The shutter clicked. Wu Qiao looked at the image frozen on the camera screen and nodded with satisfaction. Ichinose Honami's smile was infectious, and paired with the soft afternoon backlight, it made the whole photo look bright and full of life.
He turned the camera screen toward Sakura Airi, a hint of inquiry in his expression. Sakura Airi leaned in to take a look, pushed up her glasses, and gave it a careful assessment. "Hmm... The composition and captured expression are both pretty good. It feels very lively. But the lighting could use some work."
With that, Sakura Airi gently gestured for Ichinose Honami to hold her original pose. She picked up her own camera but didn't press the shutter right away. Instead, she turned slightly and adjusted her angle by the tiniest amount.
"Click."
At the crisp sound of the shutter, Sakura Airi lowered her camera. She stepped between the two of them and showed the camera screen to Wu Qiao.
The same spot, the same Ichinose Honami—even the curve of her smile was almost identical. And yet the two photos gave completely different impressions.
Wu Qiao's photo was clear and bright, but the lighting felt a little flat. Ichinose Honami's outline blended somewhat with the trees behind her, leaving the image without much depth.
But Sakura Airi's photo, thanks to that subtle change in angle, made clever use of the dappled shadows between the leaves, tracing the outline of Ichinose Honami's profile just right.
Her hair caught the backlight, creating a soft, diffused glow. Flecks of light fell across her fair skin, and rather than making the image look cluttered, they gave it a dreamy sense of depth and atmosphere.
"Here," Sakura Airi said softly, pointing at the patches of light on the screen. "If you lower the camera a little and use the shadows from the leaves in the foreground, the light will have more depth. Wu-kun was too focused on getting a clear shot of her face, so he overlooked how much the ambient light could tell a story."
Wu Qiao looked at the photo, so full of warmth and professional polish, and felt a slight jolt. He had understood that photography needed emotion, but when it came to actually applying the techniques, he was still just piling up theory.
Sakura Airi's casual shot had not only demonstrated her professional skill, but also shown him, in the clearest terms, how far he still was from being a true documentarian.
"I see..." Wu Qiao rubbed his chin thoughtfully, a flash of understanding in his eyes. "Using the imperfections in the surroundings to bring out the subject's perfection? I've learned a lot, Teacher Sakura."
Ichinose Honami looked at the photo Sakura Airi had taken, her eyes lighting up at once. "Wow! That's incredible! Sakura, it's like you've put magic into your camera! I look even prettier in this photo than I do in real life!"
Ichinose Honami's frank praise made Sakura Airi's cheeks flush. She lowered her head, a little embarrassed, and said softly, "N-no, it's not that amazing... Ichinose is just naturally photogenic."
Watching Sakura Airi blush and Ichinose Honami gaze at her in admiration, Wu Qiao smiled and shrugged. He seemed to have gotten even more out of today's photography lesson than he'd expected.
Though Wu Qiao had generously promised to cover all the food and drinks, Sakura Airi was very restrained. She didn't take the opportunity to order any expensive desserts or drinks, choosing only simple, home-style dishes and ordinary bottled water. Wu Qiao quietly took note of how carefully she counted every penny, but didn't say anything.
Before long, Sunday afternoon arrived, and Sakura Airi continued her duties as his "photography teacher," guiding Wu Qiao through an outdoor shoot. As they looked for a high vantage point, Sakura Airi unexpectedly discovered just how incredible Wu Qiao's physical abilities were.
Faced with a wall more than two meters high, Wu Qiao didn't even need a running start. He simply braced himself with both hands, vaulted up with ease, and landed in a steady crouch on top, searching for the right composition.
The sight opened up an entirely new world for Sakura Airi. She pushed up her glasses, her surprise giving way to a fresh understanding of what a "shooting angle" could be.
So a photographer's physical abilities could also be an important tool in capturing the perfect image.
By dinner time, Sakura Airi had planned to grab something quick in the cafeteria and head back to her dorm.
However, the moment they left Commercial Street, they ran into Ichinose Honami again. Once the warm and friendly Ichinose Honami found out they hadn't eaten yet, she enthusiastically invited them both to the school's buffet restaurant.
She seemed to notice how reserved Sakura Airi was. Smiling, she winked and said, "Wu-kun can treat Sakura, okay? Eating at a buffet by himself would be so lonely anyway. Just help us share the cost and keep us company!"
The buffet was naturally much more expensive than an ordinary restaurant. Sakura Airi was about to wave the offer away when Ichinose Honami cheerfully pulled her inside.
But before they'd even been seated for half an hour, Sakura Airi witnessed something that shook her entire worldview.
The plates in front of Wu Qiao kept changing, one after another. He went through meat, vegetables, staples, and desserts at a speed and in quantities that were simply staggering.
Sakura Airi quietly calculated the total in her head. Wu Qiao was eating enough food in a single meal to last her three whole days!
She stared in astonishment as Wu Qiao polished off the food on his plate with elegant speed, unable to stop herself from silently crying out, Are you serious? Does this refined-looking Wu Qiao, who's so humbly learning about the art of photography, have a black hole inside him?
Ichinose Honami wasn't at all surprised by how much Wu Qiao could eat. Wearing her usual radiant smile, she teased, "You must work really hard at your studies, Wu-kun, if you need to replenish this much energy!"
Wu Qiao set down his cutlery and took the tissue Sakura Airi handed him, wiping his mouth. "Whether you're using your brain or working out, it takes a lot of energy."
Looking at the boy who could leap onto a high wall to get a better shot and eat three days' worth of food in one sitting, Sakura Airi's understanding of Wu Qiao had been turned on its head once again.
After dinner, Sakura Airi returned to her dorm, took a shower, and climbed into bed early. She looked up at the fluorescent light on the ceiling and blinked slowly, replaying the past two days in her mind.
From Wu Qiao inviting her to teach him photography, to running into the warm and cheerful Ichinose Honami, to watching Wu Qiao eat an astonishing amount at the buffet... The whole experience had been a little awkward, with even a few small frights along the way. But being needed and accepted by others made her feel more secure than she ever had before.
Maybe this meant she'd made new friends.
It turned out that stepping out of her little self-imposed world and meeting different people wasn't as frightening as she'd imagined.
At the thought, she sat up and took the diary she'd kept for so long from under her pillow. She opened it out of habit, planning to peek at what would happen tomorrow so she could prepare herself and avoid becoming flustered in a crowd.
But the moment her gaze fell on the entry for tomorrow morning, Sakura Airi's brow furrowed tightly, and her lighthearted mood plunged to rock bottom.
There, starkly written on the diary page, was a cold and glaring warning: [In the morning, find a harassment letter and several secretly taken photos in the shoe locker.]
Sakura Airi's breath caught, and her fingertips trembled uncontrollably. The diary's predictions had never been wrong. That meant this terrible thing would definitely happen tomorrow morning.
Those malicious stares, the fear of being watched, and the harassment letter someone had slipped in...
It was as if an invisible net had instantly torn apart the little sense of safety she had just begun to build. She instinctively wrapped her arms around herself, as if that could protect her from the hurt to come.
A harassment letter... secret photos...
The words were like sharp knives, piercing straight through the fragile defenses she had only just begun to build.
Who was it? Or had someone discovered her hidden identity?
Fear swept over her like a tide. She curled up beside the bed with her knees to her chest. The small spark of hope she had just felt about school life was plunged into an abyss.
Tomorrow's sun would rise as usual, but for Sakura Airi, it seemed it would mark the beginning of another nightmare filled with malice and prying eyes.