“Why are most of your pictures black and white? What is the point of photographing tons of balloons at a festival if you’re just going to remove the color of it?”

“I like it better that way. Besides, the main point of the photo wasn’t the balloons.” Jimin deadpanned and continued sketching some type of a self-thought font under some photos on a big A2 format paper. You could say he really liked doing all of his photography assignments in “Heaven” bakery.

“Then what is the main point?” Yoongi rose an eyebrow.

“What, a fellow photographer can’t tell?” Jimin said jokingly, but he was too engrossed in his work to see that Yoongi took it way too seriously. The older stared at the photograph again, as if that would make his perception skills better. He was kind of disappointed in himself that he couldn’t see the so called main point.

When Jimin was about to leave, leaving Yoongi to deal with the cleaning himself, he was kind of surprised when the older stopped him and looked somewhat nervous. It has been more than three weeks since their second meet on that rainy night and they had gotten quite friendly with each other, as Jimin really liked “Heaven”, but at times Yoongi’s shyness and clumsiness still came on surface, just like that moment.

“What’s wrong?”

“Can you… giveityome”

“Hyung, I don’t think that was a language I understand.”

Curse you Park Jimin and your free spirit, Yoongi thought. Did that kid ever get embarrassed or shy?

“I said!” Yoongi cleared his throat and tried to compose himself, “Can you lend it to me? For a while?”

Jimin was confused at first, but his quick mind and ability to notice small details came in handy. Yoongi became really quiet after asking about the photograph with the balloons, so he knew that he was talking about it immediately. He actually didn’t mind telling him what was the main focus of the photo, the ‘hidden’ meaning about the explosion of balloons, but something on Yoongi’s face was telling him he didn’t want to be told, so he just agreed.

“But hey, when do I get to see some of your works? It’s not fair!” Jimin whined, knowing that the older was weak against this. Jimin was all about blackmailing people, he was lucky he was cute. “I’m going to give you the picture as a present if you show me yours too.”

“Bye Jimin.” Yoongi said and pushed the younger out of the bakery without giving him the chance to protest, but still grabbed the said photo before closing the door. He wanted to, actually, he really did, but he was nervous showing his photographs to other people, even to his teacher. Yoongi was so used to hiding them in his dorm and trying not to mention anything about them to his parents that he had developed this uneasy feeling when it came to actually showing them.

Especially after today. He felt somehow inferior to Jimin and his abilities, he truly thought the boy was a genius. He had spent so much time observing his photos whenever the younger was working on his assignments and he never was not left almost tongue-tied. Yoongi could see the small details other people who didn’t do photography wouldn’t notice, the feelings that were behind every single photograph and his general point of view from which Jimin liked to portray his affection towards a certain scene and hence snap it. The older truly loved Jimin’s photographs.

Park Jimin is one persistent little that had the ability to go under someone’s skin without actually doing something more than just talking in a really persuading way and show a smile full of gums, or so Yoongi got convinced throughout the week. He clearly remembered refusing Jimin’s pleads and begs countless of times, but right now they were on their way to Yoongi’s dorm, so he could show Jimin some of his photos. Nope, Yoongi didn’t remember agreeing to that and he was sure Jimin was using some kind of magic, because there was no other explanation. Or just he had one very irresistible smile. Either way.

“You look like as if I’m taking you to your death bed.”

“Hmm…”

“Why are you so against it? You usually never stop talking about it, yet you’re so reluctant to showing me?” Jimin finally decided to push the matter deeper, he had given Yoongi enough time to start talking about it himself, but the older never did.

“I’m not that good you know, I just don’t see why are you so excited about it.”

“You also say you don’t make good lattes, but here I am, been drinking them for a month.” Jimin eyed the older. Nope, he’s not giving up.

“You sure have your way with words.” Yoongi sighed again, unaffected.

--

“Won’t your roommate mind though, it’s kind of late.”

“And you’re saying this after practically begging me to bring you here, you don’t make any sense Park Jimin.” Yoongi said and unlocked his room. There was no one else inside. “He rarely comes back here because of the many part-times he’s doing, mainly only to catch few hours to sleep. I don’t think he will mind anyway.”

“Hey, hey I’m trying to be nice here!”

“Okay, sure, does Mr. Nice want to drink something?”

“No but some ramyun would be appreciated.” Jimin nonchalantly while flopping on the floor and Yoongi only laughed because he realized he was quite hungry too.

“Here” Yoongi gave Jimin one big binder where he kept his printed photos, still feeling uneasy, but went to make the food to calm himself down.

The room was silent while he was preparing the noodles. Jimin was quietly going through the contents of the binder and Yoongi had to admit that the lack of the usual snarky remarks he thought Jimin was going to make was making him feel even more nervous. It was ridiculous how little trust he had on his own abilities.

He placed the bowl of ramyun, some kimchi and iced tea on the table and sat on the floor too. So much for healthy eating.

“Did you figure out why did I say that the balloons weren’t the pain thing about the photograph I gave you, even though there was hardly anything else present?” Yoongi was startled by Jimin’s sudden question. He swallowed slowly and took out the said photo out of the pocket of his sweater where he had been keeping it and stared at it for the nth time.

“In the beginning I thought that it was a picture of a balloons at some of the festivals on Busan, but later on I saw that it was taken in January. Then I remembered where I had seen such amount of balloons in one place. You took it on the National human trafficking awareness day, didn’t you? Freedom. The balloons represent the freedom, or in this case the lack of it, the lack of color represents the lack of hope in the lives of people who have been a victim of trafficking. The balloons are floating to the sky, about to be lost into the nothingness, same as a person’s soul”

Jimin only smiled at Yoongi’s answer. He was glad that let the older figure it out himself, he knew that he had thought about it quite a lot.

“I had course work on the topic back in December. Truth was I didn’t know much about it, but it left an impact on me after reading so many essays, works and articles about. On the day itself my hands took a picture of the gloomy, balloon-filled sky themselves, the reflex of a photographer I think.”

Yoongi nodded and slurped more of his food. He was surprised at the maturity of the boy in front of him, honestly. The combination of his talent, perception on things and ability to freely speak his mind, all of it interested the older a lot and he wanted to know more about him.

“You know, you should probably show the secret pictures you take of your customers to them. I know that I wouldn’t mind seeing them, especially after they’re taken so well. All the elder people are smiling so sincerely.” Jimin said with a smile and Yoongi felt his cheeks flushing. He totally forgot how many of those he had there.

“What, you think they’re good?” Yoongi joked and devoured what was left from his tea. His heart was beating really fast.

“I think that you should have a lot more pride in your works. I think you should be boasting about them to the world. I think you should stop hiding them. Your photos are beautiful hyung, I think you should realize that. Even if I wasn’t so involved into photography myself I would’ve noticed the passionate and sincere feelings every photo holds. Not everyone is able to capture the natural and smiling faces of people in this busy, rushed and unwelcoming world. But you do and you do it really well. I think your photographs are more than just ‘good’, I would describe them captivating and alluring.” The younger said with the most serious face, without batting an eyelash. Yoongi was speechless in a way he has never been before.

A/N Sorry if it's kind of a gloomy chapter guys, today is really such a day ;; Also I try to use the best out of the term fiction, so twist truths and general facts in a way to suit the things i'm writing about the best, hence the incorrect information about how exactly the national day of human trafficking is spent in Korea ;; Please do tell me if that bothers any of you!
Also i can't find the right words to stress enough how thankful I am to every single person that is giving this story a try, subscribing and even commenting, it never fails to make my heart flutter ;u; I'm as well sorry for the grammer and spelling mistakes, as always ;;
A smiley gif of the day to brighten up the mood a little haha ;u; (credit)

P.S All of my prayers go to the victims and the families of the victims of the sunken ferry Sewol.