Together | SF9

22

"Ms. Seo? What happened to your face?" The teacher asked.

Nari pushed her lips together into a thin line as she nervously tapped her fingers under her desk.

What should she say? Yoonji's going to be in trouble if she tells the teacher it was because of her.

"I kind of... scratched my face while I was working on our garden earlier." She said with her head kept low.

The teacher sighed and shook her head, "Fine." And asked her to sit down. "Check your own assignments. Please be honest on checking." The teacher said and soon after, she started to write the correct solutions on the board.

"Nari... Seo Nari~" Deokhye said, adding a simple and short melody at the end of Nari's name. The latter turned her head to Deokhye.

"What really happened to your face? You can't easily bruise yourself like this. You got like three band aids on your face. You even have small scratches here." She said while pointing at the part near Nari's ear.

"Your nails aren't long either." Deokhye added.

She sighed and pouted at Deokhye, "I can tell you everything later. Not now, we are in class." Nari said. She don't want to get their teacher's attention again.

Meanwhile, Zuho kept on glancing at Deokhye and Nari. He was amazed at how Nari could keep herself happy despite those incidents happening.

•••

Next class was Humanities. Like what their teacher said, she was absent again.

"Nari!" Taeyang cheerfully said as he ran towards Nari. "We'll be playing basketball for the whole period. Do you want to go?"

"Who else are going to play?"

"Me, Zuho, Chani, Dawon -"

"Dawon has a class."

"He'll sneak out, like usual." Taeyang said while grinning.

"Sure. I'll bring a camera with me." Nari said which caused Taeyang's smile to grow wider.

Nari quickly took out her camera. "How about you, Deokhye?"

"I'll stay here."

Taeyang frowned. He believed it'll be more fun if she will come. "Just follow us if you changed your mind." He said. He quickly grabbed Nari's hand and dragged her carefully to the gymnasium.

The boys started the game as Nari prepared her camera. She have decided to take photos of them as they play basketball and take photos of random things and places she could see.

She took a photo of the boys laughing.
She took a photo of Dawon teasing Zuho.
She took a photo of Taeyang as he danced with the ball.

She also took a photo of Chani as he laughed at the silliness of his friends.

"His happiness is contagious. Seeing him smile, or laugh, makes me want to do the same." Nari thought.

Chani laughed out loud and almost needed to lie down on the floor with his stomach getting hurt from too much laughing.

Accidentally, his head turned to the direction where Nari was. He saw her camera focusing on him and heard the camera ticking.

His smile easily faded and replaced by a frown. "Yah! What do you think are you doing?" He shouted.

Zuho and Taeyang heard Chani shouted. Dawon did not notice it because he was busy playing around Zuho. The two just stared at Chani as he walked towards Nari.

"W-why?" She nervously asked as she hid the camera behind her.

"Show me the photo you took." He said with his firm voice. Nari shook her head as she took a small step backward.

"Erase it on your own."

"I won't show it to anybody! I swear." Nari said with her hand held on her shoulder level, and her palm widely open.

Chani gave her a high-five and quickly approached her back. He easily snatched away the camera from her hands.

"H-hey!"

Nari shouted and tried to take the camera back but Chani blocked her with one hand. "For a while. I'll do it for you if you can't do it on your own."

He scanned through the photos. Nothing else was there besides the photos she took on the same day. There were multiple photos of them but Chani's photos were mostly close up. He was smiling on all of the photos.

Taeyang saw Nari was slowly going to a nearest bench. He wanted to go and console her but Zuho stopped him.

Zuho whispered, "Let them be alone for a while. I'm sure Chani and Nari will be fine."

The serious atmosphere was broken in a mere second by Dawon's hit on their bottoms. "Aigoo! Let's just go and play on our own. I'm sure Youngbin's lesson on him last night worked."

"He did?" Taeyang asked. Zuho and Dawon nodded. "Why didn't I know about that?"

"You were busy dancing in your room, Rowoon said." Zuho said before Dawon began teasing him.

•••

Without noticing, a smile slowly appeared on Chani's face. That's the effect of Nari's photos of himself on him. "I never knew I could laugh like this again."

He looked around to check where Nari was. She's on the bleachers, seated quietly with her head low.

Chani slightly chewed on his lower lip before sighing. "What am I doing to this poor thing?" He started walking silently closer to Nari and occupied the space beside her.

"Thanks." He uttered causing Nari to flinch. "These photos are beautiful - because of the subject." He said before scoffing.

Nari lifted her chin and looked at Chani who was looking at the floor while playing with the camera on his hands.

She huffed before smiling, "I didn't know you can be so proud of yourself." and chuckled causing Chani to turn his head facing Nari.

"Oh!" He exclaimed as his finger pointed on Nari. "You laughed!" But Nari shook her head. "You did!" She shook her head again while looking away.

"I know you laughed!" Chani insisted before he laughed with Nari.