Weaving through the trees, Meisa laughed as she tried to keep away from Jun. At first, she stayed relatively near the photographer. The shots were the most important thing after all. Jun was tricky though! It was all she could do to just to stay away for as long as she did.
He suddenly appeared in front of her and caught her hand. By then she was too out of breath to laugh, but she did manage a grin. "You're good," she shook her head and playfully punched him in the arm, "You came out of nowhere!"
The ruckus the photographer was making finally registered at that moment. Meisa looked around. They had ended up quite a ways away from where they'd started. With her free hand, she brushed the hair that had fallen loose of the braid away from her face. "Hates it. Bet we were moving too fast for him to get a clear shot... And we ended up far away." Hmmmn. "Let's walk back all casual young couple-ish. That'll probably stave off his anger."
That was what the photographer had been going for wasn't it? Besides there were probably a few really good action shots amongst all the ones he'd taken. Still, it didn't do to bank on that. He'd sounded pretty annoyed.
Intertwining their fingers, she twisted so that Jun's arm was slung over her shoulder, their hands holding in a way that tucked her against his side. "Like this. Good plan or no?"
Meisa was warm at his side and Jun laughed as he tucked her a little closer. "Good plan," he agreed. He did like this. He rarely got close to people and when he did it was always for work--this was work but Meisa was also a friend. It was a nice feeling.
He leaned down a bit, lips against her hair in what the camera would make as an intimate moment. "If he hates it maybe he'll cut us loose early and we can go get dinner."
The photographer was clicking away at them even as he yelled. "That was all wrong! Yes, completely wrong! I love it as much as I hate it! We will see what we've managed to capture, yes? Arick! Take this!" He passed off one camera and swung the other around. "Renee! I want to see proofs! Cici, a scarf for Mister Jun and Miss Meisa! Not for sharing, one each!"
Jun tuned him out and looked at Meisa. They were awfully close to that leaf pile. "Hey, you know what?" he said, leaning into her again, but though he said it like he had a question all he did was scoop her off her feet. Time to dump her in the pile.
One could always hope that they'd be let out early. Meisa's stomach grumbled loudly in agreement with Jun. She gave a sheepish grin just as he 'kissed' the side of her head. Dinner soon sounded good. "Where do you want to go for dinner?"
Click. Click. Click.
It was sort of what the photographer wanted? She didn't know anymore, what with his contradicting statements. For all she knew, the photographer would keep them there until the sun went down. But that was rapidly approaching, the sky was already tinged pink, orange and purple. "We'll probably be let off as soon as the sun sets," she murmured, watching Cici scamper for the requested scarves.
"Isn't it wei- Whoa!" All of a sudden Meisa's feet were swept from under her and she found herself being carried securely in Jun's arms. "Where are-" The leaves. Of course. "Jun!"
"MISTER JUN! MISS MEISA!" The camera was still clicking away.
There wasn't much time to struggle for the next thing she knew was the sensation of being dropped.
The photographer was in an ecstasy of shrieking. Half of it sounded like delight. Jun didn't care because he was too busy laughing at Meisa. Her face. He scuffed more leaves on to her. "You were right again. We were playing in the leaf pile," he said as dryly as he could.
He and Meisa were friends--enough for him to drop her--but not so close that he didn't take the safe track out. "You still look a picture," he said. "As lovely as the summer is long."
Cici handed him a scarf done up in long stripes of blues and browns. Jun smiled at her. "Thanks." He looked at Meisa. "Scarves are here."
Meisa blinked in shock. Jun had actually followed through with his earlier promise. He'd actually dropped her into the pile of leaves! She pouted mightily at him, coming out of shock as he sent more leaves her way.
Through it all, the camera kept taking pictures.
"You've preempted my own dastardly plans," she said, pout quickly morphing into a smile. She mock-glared at him. It was kind of hard to maintain with a leaf caught in her hair fell over one eye. A glare wasn't very effective with only one eye and a smile. Plucking the leaf off, she joked, "The leaves bring out my best features you know."
The scarves were here. Meisa tugged on Jun's free hand with an innocent smile. "Help a poor girl up?"
Jun threw his scarf artfully around his neck, letting it drape dramatically down his back and tried hard to not keep laughing at Meisa and the leaves in her hair and in her face. "You're stunning," he agreed. Which was more than true and--if asked--Jun would have been the first to volunteer that a happy smile suited her better than any fierce face.
Fierce face. He made one at her before taking her hand. "I could do nothing other," he assured her.
Meisa made a silly face back at Jun as she took his hand and made to hoist herself up. "Thanks." She debated briefly whether or not to pull Jun down into the pile of leaves with her. "But you shouldn't trust every pretty face," she said mischievously, giving Jun's arm a firm pull and using a little bit of discreet magic to help.
"What is happening?! We must hurry! The light! It is disappearing quickly!"
Women were treacherous creatures, Jun reflected as he landed in the leaf pile beside Meisa. He did his best to muffle his amused snorts of laughter so that she would hear him. "Lovely but cold," he said, rolling his face out of the leaves.
The photographer was yelling but the camera was still rapid-fire clicking away. Jun pushed up on to one elbow and brushed a leaf out of Meisa's hair. "He loves it," he muttered, "you know he does."
Still, it was unprofessional. He got up and then reached down, pulling Meisa up to her feet, body angled for the camera. He used that angle to block his reach for the assistant and the other scarf. He didn't even attempt to tie the glitter-shot scarf--women were complicated. Instead he wrapped it around the back of her neck and used it to tug her a step closer to him. The sunlight glowed on her skin. "I can't remember if we're romancing each other or the trees," he confessed.
Meisa giggled uncontrollably next to Jun. "So-sorry," she managed, clapping a hand over her mouth in an attempt to stop the giggles. "I couldn't resist!"
Didn't the camera ever stop for anything? Probably not. With this photographer, apparently more yelling meant he loved it. She gave a final snort of laughter. "I'd be worried more if he ever got quiet. How awkward do you think that would be?" Accepting Jun's help gratefully, she let a little bit of adoration show for the camera to capture.
"Good! Good Mister Jun! Now look deeply into each other's eyes!"
"I guess that answers your question?" Meisa scrunched her nose in amusement and took a moment to admire Jun's shadowed profile. "Besides, I don't have any pickup lines for a tree. Do you?"
Jun imagined their photographer being silent and shivered. "I just got the feeling of somebody walking on my grave," he said. Which was right when the photographer piped up with his directions. He looked deeply into Meisa's eyes. "I don't have pick-up lines," he said. "I like to be sincere." But for the trees... "Well. There's always 'I'm falling for you' and 'don't leaf me'." He was terrible with puns and he knew it.
"Good, good! We're much better now! Out of our systems! Now the light, yes, we will move to embrace Miss Meisa, Mister Jun. Do not hold her! Miss Meisa, the same! Move to embrace but no holding! None! I will not have it!" Thankfully Jun had done enough print work and enough acting to understand what the hell that even meant. He slid an arm around Meisa's waist but not tightly and not enough to bring her close, though he angled as if he were. "Bodies toward me, yes, more!"
Angling again Jun tried to move his other arm without getting it in the way of either of their outfits. He finally settled on touching her chin at a strange and awful feeling angle that would have looked all right to the camera. "Give us a smile," he said softly.
"And then, in a moment, we shall turn Miss Meisa and we shall hold her from behind, we will highlight her beautiful form! Fierce faces as we turn!"
Meisa managed not to wince at the puns, though an eye did minutely twitch. "Those were... pretty bad," she mumbled, moving as Jun did to get into the photographer's desired position. "It's like we're at a middle school dance. No more touching than necessary."
"Wonderful! Arick bring the fan! Renee! The leaves. A soft breeze blows by the two young lovers!"
Raising an eyebrow, Meisa bit the inside of her lip to keep from laughing at the ridiculousness of the photographer. He truly was an oddball. Brilliant with a touch of crazy. She gave Jun a soft smile, her eyes twinkling with amusement.
"Fierce. Of course they'd sneak it in," she murmured as she was spun around.
"Angle your head Miss Meisa! Look at Mister Jun. Fierce. Yes. But soft! You are in love!"
"You asked," he reminded her as they moved. Jun hadn't gone to middle-school dances--he'd been a bit awkward socially and physically. He'd had lessons in ballroom dance and a few other things as all the boys in his neighborhood had, but he'd never put them into practice. Still, the comparison made him smile.
Until the photographer started talking and was entirely insane again. Fierce. And soft. Jun was glad the focus was on Meisa, he was able to duck his head and hide the way he wanted to laugh. Fierce and soft and he was looming over her shoulder.. "It almost feels like he wants me to kill you gently," he muttered.
"Mister Jun! To the side now, show yourself off! Face toward Miss Meisa! Yes, yes, your clothes are those of a man in a passion! Miss Meisa's clothes are her courage and her openness! Lovely! In the sunset there is magic!"
A leaf hit Jun in the face. "I am a man in a passion," he deadpanned as the leaf stuck to his cheek.
The leaf that smacked into Jun's cheek was the last straw. Meisa broke out into giggles as she reached to pull it off him and tried to hide it by turning to the side. The sun dipped down, the last few rays of pink quickly turned purple.
"Wrong way Miss Meisa! Face the camera!" She turned her head and collapsed into Jun's side. "You laugh? Why do you laugh? The sunset is not funny!" The camera finally stopped clicking. "We are done. The light is no more." The photographer turned to his assistants, calling out instructions, and then back to Meisa and Jun. "Change! We will look at proofs."
"Proofs and then dinner?" Meisa questioned as she and Jun made their way back to their respective clothing racks. "I bet there are some good ones in there somewhere."
Well at least is was back to his own clothes. Jun peeled the leaf off and let it drop to the ground. "Proofs and dinner," he agreed, pulling off both the scarf and jacket and dropping them on Arick as he hurried past. His only real question was what the photographer was going to consider good. He'd liked the published work from their last shoot but it had been a lot of the fierceness. "Call one shot he'll like and I'll buy you dessert," he offered.
He pulled off his shirts as he stepped back to his changing area and pulled on his New York Downtown Hospital sweatshirt. "Most fun I ever had losing," he added as he changed back into his jeans and stepped back into his own shoes. He stepped back out and headed over to look at the proofs. "Looks good," he said, eyeing the first shots already up.
Dinner and dessert? This was too easy. "You're on," Meisa nodded with a smile before stepping back into her changing area. If Jun had forgotten who it was that spent hours with the photographer debating over the proofs, she wouldn't remind him. She was already thinking of her favorite dessert place as she slipped back into her own clothes. "I know a place," she replied, "It's really good."
"Not as insane as last time, was it? At least there was a story of some sort." Checking to make sure that she had everything, she hefted her backpack onto one shoulder, slipped on her flats, and stepped out. It looked like Jun had already made his way to where Renee was setting up the proofs.
Meisa sidled up next to him. "This one." She pointed to one of the first shots of the pair of them had taken. He was smiling at her shyly and she was beaming up at him, book hugged close to her chest. "The clothes are shown off nicely." She dropped her voice to a whisper as the photographer approached, "And it gives him exactly what he wanted. First meeting date thing."
"That one?" Jun nodded at her choice. It was a good shot of both the clothes and of them. Still, too easy. "Pick one of the later ones that he'll hate loving."
"And yeah, it wasn't as crazy," he went on in a low voice, "it had a theme but isn't that even weirder? For catalog work?" It just seemed strange to him. If it had been billboards or a series of print but this was for catalog.
"Yes, yes, very good! I love these! Shy and bold and excited and comfortable!" The photographer whipped through the proofs on the screen. "And these will be loved, naturalmente!" More proofs shot by at a dizzying pace. There was Jun kissing Meisa's hand. "Ahhh." The photographer narrowed his eyes at it.
Jun spoke up. "I'd like that one for my portfolio."
He suddenly appeared in front of her and caught her hand. By then she was too out of breath to laugh, but she did manage a grin. "You're good," she shook her head and playfully punched him in the arm, "You came out of nowhere!"
The ruckus the photographer was making finally registered at that moment. Meisa looked around. They had ended up quite a ways away from where they'd started. With her free hand, she brushed the hair that had fallen loose of the braid away from her face. "Hates it. Bet we were moving too fast for him to get a clear shot... And we ended up far away." Hmmmn. "Let's walk back all casual young couple-ish. That'll probably stave off his anger."
That was what the photographer had been going for wasn't it? Besides there were probably a few really good action shots amongst all the ones he'd taken. Still, it didn't do to bank on that. He'd sounded pretty annoyed.
Intertwining their fingers, she twisted so that Jun's arm was slung over her shoulder, their hands holding in a way that tucked her against his side. "Like this. Good plan or no?"
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He leaned down a bit, lips against her hair in what the camera would make as an intimate moment. "If he hates it maybe he'll cut us loose early and we can go get dinner."
The photographer was clicking away at them even as he yelled. "That was all wrong! Yes, completely wrong! I love it as much as I hate it! We will see what we've managed to capture, yes? Arick! Take this!" He passed off one camera and swung the other around. "Renee! I want to see proofs! Cici, a scarf for Mister Jun and Miss Meisa! Not for sharing, one each!"
Jun tuned him out and looked at Meisa. They were awfully close to that leaf pile. "Hey, you know what?" he said, leaning into her again, but though he said it like he had a question all he did was scoop her off her feet. Time to dump her in the pile.
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Click. Click. Click.
It was sort of what the photographer wanted? She didn't know anymore, what with his contradicting statements. For all she knew, the photographer would keep them there until the sun went down. But that was rapidly approaching, the sky was already tinged pink, orange and purple. "We'll probably be let off as soon as the sun sets," she murmured, watching Cici scamper for the requested scarves.
"Isn't it wei- Whoa!" All of a sudden Meisa's feet were swept from under her and she found herself being carried securely in Jun's arms. "Where are-" The leaves. Of course. "Jun!"
"MISTER JUN! MISS MEISA!" The camera was still clicking away.
There wasn't much time to struggle for the next thing she knew was the sensation of being dropped.
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He and Meisa were friends--enough for him to drop her--but not so close that he didn't take the safe track out. "You still look a picture," he said. "As lovely as the summer is long."
Cici handed him a scarf done up in long stripes of blues and browns. Jun smiled at her. "Thanks." He looked at Meisa. "Scarves are here."
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Through it all, the camera kept taking pictures.
"You've preempted my own dastardly plans," she said, pout quickly morphing into a smile. She mock-glared at him. It was kind of hard to maintain with a leaf caught in her hair fell over one eye. A glare wasn't very effective with only one eye and a smile. Plucking the leaf off, she joked, "The leaves bring out my best features you know."
The scarves were here. Meisa tugged on Jun's free hand with an innocent smile. "Help a poor girl up?"
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Fierce face. He made one at her before taking her hand. "I could do nothing other," he assured her.
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"What is happening?! We must hurry! The light! It is disappearing quickly!"
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The photographer was yelling but the camera was still rapid-fire clicking away. Jun pushed up on to one elbow and brushed a leaf out of Meisa's hair. "He loves it," he muttered, "you know he does."
Still, it was unprofessional. He got up and then reached down, pulling Meisa up to her feet, body angled for the camera. He used that angle to block his reach for the assistant and the other scarf. He didn't even attempt to tie the glitter-shot scarf--women were complicated. Instead he wrapped it around the back of her neck and used it to tug her a step closer to him. The sunlight glowed on her skin. "I can't remember if we're romancing each other or the trees," he confessed.
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Didn't the camera ever stop for anything? Probably not. With this photographer, apparently more yelling meant he loved it. She gave a final snort of laughter. "I'd be worried more if he ever got quiet. How awkward do you think that would be?" Accepting Jun's help gratefully, she let a little bit of adoration show for the camera to capture.
"Good! Good Mister Jun! Now look deeply into each other's eyes!"
"I guess that answers your question?" Meisa scrunched her nose in amusement and took a moment to admire Jun's shadowed profile. "Besides, I don't have any pickup lines for a tree. Do you?"
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"Good, good! We're much better now! Out of our systems! Now the light, yes, we will move to embrace Miss Meisa, Mister Jun. Do not hold her! Miss Meisa, the same! Move to embrace but no holding! None! I will not have it!" Thankfully Jun had done enough print work and enough acting to understand what the hell that even meant. He slid an arm around Meisa's waist but not tightly and not enough to bring her close, though he angled as if he were. "Bodies toward me, yes, more!"
Angling again Jun tried to move his other arm without getting it in the way of either of their outfits. He finally settled on touching her chin at a strange and awful feeling angle that would have looked all right to the camera. "Give us a smile," he said softly.
"And then, in a moment, we shall turn Miss Meisa and we shall hold her from behind, we will highlight her beautiful form! Fierce faces as we turn!"
Jun stifled a snicker. Yeah.
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"Wonderful! Arick bring the fan! Renee! The leaves. A soft breeze blows by the two young lovers!"
Raising an eyebrow, Meisa bit the inside of her lip to keep from laughing at the ridiculousness of the photographer. He truly was an oddball. Brilliant with a touch of crazy. She gave Jun a soft smile, her eyes twinkling with amusement.
"Fierce. Of course they'd sneak it in," she murmured as she was spun around.
"Angle your head Miss Meisa! Look at Mister Jun. Fierce. Yes. But soft! You are in love!"
Oh dear. Professionalism kept her from giggling.
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Until the photographer started talking and was entirely insane again. Fierce. And soft. Jun was glad the focus was on Meisa, he was able to duck his head and hide the way he wanted to laugh. Fierce and soft and he was looming over her shoulder.. "It almost feels like he wants me to kill you gently," he muttered.
"Mister Jun! To the side now, show yourself off! Face toward Miss Meisa! Yes, yes, your clothes are those of a man in a passion! Miss Meisa's clothes are her courage and her openness! Lovely! In the sunset there is magic!"
A leaf hit Jun in the face. "I am a man in a passion," he deadpanned as the leaf stuck to his cheek.
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"Wrong way Miss Meisa! Face the camera!" She turned her head and collapsed into Jun's side. "You laugh? Why do you laugh? The sunset is not funny!" The camera finally stopped clicking. "We are done. The light is no more." The photographer turned to his assistants, calling out instructions, and then back to Meisa and Jun. "Change! We will look at proofs."
"Proofs and then dinner?" Meisa questioned as she and Jun made their way back to their respective clothing racks. "I bet there are some good ones in there somewhere."
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He pulled off his shirts as he stepped back to his changing area and pulled on his New York Downtown Hospital sweatshirt. "Most fun I ever had losing," he added as he changed back into his jeans and stepped back into his own shoes. He stepped back out and headed over to look at the proofs. "Looks good," he said, eyeing the first shots already up.
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"Not as insane as last time, was it? At least there was a story of some sort." Checking to make sure that she had everything, she hefted her backpack onto one shoulder, slipped on her flats, and stepped out. It looked like Jun had already made his way to where Renee was setting up the proofs.
Meisa sidled up next to him. "This one." She pointed to one of the first shots of the pair of them had taken. He was smiling at her shyly and she was beaming up at him, book hugged close to her chest. "The clothes are shown off nicely." She dropped her voice to a whisper as the photographer approached, "And it gives him exactly what he wanted. First meeting date thing."
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"And yeah, it wasn't as crazy," he went on in a low voice, "it had a theme but isn't that even weirder? For catalog work?" It just seemed strange to him. If it had been billboards or a series of print but this was for catalog.
"Yes, yes, very good! I love these! Shy and bold and excited and comfortable!" The photographer whipped through the proofs on the screen. "And these will be loved, naturalmente!" More proofs shot by at a dizzying pace. There was Jun kissing Meisa's hand. "Ahhh." The photographer narrowed his eyes at it.
Jun spoke up. "I'd like that one for my portfolio."
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