“Boo!”

I startle then turn my head abruptly to the voice. “Gosh! What are you doing?”

Inyoung laughs seeing my startled face. After she calming herself she says sorry then settles herself beside me. I turn my head and focus to my camera instantly to capture the target. Youngjae sunbae is practicing now with three other runners. They are given an instruction by the coach. I have got an approval from the coach to get photographing as I promise not to disturb or bother them when they have a practice, just do my job to take the photos. The match itself will be held one week before school’s anniversary. So, they have less than 2 months to be focus.

“Have you got the best one?”

I answer her but my eyes still focus on camera, “I will go to the dark room after this, to check them”

I can hear she hums then I hear someone calls Inyoung. As we turn our head, I see Jaebum sunbae waves his hand and smiles. Inyoung pretends to cough, “I… I should go. Bye Boram”. I can see her blush, she’s already fallen for him!

It’s not too long after that, they have finished the practice. Youngjae sunbae comes to me as I wave a Pocari to him. He smiles. He is sitting beside me then taking the bottle and drinking it. I can see the sweats and his muscles arm flex as he gulps it. Then, without thinking too long, I take my camera and capture it.

He startles as he realizes I just take his photo from a very close distance. “Ya, Boram, that’s not my best pose…”

I chuckle then see the photo through my camera. “Look, it’s good” I show him the photo. He frowns but then smiles, “Hey, how can it become like this?”. Through the camera, he sees himself drinking the pocari when the sun starts to set. The reflection of the sun and the way he drinks the pocari as the sweats running down his face made it so beautiful.

I smile as I see him smiles widely. “But I think it’s like an Ad. Don’t you think so?”

I chuckle and nod. “I guess so…”

He takes his towel from his bag and waves his hand as the other runners already prepare to leave.

“How is it going?” I ask him curiously.

He dabs his face with the towel then stretches his legs. “It’s not too good”

I frown, “Why?”

He sighs, “The coach has some concerns at me… he doubts if I can catch up with others or not“

I’m just silent as he continues, “He’s worried about me for two reasons”

“What are they?”

He answers without looking at me, just looking straight. “First, because I’m in the last year and have to prepare for the final exam and the second, because of my condition” he pauses for a while, “I don’t run as good as before the accident. Although I try to run as fast as I can since I go back to school, but the time is always slower”

I keep silent as I don’t know what to say.

He smiles weakly, then drifts his eyes to his legs, “Whereas, I got here because of my legs. If I can’t do my job well, I don’t think I can be still here”. I can see his sad face as he says it.

“I know you can, sunbae. I want you as my model because I see your passion, your strong determination. If you think this is what you want, just do it sunbae. My father always says, the first thing we need when we to do something is a passion, the result of what we do is the bonus. If your bonus is not good as you expected, what you have to do is always try and try. Even if you look behind, you won’t disappoint to yourself as you see you already do what you can do…”

I don’t realize he stares at me when I say that. I turn my head away as I feel shy suddenly. “I’m… I’m sorry if any my words offend you, sunbae”

He shakes his head slowly, “No, you’re right”

Suddenly I hear someone calls his name repeatedly. As we look straight to the voice, I see Eunji unnie comes closer to us. She is still wearing her school’s uniform. She smiles widely while jogging to us. Instantly, I straighten myself as Youngjae sunbae already stands up.

“Why don’t you tell me that you’ll come here?” he asks her. She answers by hugging him in front of me. My eyes widen then the pangs like a few days ago comes again.

He’s not yours, Boram.

“I miss you” she says cutely, “Don’t you miss me?”

He chuckles, “Why suddenly you become like this?”. She pouts then Youngjae sunbae hugs her again.

Like being slapped by someone, I turn my head away, feeling dejected suddenly. I awkwardly stand there, don’t realize that I take a step back.

“Oh Boram, you’re here” Eunji sunbae calls me. Instantly, I see her then give an awkward smile, “Hi, Eunji unnie”

She doesn’t need to answer my greeting as I see her eyes go to my camera. “Is that your camera?”

I nod.

“Can you take our photo?” she asks while pointing her finger to Youngjae sunbae and herself, “Pretty please?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I go to the dark room alone. After taking their photo, I immediately excuse myself. I take some photos then hang them. All I can see is Youngjae sunbae’s face. His concentrated face as running, his smile as he’s looking at the camera and his nervousness when he prepares running.

I take one of them then touch it with my finger. A tear drops to the photo as I cry.

It’s like what happened a few days ago replay in my head.

“How’s your legs? Still hurts?”

“Ya, of course I have to be worried, because of me you did that…”

His love for her is so big as he didn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself to save her.

I clutch my chest, as the tears starts to form. It hurts. My heart is hurt. Why do I feel so sad to see them together? Even though I already knew the answer but why am I still like this? I’ve shouldn’t be like this since it’s not my place to like him.

Like him.

Like him.

I think I really like him, right?