I immediately left the lecture hall as soon as the clock above the screen showed 4:00 P.M and Professor Kim was done with his lecture. It wasn’t that I hated his lectures and found them boring but I had some place to go. Somewhere that was peaceful and just my style. If I wasn’t going out with my friends, I would always head over to that place after school before going home for dinner. It was like a sweet escape from reality for me.

The sound of bells chiming greeted me as soon as I stepped into the antique store that was located a few blocks down from the apartment where I lived in. This place was my escape. I smiled brightly when I saw Halmeoni looking engrossed in reading a book from behind the counter to the point that she did not notice that I had entered.

Halmeoni isn’t exactly my grandmother but she treated me like her own grandchild. When I first found out about the store, I was really intrigued by it. I didn’t know that such a store existed within the vicinity. Halmeoni seemed pleased when I told her I was interested in her store. She wasn’t exactly agreeable on me wanting to help her out at first because barely anyone visited the store especially on weekdays but I kept on insisting and she finally gave in and allowed me to.

“Good afternoon, Halmeoni!” I chirped and placed my bag behind the counter.

Finally looking up from her book, she showed me a motherly smile and brought her hand up to pinch my cheek gently. “You’re bright as usual,” she says in a warm tone before placing her book aside. “Since you’re finally here, I’m hoping you can do me a favour.”

“What is it?” I asked and looked at her curiously. It was rare for Halmeoni to ask for a favour unless she’s feeling ill.

“Junsu, my grandchild, got warded in the hospital today and my daughter told me to accompany him for the whole night. She says he misses me alot and wants me to take care of him,” Halmeoni chuckled lightly. “I hope you can help me close down the store once it’s 8 p.m. You have the extra key, right? I’m sorry for burdening you.”

“Ah,” I nodded in understanding. “It’s not a burden at all, Halmeoni. Don’t worry! This place is like a home to me after all.”

“You’re such a great child. Your parents have brought you up well.”

Halmeoni patted my head with a proud smile and I could only return her with a bashful smile, not knowing how to reply to such compliments.

Halmeoni left the store a few minutes after and I took my place behind the counter, taking out a few books in my bag that I needed to study for my upcoming tests. The sound of bells chiming caught my attention instantly when I was just about to read the first line of my History book, making me look up at the entrance.

It was her again.

Straight, long hair that reaches down to her chest. Clear looking eyes. She has a face that screams innocent all over and she’s probably younger than me by observation. It had been almost a month now since she first visited the store but I still have yet to know her name. I didn't think she would come again after the first visit but I kept seeing her every Friday. Sometimes, she would be talking to Halmeoni and on other times, she would be admiring all the antiques. We’ve had our own shares of conversation too but they were mostly about how our days went and nothing more. She was mysterious I must say. I tried asking for her name when she visited for the sixth time (not that I was counting. I just have a good memory) but the question seemed hard to ask. My voice betrayed me as she looked at me with curious eyes. I went speechless and she left saying that she had to go before I could ask.

“Where’s Halmeoni?” she asked as she looked around the store.

“Her nephew got hospitalised so she has to take care of him,” I answered with a small smile.

“Am I disturbing you?” I saw her eyes fixated on my open book and I quickly closed and pushed it aside, shaking my head.

“N-no, you weren’t,” I stuttered, causing her to let out a soft giggle.

Her and I. We weren’t exactly friends. Just acquaintance. However, I feel comfortable whenever she’s around. It’s like I’ve known her for a long time although like I had mentioned, she can be mysterious at times and something about that side of hers makes me want to get to know more about her. Starting with her name that I couldn’t get for a few times.

“I’ve been wanting to ask you something,” I spoke up after a few minutes of silence. She was examining the new antique vase that arrived two days ago before shifting her attention to me.

“Ask away,” she hummed.

“May I know your name?” I asked straightforwardly. I was afraid that if I sprouted nonsense at that start, I would have lost the confidence to ask her.

Another giggle left her lips and she made her way back the counter, stretching her hand out to me with a wide grin. “I thought you would never ask. It’s Yewon. Kim Yewon.”

Has she been waiting for me to ask her?

“Yuju,” I told her and held onto her hand, shaking it firmly. “Everyone calls me by that.”

I can see in her eyes that she wanted to ask me a question but she didn't. Instead, she just nodded and said, “It's finally nice to know your name. I thought I was going to have to call you the ‘beautiful cashier from the antique store’ in my mind every time I come here.”

Who would have known she was such a sweet talker.

~.~.~

It was soon eight in the evening. I made sure that all the lights were switched off before locking up the store. Keeping the key safely in my pocket, I headed home straight.

My perception of Yewon being mysterious changed instantly during the time we spent together. It was only two hours but I found out quite a few things about her. I thought she would be hard to talk to but it was the opposite. She was able to answers all my questions without hesitating.

Kim Yewon. She was a year younger than me and went to a school that was an hour away from here compared to my university that was only a fifteen minutes walk from home. It somehow made me sad that she wasn’t attending the same school as I was but I didn’t tell her that of course. That would be weird. She also told me she was the youngest child and she had an older brother and sister. Our conversation ended there as she had to leave urgently after her father called.

My train of thoughts got interrupted when I heard a weak shout for help coming from nearby. The people walking around didn’t seem to bother about it and it made me wonder if I was imagining things. Pulling one of my earbuds out, I tried listening closely again for the distressed call just to make sure.

“Help! Someone, please…”

Seeing that no one cared or pretended not to have heard the cry, I wasted no time and immediately followed the voice. My fingers curled up to fists when I saw a group of high school students harassing an old lady who was clutching onto her purse and something that looked like a very old camera against her chest. Her eyes met mine and I could see the desperation in eyes. My heart dropped at the sight and my anger was at its peak.

“Yah!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, gaining attention from the three delinquent students. Their eyes widened upon noticing me and they quickly scrambled off when I was about to approach them. “Kids these days,” I muttered under my breath as I watch them flee, the anger I felt slowly dissipating when my gaze changed to the old lady. She reminded me of Halmeoni but weaker and less happy. Maybe she was just exhausted from trying to escape from those boys. Looking around the place, I couldn’t help but wonder why she was loitering around in a secluded area in the first place.

“Are you alright?” I asked and carefully placed my hand on her arm, giving her a reassuring squeeze.

She gave me a thankful smile and said, “Thank you, child. You have such a kind heart.”

“Ah, it’s nothing,” I said sheepishly, cheeks slightly flustered from the compliment. No matter how much of those words I had received, I was still not used to hearing them coming from people. “I try to help people whenever I can.”

“I want you to have this,” the old lady said and handed me the camera I saw her holding onto dearly earlier on. My jaw hung slightly and I quickly shook my head, pushing the object back to her without seeming rude.

“I-I can’t accept this. It’s yours,” I furrowed my brows and she laughed softly.

“I want you to have it, child. Take it as a gratitude for saving me. There are only ten polaroid films left so use them wisely. It’s an antique so the films can’t be bought anywhere else.”

“But—”

Before I could say anything else, the old lady disappeared into thin air right in front of my eyes. I spun around, trying to look for her but she was nowhere in sight. I wanted to call for her but then I would be disrupting the neighbourhood. I thought I was tired from studying or maybe I was slowly going crazy but the polaroid camera in my hands was real and I was sure I wasn’t hallucinating things.

Just who was that old lady? And why did she want me to have this camera so badly? I had so many questions to ask but somehow, I had a feeling that she wanted me to find them out on my own.

~.~.~

I went straight to the antique store as soon as my parents left for work. It was a Saturday so I usually wait for them to leave first before helping Halmeoni out at the store. I did not forget to bring the camera along because I had questions to ask Halmeoni. She must know something about it, right? The old lady really looked like she was around Halmeoni’s age. Though, I couldn’t be so sure since she mysteriously disappeared right in front of me. She might be a ghost or maybe a witch for all I know… I should really stop watching a lot of movies.

“Good morning, Yuju,” Halmeoni greeted me warmly when I entered. “You’re here early today.”

I gave her a big hug before taking out the camera that was in my bag. “I have questions about this actually. Have you used this kind of camera before in the past? I tried searching online for the model but there were no results which I find… weird.”

Halmeoni took the camera from me and examined it closely. “It surely does look like an antique. Where did you get it from?” She positioned the camera in front of her and tried to take a photo of me. There was a flash but the film did not come out.

“Eh?” I tilted my head and gave a confused look. “I checked last night and there were really ten films inside. It should be doing fine. Here, let me try. I haven’t tested it out myself.”

Handing the camera back to me, I took a step back and told Halmeoni to pose for me. I chuckled softly when she made a peace sign beside her face. I counted to three before pressing on the shutter button and the flash was seen once again, followed by a film slipping out from the bottom.

“That's weird,” I heard Halmeoni say to herself.

Putting the camera aside, I shook the film lightly.

Wait, what’s this? I thought to myself when I started seeing letters forming on the back of the polaroid. Halmeoni was busy examining the camera once again so I faced my back towards her and brought the film closer to me to read what had just appeared on the back of it.

She’s such a kind-hearted kid. It’s quite rare to find someone like her in thi  s generation. She’ll grow up to be a fine lady.

I was sure that if I were a character in a comic book, the artist would have drawn lots of question marks above my head because really, that was how confused I was when I read the sentences written neatly on the back of the polaroid. Scanning through the words again, I got startled when I heard the ringing of bells. Turning my head sharply to look at who the customer was, I was surprised to see Chaeyeon, a classmate of mine. Out of all people, I didn’t expect her to take interest in antiques. She wasn’t so fond of the artefacts when we visited a museum once.

“Oh, Chaeyeon?” I said.

“Is she a friend of yours, Yuju?” Halmeoni asked, looking at Chaeyeon with a doubtful expression. Walking to my side, she signalled me to lower myself slightly so she could whisper into my ear. “She doesn’t look like a nice girl.”

Stifling a laughter, I gave Halmeoni’s shoulder a light squeeze and flashed Chaeyeon a welcoming smile, seeing that she was looking rather uncomfortable. “Chaeyeon is my partner for a project this semester,” I introduced her to Halmeoni. “What brings you here to this store?”

“I wanted to see you,” Chaeyeon said a little too straightforwardly, causing me to get slightly flustered.

“H-How did you know I’ll be here though?”

“I’ve always wondered where you go off to after school and I followed you one day,” her eyes widened when she realised what she had just said and immediately waved her hands frantically in front of me, her face having turned a shade of red. “I swear it wasn’t my intention to stalk you!! B-but from there, I figured out you come here almost every day so I tried my luck today and it seems like I’m really lucky.”

“Okay,” I slowly nodded my head, unable to comprehend why Chaeyeon would even follow me from school all the way to here. “So, why exactly are you here to see me? Our project isn’t due until the end of the semester. We still have plenty of time to complete it.”

“I just thought since it’s a Saturday, I would like to ask if you want to hang out with me…?” Chaeyeon said hesitantly.

“I’m sorry. I have to—”

“You can go, Yuju-ah. I’ll be fine taking care of this store alone,” Halmeoni cut me off and patted me on the back gently. “Take it as your day off, hm?”

“But—”

“I hope the two of you will have a nice day together,” Halmeoni handed me the polaroid camera back before pushing me out of the store. “Have fun, children!”

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I dislike Chaeyeon but just like Yewon and I, we’re just acquaintances— well, classmates in this case. We never had a casual conversation unless it’s school related so for her to come over out of the blue, asking me if I wanted to hang out with her, it’s just shocking. What exactly does she want with me?

“I’m sorry. If you don’t want to hang out with me, you can go back now,” Chaeyeon whispered with her head hung low.

A part of me felt bad for reacting negatively. We were partners. We had to get close to each other eventually.

Shaking my head, I told her, “Halmeoni will kill me if she sees me entering the store again so I don’t mind hanging out with you. Let’s get to know each other better, alright?”

~.~.~

Spending the day with Chaeyeon wasn’t so bad after all. She knew how to keep a conversation going and there was never an awkward silence between us. I genuinely liked her as a company. However, I felt bad I wasn’t able to give her my fullest attention. My mind was fully occupied by the words written on the back of the polaroid film after I took a photograph of Halmeoni, still wondering what those words could possibly mean.

“What kind of project do you think Mr. Park will give us?” Chaeyeon asked as we waited for our drinks to arrive. We were taking a rest at a café after two hours of window shopping.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I heard from some seniors that he’s full of surprises.”

“Whatever it is, I hope we can pass it.”

Chaeyeon looked out of the window after replying. Remembering about the camera, I quickly ped my bag and took it out. If those words appeared behind the photo of Halmeoni, will words also appear on the film if I take a photo of Chaeyeon? Deciding to try it out, I made sure that Chaeyeon was not looking at me before taking a candid shot of her.

“Wait— did you just—” Chaeyeon looked flustered when she turned to face me after seeing the flash. It was a late reaction from her and I found it a tad cute that I could not help but smile cheekily at her.

“Don’t worry, it’s a nice photo!” I told her with a thumbs up and her cheeks got even redder.

Hiding the photo under the table, I flipped the film and found my heart beating irregularly when I saw a string of words slowly forming on the back again. I was nervous but I had no idea why. What is this camera exactly?

Who does she think she is? Trying to play so hard to get. She should be honoured that someone like me is interested in her.

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion after I read the sentences. What are these words supposed to be? I think I wasn't being so subtle in hiding my expression because I heard Chaeyeon ask me, “Are you alright, Yuju?”

“I’m fine,” I told her with a small smile.

“Can I take a look at the photo?”

“O-of course,” I handed the film to her.

Remembering about the words engraved on the back, I wanted to snatch the photo back from her. However, I stopped myself when I noticed that Chaeyeon’s expression did not change one bit although she was looking at the back of the film before flipping it to look at the photo I took.

Can't she see those words? Am I the only one who can see them?

Something then clicked in my mind.

Are those words actually representing the thoughts of the people whom I took a photo of? Is that why only I can use the polaroid camera? It really seems like only I can see the words but I can't be so sure. I’ll have to use another film on someone else soon to confirm my suspicions of the camera. 

a/n. and here is chapter one. : )