Depth of Field noun:

1. the distance between the nearest and the farthest objects that give
an image judged to be in focus in a camera

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"Hwang Hae Ri..." The teacher sighed from her desk, watching the young girl fidget behind a desk, "Why are you here? It's the weekend, you should be out with friends or working on your assignment. I'm surprised you haven't turned it in yet actually." She chuckled to herself as she slashed a large red mark across an obviously plagarized paper about the understandings of depth of field and rule of thirds.

Hae Ri stood behind the desk, creating a pathetic attempt at distancing herself. She picked at her fingers, her face burried deep into her thick scarf hiding her obvious blush. It's not that she didn't want to leave her dorm, with her camera in hand she was never afraid to leave campus. It's the people outside that scared at her. Her eyes flickered up to her teacher before the fell back to her fingers, picking at a hang nail.

The teacher let out a long sigh, shaking her head, "Alright, do whatever you came to do. But please do it quickly, arraso?" She raised her eyebrows. Hae Ri quickly shook her head, causing her thick specs to jumbled down her nose. Her hands plundged into her deep messanger bag, fishing out the old metal and plastic antique. "You know, there aren't many film photography students left. Why haven't you switched over like all the kids your age?" Hae Ri looked at the machine in her hand, her thumb tracing over the rough plastic of the backing. She looked to her teacher nervously and bowed to her slightly before running off to the back of the room. Her teacher let out a sigh and even a small smile, of course she didn't expect a response from the poor girl.

In the back of the room stood a tall thick black plastic cylinder built into the wall, really it served as a form of 'barrier' between the dark room and the lighting for the classroom. The kids in class often called it the 'chamber' because once you entered it was completely black, only by spinning the plastic would it reveal the dark red world on the other side. Honestly, Hae Ri hated using it. It was dark and small with little air, only two people could fit in it at a time. On the other side it was like a different world, bathed in red light and shadows in every corner. Along the left wall stood big boxes that you positioned each film strip into to transfer the image onto the sticky emulsion paper. In the center was a concrete island that was accessable from each side, where trays of chemicals sat to develop the film, and on the right was the sink for developing the actual film strips themselves.

Her fingers worked completely on their own, the processes of creating things that lasted a lifetime and beyond was like breathing to her. Quickly rewinding the film until she felt the slight tug when the film popped from the receiving side, flipping the camera upside down and pushing the button and watching the back swing open, nearly knocking her glasses clear off her nose. Another bad habit she had. The shaky fingers where always the same, shaky with excitement of the beautiful things she capture this time as she pried the cold metal case of the film from it's home in the camera. Grabbing a few supplies next to the sink that consisted of a bottle opener(cheap but affective when prying up cold thin metal that could possibly cut you), and a small film reel and light tight container, she went to work on the film.

It was only a few hours later and going through the list on her songs at least seven times before she was dunking her emulsion paper into the chemical solutions. Using the tongs, she set it slowly in, pressing down lightly so the liquid complete engulfed the thick paper. Her eyes were looking frantically for the image to appear but for some reason it took longer than usual, at least it felt like it did. Slowly a hazy image began to appear, the shape of shoulders, the backing of a bench, soon the facial outline came and then the dark tuffs of curly hair. It was only a few more seconds before the napping man she had captured with her camera appeared before her again, only this time he was frozen in time, never moving, forever in deep slumber. Holding her breath, she threw it into another solution tray to protect it from the light outside when she left.

Her fingers were quickly gripping the edges of the picture, holding it close to her face as if it would give her a clearer look at the boy. It was a little grainy and only slightly blurry but overall she was proud of the shot. Yes, this was definitely an image she could turn in for her assignment... the thing was she needed two more images to complete a series. And her run in with that sleeping boy was pure luck on her part, she sucked her bottom lip in chewing it in thought of how she could pull this together for a grade. Her cell phone started to replay her song list once more, Taste It by Jake Bugg blasting through the dark room. Just how was this poor girl going to find that boy to capture him at least two more times? He could be anywhere in Seoul for Pete's sake...

With a heavy heart she left the dark room dragging her feet, the picture of him and a failed one safetly tucked into a folder in her messanger bag along with her camera. Strange thing was, she never had a habit of it until this moment, but her hand rested lightly on the messanger bag where she knew the picture was placed as if protecting it from the harsh outside world. This boy was her secret, a beautiful secret she wanted to keep safe. Hae Ri peered over her glasses, her vision blurring badly. With a good adjustments of her glasses she saw her teacher sleeping at her desk.

"A-Ah! S-Seonsang-nim!" She panicked, running up to the desk but not to close. She held out her hands hesitating to wake her, but she couldn't bring herself to touch the teacher. Luckily her strange soft shout woke the teacher from her dream, her hands immediately dropped to her sides, her hand returning to where the picture was in her bag. "S-S-Seonsang-ni-nim... I'm sorry I took so long..." Hae Ri apologized, nearly toppling over in a deep bow. She could feel the burning red mess across her cheeks already and immediately retreated her lower facial features into her scarf again to hide.

"Oh...? No it's okay, I had a nice nap anyways." She yawned, stretching her arms over her head, "Yah, you actually said something! That's a rare occurance." She joked. Hae Ri only looked down at her feet, though she couldn't see them over her thick clothing. "You should speak more often, I'm sure you'd be much more popular if you did."

All Hae Ri could do was nod, and bow slightly at her teachers words. As much as she wanted to take such advice to heart, she just couldn't. Not after her accident, it was just too much work for her and she was a person who hated wasting effort anyways. In the end, her efforts would reveal to be fruitless anyways... so why try?

She bowed once more before she muffled a goodbye and quickly shuffled out of the classroom and through the cold cooridors they called 'hallways'. Although outside it was a cloudy sky, there was still plenty of light showing through the large glass windows that she walked along. Her eyes drifted to the small school campus, looking at the pretty yellow and red trees. If she worked with colored film, she knew they would make beautiful images. But she was strictly a black and white girl, just like her personality, plain and simple. If not for the stark white clothing she would have missed the person walking beneath the trees outside on their way out of campus. Even with her glasses the person was a little too far for her vision to be 20/20 but from where she stood the person had short cropped curly black hair and wore a string pack on their back with block lettering reading 'SUGA' on it. Whether her eyes were tricking it into a different word or not she was unsure, but non-the-less it had a name written on its back...

Her head tilted in curiosity, usually if any student was here on a weekend, it was only her. At least from what she saw from last year and the beginning of this school year as well. After a few moments of watching the person disappear under the fall trees she shrugged her shoulders and dropped the issue, the palm of her hand gently brushing the special spot of her messanger bag that housed the sleeping boys picture.