For some people, graduation is seen as one of the most important milestones in an adolescent’s life. It is an event that just must be celebrated. It even calls for the largest of family gatherings, all chock full of those highly critical relatives who ask you what you’re plans are for the future. And if you were to ask Jihoon that same redundant question, he would say that he had no ing clue. 

 

To Jihoon, graduation was just an escape from the hell hole that was 4 years of mental torture and forced institutional conformity. He was just glad that after graduating he would possess that single slip of paper that provided him with sufficient proof that he was, in fact, a credible and competent employee.

 

Unfortunately for him, his mother was a part of the latter crowd that believed that graduation was everything. Thus explaining the reason for why he was being forced to climb an absurdly steep hill in order to take some overpriced graduation photos; which, of course, his mother had been nagging him to take for weeks on end prior to the ceremony he had to attend on the weekend.

 

“Lord heavens, finally!” Jihoon panted as he reached the top of the hill where a small traditional photography studio stood. It looked exactly like it did on the site; old fashioned signs, glass windows with a smudge of dust to let people know of its age, and a bell above the door to let the owner know of it’s incoming customers.

 

“Hello?” Jihoon called out as he stepped into the shop. No one responded. Jihoon pulled out his phone to check the time. 12:30 pm. He checked the site and it did say they were open. Jihoon shrugged and put his phone back in his pocket. Maybe they didn’t hear him. 

 

“Hello?”

 

“...” He tapped his foot, the wooden floorboards echoing each creaky squeak.

 

“Hello? Is anyone here?” Jihoon called out for the third time in a row, his patience almost running out. Finally, a large box with legs comes out from behind the dusty maroon curtains and into the front of the shop. Jihoon clears his throat and tries again. “Hi there, I need a picture done. Could you...uh, help me?”

 

The man behind the box is evidently startled as the hands holding the box covering his face suddenly flinch. Jihoon tilts his head and narrows his eyes at the box man. 

 

“Who was that?!” Jihoon’s right eye twitches as the man swipes his free arm above the top of his head to see if anyone was there in front of him. If the guy would just put down the box…

 

“Where are you?!” A face suddenly pops up from above the box and Jihoon watches in rising irritation as the tan man looks left and right with his eyes still trained somewhere above Jihoon’s head. His black, lensless glasses fall down the bridge of his nose as he looks around in confusion and fear. His brow twitches with each indirect attack at his vertically-impaired stature.

 

“DOWN HERE!” Jihoon snaps. The man holds the box to his side and looked down at him. He gasps. Jihoon gets a look at the guy and realizes that the guy must have been around his age or even younger. His youthful, yet well-defined facial features and his fluff of russet coloured hair falling unorderly down the front of his face was a sure give away that he must have been either 1 or 2 years younger. 

 

“Oh! Hi, sorry I didn’t see you down there!” the guy chuckles awkwardly, finally deciding to put the box down onto the counter. Jihoon dismisses the diss and reminds himself why he was here. 

 

“I need graduation photos. I saw on your website that you could do that for $50?” This guy nods his head rapidly and points behind him with his thumb.

 

“Yep! I can do that! Just follow me,” Jihoon nods politely as the tall man leads him to the back where the studio is. “This is great! I haven’t been able to take anyone’s pictures in a looong time.” 

 

It’s quite dark and messy in the back; a stack of props and other miscellaneous stuff used for photography haphazardly scattered across the floor. “I’m Mingyu, by the way. Kim Mingyu.”

 

Jihoon hums as Mingyu pulls out his contact card out of his jean pocket and hands it to him. Jihoon looks at the simple white calling card and slips it into his back pocket without a word. 

 

“So what kind of graduation pictures are you looking for?” Mingyu asks interestedly, walking over to a hanger full of clothes. He passes over a graduation gown that is longer than Jihoon’s body and Jihoon just gives him a judgemental look. Mingyu “Sorry, this is the only one I have. It’s a one-size fit all, but I guess it doesn’t! Haha…”

 

Jihoon puts it on over his clothes anyways and borrows a rubber band to tie up the ends to shorten the length above his feet. Mingyu puts the camera onto the stand and ushers Jihoon to stand in front of a green screen.

 

“Listen, I just need my pictures done and then I’ll be out of here. Nothing special, just plain, old, grad pictures.”

 

Mingyu’s lips protrude outwards as he listens to Jihoon’s request, his whole demeanor exuding the same vibes as a sad puppy. That was no fun. “...okay.”

 

Jihoon sighs in relief glad that the guy seemed cooperative enough to listen to him. Mingyu tells him to sit down on the green block behind him and to turn his body towards him. Then, just as Mingyu turns his camera on, Jihoon hears an overly enthused gasp.

 

“Amazing!” Jihoon tilts his head. Mingyu looks up from the lens and gives Jihoon a thumbs up. “You look amazing!”

 

Jihoon coughs out of embarrassment and gives him a sheepish grin. “Thanks, I guess?” 

 

Mingyu grins widely as he looks back into the lens. Jihoon goes back to posing. Mingyu stops him and he just stares at him. 

 

“Ah-ha! Wait, just a second!” Mingyu flees to the back and grabs a funky yellow tie. Jihoon looks at him oddly as he gestures for him to put it on. 

 

Jihoon does and Mingyu snaps another picture. “Its for the contrast! It gives the picture a pop of colour among all of the black and white from the dull graduation gown!”

 

Jihoon nods along, not really caring what Mingyu had to say about the photos. He took it as Mingyu simply being passionate about his work, but that was before the broad-shouldered man started to dress him up and pose him like a Barbie doll. 

 

“Listen, Mingyu is this really necess-” “Wait!” Mingyu screeches, taking the feather boa around Jihoon’s sweaty neck away with him. Jihoon checked the antique cuckoo-clock on the wall and realized to his dismay that he had been here for almost half an hour now. Were they really not done yet?

 

Jihoon taps his foot impatiently as the photographer runs to the back of his shop to fetch three different lense filters almost tripping over the countless cords taped to the floors. 

 

“I have the perfect filter! It’ll add a subtle glow and warmth to your face that you can’t get from any ordinary artificial light fixture. It’ll make you look like you’re on the beach, it’ll be fabulous.” Mingyu grins excitedly twisting the filter onto the lense before taking a picture. 

 

Jihoon groans. He only needs one picture. He doesn’t need to look like he went to the Bahamas. He doesn’t even need Mingyu to photoshop the pictures to make him look like a fashion model for that matter. Let his acne and dark circles be seen for all to see, he doesn’t really care. He just needs one normal picture of him sitting down, maybe even turned to the side a bit, with a convincing “hooray, I did it!” smile. If he could just get that printed and framed, his mother would surely leave him alone for the next few weeks. 

 

“Okay- how about we get one with your hand resting on the back of your neck, like-” Mingyu comes forward and stretches a hand out to position Jihoon’s hand behind him. Mingyu’s large, clammy hands fumbling with his small, sun-deprived fingers to pose them the way he wanted. Jihoon played along, hoping to God that it would help to speed up the process. 

 

“Great! Now, give me...’seductive’,” Mingyu’s eyes narrow and his fingers make a clawing motion at the air. Jihoon frowns and puts his hand down away from his neck. Seductive? Really?

 

“Why do I have to be seductive? It’s a graduation photo!” Jihoon sputtered with indignation, his one hand massaging the tension in his forehead. Mingyu gasps and takes another photo.

 

“YES, that’s it! I love the frustration on your face! Very convincing!” Jihoon groans loudly and gets up. Mingyu is too busy mumbling praises and going through the taken pictures on his camera to notice him walking past. He takes off the graduation garb and walks towards the exit.

 

“I’m leaving. Here’s the $50 for the pictures,” he sets down the bill on a cluttered table nearby,”just email me the good shots and I’ll come back to print the ones I like.” 

 

The bell rings as Jihoon leaves the studio which causes Mingyu to look up from his camera and blinks. “Huh?”

 

 

---

 

 

Jihoon is halfway down the hill when he hears the frantic calls of his name being screeched from somewhere behind him. He turns around and closes his eyes in frustration. 

 

“HEY! WAIT! I’M NOT DONE TAKING YOUR PHOTOS!” the giant maniac screams causing passersby to stare at the two of them. Jihoon decides to wait for him, before he can smack the guy’s head (after much effort and straining in his legs). 

 

“Did you not listen to what I said?” Jihoon sneered. Mingyu gives him a sheepish grin and scratches the back of his head. Jihoon scoffs as he notices the large camera strapped to the man’s thick neck. 

 

“I realize that I may have gone overboard with the pictures-” Jihoon raises a brow and crosses his arms in response to the obvious claim. Mingyu cleared his throat. “Anyways, if you give me the opportunity I’ll take your picture properly this time! I promise!”

 

Jihoon gives him a skeptical look, giving Mingyu a once over from his shiny black dress shoes all the way up to his fake, lensless glasses. He looks at his watch as if he were busy- which he really wasn’t- before giving Mingyu a curt nod. Mingyu’s face clearly brightens and he leads them back up the hill (much to Jihoon’s downright refusal to climb it once again). 

 

 

---

 

 

Once they return to the studio, Jihoon puts the gown back on and Mingyu returns to his position behind the camera. This time, Jihoon takes the typical graduation photo position and Mingyu switches back to using a normal, plain filter on his lens. 

 

“Say, cheese,” Mingyu sings as Jihoon lets out a quiet murmur of ‘cheese’ prior to the snap of the camera. Mingyu straightens his back and looks at the photo with a look of reluctance. He seems disappointed. 

 

Jihoon calls his name and he looks up. “What’s wrong?” Mingyu scratches his head with a single finger before putting it down with a shrug. 

 

“Nothing. It’s just nothing...special,” he pouts. Jihoon watches as Mingyu walks towards him and turns the camera for him to see. 

 

It looked like a normal picture. A classic graduation photo like the ones you’d take during highschool or those free photoshoots you could get at a mega-department store as a child. Jihoon’s mom dragged him to one of those once and the photographer was great at convincing his mother that he had a bright future as a model and that she should buy the framed copies to use as headshots. Jihoon looked at Mingyu and gave him a nod of approval. 

 

“That’s good enough.”

 

Mingyu frowned and reluctantly walked back to the front to print out Jihoon’s chosen shots. Jihoon stared awkwardly at Mingyu’s slumped over figure as he followed him. How was it that despite him being hunched over he was still three times his height? 

 

“It’ll take 5 minutes to print…” Mingyu mumbled in a dejected voice. Jihoon slowly pulled out his wallet, eyes trained on Mingyu’s dispirited face. His camera was haphazardly placed on the counter next to his HD printer and he was just sitting on the chair behind the counter with his cheek resting on his fist. 

 

“Umm…” Jihoon didn’t know what to say. Sorry? Like, what was he supposed to do? He barely knew the guy and now he made him upset because he wouldn’t let him take some extra shots. He didn’t realize it was that serious. “Are you...okay? Sorry if I insulted your...photographic artistry or, like, ruined your aesthetic vibes?” 

 

Jihoon cringed as he let the last few words escape his mouth. Mingyu sighed and instantly gave Jihoon a serious look, his thick, well-shaped brows furrowing to the centre as he looked directly into Jihoon’s confused eyes.  

 

“Would you be my muse?” 

 

He was baffled. His muse? Jihoon gave him a blank stare as Mingyu stared at him hopefully. He didn’t know anything about being someone’s model. He would have thought Mingyu was joking if it weren’t for the way he was staring at him the way his white samoyed puppy, “Baekgu,” asked for treats. 

 

“Your muse?” Mingyu nodded enthusiastically, his hands reaching out suddenly to clasp Jihoon’s smaller ones in his. Jihoon grimaced as he felt the sweat from Mingyu’s hands smear onto his. 

 

“Yes! My muse! I only need to take photos of you from now on! You’re the perfect candidate.” Mingyu went off in praise as Jihoon winced in discomfort.

 

“Why me though? I’m not even tall like other models and I’m not into fashion or like photography at all. Can’t you get someone else?” Jihoon wiggles his hands out of Mingyu’s sweaty grasp and wipes them dry on his shorts. 

 

“That’s completely fine! I only want you to pose for me! Your pale skin and those slender legs of yours! Plus, everything about you is just too cute! Your height and face included!” Mingyu sputtered in acclamation. Jihoon’s face darkened as those grubby hands reached out to pinch his cheeks. 

 

“Besides, no one comes to the shop anymore and everyone that does is either very old or are expecting parents. Please, Jihoon?” Mingyu pleaded as Jihoon stood there uncertain. 

 

“What’s in it for me?” Mingyu bit his tongue and contemplated what he had to offer. He had 50$ in his pocket- thanks to Jihoon- and some lint, but that was it. He was a poor college of arts student, what could he do? 

 

“OH, I know! I-I’ll cook you food! I’m really good, I promise. I’m the resident cook at our dorm,” Mingyu grinned widely as Jihoon considered his offer. Ever since he moved out, he had been living on cup noodles and pizza delivery. A nice home-cooked meal did sound good…

 

“Fine.” Mingyu cheered out loud bouncing excitedly on the back of his heels. Jihoon sighed. This better not have been a mistake.