chaeyoung never asked for anything from her parents. as the oldest of her siblings she had become accustomed to responsibility at a younger age than any of her peers. so when she saw hwang chansung get his first camera as a gift from his mother, she rolled her eyes at how the senior seemed to attract girls to him like flies when he carried it around. not that he paid any attention to them, she said to herself under her breath. what a waste.
that was the day son chaeyoung decided to get a part-time job.
twelve months later, she was walking out of the second hand camera store with a "gently used" nikon dslr hanging around her neck.
its not that she expected girls to walk up to her and ask her out. not in her school, not with the way coming out to her classmates had led to whispers in hallways and sideways glances when she entered the cafeteria. the camera had a practical purpose - her mom had been nagging her for months to add to her resume a school activity, and yearbook club was the only thing she had any interest in. she wasn't expecting to get a girlfriend. she certainly wasn't expecting chou tzuyu.
when the beautiful taiwanese exchange student asked her to help with her portfolio, chaeyoung almost dropped her camera. she was sitting outside on a bench after school, listening to music and taking really zoomed-in pictures of flowers (hey, she didn't say she was a creative genius). for a few seconds chaeyoung thought she'd misheard, but there it was again.
"sorry to bother you. do...you mind doing me a favour? i want to try modelling like, as a career and i know i'm only sixteen but i've heard that would-be models need to start building a portfolio as soon as possible. i don't really have the money to buy my own camera, so i was wondering if i could use yours? or you could...take some pictures of me?"
chaeyoung almost asked her if she hadn't heard the rumours about her but decided not to try her luck. tzuyu was beautiful, and kind, and had never had a bad word to say about any of her classmates through the six months she'd been at the school. maybe...she just didn't care?
"yeah sure, if you're comfortable with it. i can totally help you!"
"why would i not be comfortable with it?"
chaeyoung choked.
"i guess...you did ask me to. okay, it's a deal! i'm not that good yet, and i don't know much about modelling, so you'll have to give me some direction."
***
three months later, im junhyeok was organizing the spread for the candid section of the yearbook when he noticed not one, not two, but forty-three pictures of one girl.
"hey sungjin, isn't this that sophomore? the taiwanese exchange student? who did we hire as our photographer?? i can't put more than one of these in the candid section, and this person only took four other pictures. all of them are awful close-ups of flowers."