She had spent the last three months looking for the perfect subject to enter in the contest. Triumphant photographers would be awarded with their work displayed in a gallery. She had intended to enter another piece she acquired in her trip to the Americas, but the necessity struck her to use a more domestic candidate. Something familiar but unknown, unbridled by the camera, making it all the more captivating. It was a heavy order to fill, and she still hadn't found anything that suited her. The deadline for submissions was closing in fast, and she was beginning to think she might have to withdraw.
But she'd found it. Or rather, them.
Hana saw them unexpectedly one morning when she was running late for class. Their voices carried in jovial fun, and she stopped her charge just long enough to get a glimpse of them. A group of boys gathered around a grill outside a rundown gas station, all looking their share of intimidating but none acting especially threatening.
Something about them enamored her. They were the real deal teenage delinquents. All bronze and no brains aside, she could tell by their camaraderie that other qualities existed: loyalty, passion, trust, endurance. That was what she wanted to capture through her camera. They were her muses.
So, a few days later, when she was able to skip a few classes, she went back. Sure enough, there they still stood, looking very much the way she left them. There was something a little different, though she wasn't sure what. Her camera would find it sooner or later, and she stood across the street under a shady tree, hunting through the lens.
There were five of them, all fairly predictable based on their appearances. Two twins that looked like an unnecessary blend of Yankee and Bōsōzoku marked their trade through excessive chatter and dirty humor. One guy had long braids at least five times the length of her short caramel-brown hair, and his pocketed hands matched the lazy grin covering his wild-eyed face. The one next to him was a little sleeker but nonetheless just as wild-spirited, perhaps even more so judging by the sneer in his lip. The last guy possessed a brand of handsomeness none of the others mimicked. A rope headband was tied around his head, and his gently ambitious eyes puzzled her. He was different than the rest, yet not.
But what was missing? A centerpiece; a bond; a leader. These guys wouldn't come together voluntarily. A ring leader must rally these troops, and she was certain none of them were it.
Suddenly, her camera was yanked from her hands. She snapped her head up and glared at the guy turning away with her camera. "Oie! What're you doing?"
He threw the camera down with a brand of strength she'd never personally witnessed, but he did it with a look of utter boredom. The lens popped off instantly, and various tiny bits scattered across the pavement. He stomped it just once, no less bored, and then stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked across the street.
Hana gawked at her dismembered and broken camera. All her pictures, not just from today, but from the weeks before. Those moments.
She threw her bag down beside the dilapidated pieces and stomped after him. "Oie!" He joined the group of guys gathered across the street, and her shout attracted all their attention except his. "OIE! Do you have any idea what you've just done?"
He dropped down on a crate and lit up a cigarette as one of the guys indicated their roasting hotdogs. "Do you have any idea what you were doing?" He inhaled on the nicotine and looked up at her, boredom never ceasing. "It's an invasion of privacy to take pictures of people without tellin em. I acted on my rights."
"Your right to destroy personal property?"
"My right to protect my privacy."
Hana scoffed, in the midst of them now, but her fury was so hot at this point that their full attention almost escaped her notice. "You could have asked me politely! That's an $800 camera, you asshole!" He was back to watching the hotdogs cook and exchanged conversation with one of the twins sitting next to him. "Oie!"
