vi·gnette [/vinˈyet/] noun:
1. an unbordered picture, often a portrait, that shades off into the surrounding color at the edges
2. to describe in a brief way

The world felt significantly smaller to Hae Ri. It felt like being trapped in the most suffocating box. Like being in the middle of a field that stretched endlessly. Like being on top of the highest cliff about to fall. It felt as if all of her senses were being attacked at once, leaving her dizzy and disoriented. Where was she? On campus? In town? Why couldn't she push her thoughts aside and think clearly for a change? As much as she wanted to stop worrying over a camera, she found that it was an obsession in her thoughts. Where is was, how YoonGi or Hoseok were treating it, if they were treating it with care or not. It was a constant thought that she couldn't knock out of her cranium. 

And yet it was as if her head was empty. She was seeing everything in front of her, the vivid colors of the tree leaves and the drying grass growing at the edge of the pavement signaling winter. She was hearing the wind whistling through the trees and the soft chatter of students coming from their dormitory buildings and their shoes scuffing the concrete on their way to class or the cafeteria. It was as if the world had turned up its volume or Hae Ri's hearing grew better over night. With out her camera things felt strange and unfamiliar, like it was her first day as a freshman on campus.

Her eyes looked down to her hands to find them trembling with a mixture of anxiety and her deteriorating nerves. Getting all worked up over a camera she could easily replace… What was she thinking? A girl her age clinging to a piece of machinery like an infant to its pacifier, a toddler to its blanket… Someday she would have to let such a thing go, just like children. Was this a sign telling her it was time… to let everything go?

“Hae Ri, this is appa’s camera.” A tall man smiled down at a much younger Hae Ri, his hand petting her long straight hair, his other on a rather large looking camera in Hae Ri’s young eyes.

“I know that!” Hae Ri giggled, revealing a block where her front teeth were missing.

“Appa has made a lot of special memories with this camera, and when appa isn’t around, Hae Ri will make special memories with it too.” His fingers brushed over the dusty metal and plastic. Hae Ri’s eyes grew wide at the thought of holding the same camera in her hands one day. Would it be cold, or hot? Would the shutter make the same soothing click noise like it did for her father?

“Impossible!” Hae Ri shouted, crossing her arms, “Appa won’t be going anywhere! I’ll just have to buy my own someday!”

“That’s true, appa will be with Hae Ri and umma for a very long time… You’ll have to get your own!” He teased, ruffling her hair into a large nest on her head. Hae Ri kicked her feet against the side of the bed in protest, yelling for umma to come yell at her father for teasing her.

“Hae Ri, you’ll take care of this for me someday right? You can never sell it or misplace it, okay? Promise?” Her father stuck out his pinky and thumb.

“I promise!” Hae Ri giggled, wrapping her tiny pinky around her fathers and stamping their thumbs together, “I will take good care of it for appa when he’s old and wrinkly!”

 Hae Ri’s mouth felt dry, recalling such a thing at a time like this… It brought tears to her eyes and a nauseous cloud swirl in her stomach. No, that camera was never going to be something she simply ‘grew out of’. It was her last and only connection to people that are no longer here for her… Already her memory faded of what they looked like… All she had were the descriptions that her grandfather offered her. The tears kept welling, blocking her vision completely before they finally spilled. Something in her chest tightened and expanded with a bang; like an explosion had gone off in her chest and she ran.

Her tears glided off her face in the wind as she ran to who knows where. All she knew was running as of lately, running from the world, running from problems, running from a past that would forever haunt her. The students out on campus looked at the strange girl running, who would be running this early in the morning after all? But thinking nothing of it, they turned a blind eye just as Hae Ri knew they would. The invisible girl that she worked so hard to build was paying off. Without warning, Hae Ri’s combat boot skidding against the pavement, causing her ankle to swing over and hook under her other foot and down she came onto cold hard concrete.

Her eyes opened to a white ceiling, a deafening ringing in her ears. Where was she? How did she get here? A dull pain pulsed in her head; like a band was slowly squeezing her brain and then expanding just to skrink back again. Her head felt as heavy as a bowling ball, and all she could manage was to let it fall onto the pillow to see a boy in a grey white sweatshirt sitting at the nurses desk speaking with an older woman in a nurses gown… So she had ended up in the infirmary. The boy talked rather quickly, his left leg bouncing nervously. Hae Ri’s eyes scanned him, he had a dark complexion and a short black Mohawk with small eyes and thick lips. As he spoke his eyes were rather expressive, was he concerned about something…?

“I saw her jogging or something and she just tripped over her own two feet…! There was a lot of blood for a simple scrape on the forehead…” He shivered, shaken by whatever he was describing.

 Hae Ri’s eyelids felt heavy, staring at the stark white room made the pain even worse… Before she knew it she had slipped back into slumber.

This time when she opened her eyes, the boy was gone and mix of warm colors came in through the windows bathing the white room in yellows and oranges. The pain in her head seemed to dull down a bit more to a tolerable level, if she was going to leave she might as well try now… Something made butterflies bloom in her stomach, a suffocating feeling grabbed her heart and lungs and made breathing a bit difficult for her, once again she fell prey to her forgetfulness.The infirmary was so quiet she could hear the humidifier humming and the sound of the heater running as well, the nurse must have stepped out for a moment. Deep down she was afraid that if the nurse came back while she was still here, she would be attacked with a million questions like last time... And they were all simple ones too that often bothered Hae Ri, but they had their reasons to be sure... It was just best if she managed to escape now.

With a little extra effort she managed to get to her feet and stand but the room seemed to spin and swirl in different directions. Maybe if she focused enough she would able to control the dizzy spells until she was able to make it back to her dorm. Right foot left foot right foot left foot… Each footstep seemed difficult to her, like she was learning to walk all over again. A stabbing pain rushed to her forehead again and her fingers came up to touch the tender spot only to feel something wet and rough.

“Hm…?” When she pulled her hand back to check her fingers it seemed that a red liquid had stained her finger tips, “Was the fall really that bad…?” She sighed, the sight of blood nothing to her. There was no time to worry about the blood, all that mattered was getting back to the dorm at this point... But just like always, the feeling of forgetting something important never left Hae Ri's mind.

Hae Ri reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out her dorm room key and sighed as the lock clicked on the other side. The trip from the infirmary to her room felt like an eternity and the pain in her head had worsened drastically to the point where she could feel bile crawling up from the pain. Curse not only her forgetfulness... But her clumbsy habits as well, and at the worst of times of trip and fall, she had missed her entire school day.

When Hae Ri stepped through the door she was greeted by Stephanie stretching on the floor near their loveseat, probably getting ready to practice her dancing. Her eyes looked up at Hae Ri's face and her jaw fell open, her eyes round in shock. 

"Yah! Where did you come from? The grave!?" Stephanie shrieked, taking in her roommates unusual white complexion and deep red bandage on her forehead, "What did you do this time to gain that?"

"I-I fell..." Hae Ri muttered, never taking her eyes off the floor, "Are you feeling better from this morning...?" She asked, remembering her sick appearance. Looking at her now the color had returned to her face and she had on a fresh layer of makeup with her hair wrapped neatly into a ponytail. This was the Stephanie that she was used to, and it made her happy that she had recovered well.

"Who are you to worry about me? Have you seen your face?" Stephanie huffed, jumping up from the floor and running into the bathroom. A few minutes later she came back out with a white plastic box, "Move it, go sit at the desk." She threw her head in the direction of Hae Ri's desk chair...

Hae Ri's eyes grew wide, was Stephanie actually trying to care? More butterflies bounced around in Hae Ri's stomach, a feeling of exstacy hit her... Was this happiness? She wanted to smile, so badly to show how much she appreciated what Stephanie was trying to do... but it was like the corners of her lips wouldn't curl up, her lips wouldn't move... Like an obediant puppy Hae Ri rushed to her desk and plopped down in its swivel chair watching Stephanie set the box down and open it to show all kinds of ointments and bandages.

"You're lucky I'm not afraid of blood." Stephanie boasted, peeling the soiled bandage from Hae Ri's hair line, "Yick... Who gave this bandage to you? Look at that damage... You'll be lucky if it doesn't leave you a scar!" She stuck her tongue out in disgust but Hae Ri couldn't hear her. She was too fixed into the moment that she thought would never happen... Stephanie actually caring about her... Tears came to her eyes, but they weren't her usual tears of frustration and sorrow... Yes. She was certainly happy. 

After a few more minutes of cleaning her wound and dressing it with a fresh chunk of gauze, Stephanie went to the bathroom to shower for the night. For a while... Hae Ri couldn't move from the chair, still in awe of what had happened. Never in a million years would she expect to walk through the door and have Stephanie take care of her. These things have happened before and from what she remembered, Stephanie either ignored it or cracked a joke at her misfortune... It's something Stephanie was good at. Her eyes swiveled around the room, trying to blink away the tears still there in her eyes.

A patchwork bag sat on her bed.

Hae Ri's eyes nearly popped from her skull, her bag had been re her bed. Immediately she jumped out of the chair, hit with an overwhelming dizzy spell she fell to the ground like an idiot. Taken over by shock she could only crawl to her bed as the spinning room didn't seem to want to stop. It was back, her bag was back... Did YoonGi return it? Maybe Hoseok? The tears that pooled in her eyes now fell, but her camera... Was her camera in it? Was it broken? She didn't even want to attempt looking. 

She pulled herself onto her bed and grabbed her bag, feeling the camera inside it. It was now or never Hae Ri... Her heart felt like it would burst, she prayed that everything would be okay. As soon as she felt the camera in her bag it was like luke-warm water was poured over her head, cleansing her completely. All her anixety went away, the pain in her forehead stopped, the tears in her eyes dried. It was like the world had expanded back to its normal size. The box opened up to reveal a bright blue sky, civilization came into few on the field, the edge of the cliff became a step down. All seemed right again, she felt like she could breath in all the pure air her lungs could possibly hold. 

Her hands grabbed the bottom off her bag and turned it over, everything of hers tumbling out, her wallet and phone and her sweet, sweet camera. As soon as she touched its cool metal she felt warm and safe and a smile spread across her lips, it was a wonderful feeling to be reuinited. It felt like a millenium had passed since it was last in her small hands, her fingers twisted off the lens cap to check if everything was all right with it when a small piece of folded paper tumbled out and landed in her lap.

She didn't remember hiding a note in there, but then again, when did she remember anything...? After checking the camera first to find nothing had harmed it and no straches or cracks, she hesitated to grab the piece of notebook paper. But she couldn't deny she was curious about it's sender. Her slim fingers unfolded and unfolded and unfolded some more, who could fold paper this many times and still fit it in the slim space between her lens and camera lens cover? Finally she managed to open it and read the long of hangul. 

I'm sorry.

-Min YoonGi

Hae Ri's breathing seemed to stop for a moment before something happened. A smile graced her face, not a small one... But a rather large grin, baring her straight white teeth. The same feeling from when Stephanie took care of her washed over her again like a wave, a feeling of 'happiness'. Her fingers tightened on the piece of notebook paper, crinkling its edges roughly. Plop plop... Tears had fallen onto the page, creating small circles rimmed with blue ink from the paper.

It was the first time in her entire life anyone ever apologized for hurting her.