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Today, Yu Yue and I took our first photo together.”
It happened to be the weekend, and coincidentally, it was pouring rain outside.
Xu Yuanzhe and Yu Yue were stuck at home, unable to go out.
Originally, they planned to go mountain climbing, and Yu Yue brought a small camera with him. Unexpectedly, the rain kept pouring, from the morning until noon.
After lunch, Xu Yuanzhe sat on the sofa reading a book.
A variety show was playing on the TV, but Yu Yue had no interest in watching.
He lay on Xu Yuanzhe’s legs, playing with the new camera.
With a “click,” Xu Yuanzhe’s gaze shifted from the book to Yu Yue’s face.
Holding the camera, Yu Yue looked at Xu Yuanzhe with one eye, blinked, and then extended one hand while holding the camera with the other. He tousled Xu Yuanzhe’s hair.
He said, “Your hair has grown back to the length it used to be…”
By “used to be,” Yu Yue probably meant the time around high school.
Xu Yuanzhe responded with a thoughtful “Hmm” and asked, “Don’t like it?”
“No,” Yu Yue withdrew his hand, using the camera to cover his face, thinking it would hide his slightly blushing ears. “I quite like the way your hair used to be.”
After saying that, he snapped another photo with a “click.”
As a future actor, Xu Yuanzhe should theoretically not be afraid of the camera.
However, he inexplicably cared a lot about how he appeared in the lens through Yu Yue’s camera.
He didn’t know if he looked good in those photos.
Even though all the teachers who taught Xu Yuanzhe said he was very photogenic, and his face was full of texture, especially suitable for movies.
Xu Yuanzhe wanted to see what Yu Yue took.
But Yu Yue wouldn’t show him.
Putting down the book, Xu Yuanzhe reached for Yu Yue’s camera.
Yu Yue moved faster and turned to run.
But the house was too small, and there wasn’t much space for Yu Yue to run. In a blink of an eye, Xu Yuanzhe caught up with him, pulling him into his arms.
“Let me see,” Xu Yuanzhe said.
Yu Yue was completely encircled in Xu Yuanzhe’s arms, unable to move and couldn’t break free.
He could only show Xu Yuanzhe the photos.
Xu Yuanzhe lowered his eyes.
He thought Yu Yue was trying to find the photos they took just now by fiddling with the camera. Without urging, he patiently waited. Unexpectedly, Yu Yue suddenly turned the phone’s camera around, aimed it at their faces, and with a “click.”
Xu Yuanzhe: “…”
Yu Yue laughed, wriggled out of Xu Yuanzhe’s embrace like a fish, took the camera, and ran away.
Throughout the day, Yu Yue “secretly photographed” many pictures of Xu Yuanzhe.
Xu Yuanzhe eventually gave up and didn’t chase after Yu Yue for the photos.
Yu Yue only sent one photo to Xu Yuanzhe.
It was their unexpected snapshot.
After receiving the photo from Yu Yue, Xu Yuanzhe developed it near his workplace. During breaks, he took out the photo and examined it carefully.
Coincidentally, the rain had just stopped.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Xu Yuanzhe saw a halo of a rainbow casting onto the photo—faint, frozen, and everlasting.
After returning home, he framed the photo and placed it in the center of the desk in his room.
…
In the second month after the breakup, Yu Yue came across this diary entry.
He remembered the photo placed by Xu Yuanzhe in the center of the desk, framed and captured in that snapshot.
He also recalled the day when he secretly photographed Xu Yuanzhe.
Yu Yue leaned back in the recliner, placed the diary on his lap, opened the cloud storage on his phone, and found an album.
In this album, there were all the photos he took of Xu Yuanzhe that day.
Yu Yue opened the photos one by one.
There was a side profile of Xu Yuanzhe reading, his hair falling down almost to his shoulders, every eyelash looking beautiful upon close inspection.
There were photos of Xu Yuanzhe looking at the camera.
Photos of Xu Yuanzhe wearing an apron while cooking.
And many more, various angles and expressions, all hidden in Yu Yue’s phone.
Of course, the most unique treasure among them was the snapshot taken when Yu Yue turned the camera around.
Yu Yue found the folder with the snapshot and quickly located the photo.
In his memory, there was his own youthful smile and Xu Yuanzhe holding him in his arms to keep him from escaping. The twenty-year-old Xu Yuanzhe exuded a youthful, hormonal fragrance and looked handsome no matter how you looked at him.
Yu Yue looked at it for a long time and suddenly noticed a rainbow reflected in the photo.
He froze for a moment, immediately sitting up straight, carefully examining it, thinking it might be the sunlight from the villa garden projecting a rainbow onto the photo.
However, it wasn’t the rainbow from the garden.
Yu Yue enlarged the photo and scrutinized it for a long time, realizing it was taken on that rainy day. Despite the rain outside, at that moment, everything fell perfectly into place, and a rainbow appeared in the frame.
Yu Yue didn’t know at that time.
He casually took a “click” of that moment.
In the following days, he had no idea that he had captured the rainbow on that day.
The soft glow, the vibrant colors—it all resembled the time they had once shared.
But Yu Yue wondered, if rainbows and time could be frozen in a photo, why did emotions slip away?
EuphoriaT[Translator]
Certified member of the IIO(International Introverts Organization), PhD holder in Overthinking and Ghosting, Spokesperson for BOBAH(Benefits of Being a Homebody), Founder of SFA(Salted Fish Association), Brand Ambassador for Couch Potato fall line Pajama set.