Beautiful Stranger

Minho didn't think that there would come a time where he would be thinking about something else other than work, earn money, and survive. Currently living independently along with his roommate, Kim Jonghyun, every single day ever since he graduated there was nothing in his life except do his work and get through the day. Though working as a freelance photographer sometimes isn't as peachy as it seems to be - no employer to boss you around and you can do whatever you want - especially when you thought that you've done everything perfectly with no problems whatsoever until you came home hours later only to find that someone intruded one your shots and you will have to wait the next day to redo it again.

Well, that's what happened to him when he was taking pictures of everything he find appealing when a girl walked by his line of vision the second he clicked the shutter of his camera. The next thing he knew was that the girl's face and half of her body was perfectly centered on the screen, her eyes completely looking at him as though she deliberately walked right in front of him and just left without a word. He should've been mad, really. But as he stared at the girl's feature on his computer screen with the background and lighting blending in well enough, he didn't mind it at all. In fact, he thought it was perfect.

He tried to find her the next day, walking around the park once again taking pictures hoping that he might see her again through his camera lenses. Each time he saw someone who might be her - long straight hair wearing a flowy summer dress - he would take a picture of them. But once he sees their faces and it wasn't her, he would delete the pictures. Days have followed and he still hasn't found her - his perfect muse. He was becoming more and more frustrated each day as he began to believe that everything had just gone to waste, that that one perfect shot of her that day was nothing but an accident and that he will never find her because she was gone. A once in a lifetime encounter through the lens of his camera that will never happen again. Even so, Minho got the picture developed and kept it as a souvenir, framed and situated on his work table where he can see her everyday.

In the end, what we regret the most are the chances we never took, echoed his father's words just days before he passed away.

And he do regret letting her pass by and disappear from his life.

At first he thought that he was still dreaming, his muse never leaving him even when his mind was only half conscious and it had already been a week since then. But when sounds of his roommate's loud voice and laughter reached his ears his eyes flew open and a very irritated groan escaped his lips. He sat on his bed, scratched the back of head and trudged towards the door of his bedroom only to find his roommate happily chatting with two girls, the three of them sitting by the dining table drinking coffee. He can only see the girls' backs and he wondered who they are and just what was going on so early in the morning.

"You're quite the womanizer, aren't you?" One of girls asked Jonghyun - a girl with light brown hair curled perfectly behind her back - and Minho already caught on the flirty tone in her voice. She was facing Jonghyun who was seated at the end of the table and he was able to see her features, enough to know that she was beautiful and definitely his roommate's type of girl. "You're very good at complimenting women."

"Well, I do have experiences with women but I wouldn't call myself a womanizer," Jonghyun replied playfully and wasn't even trying to hide the fact the he really is interested towards the girl. "There's a difference, you see: a womanizer is someone who's in a relationship with more than one woman all at the same time. Then there are guys like me who's only goal is to find the right one even if takes dating girl after girl. Though I think right now I have found the right one..."

Before his roommate could even continue, Minho cleared his throat loud enough for all three to turn their attention to him. As soon Jonghyun looked at him, there was already a glare on his eyes causing the latter to flinch but nevertheless smile sheepishly. "Hey, man," he said as he made his way towards him and stood beside him. "We didn't mean to wake you up or anything but look! We have new neighbours and they're apartment is literally just across from ours. They just moved in last week and were only able to visit us today because they were unpacking until yesterday. You know how I am when we have new neighbours - hospitable and very neighbourly."

Then his gaze turned to the side where the girl with curly hair was looking at him apologetically, an embarrassed smile on her face. The two of them bowed once in greeting and the girl introduced herself. "Hello, I'm Kim Gwiboon. Nice to meet you."

Minho greeted back as casually as he could and when his gaze finally landed on the second girl, his eyes widened and he felt his heart stop. "You..." he muttered, his muse's photograph in his studio immediately entering his mind. He thought of getting it and compare the girl on the picture and the one looking at him but his mind was too busy arguing whether he was still dreaming or not, his whole body rigid.

"Hello, I'm Lee Eunsook," the second girl said as she stood up from her seat and bowed. Straight black hair that cascades past her shoulders. Loose white shirt that exposes her right shoulder and black denim shorts. His muse. Right in front of him in flesh.

"Do you have any idea how frustrated I was for days because I've been looking for you?" he blurted out, not caring that he sounded like a total psycho for saying something so blunt when it was just the first time they've met. Ignoring the other two people, he walked closer towards Eunsook and using his index finger he tapped her on the forehead causing the girl to blink before the corners of her lips curved into a smile. "You're real, aren't you? You're not made up of glossy paper like the one in my studio?"

Eunsook laughed at him and it was different from the reaction he was expecting - frightened, the impression of him being a psychopath stalker embedding in her mind as she ran off far away from where he is. "Yes, I am real and no, I'm not made up of glossy paper like the one in your studio. You're a funny guy, aren't you?"

The sound of her voice echoed in his ears, his brain still processing that he really wasn't talking to a piece of paper just like how he's been doing for the past few days asking the photograph the questions that's been swarming his mind. She was looking up at him as though she was looking at a statue, tilting her head from side to side. Eunsook raised her hand and copied what he had done to her, tapping him on the forehead and laughed to herself. But Minho can only stare at her, his eyes locked on her eyes - her real eyes - and he decided that she was even prettier compared to her picture. The one inside his studio was taken by accident, the sparkles in those eyes seeming fake compared to the sparkle at the pair he was staring at. And he knew that that picture was somehow useless now because the real deal was close to him.

He's found his muse.

It didn't take them that long to get along as though they've known each other for years. Each day that they were together, they got to know each other well enough for them to be comfortable with one another's company. When they found that they were opposites of one another, it didn't stop them from becoming close friends. Yin and Yang, sweet and bitter, the North Pole and the South Pole, that was how they described each other once during their friendly coffee-date. He was the serious type, doesn't talk very much, and rarely smiles. She, on the other hand, always have a smile on her face, a laugh escaping her lips that would ring in his ears like crystal bells each time he said something that wasn't even worth laughing at, and always talk in a cheerful manner.

Minho didn't think that someone so different from him could actually spend time with him without getting tired of his dull personality and leave him be. Well, he's thought that Eunsook was a bit strange even for someone like him who's probably the epitome of 'strange'. But he didn't mind her starting the conversation each time they were together, or her laughing at her own jokes where he can only crack a smile just so she would know that he was listening, or even make him open up about himself.

Turns out, she was a photography enthusiast just like him, taking pictures as her hobby and for her blog. The two of them would go on escapades carrying their cameras taking pictures of everything they see. Eunsook prefers capturing the beauty of nature and her surroundings, sometimes the bustling streets of the city filled with people and the ever-growing spread of modernization. He, on the other hand, prefers the reality of the present time, of men and working working just like him to get through the day with the hopes of living a good life in the near future. Even with their differences not just in personality or preferences, their passion for photography connected them together like puzzle pieces, that sole connection enough for them to feel that tug in their hearts making them almost inseparable.

"You don't talk much, do you?" she asked as they both look through the pictures they've taken one day, sitting inside the coffee shop they've been going to each time they were together which was every single day. Everything in hers was about the beauty of the world she's currently living in. In Minho's case, however, ever since that one picture that was still occupying space on his desk even when it is no longer needed, every picture was about her beauty. While she was busy doing her own thing, he couldn't help but turn the focus of his lenses towards her and take a shot of her in every single angle available.

"I prefer being silent," he said quietly, stopping at one image of her. In the picture, she was crouching down and aiming her camera towards a flock of pigeons feeding off the bread crumbs thrown by an old woman, her eyes sparkling with glee. Because I like listening to your voice when you talk, he added in his mind.

"Well, that's something you're not going to get from me," she joked, a hearty laugh escaping her lips. "I don't know if you haven't noticed it but I like talking and I can talk for hours without getting tired. It's like, I have a never-ending story that I wanted to tell to everyone. I just find everything amazing, you know? Like everything has a story behind them waiting to be told. It's probably very annoying to you, isn't it? It's okay if you are."

"No, I'm not. I just really don't have that much to say anyway I so just keep quiet. I guess you could say that I'm a very boring person. You're probably getting bored of me right now because I don't say anything."

"No, I'm not," she repeated, her tone defensive. She was looking at him in feigned shock, her eyes wide then grinned at him bashfully. "I like it, to be honest. I don't mind you being quiet. Did you know that people like you are the perfect examples of a good listener? You're quiet and serious and there are only two possibilities of what's going through your mind: 1.) you think I'm noisy so you've been wishing for me to shut up 2.) or you're listening to everything I say because you care."

"Which one do you think is the right one?" he asked, finally looking at her. Eunsook saw the seriousness in his eyes, different compared to the ones she's been seeing for the past few days. They were hard to read and all she could of think was how charismatic they seemed as though they were trying to read her mind.

She thought about it for a moment, pursing her lips and her brows furrowing a little. "Well, I do hope it's the second one," she admitted, her cheeks turning pink in embarrassment. "I mean, it would if this whole time you were never really paying any attention to me..."

Complete silence wafted between them and it was the first time ever since they met where Minho saw sadness on her face. She looked down on her hands that were on top of the table fiddling with her fingers. As subtly as he could, he aimed her camera at her and took a shot, causing her look up in shock. "Even when you're sad you still look beautiful," he said when he examined the newly taken photograph on his camera's screen. "Though I definitely prefer when there's a smile on your face. I like you more that way."

It wasn't a direct confession but Eunsook hoped that it had the same meaning she wanted it to be. She felt pleased as soon as the words left him, the blush on her cheeks deepening into darker shade of pink due to his simple compliment. It didn't take long when embarrassment and giddiness caused her to laugh as she covered with her hand, her eyes glistening with pure joy.

He noticed it soon after they began spending time together, that facial feature of hers that never failed to make his heart skip a beat and his breath caught at the back of his throat - her genuine smile that turns her eyes into crescents. He didn't want to waste that moment as again he had his camera poised, ready to capture another side of the girl he's completely fallen for. That time, Eunsook was able to prepare herself as she looked at the lenses, still laughing, and the shutter was clicked. With the amount of pictures he has of her alone, it was making it hard for him to choose which one was his favourite. And when he came home that night and checked the photographs he's taken, he knew he was ready to replace the picture on his desk with the one that he knew was proof that she, too, also felt the same for him.

When they finally started going out weeks later, his way of confessing his feelings towards her was still done in his quiet ways. He invited her over while his roommate was out with his new girlfriend - aka Kim Gwiboon, Eunsook's roommate - and even when there was only minutes left before she arrived he wondered if he made the right decision. His mind was still in the midst of arguing by itself while he was preparing everything - his thoughts disorganized yet his body already setting up the living room for the biggest event he's probably done in his life. By the time he was finished and his mind no longer a mess, the whole living room was decorated with pictures of just her clipped to a wool rope hanging throughout the room.

The whole room practically turned into an exhibit, showing off Lee Eunsook's different charms that from the very beginning caught his heart. Of course, if everything had to be perfect only the best of her pictures had to be used. Even the very first one he had of her was reprinted to a bigger size, taking up the center stage of the living room. When the time finally has come and he had to cover her eyes, Minho couldn't stop the nervousness he was feeling, his heart beating and tiny beads of sweat forming just above his brows and on his back. The room was lit with rose scented candles, and as they walk closer to his surprise she couldn't stop the fit of giggles escaping her lips each step they took.

"What's going on?" she asked, both curious and excited. She already had a feeling of what was going to happen but she didn't want to ruin it by saying it.

"Just a little bit more," he whispered and a shudder coursed through her body when she felt his breath breeze so close to her ear. Few more steps later they stopped and he finally dropped his hands on his sides.

Eunsook felt so many different things at once when she saw what was in front of her. One of them she knew immediately as loved. At each picture her gaze landed on, memories of the time they were taken immediately flooded her mind. She thought she was just imagining it when she caught him a few times aiming his camera towards her, and seeing her pictures - tons of them - surrounding her she felt touched. Her vision began to blur as tears formed, a choked laugh leaving her lips. She had so many words that she wanted to say but as she carefully looked at herself through the small pieces of glossy paper, there was no words appropriate enough to say what she was truly feeling. Each photo had a date at the bottom, including the largest one that placed on a stand as the oldest until the very recent one taken just days ago.

When she turned around and faced Minho, more of her tears rolled down from her eyes. Both of them were standing in silence except for the sound of crying, their eyes locked in a steady gaze. She didn't have to hear what he had to say because he's already said everything loud and clear through the pictures that were believed to contain a thousand words. And with numbers of pictures being shown to her, they were endless and so do his feelings for her. With her still unable to speak, Eunsook decided to say something back quietly as well. She closed the gap between them as she walked closer and kissed him, her hands wrapping themselves around his neck.

Words weren't needed at all because they knew that their feelings were already brought to the surface even if neither of them had said anything. Be it through their eyes or the lenses of their cameras, be it done silently or loudly, it didn't matter. All it needs is a pair of two hearts, undeniable feelings, and the courage to take chances. Minho thought that his chance was already gone as soon as it came that first day he first saw her face. And when Eunsook reappeared he taken as much as he can get until the very last one - the one where he won't have to fear of losing her once again.

The four of them switched places now that they are in a relationship. Jonghyun and Eunsook agreed to switch places and now he's living with Gwiboon and she with Minho. Of course, none of them were bothered with the change especially when they were all spending time with another practically every single day.

Minho and Eunsook, even when they're now living under the same roof, now prefer taking pictures of each other. Whenever and wherever even in the confines and privacy of their apartment, as long as they got the chance, they would take a photo of each other causing their apartment to be filled with each other's faces soon after. Through it they were able to see sides of another that neither of them have shown to other people, and she felt happy when finally she caught him smiling at her. There was pure love in his eyes as he looked at her, and after that one photo of him, she knew she didn't have to take another as a keepsake. Because she knew that even if her camera broke or even every single camera in the world ceased to exist, the look in his eyes will never fade.

She will always be his muse no matter what happens.

ohmygosh...

i'm sorry rachanaspare if this ... gaah!!

i hope you're not disappointed... >_<

i tried to make it fluffy, and minho as serious and quiet as i could, and eunsook as bubbly...

ohh.. i want to bury myself this is so embarrassing...