𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐊𝐘𝐔𝐍𝐊𝐖𝐀𝐍 𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐘.

                                                                                                             “𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐦 𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐢.”

the first couple of weeks at skku has always been exciting for most and foreboding for freshmen. and as days go by and tables and chairs are being set up in the courtyard, excitement begins to climb for the much anticipated WELCOME WEEK—where freshmen make themselves known to the rest of the university and upperclassmen relish in a bit of school spirit and fun before schoolwork really starts to pile up. 

skku’s welcome week, especially, is a spectacle to behold. with the university’s many clubs taking to setting up their own tables for new recruits, there will also be sponsored food stands and the occasional game here and there thrown into the mix. students are highly encouraged to attend for the sake of getting to know their peers and, in the long scheme of things, making useful connections for the years to come. and for those who have yet to find their footing in skku, this is the perfect chance to get properly situated amongst the student body.

suhyeon’s not been a stranger to cameras, all of his life. when he was younger, it was his parents making sure to capture each one of his milestones, and it quickly lead to tv reality shows and seeing them trained on his father, and then they were on him, too, for the commercials he filmed, the dramas he landed. he remembers them at events, snapping moments of his parents on either one of his sides, dripping in the most expensive clothing and jewelry and suhyeon remembering to smile for so long his cheeks ached.

for the modelling he has tried out, holding himself in the correct positions, shifting from one to the next, he remembers the way that his mother used to stand off to the sidelines, could see the way he needed to correct himself in her eyes. straightening up more, making sure that the emotion reached his eyes, and that it wasn’t as empty as all of this made him feel sometimes.

he found a camera laying around at his house, stacked up on a shelf like it was put there to keep, no more space anywhere else but to gather dust here, forgotten. cleaning it up with gentle hands, he found that it still worked, and so he discovered the film that it needed, loaded it up and taught himself how to use it. it’s what he has in his hands, now, perched up on the stone steps near to the entrance to one of the academic buildings, and he has the strap around his neck as he brings the camera up to his eye, looking through the viewfinder. there’s a group of friends, laughing and stumbling along, carrying backpacks and bags and watered down cups of coffee, someone with headphones in, hurrying along and turning the world around them in a blur, and someone reading off of a packet of papers, pacing, several feet away, muttering words under their breath almost as an incantation, but it’s probably just last minute cramming.

he supposes he has been all of these things, in his time here. he shifts the camera to the leaves of a nearby tree, watching the way the branches arch out into different paths, connecting to varying parts and leading off to another. suhyeon thinks that humans are a lot like that, too, though not quite as solitary, even more free then when the wind rustles the leaves and threatens to disrupt their peaceful placement among the branches. there is the way that he has his own connections, and those lead to another, and another, and if he was just a single curve of life along the pathway of so many others, he wonders just what his branches would look like, how they lead all of the way back down to the root.

welcome week had been a bit of a blur, by now. the way that the lens looks when he zooms in and out too quickly, and he has to wait for the world to focus. he had applied to the photography club, and finds himself now, behind a camera, wondering if somehow that will prepare him better for what lies ahead, and maybe it will give him some perspective. he had been searching all week for potential candidates, and from behind the camera, finds himself looking from as many places as he could think to seek out. at the library, in the corner, tucked between mysteries and romance, the dusty shelves just like he rescued his camera from, wrapped in the scent of old books and worn bindings. he had been on the stretch of grass that students often laid out blankets to relax on or work, and he had looked up to the blue sky, coated in fluffy clouds of white, and wondered if what he was looking for truly laid between.

here, there is the sun, offset by the awning he rests beneath, one leg tucked up against his chest and the other hanging down, bouncing the back sole of his shoe against the brick as he sweeps his view. he can barely hear it in his ears. there is that freshman that he had seen around, meandering inbetween the club booths, and at the concert, in which suhyeon had not been able to find what he was looking for, either, but he remembers the face in the crowd. maybe just another perspective student, but suhyeon wonders why he continues to see him when he isn’t trying.