"Are we seriously taking it here?"
Beomgyu rolled his eyes hearing Joanne's whine, again. Ever since he had decided to do the project with her, he wished that it won't backfire from what he felt that day. I should have decided rationally, not emotionally. He thought.
Do not let your emotions get the best of you, do not let it manipulate your decisions so easily. Do not decide when you are at peak, you will regret it later on.
He remembered what his Father told him, he glanced at Joanne who had a blank face while her eyes roamed around the big basketball court. She had her eyeglasses up to her head while her hands were raised at the back of her head— why the hell does she even wear those if she's not gonna use it? Beomgyu thought. Did I even do the right thing? She's plain annoying.
Joanne noticed this, his expression slowly turned sour. "Hey! You were backstabbing me with your thoughts!" She declared, smacking his back a little. Beomgyu quickly denied this and said, "What are you even saying?! Let's start taking pictures!"
She watched how he carefully took his camera, then she sighed. "Again. Where would I spot something heavenly pleasing here? All I see is sweaty boys with big muscles!" She reacted, her eyes fixed on the boys on court. Judging from their built, they were probably Seniors.
Beomgyu flicked her forehead, not scared of her reaction. "Who said you'll take pictures of the players?! You just need visualizes! Like those!" He said then pointed at the huge glass windows that flaunted the blue skies with it's cotton candy-like clouds. She nodded a little when she understood this, taking a breath before rebutting.
"So are we literally taking pictures of the heavens because we're talking about heavenly divine?" She mocked, giving the are-you-serious look to the lad. Beomgyu wanted to blow up right then and there, "You just can't shut up, can you?" He scowled.
Joanne gave a fake smile. Beomgyu huffed and touched the camera's sling that hung around his neck. "You have a better idea then?" He asked, his head tilted watching her think. She looked like she was thinking deep then snapped her fingers. "Aha! Since we are talking about ethereal, it literally means something delicate or too perfect in this world."
She expressed her words with some gestures, drawing some things that made Beomgyu confused. "If that's what it means, we should take pictures of perfect things!" She beamed proudly, "Like roses!" She added.
Beomgyu smirked, "There are no such things as 'perfect'." He contradicts, Joanne huffs then says, "I just said roses!"
"Roses may be beautiful but they have thorns that can hurt you. They're not perfect."
"That's what make them perfect! A balance between the good and bad, a bit of evil. Being imperfect is what makes us perfect." She blustered, widening her eyes as her head popped with her words. Beomgyu's smile faded. "Perfect literally means flawless, accurate, wholesome." He explained like a teacher.
Joanne rolled her eyes at this. "You can keep your brain dictionary out of my original defined by Ryujin book! Being flawless is very boring, being amiss is very difficult, humans are placed in between, it's up to them what side they show." She lectured him with a frown.
Joanne swore that she was just making it all up, as one of the system's core was being excellent, excelling to the highest peak of their lives. They were taught to be the absolute, to aim power, to fly with colors. But what happened to that core? She simply didn't know. Her beliefs that were influenced by the system was long gone because of her. She opened her eyes to see what's really going on, that made her turn back to those cores. At that point, she embraced the word she was avoiding ever since, hypocrite. She hated what she was doing, but she still continued. She is doing what she was tasked to, but she turned away to those beliefs and core values.
Beomgyu watched her space out, suddenly sensing something wrong. He then says, "Light without darkness is blinding, but darkness without light is an abyss." He softly said that woke her up from her thoughts, Joanne just smiled at him like she didn't black out for a minute.
She sighed, she looked away when an idea popped up. The boy beside her furrowed his brows when she looked at him, eyes shining. "I have an idea!" She cheered then stood straight, "Since we discussed about meanings, how about we do this... we take pictures of things that are perfect for us, things that are ethereal to us. As we argued the other day about differences of people mindsets, let's take that as the main idea of the poem. Let's write about being ethereal is being imperfectly perfect, being human."
Joanne finished her words proudly, with a big smile plastered as she shake Beomgyu by his shoulders. "I am so smart!" She cheered, giving a pat on her own back, he can only chuckle. You only realize it now? He thought. As Joanne kept rambling on being genius, his eyes traveled on the bleachers, standing.
He creased his forehead seeing someone staring at them, he has his hands crossed as he simply glance at Joanne with a subtle smirk. Joanne noticed this and followed his line of vision, there, she met someone's eye. Her lips pursed, her eyes widened to see someone familiar.
W-What the fuck? She thought. She cleared her voice to catch his attention. She took a deep breath, "I'll go to the restroom, wait for me here." She smiled, not waiting for his answer. She basically ran to the restroom, located outside the gymnasium.
She took a deep breath to calm herself. Seeing someone from the system just was the least to expect. District 5 is a wide place, Asia is a wide continent. Seeing someone from the same division, in the same University, in Seoul, South Korea just irks her. She took off her glasses to hang it on her gray shirt. When she felt a presence near her, she put on a serious face, her posture changed.
"1704 Joanne. My pleasure to see you here." Joanne heard his deep voice and then looked at him. "1509 Felix. My expectations failed me, I thought you were promoted, such a shame." There was somehow a thick tension, they both stared at each other with their serious auras.
"Permission to drop formalities, madam?" Felix asked, the side of his mouth rising. Joanne took a deep breath, "Permission granted, Lix." She ended it. Felix giggled at this. "How are you?" He asked, maintaining the safe distance between them.
Joanne rolled her eyes, "Strong as a horse." She snorted, giving a killer smile, her intimidating aura still on guard. "How about you?" She asks, her eyes piercing as she show an annoyed face.
Felix raised his hands, "Woah, woah. I'm not the one who lied, One, we all know it's Sam. And to answer your question, as long as I'm alive, I'll be fine." She almost hissed at his reaction. The boy slowly put down his hands. "Are you tasked to be here? Or did you finally took my advice to escape?" He asked, a mocking smile with it, "You look like you were having fun with some guy awhile ago." He put his hands inside his pockets.
Joanne glared and said, "Shut the hell up. I was appointed with a special mission here." She says. "Wolf or Detective?" She asks him, Felix looked away for a second before giving her a stare. "Wolf." She took a deep breath at his answer, her eyes pierced.
Felix groaned at this, "Blame Venus for this! I can't do anything about it!" He ranted making Joanne roll her eyes. "What about you?" He asks, Joanne smirked, "Detective." She answered.
The boy infront of her huffed. "So you are really trying to do that, huh." He mentioned making Joanne glare at him again, "Don't mention that!" She coldly said, her eyes deadpanned to his. Felix sighed, "You really think it's possible?" He equaled her gaze, Joanne's cold eyes never left him when a sudden thud was heard.
In a snap, he saw how Felix held his head, groaning, there was a rolling basketball near them. When he bent down, she saw Beomgyu walking towards them, he looked serious, she was confused at the sudden intrusion.
Beomgyu suddenly held her wrist, pulling it with him as they walk away. Still fazed, Joanne asks, "What was that?!" She asked. Beomgyu sighed, "I noticed that you took so long so I followed after you. When I saw that suspicious boy awhile ago and you looked mad, my instincts told me to pick up the rolling ball near me and throw it to him."
Joanne never felt so surprised in her whole life. She looked back to see Felix who was now staring at them, a hand on his head. She furrowed her brows upon seeing a tall lad furiously walk out.
"Now, we have to run."
"Huh?"
"I stole their captain's basketball. His belonging were near the exit." He said firmly before running away while still pulling her, in full speed.
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