When Hyuck opened the door to your tiny little dorm room on Tuesday, he spotted you lying motionless on your bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Your books were a scattered mess on your desk, but your camera and accessories were neatly hung up on a shelf.

“What’s wrong with you?” He plopped down on your bed, lifting your legs and letting them rest on his thighs. When you didn’t answer him, he started karate chopping your shins, which earned a groan and a “stop it!” from you before you curled up in bed. “Seriously, though. What’s wrong?”

“I dunno. I’m just not into today, that’s all.”

Hyuck sighed. He didn’t like seeing you like this. He was sure it was because of the near complete lack of social interaction with people, but he learned that the more he tried to push you into things, the more you resisted until you were completely shut.

“Go take some photos. That usually cheers you up.”

“Yeah, but I don’t…” Your voice trailed off as you sat up, staring at your friend. “Can I take pictures of you?”

“Of me? What? I know I’m good looking, but it costs money to take pictures of these guns.” Hyuck flexed his arms, making you laugh.

“We can go into town, and I’ll pay for food! Please?”

“Deal!”

--

The college town surrounding campus was bustling with life. It was nice to be out in the sunshine, laughing and talking with one of your only friends.

“I know you’ve been feeling a little lonely since baseball season is in full swing, and I’ve been busy. But you’ve gotta get out, you’ve gotta make more friends.”

You snapped a picture in the middle of his sentence, making him roll his eyes, which you took a picture of, too.

“Will you stop?”

“That would defeat the whole purpose of us coming out here.”

“I believe I was promised food.”

“Aren’t you on a strict diet?”

“HAH- yes, but no. Not today. It’s cheat day.”

--

You took pictures of you two on the seesaw at the park. You had to wipe away some tears from laughing so hard when Hyuck nearly fell off because he decided to stand on the other end while you sat down.

You climbed up into an old tree, glancing down at him and taking a few shots. “Well, wait for me to get up there, too. I’m a little bit bigger than you.”

He climbed up and found a sturdy branch and started to crawl out towards the edge.

“Hyuck, don’t go out that far! You’re gonna fall!”

He looked back at you and shrugged, sitting down near the edge of the branch, reaching up to support some of his weight with the branch above him.

“Sometimes, you just gotta have faith.”

You felt time slowing down for you again as you brought your camera to your face. Your heart was still racing from seconds before, and you snapped just one photo of Hyuck on the edge against the sun.

--

The last photo you took of him that day was one of your all time favorites of any picture you’d ever taken, just behind the picture of Jeno mid-pitch.

He’d laid down on the grass at the park, groaning at the sunlight beating down on his eyes. You stood over him, giving him some shade.

“Bless everything.” He had one arm behind his head, and the other arm up to block out any more offending sunshine. You snapped one last picture of him and smiled.

“Thanks, Hyuck. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You’d probably be dead.”

--

As you edited some of the photos from the impromptu shoot, you send some of the pictures to him. His response was more than happy, making you even happier.

You took a few choice ones that didn’t show his face and posted them to various social media. The response was immediate, asking who the subject was, sparking the discussion of whether or not you were a girl or boy.

You chuckled and decided to check your mailbox to answer questions. Most of the time, it was people asking you to take photos for them, usually for free, to which you politely declined with a template message.

After an hour of responding to messages, you finally got to Jeno’s message, and your heart skipped a beat.

Hello, my name is Jeno. I’m the pitcher in the photo you took the other day. It’s an amazing photograph. Thank you.

I don’t know how to really put this into words, but this picture feels so… intimate? If you understand. It’s like for that moment, I was the only thing you could see. Crazy, huh? I’m sorry. Thank you again, for looking at me like this.

You stared at his message, unable to respond. It’s because you really are the only one I see, you thought to yourself. Hyuck’s words haunted your thoughts sometimes, about confessing to him.

He doesn’t even know who I am. Guys like him don’t notice girls like me. I’m just background noise… You sighed. Even if you confessed to him, and by some miracle he returned your feelings, you’d never had a boyfriend. You wouldn’t even know what to do or where to begin.

Honestly, you were more content with observing him from afar. Accidentally getting him as a tutor was both a blessing and a curse, but so far, it was a casual acquaintance type thing. You were almost positive he still knew next to nothing about you except you were starting to finally get the hang of physics.

Your first test was coming up soon, and when you expressed how nervous you were about it, he smiled that Jeno smile and said he believed in you.

“Why is it so hard to get you out of my head?” you groaned out loud.

--

Hyuck saw a blur come running at him when he left his first class of the day, and suddenly, he was being shaken violently.

“Oh, ow, wow, okay, hands off the goods, Jeno. What the actual ? It’s too early in the goddamn morning to be manhandled. In fact, it’s never a good time to be manhandled.” Hyuck scowled at him as Jeno gestured angrily at him, still unable to find his words.

“Okay… let me know when you remember how to talk.” He tipped his baseball cap to him and started to walk away when Jeno spoke.

“You know who Ghostie is!”

Hyuck kept walking and shrugged. “No idea what you’re talking about.”

Jeno ran after him, nearly hissing in his ear. “They just posted pictures of you! You’ve seen them! Face to face!”

“Still have no idea what you’re going on about. I saw the pictures. There’s no clear picture of a face.”

“No, but your hat is in the picture,” Jeno whipped his hat off and pointed at the logo on the front.

Hyuck shrugged again. “A lot of people have this hat probably.”

“You’re the only person on campus I’ve seen with this hat! Hyuck!”

Hyuck heaved a sigh and waved Jeno in with his fingers, like he was going to tell him a secret.

“I have no idea,” he said in complete deadpan, and continued walking to class.

“Hyuck!”

“Nope!”

--

Jeno was convinced Hyuck knew who Ghostie was, and nothing was going to change his mind, no matter how many times he said no.

Jeno started hanging around him more, pestering him until he had to leave for class. It got to the point where Coach had to ban Jeno from going within ten feet of him or else he would be punished.

“Thank god. I was starting to miss my personal space,” he said one practice with a laugh.

Jeno hovering around Hyuck didn’t go unnoticed. Mark started to take notice of the shift in friendship dynamic.

Hyuck was hiding in a corner of campus one day, earphones in as he studied for an upcoming test. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the chair in front of him getting pulled out and he sighed.

“No, Jeno.”

“Good thing I’m not Jeno.”

Hyuck pulled out an earphone and saw Mark sitting across from him with a smile. “I figured this would be where you’re hiding. All the way across campus and hardly anyone even knows this library exists.”

“What’s up, Mark?”

Mark shook his head. “Just curious as to why Jeno’s been stuck to you like glue lately.”

Hyuck adjusted his seat and sighed. “He thinks I know who that super elusive photographer on campus is. The one that posts all the aesthetic pictures and has like a million followers on Instagram.”

“Do you?”

“I do. But I’m not gonna tell him that,” he said with a grin on his face.

“Give the guy a poor hint. I’ve never seen him so desperate before.”

Hyuck shook his head. “No can do, buddy. I’ve been sworn to secrecy. A curse upon me and my future generations if the name is ever uttered from my lips. They are sealed, and the key is gone. Did he send you here to interrogate me too, since he couldn’t find me?”

This time, it was Mark that shook his head. “No. I came here on my own. I kinda feel like we’ve drifted since university started.”

Hyuck sighed and put his pen down. “We’re just busier, I guess. This growing up stuff .”

Mark laughed. “You wanna go grab some food?”

“You know I never say no to food,” Hyuck said with a grin, closing his books.

--

You sat in the crowd at the bottom of the bleachers, cheering on your friends during another game. Every time Hyuck was getting on and off the field, he shot hearts into the crowd, making them scream.

You felt a little grossed out by it, and you could tell by the way he laughed that he managed to spot the look on your face. He must’ve told Jaemin you were in the crowd because the next time Jaemin ran onto the field, he looked back and waved at you.

No, he wasn’t waving at me. He was probably just waving to the crowd. But you waved anyway, just in case.

When Jeno took the field though, everything ceased to exist around you. His movements were deliberate, and you could almost follow his game routine by memory.

You could trace every step he took, every movement of his arm. It seemed like an eternity he was on the field, and you couldn’t love him any more for doing something he loved the most.

--

You were eating lunch quietly in the cafeteria for once, flipping through some of your notes for your test later in the day. Jeno sent you an encouraging message through the school message system, and you tried not to screenshot it and keep it forever.

“Is this seat taken?”

You looked up and spotted Jaemin smiling at you, and you shook your head, covering your mouth as you furiously chewed to swallow your food.

“I haven’t seen you in a while. How’s school going?” The two of you made some small talk. It was nice that Jaemin remembered you. You were comfortable with him, at least.

“So…” He looked at you. You looked at him. The two of you stared at each other for a few minutes until the corner of his mouth quirked.

“… How long have you known?” you asked, closing your notes.

“Since I saw that picture of Jeno. No one else in the universe could’ve taken a photo like that. Just you. You liked him since high school, haven’t you?”

Your eyes fell down to the table as Jaemin hit the nail on the head. “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything. Thought about confessing to him?”

You shook your head. Somehow, Jaemin’s gentle presence let you say something you’d always held back from saying to Hyuck.

“Guys like him don’t notice girls like me. I’m just background noise in his life. He’s focused on other things. There’s nothing really memorable about me.”

Jaemin scoffed. “I don’t know about that. Isn’t the tagline of your portfolio “finding the extra in the ordinary to make it extraordinary”? He just hasn’t seen that extra part yet.”

You let out a small laugh of disbelief. “And I don’t think he ever will. But honestly, it’s okay with me. I’m happy this way, seeing him happy.”