Soojung wakes up to the sound of her door being knocked rather harshly and she groans. Grumpily, she walks to the door, opening it and yawning at the same time, and she chokes on her breath when she sees her teacher stands before it. Laughing awkwardly, she greets her with a ‘good morning’.

“Do you know what time it is?” she yells. “Go clean yourself and be at the main site in 10 minutes!”

Soojung could only wash her face and brush her teeth. She changes into a T-shirt with a legging up to her knees, putting the white tag around her neck and rushes to the main site, and she’s glad because she’s not the only one who’s late. She looks around and tries to spot Victoria, and she sees her, and the older female already looking at her as she sends an apologetic smile, and Soojung shakes her head—it’s her fault for not setting an alarm last night.

The activity for that day is hiking and when she’s starting to get excited, her teacher who woke her up calls her, and shoves a camera to her. She stares blankly at the camera in her hands before she looks at the teacher, confusion is written on her face.

“This’s a punishment for you for being late,” she says. “Get some pictures of the trees or butterflies or anything in the forest because the principal wants to see it when we get back to school.”

Soojung sighs before she nods her head, trudging behind the others and when she sees how other later students carry a very heavy bag each—containing bottles of water and any other equipment and first-aid kit, she’s actually very grateful because she’s got to only carry a camera. And so she walks, slowly and carefully because they start to going up and there’re not much things that can support them, only the trees.

She sees Jinri, and she’s with Myungsoo and there’s a pinch in her heart that pains her in every way, but she continues walking. They walk deeper into the forest, with the foresters keep explaining things along the way, and she captures pictures with the camera, admiring the beauty using the lens before she sees it with her own eyes. She smiles, liking it because all she could see is green, and it’s so refreshing.

They stop at one point, which has the ground slopped down from where they stand, showcasing all the trees down there and the view is just breathtaking. Soojung admiring the view before she looks around, and they’re all together and she’s the only one who’s alone and suddenly she doesn’t feel really excited anymore. It’s funny how hard we want to be by ourselves, and yet at the same time, we don’t want that. It’s funny how we wish we could be alone, but not with the loneliness consumes us all. 

Shaking her head, she continues taking pictures—trees, classmates, birds, butterflies, insects, all but not her. They walk again, and it’s almost afternoon and the sun is already up in the sky, shining its ray through the trees, between the leaves, forming sweats on her forehead and she’s thirsty. She stops for a while, taking breaths and as much as she loves nature and summer, she just couldn’t understand the heat anymore. The humidity of the air suffocates her and she swears she might just pass out or explode like a bomb if they continue even for another 30 minutes.

Luck’s on her side this time, they’re back at the camp site 15 minutes later and she drops herself on the ground once they’re out from the forest. She closes her eyes as she wipes the sweats on her forehead with the back of her hand—hair are all stuck on her face and her cheeks are red.

She opens her eyes again and watches her schoolmates walk past her and as she gets up, she accidentally kicks a bottle of water. She furrows her eyebrows, not remembering that she ever brings it before, and so she grabs it before she holds it up in the air, almost shouting to ask whose is it, but stops when she sees a ‘DRINK!’ on the bottle.

She thinks that the weather is just so hot that she’s hallucinating, but she knows she’s not when she blinks for a couple of times and the note is still there. She looks around, looking for that certain someone and when she spots him, looking at him as he talks to someone she doesn’t know, she realises she doesn’t forget a thing about him, and that includes his handwriting.

+++

“You’re in charge for food today,” the teacher says. “since you were late.”

Soojung nods before she goes away, but stops when the teacher calls her again. “Is Myungsoo your model or somethin