 Le Exotic
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Smiles Tuesday, December 11, 2012 | 3:42 AM | 0 star
~*~
Smiles.
If there
was one thing that could make the almighty Park Chanyeol crumble, that would be
it. A smile, just ONE smile, and he’d be a goner. Being a passionate freelancing
photographer, he could never let a beautiful smile pass. That’s probably one of
the reasons why his gallery is filled with smiling faces.
To him,
it doesn’t matter if a smile is genuine, fake, forced, crooked or in pain. A
smile is a smile, and each has its own beauty and message to portray.
He
himself had quite a bright smile. Having a dentist as a father and a mother who
had a beautiful smile really made his smiling-genes toothpaste-commercial-worthy.
Even so, he wasn’t exactly fond of his smiles. He’d always thought his smiles
were a bit creepy. The twitches and too-white teeth weren’t exactly helping either.
He used
to be known as The Happy Virus because of his big and contagious
And
because of his too-white-and-too-straight teeth coupled up with the awkward
twitch and the whole of his face in general, he used to be bullied. Now that
he’s all grown and towering over most of the human population, people don’t
bother him that much. Still, his feelings for his own smile never changed.
He still
feels insecure of the way his face expressed his happiness.
Thus the
reason why he doesn’t smile that much.
But
that’s it. The only exception for his smile fetish was his own. He hated his
smile but would never cease the opportunity to capture another’s.
Which
explains why he’s leisurely walking down a sakura-filled lane in the middle of
a park on a beautiful Sunday morning with a DLS-R hanging over his right
shoulder. The air smells like sakura petals, freshly brewed tea and cinnamon
rolls and the spring sun is pleasantly warm on his pale skin.
He’s
been there since early morning watching kids play and couples holding hands. He
watched a family having a picnic under one of the many sakura trees. He watched
an old couple sitting together at a bench, reminiscing about old times
together. He watched an ahjusshi selling rice cakes his wife had made earlier that
morning. They all smile, and he captures every single one of them.
Chanyeol
huffs as he settles himself under a fairly big sakura tree, having thought he
had captured enough smiles for the day. Glancing at his watch, the time read
11.30 a.m. Maybe I should stay here for awhile
longer. I’m already here anyway, might as well enjoy the beautiful weather.
Sitting
back, he stretches his long gangly limbs and closes his eyes, enjoying the
pleasant sounds of children’s laughter and leaves rustling with the wind, and the
warm rays of sunlight beating down on him through the tree branches.
He feels
so relaxed and comfortable, he thinks maybe he should take a nice nap. Besides,
he had stayed up late the night before just to finish up his assignment and had
woken up early that morning just to drive up to the park.
Just as
he feels himself drifting off to sleep, he suddenly feels something land on top
of him, pawing his shoulders and sniffing his face. The feeling continues for
another 5 minutes and he frowns, because he really wants to take a nap and the
wet nose digging into his cheek tickles and he really doesn’t want to be
molested by something while he’s asleep under a tree in a public park.
Begrudgingly,
he cracks his eyes open and finds himself face to face with a very white and
very furry face. He pulls back a little to see who the molester is and gets
licked in the face in return. He pulls away, sitting up and frowning on the
thing that had now slipped onto his lap.
It turns
out his molester was a cute and fluffy big dog that seems to really like him.
He almost smiles as he pats said dog’s head. A faint voice causes him to look
up.
“Sang
Chu-ah! Oh God, SANG CHU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Chanyeol watches as a boy runs
up to him and bows deeply, apologizing and trying to pull the white dog away
from him, afterwards.
“I’m so
sorry. He somehow managed to escape his leash. I’m so sorry.” The boy looks up
after finally pulling the white dog to his side, flashing a precious eye-smile at
Chanyeol.
You know
how sometimes in those dramas, the lead guy bumps into the lead girl for the
first time on a busy street and he sees her smile and suddenly it’s like the
world suddenly stopped for awhile, and it feels like it’s just him and the girl
that mattered at that moment and he feels his heart thump and throb
uncontrollably in his chest.
Chanyeol
thinks so this is how it feels.
He feels
all funny inside. He finds himself staring at the beautiful smile and he can’t
seem to look away. It’s beautiful, prettier than any smile he’s ever seen in
his life. His mind is telling him to say something. Anything. Just stop staring and creeping him out
dammit.
He
tries, but he finds himself tongue-tied.
He
finally snaps out of his stupor when he feels his right hand tightening around
something hard. He looks down to see his DSL-R firmly gripped in his right
hand. He looks up at the boy in front of him and finds the boy still smiling at
him, albeit with a little glint of unsureness.
“U-uhhh…I-I…I-I’ts
okay. Uhmmmm…” Chanyeol tries to form a coherent sentence but his mind is still
scattered and all over the place and think
Chanyeol, think.
The boy
tilts his head to the side and smiles some more, frowning at the same time.
Chanyeol thinks the boy has got to be the cutest thing on the planet and before
he realizes it, his lips are turning up and his teeth are showing and oh god I’m smiling. Shit. Stop it mouth.
STOP IT.
He
blanks out for a while when he hears a beautiful tinkling sound and it takes
him a while to realize it’s the boy’s laughter. He can’t help but notice the
way the boy’s eyes form pretty little crescents when he laughs.
“Wae?
Why are you laughing?” Chanyeol asks, having already given up trying to stop
himself from smiling. That’s it, scare
away this boy too. Your life is already damned anyway.
“Your
smile,” the boy giggles, and Chanyeol feels his heart drop. “It’s so bright. I’ve
never seen a smile so bright, before.”
Chanyeol
blinks. So is that a good thing or a bad thing?
“So is
that a good thing, or a bad thing?” He mentally slaps himself for saying that
out loud.
The boy chuckles. “I think it’s a good thing.”
The boy
smiles again and this time Chanyeol can’t stop himself from grinning his almost-forgotten
shit-eating grin. He’s different, this
boy is different, Chanyeol thinks, and he doesn’t know why he feels giddy
at the thought.
“Can I take
a picture of you?” Chanyeol blurts out before he can stop himself, and he kind
of expects the boy to freak out and walk away.
Instead,
the boy smiles brighter and replies a simple “sure.”
Chanyeol
blinks again and it registers to him that the boy agreed and he scrambles and
stumbles over his gangly limbs to stand up. The boy chuckles again.
Chanyeol
makes the boy stand exactly where and how he is; smiling under the sakura tree
with Sang Chu beside him, his hand holding Sang Chu’s leash. Chanyeol tries to adjust his camera lens but then
realizes that everything already looks perfect as it is.
He takes
the picture and finds himself smiling as well. The picture turned out prettily
and Chanyeol thinks he should probably put it in the largest frame he can find
and hang it in his gallery.
The boy
awkwardly smiles at Chanyeol as he steps out of the shade of the tree, pulling
Sang Chu along with.
“Yeah
well it was nice to meet you,” The boy says, walking backwards to the direction
he first came from. Chanyeol smiles at the boy and nods, waving a little.
Chanyeol
suddenly feels his heart drop from his ribcage down to his stomach and he
thinks This is it?Wait, no. Do something,
Yeol. Don’t let this beautiful person who actually appreciates your smile slip
away.
“W-wait!”
Chayeol calls out, jogging towards the boy, who had stopped walking and turned around
to look at him, flashing a beautiful smile again. Something clicks inside
Chanyeol and he thinks this is supposed to happen, his life will never be the
same again.
“I-I’m
Park Chanyeol. M-May I know your name?” Chanyeol stutters, but oddly he doesn’t
feel embarrassed about it. He just feels like grinning and laughing. This boy
is starting to have affects on him. He can just feel it.
“Baekhyun.
Byun Baekhyun.” He boy says, beaming up at the taller, and Chanyeol feels all
funny all over again.He thinks he likes the feeling.
“Okay
then, Baekhyun-sshi. Would you like to come to my gallery exhibition sometime
soon?” He knows he’s pushing his luck, but something tells Chanyeol he has to do this.
“Are you
asking me on a date, Chanyeol-sshi?” Baekhyun chuckles and Chanyeol just grins.
“If you
want it to be.”
Baekhyun
smiles up at Chanyeol who grins down at him for awhile. It felt like forever
before Baekhyun opens his mouth to answer.
“Sure.”
Chanyeol
can’t remember the last time he’s smiled and grinned so much.
~*~
He looks
around. The room was filled with people, all well-dressed and scattered around.
He feels a little bit out of place but continues to walk through the gallery
anyway. A few people glance at him and smile, and he doesn’t even know why but
he ignores them.
He walks
further into the room, going through a doorway and he finds himself in a larger
room. A few people who were inside the room, glanced at him and smiled as well.
He frowns and walks further inside.
He looks
around and takes in his surroundings. The room is filled with pictures, with
frames bigger than the ones he saw in the previous room awhile ago. The
pictures were beautifully captured and their vibrant colours bathed the room in
a calm ocean of life.
But what
caught his attention the most was a large frame propped up in the middle of the
room. The picture was bigger than any other picture in the gallery and the
frame was gold wood carved with magnificent patterns and swirls.
He walks
up to the large frame and stares up at the picture, and his face suddenly feels
a lot warmer. He continues to stare at the picture, thinking why?
“Beautiful,
isn’t it?” he hears someone say beside him. He turns around and finds himself
face to face with the owner of the gallery himself.
“U-uhhh…C-Chanyeol-sshi…Why
is my face there?” H asks, blushing when he sees Chanyeol stroke the smile in
the picture. His smile.
Chanyeol
smiles. “Because you have the prettiest smile I’ve ever seen, and I think it’s
a masterpiece.”
Baekhyun
feels his heartbeat quicken and butterflies fluttering in his stomach. He
smiles up at Chanyeol, and Chanyeol grins down at him.
Click, they both felt it.
Something
clicked inside them, as though everything had fallen into place. Like puzzle
pieces fitted together to form a perfect picture. They continue to smile at each
other, even though they know there will be more smiles and more perfect
pictures to come.
Yes, if
there was one thing that could make the almighty Park Chanyeol crumble, it
would be smiles. Especially Byun Baekhyun’s.
And vice versa.
~*~
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