~1 Year Later~

“Myungsoo, stop taking pictures of us,” Sunggyu said with an annoyed expression.

“Are you seriously saying that to a photography major?” Myungsoo asked back with a raised eyebrow. “If a photographer doesn’t take pictures then how do you expect him to eat?”

“Then take pictures of skyscrapers or something,” Sunggyu argued.

“But the project this time is to take pictures of people. And I repeat, people,” he said. “Do you want me to fail or something?”

“C’mon old man, just let the guy take some pictures of us. You don’t want him to fail and end up barely scraping by, do you?” Woohyun said as he slung an arm around Sunggyu.

Sunggyu scowled. “He’s rich anyways, who cares?”

Click

“Beautiful expressions, you two,” Myungsoo said. “Now Sunggyu, maybe you can deepen the scowl a bit more and Woohyun can smile a little brighter for there to be contrast between you two.”

“I told you not to take pictures of me,” Sunggyu said, feeling more annoyed.

“Stop being so grumpy,” Sungjong said. “It’s not like it’ll kill you just to take one picture.”

“Yeah, help the guy out,” Hoya agreed.

“Also, if it makes you feel any better, you are quite photogenic and you barely have any bad angles,” Myungsoo said to Sunggyu.

Sunggyu stared at him for a moment before his lips tugged up into a smile. “Really?”

Myungsoo nodded back. “Yup.”

“Then I guess a few pictures wouldn’t be so bad,” he said. He then started doing a few poses while Myungsoo continued to take pictures of him.

“Hey, are you serious about him being photogenic?” Sungyeol asked him in whisper.

“No, but that was the only way for me to take pictures without having him being all grumpy about it,” Myungsoo answered.

“Smart,” Sungyeol said in return.

“Hey, guys! I think that my dinosaur imitation is nearly perfect now,” Dongwoo said as he ran up to them.

“Your class ended already?” Woohyun questioned.

“Yup,” Dongwoo replied with a nod.

“And why do you want to show your dinosaur impersonation to us?” Sungjong asked.

“Because dinosaurs are cool,” Dongwoo answered, placing his bag on a chair. “Now get ready, cause this will be the best thing you’ll ever see.” He started doing his impersonation and everyone sighed.

Sunggyu massaged his temple. “Dongwoo, I’ve seen things way cooler than this,” he said.

“Are you sure? Cause my impersonation was spot on. A hunter might actually come in and think that I’m a dinosaur before shooting a tranquilizer at me,” Dongwoo said.

Sunggyu let out a breath of air. “I don’t even know why I hang out with you guys,” he muttered.

“Sunggyu, that was exactly what I was looking for! Now can you try to look a little bit more tired and annoyed,” Myungsoo asked him, snapping away with his camera.

Sunggyu squinted his eyes and used his hand to shield the flashes of light coming from the camera. “Can you please stop? You’re hurting my eyes!” he complained.

“This is genius, Sunggyu! You look absolutely annoyed now. Keep it up!” Myungsoo said, continuing to take pictures of him.

“If you keep taking pictures of me then I’ll freaking smash that camera of yours.”

Myungsoo gasped. “How can you say that?” he asked. “Oh, wait a minute; I see what you’re doing. You’re saying that since you want to buy me a new camera, don’t you?”

Sunggyu narrowed his eyes at him. “How in the world did you come up with that conclusion?”

“Don’t be shy. If you wanted to buy me a new camera then you should just man up and say so. Why do you have to beat around the bush like an old grandpa?”

Sunggyu glared at him. “You know what, that’s it. I’ve had it with you guys.” He grabbed his backpack and stood up. “I don’t understand why I hang out with you guys when you don’t even appreciate me and my presence!”

He was ready to storm out of the place when Sungyeol spoke up. “Wait! Sunggyu don’t go!”

Sunggyu stopped and turned around, feeling slightly happy that someone tried to stop him. “You forgot to pay for our snacks,” Sungyeol continued.

Sunggyu felt like his head was about to explode from Sungyeol’s statement. “Here,” he said, roughly taking money out of his wallet and slamming it onto the table. “Is that it? Do you want me to do anything else for you?”

“Actually, you did say that you would buy me a new camera…”

Sunggyu glared at Myungsoo. “I’m not buying you that camera,” he said before finally storming off, muttering incoherent words.

“Well, it looks like we did it again,” Hoya said.

“Yeah,” Sungjong replied, holding back a laugh. “But he’ll be fine by tomorrow after going to a bathhouse. He always goes to a bathhouse when we annoy him this much.”

“I kind of hope that he’ll buy me a new camera though,” Myungsoo said.

“What’s the point of him buying you a new camera? You wouldn’t use it anyway,” Sungyeol stated. “That camera right there is practically your greatest treasure. You won’t replace it with anything.”

He took a sip from his coffee as Woohyun agreed with a nod of his head. “But who could blame him? The camera was given to him by someone very special,” Woohyun said.

“That’s true,” Myungsoo said in return. “This camera is very special to me. She… gave it to me after all.” He then stared down at his camera, a sad smile present on his face.

“Flowers? Really? What in the world was he thinking?” Myungsoo said while walking.

“’A person or people that compliments a flower when in a picture with one. Tip: think of their interaction with the flower,’” he read off of the paper that the professor handed to the class.

When he had first heard of the theme of this assignment, he wasn’t that stressed since the theme was ‘people’ and he had 6 friends who were somewhat willing to pose and be in pictures for him—especially Woohyun, who always ends up hogging the camera. But now he was stressed with the last part of the people themed project.

In his head, he couldn’t think of any ideas that would be able to fit this and actually come out looking like a nice picture. His friends this time also didn’t want to help him since they were busy themselves, but without them how in the world would he be able to complete this project? He needed at least one person in the picture after all.

“Man, I should’ve just done this part yesterday when they weren’t busy, so that I would be done with it already,” he said with a sigh. He then stuffed the paper back into his backpack before looking up and scanning the scenery for some ideas.

“Where in the world am I going to find a model to help me with this picture?” he asked himself. “Should I just go up to a stranger and say, ‘Hey, do you want to help me with a school project? All you have to do is to pose next to some flowers while I take some pictures, but it has to be natural looking so be natural. And I promise that I’ll make you look nice.’”

He thought about it before shaking his head. “No, that’s a bad idea. Who would actually say yes to that?”

He let another sigh as he continued walking. He then arrived at the park where he believed would be the best place to take these pictures since the flowers were in bloom at the time, and the park had the largest amount of flowers that were in bloom. When he entered, he thought that it was quite fortunate for him to decide to go there that day since there were more people there than usual.

“Good, at least now I have a lot of people to choose from. I’ll just hope that they’ll say yes if I ask them to be in my picture,” he muttered as he looked around.

He scanned the area for some time, but wasn’t able to find anyone that caught his eye. He then let out another sigh. “I’m screwed,” he muttered as he ruffled his hair in frustration. “Maybe I should just take some random pictures of flowers and turn them in. I might just be able to get a C on it for effort or something… hopefully.”

Feeling a little dejected, he started towards a garden of flowers and decided to try to take some pictures for the time being to give him some ideas. When he got there though, he saw a figure standing in front of the flowers, the person’s back facing him. Judging from the long hair and feminine looking back profile, he concluded that the person was most likely a woman.

He then saw her bending down into a crouch, her hand reaching out to lightly poke the flower petal with her finger. He didn’t see what she looked like from the front and could barely see the side of her face since her long hair was covering it, but she had completely caught his attention from her simple actions.

*She’s the one…* he thought. To him, he thought that she was perfect for his project. She complimented the flowers perfectly well, and it didn’t seem like she would overpower the flowers in a picture at all.  

He took a deep breath and started walking over to her. “Ahem… um… excuse me,” he said. “Do you want to help me with a school project? All you have to do is to pose next to some flowers while I take pictures of you, but it has to look natural looking so… um… be natural. I’ll also promise that you’ll look nice in the pictures when I’m done.”

He in another large amount of air and held his breath for a few seconds. He couldn’t believe that he actually did what he told himself before was a bad idea, but he had already done it so there was no turning back now. He just hoped that the girl wouldn’t think that he was weird or something and look at him with a weird face before walking off.

He waited for the girl to answer him, hoping that he didn’t scare her off. The girl though, wasn’t moving even an inch. In fact, it seemed as if she had frozen up. “Um… sorry, but um… did I creep you out or something?” he asked her. “I know that it’s weird for a stranger to suddenly come up and ask you this, but I promise that I’m not a creep who wants to take pictures of pretty girls or anything.”

“But I’m not saying that you’re pretty!” he blurted, thinking that his previous sentence might’ve weirded her out some more. “I’m just assuming that you’re pretty considering how nice you looked when you were interacting with the flowers.”

He then widened his eyes at what he said. “But I’m not saying that I was watching you this whole time or anything. I just happened to lay eyes on you when I was looking for someone to help me with this assignment,” he frantically explained. “I promise that I wasn’t being a creep and watching you without you knowing, and that I just needed help on this.”

He stood still and hoped that he explained his situation to her in a way that would make her have a better image of him, but for some reason he felt as if he had only dug a deeper hole for himself.

All of a sudden, he could hear the girl holding back a laugh, but failing as a few giggles slipped out of mouth. “Okay, I’ll help,” she finally said, but in a rather unnaturally low voice.

“Um… thanks,” he said, thinking that her voice sounded weird.

He had heard some girls with low voices before, but this girl’s low voice sounded really weird. But at the same time he was probably only thinking that it was weird since he didn’t expect for this girl to have such a low voice based on the way she looked from where he was standing.

“So do you have a girlfriend?” she suddenly asked him, still in that low voice that he couldn’t quite get used to.

“Um… no,” he answered. “Why are you asking?”

“I just think that you’re kind of cute,” she stated.

He took some time to register what she said before smiling arrogantly. “Well, a lot of girls on campus also think that I’m cute,” he admitted. “I’m actually considered as the school’s heartthrob, even though I’m kind of new to the school. There are also some upperclassmen in the college who try to ask me out on dates along with some other girls from other colleges.”

He then rubbed the back of his nape. “I’m not bragging or anything, but I rejected all of them since I wasn’t interested,” he continued.

He heard her quietly laughing again, but this time it seemed like she was muttering something to herself that sounded a lot like ‘he’s as arrogant as always.’

“So, if I asked you out right now, would you accept me?” she asked him.

He shook his head even though she couldn’t see it. “No, I would reject you also,” he said in a blunt manner. “I’m not really looking for a relationship right now, so sorry but I have to reject you.”

He then remembered that she had just accepted to be in his pictures, but realized that what he had said to her would most likely make her change her mind. “But please don’t take this to heart. I bet that you are a very beautiful girl and that you could do way better than me,” he said, trying to make her feel better. “So… are you still going to help me with the pictures?”

The girl let out a breath of air before standing up. “I’ll still help you with it,” she said. “But it’s a shame; I kind of wanted to go out with you or at least have a drink with you at a café or something.”

She then turned around and he instantly widened his eyes at the sight of her face, giving him the shock of his life. He was so shocked that he nearly dropped his camera onto the ground, but fortunately caught it before it could make contact with the hard surface.

“Y-Yoomi…”

“Oh, you already know my name,” she said, her voice returning to her normal tone. “It also happens that I know yours too, Kim Myungsoo.”

He continued staring at her, so many thoughts and feelings were going through him that he didn’t know what to do but to just stand there, dumbstruck.

“But this really . I really wanted to go on a date with you, but since you aren’t interesting in having a relationship right now, I guess that I’ll just have to accept being rejected.” She then held out a hand, offering a hand shake. “But let’s be good partners for this assignment of yours. I’ll try my best to do the poses so—“

She stopped what she was saying when Myungsoo closed the distance between them and brought his arms around her, holding her tightly against him. It had all taken place under a second, which didn’t give her much time to react to it.

“Idiot!” he shouted. “Why did you come back now?! A year ago I thought that you left for good, but why did you come back with me thinking that you’re leaving forever? For a whole year I was devastated, but I still tried to get over you. But if you were going to come back then you should’ve told me! Why did you have to make me wait for a year? You have a time machine for pete’s sake!

Yoomi didn’t say anything at first as she brought her arms up and wrapped them around his waist. “I’m sorry,” was all that she could manage to say.

He buried his face into her long hair, and held her tighter to him. “You’re such a bad person,” he mumbled.

She let out a small laugh. “I know.” She then started to gently pat his back.

“But the good news is that I’m staying for good,” she said. “It was actually my dad’s idea. He told me to go back to you since… well, you know.”

He shook his head, not knowing what she was talking about. “No, I don’t know,” he said in reply. “Why did you come back to me?”

She blushed and was thankful that he wasn’t able to see her face at the moment. “Well… because I… love you.”

After hearing what she said, he felt as if his heart was about to burst from all of the overwhelmingly happy emotions that he was feeling. It had been forever since he had last heard her voice, not to mention the words ‘I love you,’ and nothing could describe what he was feeling at the moment.

I didn’t want to leave him, but…” She let out a small laugh. “…he made another presentation to convince me again, and it was very convincing.”

He broke the hug to see what expression she had on her face, and was not surprised when he saw that her face was gloomy with sadness evident in her eyes.

“He said that I should follow my heart and not regret things since… he also had a lot of regrets towards my mom. He said that he should’ve done more for her, should’ve spent more time with her, and should’ve just overall been a better husband before she left this world.”

She looked up at him. “’So don’t make the same mistakes I made,’ he said. And it took me some time to think about it, but I eventually made my decision and here I am now,” she finished.

Myungsoo stared at her, feeling guilty that she left everything behind just to come back to him again.

“But this time, I don’t want to be too much of a nuisance to you,” she continued. “So I was thinking that I would work really hard to get a job and make enough money to possibly have my own place since it would be a bother if I stayed at your place all of the time.”

“It’s not going to be a bother,” he said. “You can stay at my house for as long as you want. You don’t even need to get your own place since the house that we used to live in together is now my house. I own it now. My parents officially placed it under my name as soon as I entered college. So you don’t have to find your own place. Just stay with me. You won’t be a nuisance and I won’t kick you out.”

“But I can’t do that,” she said, looking at the ground. She then looked up again to see his pleading eyes and nearly gave in, but managed to resist it in the end. “I’ll think about it, but I’ll still try to get my own place. Even if you say that I won’t be a nuisance, I’m pretty sure that I’ll end up being one.”

He sighed; frustrated that she was this stubborn. “Okay, but let’s think about that later,” he said, embracing her again. “All that matters now is that you’re finally back.”

She nervously laughed all of a sudden, making him furrow his eyebrows and wondering why she was suddenly sounding nervous.

“Um… actually… I was planning on going back to the day after I left your time period, but I pressed the wrong buttons again. I actually wasn’t planning on making you wait this long,” she said sheepishly. “Did I make you wait long?”

He was still for a whole minute before abruptly pulling away from her with disbelief in his eyes. “Did I make you wait long?” he repeated, not believing what she was asking. “Are you really asking that?”

“So… I did make you wait long,” she said while nodding in understanding. “Well, I guess I have to fix this mistake of mine and try again to go to the day after I left. Hopefully, I’ll press the right button this time.”

She was going to push him away and head off to her time machine again, when he suddenly pulled her back towards him. “No, I won’t let you leave me again,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you came now or later or earlier; I don’t care. All I care about is that you’re right here in front of me again.”

She could feel some fluttery feelings in her stomach as she smiled at his words. “I missed you,” she said. “Even though I didn’t see you for only about a week before deciding to come back, so I guess it doesn’t really compare to the time that you didn’t see me.”

“You think?” he asked sarcastically.

She laughed and it was like music to his ears. After not hearing her laugh for over a year, hearing her laugh now seemed like some sort of dream to him. “But I’m not dreaming, right? I won’t be woken up by some stupid alarm and you’ll disappear before me, right?” he questioned her.

She laughed again. “Nope, it’s not a dream,” she said. “I’m really here. Do you want me to prove it?”

“How are you going to prove it?” he asked, pulling away from her again to see her face.

She smiled innocently before leaning towards him, her face slowly coming closer to his. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the distance between them closing and he closed his eyes, waiting for her lips to finally land on his. But that never happened. Instead, he felt a pain on his head after she had knocked her head against his.

“Ow!” he yelped as he rubbed his forehead, eyes now opened.

“See, you’re not dreaming,” she said with a playful smile. “You can feel pain.”

“Yeah, I see. I’m not dreaming,” he said before shooting her a glare. “But you didn’t have to do that to make me realize it.”

She chuckled at his statement. “But weren’t we going to take the pictures for your assignment?” she asked. “I can’t believe that you’re majoring in photography though, and you’re still using the camera that I gave you. Should I get your autograph before you become a famous photographer or something?”

“Yeah, but I have something better in mind,” he said. He then gave her a swift peck on the lips, making her stare at him in surprise.

She stood there for some time, frozen in place, when she suddenly said, “So no autograph?”

He let out a laugh and spun her around before pushing her towards the flowers. “Just go and interact with the flowers. I’ll think about giving you an autograph after we finish with my work,” he said.

She pouted from him not guaranteeing 100% that he would give her his autograph.

Snap

She looked at him in surprise. “Wait, I wasn’t ready!”

“That’s okay because you looked super natural in this one,” he said as he checked the picture. He actually thought that the picture was cute with her pouting and looking a little grumpy. “Let’s take another.”

“Okay, but it would be nice if you could—“

Snap

She stared at him in disbelief. “Wait, I still wasn’t ready!”

He started laughing at her. It had been a while since he had laughed this much. The Infinite members would always try to make him laugh after that day when she had left him, but all he could manage was a halfhearted one. But now, after only minutes of being with her, Song Yoomi had made him laugh wholeheartedly.

Song Yoomi, the girl from the future who had stolen his heart. He was thankful that she had finally come back, and it was like a miracle that she was actually staying here, in this time, for good. He was happy. He was extremely happy that she was next to him again, and he knew that she felt the same way also.