“Mr. Instruments…”

Kyungwon murmured and her vision landed on the shop across from the street. She had passed this store several times but never went inside. She never thought she would pay a visit here either.

“Good afternoon.” A girl greeted her. “If you need anything, I’ll be at the counter!”

Kyungwon responded with a smile. She didn’t know much about instruments, perhaps she would need some helps later, but she wanted to look around by herself anyway.

The store was bigger than Kyungwon expected, but she found where the guitars were quickly. There was a wall full of guitars hanging, all of them looked the same except the colors, each one of them had an instruction card beside.

Kang Yebin said she plays guitar well. The one she’s using now is almost 8 years old.

“For practicing…Size of the first string, 10 inches.”

Kyungwon frowned in confusion and moved to the next instruction card. “For performance, strings…bronze…They are made by bronze?”

If she’s gonna play it whenever she wants, which one is the best?

“Hi Kyungwon!”

Kyungwon nearly bumped her head on one of the guitar.

“H-Hey, Minky.” She turned clumsily. “I didn’t see you coming.”

Minkyung gestured the show window. “I was chatting with a friend in that coffee shop and saw you come in here…Seems like I always scare you.”

“No, you didn’t scare me last time in the movie theater. But 30 seconds ago, yes.”

“All right, got it.” Minkyung giggled. “Are you looking for a guitar?”

“Um…”

“I can help if you don't know which one to buy!”

“No, it’s ok.” Kyungwon shrugged. “I was just bored and looking around randomly.”

“Oh? But you were really focusing on reading the instructions.”

Because I was thinking of picking one for…

“Actually, there are some other things I can use your help.”

It was a successful change of topic. “Ok, what is it?”

“A-Are you free tonight?”

“Yes…?”

Kyungwon grinned, internally cheered for her victory. My time alone with her.

“You like public transportations?”

***

“I have to say,”

Minkyung looked out the windows with glimmering round eyes. “This is so cool!”

“You think so?” Kyungwon lowered the camera in her hands. “I was worrying you might feel bored. Haven’t you take this line before?”

“No.” Minkyung admitted sheepishly. “I seldom went out. If I had to meet with friends, they would come and visit me or we would meet at a place nearby. Even if I did go out, my family always gave me a ride…And all of these happened in the daytimes.”

“Why?”

Minkyung shrugged with a forced smile. “Some…family issues.”

“Oh.” Kyungwon decided not to ask further since Minkyung didn’t look like she wanted to talk about it. “So this is the first time you leave your house during nighttime and explore the city? On the metro?”

“Yep.”

“Here, come with me.”

Minkyung followed her to the seats at the front of the car where the passengers there had got off. “This is why I picked the first carriage. Luckily those two left before us.” Kyungwon let her sit closer. “Feel it?”

“It’s like I am driving this metro!”

“Exactly! Only the metros of the brown line are designed like this, open spaces and controlled by computers. The views may be clearer in the morning, but…Night scenes can only be splendid at nights, aren’t they?”

“Do you take this line a lot?”

“I have taken a few times before college, and recently because of the project I’m working on, so yes. There are many things worth shooting along the way.”

“What’s the theme of the videos again?”

“Nature.” Kyungwon chuckled when seeing Minkyung’s puzzled expression. “I know, I know, you must be wondering why I’m filming the city instead of jumping on a train to the countryside. This is the way I construe the theme.”

“What are you planning to do?” Minkyung seemed to be interested. “Explain to me.”

“Can you switch seat with me first?”

When Kyungwon moved closer to the wide glass window at the very front of the carriage, she placed her camera on the pedestal, made sure the angle was correct and pressed the shutter.

“There must be lots of photographers or people with a bunch of expensive SLRs or Canons, driving all the way out of the town and camp for days to film a bird and its babies in the nest or a river full of fishes and tadpoles, some of them might even go into mountains for those 100-year-old trees. I don’t have the equipment, and most important, I don’t have that time and energy.” Kyungwon grimaced, “So I came up with this idea—I’ll shoot the nature in the city.”

“The nature in the city? You mean…like the small flowers beside the sidewalks and sparrows tweeting outside the windows every morning?”

“Yep.” Kyungwon was surprised she grasped her thought so quickly. “I’ve filmed in the campus once, also the parks near my house and even my backyard, then today I feel like filming the metropolis…You know, this is a contrast.”

“A contrast?”

“Yeah, the bustle and hustle of the city contradistinguishes the living organisms in the city. We are surrounded by both of them every day, every second, so it depends on whichever we choose to see and to focus on. Does that make sense to you?”

“Totally. I think it’s brilliant.”

“You really think so?” Minkyung saw the cutest grin on Kyungwon’s face. “I feel so much more confident now!”

“Wait.” Minkyung lowered her voice. “Aren’t you recording? Is it ok if we talk like this?”

“I’ll mute the audio and put in BGM when I edit. Even if you scream won’t matter.”

“Haha, very funny. So how can I help you?”

“…Here. I think the railway footage is long enough.” Kyungwon picked up the camera. “Take it and record something for me.”

“You want me to film? Serious?”

“Why not? Everyone has a different sight of world in their eyes, it will be interesting to mix yours with mine. Film anything you like.”

Minkyung looked out the windows, the street view was flying with flashing neon, it was beautiful but it would be similar to what Kyungwon had filmed. The metro was slowing down as it was about to pull in, an idea came up and Minkyung put the camera down on the floor near her feet.

“Hope I won’t be treated as a freak.”

Kyungwon quirked her brows and watched. The metro stopped and the door opened, following by several passengers getting on and off. The camera was pointing at the door, Minkyung had pressed the shutter before the metro completely stopped. She pressed it again to end the recording as the door closed.

Apparently, she was filming the walking passengers, but from a point of view Kyungwon didn’t think of.

“It’s perfect. I will definitely put this in my video. You’re a genius, Minky.”

She said after replaying the footage with Minkyung leaned close instinctively to watch. Minkyung blushed, with shyness and joy of being complimented. From the low angle, only the passerby’s shoes and partial pants could be seen, but that was more creative than full-body shots. It will be more powerful if I increase the speed to 1.5x, Kyungwon thought.

“Are we getting off? There are three more stations before the terminal.”

“Um, since we’re here already, there’s a place I…yeah.” Kyungwon carefully observed her reaction. “Are you ok with that?”

“Sure.” Minkyung gave her a reassuring smile. “I’d like to see that place too.”

Her left hand was rubbing her right arm and her right hand touched the zippered side-pocket of her bag where she kept the pills. Kyungwon didn’t miss that, but she only saw half.

“You should’ve told me.”

Minkyung froze with light startle, but when Kyungwon took of her flannel shirt, the startle was replaced by confusion.

“Drape this on. I forgot to remind you, it's a bit chill at night recently.”

“What…” Minkyung relieved. Kyungwon wasn’t wrong in some aspects. “What about you?”

“I’m strong and healthy. Unlike you.” Kyungwon giggled at her own joke, Minkyu