One-Shot Collection (Karma Akabane x OC)

Photographs

To Ash: Dude, you might want to read this again, seeing as what you read a while ago came out only because I accidentally pressed the 'publish' button.
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"Huh. The photos seem pretty happy considering your childhood." Karma remarked as he gazed at the small collection of photographs from a little box in Hayoung's desk.

"Just because there were a few rough patches here and there doesn't mean it didn't get it's fair share of happiness." Hayoung said.

Karma picked up a photo of Hayoung, probably no more than seven or eight, in a sunlit meadow holding a daffodil. Her eyes were widened in surprise, and her mouth was hanging open, probably because the photo was taken a split second before she could register that a camera was pointing at her. Another photo featured Hayoung in front of a coffee shop, dressed in overalls and a striped shirt. Yet another one was of her staring out the window of what Karma assumed was the coffee shop's. If you'd told him that the sweet young girl in all these photographs were of those of the imposing, poker-faced young woman standing before him today, he would have laughed his head off. Between the photographs and present-day Hayoung, the differences were night and day.

"Gee... You were so cute back then. What happened?"

Hayoung cast him a grim look and inclined her head towards some old newspaper clippings featuring news about politicians and members of the government. "They did."

"Oh... Hey, I've never seen you in a dress before!" He pointed at a photograph of Hayoung in a pure white dress sitting on a swing. However, she wasn't smiling. Her expression was more similar to the one Hayoung typically wore: a stoic, expressionless mask. Hayoung stared at the photo as if she was recollecting something unpleasant. Karma, noticing this, frowned at the photograph, wondering what about it warranted such a reaction from his girlfriend.

"That was taken sometime after a gang of hooligans nearly killed me and Ravenna in an alley. I think maybe a couple of weeks after. Titus and Ravenna's said that I was never the same after that."

Titus and Ravenna were her surrogate parents, who had taken her in from a young age after the death of her parents in a car accident. They'd raised her for a great deal of her life, despite the danger they faced. For many years of her early childhood, she'd also had her surrogate siblings, Desmond and Dominique. Karma had heard many of these stories from her, and he could easily see how such experiences could change a person permanently.

"Still though... I've never seen you in a dress. You don't wear those often, do you?"

"No, not really. I ran around a lot as a child."

"Why for this particular photo, then?"

"Dominique was having a birthday party."

"Huh. You know, you really should wear dresses more often. You look quite pretty in this one."

Hayoung raised an eyebrow. "I am nine years old in this photo. How would you know?"

It was Karma's turn to raise an eyebrow. "I dunno. Makes no difference to me. It's still you, and that's the only thing that matters."

Looking at these photographs, Karma felt as if he was seeing a completely different side of Hayoung. And the more he looked, it merely drove home the point that he didn't really know that much about her, or her past. Hell, he'd never even met any of her relations, or even friends outside of E-Class. At that thought, he uncovered a photo of Hayoung standing with seventeen or so people.