot is going to turn out different than either of us imagined.”

Jiyong waited for Vick to say something, but he never did. He took the opportunity and continued with, “OK so now that you know how this one’s session works, and you seem more comfortable, I going to start asking you difficult questions. Please don’t hold back your emotions. Just let whatever you feel come out. Because I promise you, from what I’ve seen so far you have a lot of potential. All you have to do is let go.”

Vick stared at him. Studying him for the 2^nd time that day, but this time he focused just on his face. He looked at the young man’s full lips, then onto his high cheek bones and how they drew his attention to his dark eyebrows.

Then he looked Jiyong in the eyes.

He felt that feeling again, like he should be remembering something, but he couldn’t. His heart started beating faster. His hands became clammy, his throat dry. But for some reason, something deep down was telling him that he could trust Jiyong.

He took a deep breath and said, “What do you want to know?”