PART 2

“Could this day get any worse?” You grumbled miserably under your breath, being denied entrance thanks to your media pass that oh so conveniently decided to vanish at the most crucial moment.

You were digging through your bag and pants pockets for the media pass that was handed to you this morning. You were positive you still had it when you went to buy coffee just now. At times like this you wished to have magical powers to materialize the pass in your hands, or better yet, just teleport yourself into the hall without anyone noticing.

“I’m sorry miss, this entrance is for those with special passes only,” the bespectacled staff spoke curtly, eyeing your photography equipments.

You recognized him as one of the students in your university –who probably bears a grudge after you accidentally knocked his head into his lunch bowl with your tripod last month. You figured that he hasn’t forgiven what you did to him despite the profuse apologies you did for three consecutive days as he only responded with a snappy yet faint ‘ok’.

You cursed to yourself at the chance encounter, getting into the hall without a pass has turned from a walk in the park into a mission impossible. You swore getting in a club wouldn’t be half as difficult.

“No pass, no entry. Alternatively, please get in line at the ticketing booth,” he gestured behind you as he allowed the other people with passes to enter.

“B-but I was invited as a photographer-”

“We cannot let you enter unless with a media pass.” You were forcefully pushed aside as you were obstructing the entrance.

“Funny story, you see I had the pass with me this morning, but it got lost somehow,” you tried to explain as you walked to the front of the line again, slowly falling under pressure from the curious stares people were starting to give you.

“Miss, we might have to call security on you,”

You couldn’t afford to fail this assignment, it could mean the end of your position in the publication team. You had to enter the convention with a media pass, or else you are not allowed to bring along your photography equipments. You fished out your phone and scrolled through the contacts, looking for your senior coursemate’s number who was also in charge of organizing this convention.

“No, listen! Just give me a minute. Seriously if you just let me call the organiser-”

He stopped you mid-sentence, pulling out a walkie-talkie to notify the other staff of an unwelcomed guest. “Security, we have a situation at Entrance A!”

You saw two security guards approaching from the corner of your eyes as your feet were rooted to the ground. You brainstormed for an escape plan, but all of them ended up with you being brought to the university’s administration office or worse, the dean.

“She’s with me,”

You heard a familiar voice behind you. He reached just in time before security could drag you away. “Babe, did you wait long? Sorry I’m late for our date.”

You were dumbfounded, stunned and left open-mouthed when you saw the owner of the voice. Kang Daniel was standing next to you with one arm around your shoulder as he gave you another one of his mischievous winks. Unconsciously, your hand was pointing at him as you tried to form words but your breath was caught in your throat.

Baby, babe? You are amazed at how many pet names he could come up with, considering the fact that he didn’t even know your name let alone remember it.

“I apologise for the inconvenience. My girlfriend here forgot that we’re supposed to enter together. Right _____?”

G-girlfriend? D-date? What was Kang Daniel scheming? How did he know my name?!

“Can we enter now?” Daniel flashed his all-access pass to the bespectacled staff who went flustered at the rare pass around the boxing star’s neck.

“Huh? W-wait, w-what?!” You finally found your voice again. “He-he’s not my-”

Daniel shut you up with a peck on your cheek before you could spill the beans. You were frozen in shock to even react properly to what just happened as he pulled you with him to avoid the staff from asking you questions.

He finally stopped walking when both of you were no longer eyed by the staff. You cleared you throat as he stared at you in confusion with a –surprisingly adorable puppy look on his face. Both of you let go of each other’s hands as he tried to make himself busy by fixing his outfit and you fastened the straps of your camera gears, blush creeping up both of your cheeks.

“So genius of you. Do you seriously think people will buy the whole ‘we are on a date’ thing? Besides, who goes on a date at a gaming convention?!” You were the first to speak up.

He got flustered at your sudden outburst and change of mood. You tried your best not to mention the sneaky kiss he stole from your cheek, an unnecessary attempt from him to shut you up earlier.

“And yet here you are,” Daniel replied playfully, crossing his arms in front of him as he closed the gap between you.

“I’m covering a story for the university’s magazine column next month.” You took a step back, avoiding his gaze as he looked much better in person and up close.

“Whatever you say Miss Photographer. I think you owe me another ‘thank you’. That adds up to two. Three strikes, you owe me a ‘thank you’ and a date.”

Did you hear it right? Was he flirting with you? You understood why girls go crazy over him, his killer smile and wink managed to even give you butterflies in your stomach.

“Come again?”

He didn’t reply, but instead slipped your media pass that has gone missing around your neck and handed you the tripod he had offered to carry at the café earlier, before walking further into the crowd.

“Getting cozy with our campus heartthrob I see…” Your senior nudged you from behind as he was watching the entire conversation you had with Daniel.

“You wish.” You scoffed, getting ready to start your work. “Has he always been a flirt?” You asked, tying up your hair in a messy bun while staring at Daniel.

It wasn’t hard for you to spot him in the crowd. It helped that he had an army of admirers trailing him from behind as he walked up to meet his friends. You recognized them as the other athletes from the boxing club, Park Jihoon and Park Woojin. The crowd of fangirls grew larger as the duo also had their own share of supporters.

“Daniel? Nah, unless… he’s really interested in you,” Seongwu replied, leaning against the wall next to you. He was also staring at the large mass of people gathered around the handsome men. “I know my best friend, he’s not a playboy.”

That statement made you look up from your camera. “I didn’t know you are friends with him Ong sunbae? I thought your best friend is your Xbox,” you mocked.

Seongwu gasped loudly, feeling wrongfully accused. “Hey, I have a life outside of the gaming world too you know?!”

“I didn’t know he was into gaming,” you muttered to yourself. There was more to Kang Daniel than meets the eye.

“Anyways, you’re late.” He changed the topic, walking you to the site for the opening ceremony.

“Sorry, I had problems with my pass.”

“Fortunately the opening ceremony hasn’t started yet.” He helped you set up the equipments in front of your designated seat.

“Remind me again why am I here at this convention for gaming geeks sunbae?” you groaned, remembering how you had to sacrifice your morning naps for something you weren’t even interested in.

“Correction, it’s an organized meeting of video game enthusiasts.” Seongwu curtly replied, disagreeing with your blunt comment.

“I only asked for one reporter, one photographer and one camera. Why do you have to go around carrying all these useless equipment with you? This is not some high-end fashion shoot!” He whined, struggling to put up the tripod as he never handled any photography equipments before.

You snatched the tripod away from him before he could snap it in half from his brute force. He watched you in awe as you managed to set up the camera skillfully in matter of minutes and gave you a thumbs up.

“If I recall correctly, your little note to our chief editor said ‘make sure this convention is hyped up to the extremes!’. Just be thankful she didn’t send the whole publication staff.” Your editor in chief would even volunteer herself if she knew Kang Daniel was also going to be at the convention.

“Lucky me to have someone doing two jobs for the price of one!” Seongwu clapped excitedly before walking away as the opening ceremony was about to start.

***

You gave the DSLR another once-over, making sure all the gears are working in perfect order before the ceremony starts. The media seats were all filled up by then as you recognized some of the reporters and photographers from other universities present at the event.

You saw Seongwu checking his mic, getting ready to lead the ceremony on stage as you mouthed a silent ‘fighting!’ and he replied with a fist up in the air.

The opening ceremony went smoothly lead by Seongwu as the emcee. Your hands were busy clicking on the shutter as you didn’t even have time to check the quality of the photos. All the formalities ended with the Dean launching the event and now it was the time for SNU to present a new game they have been developing to the crowd.

Imagine your surprise when you saw the boxing club’s main athletes walking up to the stage when their names were called by the emcee. Apparently, Daniel was featured as one of the game characters for a new boxing match game created by SNU alongside Jihoon and Woojin. That further explained why he was able to get the all-access pass, aside from being best friends with Ong Seongwu.

Sharp, ear-piercing cheers from the crowd filled the hall as they introduced themselves while the LCD display behind them revealed images of the boxing athletes in game characters form. You predicted that the game will be a huge success from the massive interest they were currently getting just by featuring three of the most popular star players on campus.

Your camera got busy again as you tried your best to snap the best shots, competing with all the flashes coming from the rest of the media team and the audience.

Daniel spotted you in the crowd as he paid special attention to look into your camera, flashing the best smile he could form. One would think that he was actually interested with the person behind the camera, but in his defense, it’s all for the publicity of the university and the publication.

The launching event proceeded to continue with the interview sessions. You only jot down the answers to other reporter’s questions. You felt embarrassed to represent SNU’s magazine because you didn’t prepare any questions, as you didn’t know they’ll be unveiling a new game highlighting the famous boxing club. You regretted not doing any research before coming for the convention.

You were trying your best to blend in with the rest of the media team as Seongwu kept giving you cues to ask questions. The reporters from other universities’ publication were competing against each other to ask questions to the star players.

It was Daniel’s turn to be interviewed as the competition became stronger, everyone including the audience were raising their hands and calling out his name to be chosen. The boxing star scanned the crowd of people before choosing the person he wanted to hear a question from.

A sudden abrupt silence from the army of people made you look up from your notebook, as you found all eyes were fixed on you. You looked around and found Daniel pointing his index finger at you while sending a mischievous yet subtle wink that only you managed to catch.

“The beautiful photographer in blue with her hair up,” he gestured towards you.

“M-me?!” You were pretty sure you didn’t have your hand up and was blending well in the sea of people.

“Yes, what was your question for me?”

You were taken aback at the sudden attention you were getting as everyone waited for you to speak. You saw Seongwu doing a rolling motion with his hands, urging you to come up with anything fast as they were running out of time.

“H-have you tried this game yourself?” you asked, unsure.

“As a matter of fact, I did. And I had a lot of fun,”

The atmosphere returned as usual when the crowd shifted their attention back to the athlete to hear his answer as you sighed heavily in relief. Daniel on the other hand was very satisfied that he finally managed to get your attention. He figured that you came unprepared and chose you out of many people on purpose just to make you look at him.

***

You were now taking a breather with some refreshments as you casually browsed through the pictures you took earlier. You smiled in content, the photos came out very satisfactory.

You couldn’t help but to notice a familiar face in more than half of the photos. How did Daniel manage to appear in most of your shots? He was even present in the pictures you took of other game booths, either trying out the video games or staring directly to your camera. You felt goosebumps forming as you rubbed your arms to smooth them out.

“You look prettier with your hair down.” You jumped back in surprise, almost dropping the camera in your hands.

You wondered if Daniel ever got tired of smiling too much. Won’t his cheeks muscles hurt? He peered over to look at the LCD display. “Did you get nice pictures of me?”

“I think I have to snap new pictures because you photobombed most of the shots I took,” you retorted, eyes fixed on the camera.

“No! No! Keep them! We’ll get free publicity with any photos he’s in!” Seongwu snatched the camera away from you when he heard that statement as he walked pass.

“Ong Seongwu! Give me back my camera!” you yelled, annoyed at how rough he was handling your precious baby.

“I’m your senior!” he got worked up, raising the camera higher from your reach.

Daniel seized the camera from Seongwu’s hands. “Hyung stop it.” He handed it back to you gently. “Here you go, you can delete them if you want to. You own these photos anyway.”

You sent a threatening look at Seongwu before storming off to continue reviewing the pictures. A part of you felt quite guilty as you scanned the pictures with Daniel in them. He didn’t look like he photobombed on purpose as you were scanning the pictures and admiring his looks. He looked genuinely interested and engaged in all the booths that he visited as you could see the innocent child-like glint in his eyes.

Maybe you judged him too quickly.

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