Luhan sighs, banging his head on the steering wheel. Here he was, first day on his vacation in California, stuck in traffic due to a line-up of fire trucks.

He doesn’t know what’s worse, knowing the fact that he was just cut off by one of the trucks, keeping him within twenty five yards of the truck and the headache inducing siren, or the fact that he had been that lose, that close, to avoiding the jam behind the trucks in the first place.

He bangs his head a few more times, the last one hitting the car horn, the sound nearly jerking him from his own pool of self-pity.

Luhan’s a professional photographer—and a good one too. Though his talent is clear, there’s simply no market for photographers like him anymore, especially with the fact that technology has pretty much taken over occupations similar to his.

He graduated from the New York Film Academy with high honors and had been in New York City job hunting.

He mostly found side jobs completely unrelated to photography to earn a living, but he did manage to sell shots to the newspaper every once in a while.

Luhan had given himself a temporary hiatus from the New York life to come out to California, drawn by the Yosemite National Park. With the scrap savings he managed to collect over a few years, he finally managed to meet his monetary goal.

Yet, he definitely didn’t expect to be stuck like this in traffic.

When the trucks first pulled in and he was first stopped, it seemed to take ages for the fire fighters to even get in the smoking building, though it was really only a matter of seconds—it’s safe to say that Luhan’s not exactly the most patient person.

Luhan’s boredom and despair behind the steering wheel was short lived, because the ever increasing brightness of the flames made him bite his lip in worry. It was unfathomable to the doe-eyed boy; how could anyone want to ever do such a dangerous job for a living?

But his eyes sparkled watching the men work so professionally as a single unit, with every component and piece functioning without a single flaw.

Without even thinking, his camera—a very expensive Nikon D4—was in his hands.

He rolled his windows down, despite the strong smell of smoke in the air, and did as his instincts told him to.

Shot after shot was taken, with every last frame just as, if not more, impressive than the last. Perfect images of hardworking men putting their lives on the line, flawless snapshots of heroes in action filled Luhan’s memory card.

The college graduate only realized how long he’d been photographing by the honk of the police car urging him to drive forward once the three red trucks had gone and disappeared.

Luhan’s caught in a brief daze, wondering why he hadn’t realized the beauty of fire fighters earlier, and he mentally keeps that note to himself as he drives alone, making a U-turn to head back to his hotel.

Though the shots weren’t what he was looking for in the first place, he was more than pleased with his work that day.

***

Sehun’s surprised to see Minseok and Jongdae back at the station so soon. It’s been less than 24 hours since he’s last sent them off with the paperwork, and now they’re back, with completed forms in hand.

“Aren’t you two a bit early?” Sehun raises an eyebrow because the training technically starts late July, but school’s not even out yet and he knows for a fact that Minseok and Jongdae are high school seniors.

Minseok’s about to speak, but Jongdae slaps a hand over his mouth, talking instead.

“Minseok’s grades are high enough for him to end with a solid 4.6 GPA without even taking finals, and I’m going to show up for finals to make up for my ty homework and attendance grades.”

Minseok pushes the hand away from his mouth with much difficulty, needing to resort to his friend’s palm in order to get free.

“I can’t believe you’re banking on finals,” Minseok groans, turning towards Jongdae, “I know you somehow ace all your tests and get higher grades than most kids without even trying, let alone doing your homework, but seriously? I swear, if you bomb finals I’m not going to let you live this do-“

“So, will you accept our applications?” Jongdae speaks; hand over Minseok’s mouth again to stop his rambling.

Luckily, the question brings Minseok back to their initial purpose, and the boy nods, eyes brightening.

Sehun can only shrug because, it’s their lives, not his, and because he really doesn’t have the heart to reject them. After all, it was only a few  years ago that he was in their shoes, a graduating high school senior striving to join the fire academy as soon as possible.

“Accepted,” is all Sehun says before taking the papers into his own hands. He figures some extra training for these boys could really do no harm.

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning, 6 AM sharp.”

Jongin and Chanyeol have been watching as Sehun heads to the office, and they chuckle at the scene.

“God, that’s even earlier than school!”

“Shut up, Jongdae. You chose to do this!”

“Ow! No need to hit me!”

Jongdae’s rubbing his head with an exaggerated pout on his lips as Minseok rolls his eyes, pushing his friend along, away from the station and towards town.

“Hey, Jongin, he reminds me of you.”

“Shut up. I wasn’t that whiny.”

“Right…” Chanyeol sarcastically retorts before yelping, clutching the back of his head.

“Hey! I’m telling Kyungsoo!”