[Light and Night Event] Evan's Birthday Event: Part 2: Episode 03 || 光与夜之恋 陆沉生日活动 奇遇初体验・繁花之旅：剧情03

Please read Episode 02 here before proceeding with reading~

The gentle winter sunlight pours through the tree shades, leaving its specks onto a wooden signboard that is nowhere eye-catching.

"Feilin Movies", Shiodome area's most historical photography studio. 

Upon entering the door, a white kitten leaped off from the table, languidly stretching itself, then leaped towards Evan's leg and nuzzled up against him affectionately.

You: Looks like it likes you a lot.

Evan: Perhaps it's because, it's not our first encounter.

You: Eh?

Evan: I often see it loitering around this area whenever I drove past this place. Before the owner adopts it, I brought some feed for it.

While we're conversing, the white kitten leaped forward, and led us through various kinds of photography studio.

We walked all the way to the innermost room. It has great lighting, that even the floating dust in the air are visible.

You: This is the props room, the owner is still taking pictures, so he said we can wait for him here.

Evan: So "having a lesson in photography studio"... is actually learning photography?

You: Bingo!

I made simple adjustments on the parameters, and handed a full frame DSLR to Evan.

You: In my impression, you seem to really like playing with machines.

In the clockworks collection workshop*, Evan subconsciously showed his focus and enjoyment, and it made him look like he was glowing.

*T/N: Reference to top-up card, translated here.

You: Give it a try, who knows you might also be interested in cameras too!

Evan turned the camera's viewfinder, trying to switch around different modes of photography.

You: There are many ways for photo compositions, for me, I usually prefer the usage of leading lines in compositions.

I leaned slightly closer to Evan, lifting the camera in his hand, and pointed the lens towards a corner of the props room.

You: Roads, rivers, trees, even people's gaze can become a leading line to attract the viewer's attention.

Evan: In other words, it works as long as there's a linear relationship?

You: That's right, for example, just like this--

I picked up a marker pen and scribbled on the whiteboard, trying my best to directly present the unique part of compositions.

Click-- The sound of shutter clicking is suddenly heard from behind.

I turned around, seeing Evan holding the camera as he moved the lens away from me.

You: Why were you sneaking a picture of me?!

Evan: Was I sneaking a picture? I was just trying the leading line composition.

As soon as he finishes his sentence, he slowly walked forward, and took the marker pen away from me.

I leaned closer in curiosity, wanting to see what he's drawing.

But it can't be helped that Evan's figure is really overly tall and well-built, so I can only attempt to keep leaning forward.

Evan: Teacher*. 

*T/N: This part is like a way to address MC as a teacher. Imagine Japanese anime students calling their teachers 'sensei', basically same concept lol sorry I kinda suck at explaining this

You: Eh?

Before I can even respond to it, Evan suddenly raised an arm and supported it against the whiteboard, and encircled me entirely within his arm.

This is already an overly overstepping distance. The marker pen glides across the whiteboard, leaving a flirtatious trail in my heart.

Evan: A composition like this, does it work too?

I subconsciously met Evan's gaze following his question, but he instead leaned down all of a sudden.

You: I only have a smattering of it...

Evan: Really? But I think you taught well.

Evan extended an arm to take off his glasses, then put it onto my face, flirtatious sediments lies within his gaze.

Evan: I will resign myself to your guidance, Teacher Y/N.

Between my heartbeats, I can only let my cheeks dye itself to scarlet bit by bit.

Hence I straightforwardly opened my palm, looked up and met his gaze.

You: Then student Evan, what photos did you take earlier, can you show me?

Evan: Of course I can, but before this, I wanted to take another one as practice.

Evan lifted his camera, and the beeping sound of the camera focus is heard.

You: Wouldn't the distance be a little too close?

Evan: Is it?

His lips curved, the camera held between us immediately disappeared, only leaving our breaths close to each other.

Evan: I remembered there was a photographer that said, if you didn't take a good enough photo, it's because you aren't close enough.

The warm breaths pours over my ear, just like a carefully placed trap.

Suddenly, the freeze frame flashes, but it isn't from the camera in Evan's hand.

The door of the prop room is opened without us noticing it, the white kitten let out a cry and barged in, breaking the enchanting atmosphere.

Looking towards the source of the sound, the owner places down his camera, and scratched his head shyly.

Owner: Uh... The lighting was too good, I can't help with my work habit.

I quickly separated with Evan, and subconsciously touched my burning ear.

He, however, naturally held my hand, and sat with me shoulder to shoulder.

The little photography classroom has begun, the owner's explanation is simple and easy to understand, and unknowingly, it's already the evening.

Under the cover of the classroom table, the fingers held close to my palm has never been let go.

While the owner turned around to demonstrate the photography process, Evan's purposely-lowered voice quietly glides past.

Evan: It's still more interesting to listen to little teacher's class.

I still acted like I was listening to the class seriously, but my heart felt like it's gently brushed by a feather.

One by one, under the continuous clicking sounds of the shutter, our fingers slowly interlocked, gently caressing the lines of each other's palms.

The sunset pours from the windows, and at the instant the camera focused, it felt particularly slow and quiet.