𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞, ph.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀𝐯𝐢. what's the story?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝐯𝐢. —— what's the story?

— i —

The last few days of the trip were slightly weird for Rome; he focused on his work more than he did before, this trip was supposed to get them acquainted with their partners so Rome knew their teacher didn't actually expect them to start working on the project right away, but Rome was quite good at distracting himself from things he didn't want to think about. Right now he didn't want to think about Pick and his anonymous girlfriend, or how clear Pick needed it to be that he already had someone as if anything Rome did would suggest that he was flirting with Pick—and that made Rome kind of scared that he unintentionally let Pick know he likes him.

So overall, it was better to keep his distance, wasn't it? Rome liked to think he's being smart.

But fate had different plans for him. Fate or, how Emma would call it, Rome's incredible stupidity—he preferred to think about it as the desire to capture everything beautiful; and if that beautiful thing made him climb a tree and hang from a branch above the river, was that really his fault?

"Shorty, you're going to fall from there," Pick called out, looking up at Rome with doubt on his face. It was the last day of the trip and most of the seniors used it to swim around, knowing that from the next Monday they will have to go back to school again. Pick was in the water directly under the branch that Rome climbed on, there was a big tire hanging from a rope as a swing; Emma tried to convince Rome to sit in it a few times but for him, it was way too close to the water. Apparently, a branch was far enough.

He just wanted to photograph a pretty bird, he did not deserve to suffer like that. Not to mention that the bird flew away because one of the students accidentally threw a ball this way, scaring it.

"Screw you, P'Pick. I won't fall," Rome answered, slowly turning around. He carefully handed the camera back to Emma, swinging it on a stripe so she could catch it, just in case he did fall. It was Din's camera, he couldn't break it the way he did with his own.

"Hey, watch out!" someone yelled suddenly, just when Rome was extending his arm to hold onto the trunk of the tree. The same damn ball that scared Rome's bird hit the branch again, making it move under Rome. He didn't even have the time to think about yelling when he was falling; he just hoped it wasn't the same student that made the bird fly away because otherwise Rome would have to commit premeditated murder during this trip and his teacher wouldn't be too happy about it—though she probably knew he was capable of doing it.

The water wasn't as cold as the last time Rome fell into the river which was comforting considering the fact that Rome went under immediately and his head didn't have to suffer from a shock. He wasn't far from the side of the river, he knew that and he tried to think logically instead of panicking again; the thing was that the river was deeper here, that's why the swing was situated exactly above this part — people used it to jump to the water all the time. Rome uselessly moved his legs, he couldn't touch the bottom. His heart was beating rapidly when suddenly someone pulled him up by his wrist, and then there was an arm wrapping around his waist to keep him steady.

"Hey, hey! Stop moving, I'm holding you!" a familiar voice yelled when Rome kept thrashing around for a few more seconds, trying to find anything to hold onto. Finally, he clutched onto the person next to him with one hand, wiping the water from his eyes with another to see Pick's face a few inches away from his own. "You're safe already, stop moving before you drown us both," Pick added and Rome nodded immediately, looking at the senior with wide eyes. "You're... you're really scared of water, aren't you? I told you you're going to fall, why the hell did you climb the tree?"