8 AM. No, I wasn’t still in bed, I was at uni. Six years in high school, two years in uni and another five years to go...sigh. “Should I just quit?”

“Quit? Quit what?” Jiyeon asked, looking up from her phone.

“Huh, how did you know?”

“Duh, I read minds.” She looked at me jadedly when she saw my bemused face. “Eunji, you should know by now that you tend to think out loud. So...what were you thinking about?”

“Oh... Aren’t you sick of studying? Jiyeon, let’s just quit med and become photographers! Wasn’t that our plan in high school?”

“Aigoo, stop dreaming you! But...the music department’s looking for volunteer photographers. Should we do that for fun instead?” She asked excitedly. I grabbed her hands and exaggeratingly nodded.

A list of names was posted on the music board and volunteer photographers were instructed to write their names beside an artist. I looked down the list, but of course knew no one. I scribbled my name beside the first one.

“Jung Eunji, do you know me?”

I spun around to see who it was. Startled by how close he was standing next to me, my back knocked against the board. My grip tightened around the strap of my bag as I was thinking too close, too close, “too close”. He stepped back, and we both looked at each other. His slightly raised eyebrows accompanied his amused yet confused expression, and his back was just slightly hunched. His hands were raised to the level of his chest to signal that he meant no harm.

“I’m Jung Joon Young.” He said as he pointed at his name on the list.

“Oh, I’m Eunji,” and that was all I said. I know, I’m completely hopeless with strangers, and by now he probably thinks I’m an antisocial freak.

“So...we should you know, organise a time to meet to discuss some things. 7 PM, outside the uni’s museum ok?” I agreed.

***

Although the sky was dark, the city lights flooded the streets. The bustling night accompanied by street buskers was soothing, fresh. I joined a nearby crowd gathered around a band.

“Did you forget, did you forget me?

Did you forget all those countless memories?

My heart spread its arms towards you

And again today, I’m barely withstanding.”

I squeezed through to the front to see who the vocalist was, hugging the anatomy textbook in my arms. It was Joon Young. The guitar hung from the strap slung over his shoulder, his right hand folded over the microphone while his left clasped the stand.

“When the memories get more and more faded,

I absentmindedly stand on the streets we used to walk.

I try to erase and erase again,

But I hear the sound of your breath and your voice.”

His voice was deep and husky. His lips gently pressed against the microphone as he sang with his eyes closed, his lashes forming thin shadows just below them. As his body immersed into the song, I naturally took out my camera and held it in front of my right eye, squeezing the other eye shut. Through the camera lens, I forgot the fact that he was a stranger. I focused the shot on him, blurring the trees, the lights, the people in the background. For a moment, it was just the two of us.

“Did you forget, did you forget me?

I’m still waiting for you.”

He opened his eyes as I opened mine and we looked into each other as I slowly lowered my hands and he continued to sing.

The thumping against my chest...was it my heart?

Song is 'Did You Forget' by Lee Seung Chul which Jung Joon Young covered on Super Star K4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rno4NSG4ZQA&list=PLcOf-jV0-p1imjgBVn_55sq4MHy2w0LEr