Chapter 44: Friendship Project

Kat blinked in surprise when she saw Arthur walking up to her accompanied by a man.

She hadn’t even noticed Alan’s presence before. As they approached, her curious blue eyes analyzed the man.

He was tall, just a tiny bit shorter than Arthur. But aside from that, their bodies couldn’t be more different.

Alan was thin, looking almost unhealthy, with eyes so deep that he might have spent years without sleeping. His long black hair trembled under the wind from the classroom fans, but most of the time, his messy bangs hid his face.

He had long legs and arms and wore more or less normal, completely forgettable clothes. Saying he was normal would be incorrect. But he was ordinary enough that no one would bat an eye at him.

"So, Kat, this is Alan. He just joined our course, and I talked with the professor — he will be in our group."

"Seriously?" Kat asked with her usual loud tone, surprised William accepted something like that.

Alan flinched, feeling her jarring stare. Kat was not thrilled with the new addition to the group, but she shook her head, trying to stop herself from jumping to conclusions too fast.

She had a bad habit of doing it, and last time it ended with her earning a hard slap on her ass — one she could still somehow feel.

"So, nice to meet you, I guess..." she said, extending her hand toward the man.

"I..." Alan mumbled, the words catching in his throat as he began looking around for an escape.

At last, his body simply froze, and he just looked down in silence.

"Hey!" Kat leaned closer, her angry voice resonating throughout the room as she grimaced in annoyance. "Don’t ignore me! I’m talking to you!"

"Chill." Arthur placed a hand on her shoulder.

Kat’s body shivered, and by instinct, she fell silent obediently. Part of her mind was still annoyingly wary and quick to obey him because of the slap incident.

"What’s his problem?" Kat asked, trying to whisper as she squeezed her eyes shut in annoyance.

"Be gentle; he is not good at talking to people he doesn’t know." Arthur tried to point out how scared his best friend looked. "I hope you could help me by being chill, please."

Kat hesitated, but she felt bad for Alan. She let out a breath, calming down.

"Let’s try being friends then. Or not — if you would rather stay quiet, I don’t care..." she was not good at being gentle.

Arthur slapped his friend on the back, prompting him to at least say a few words.

"Yeah... le-let’s be friends..."

Before they could talk anymore, William clapped his hands, getting the attention of the whole classroom.

"Now, pay attention, as today I’ve decided to teach all of you about pictures," he began.

His class was mostly about how to use photography, real places, people, and things as a basis for creating designs. He also briefly went over some basic photography techniques.

Then, after a class that felt more like a marathon because of how quickly William blurted out content, they still had some time left. For that, their teacher had an activity in mind.

He instructed the students to walk around campus and take pictures. It was a rather simple activity, and for the next class, they would need to bring their favorite picture and explain the reason behind their choice.

Following Kat’s suggestion, the trio decided to go to the small garden at the campus entrance. A place with some nature would have more beautiful things for photographing.

Arthur agreed, and Alan simply nodded, still silent. Kat was the most interested in the assignment, taking pictures as soon as they arrived.

"So, what do you guys think?" She excitedly showed the image she had captured of a bird leaving the ground.

"It’s impressive you captured the perfect moment," Arthur admitted.

The idea made him also a bit interested, as he began trying to do something similar. But it was much harder than he expected, and he hadn’t changed the configuration of his phone to take multiple shots at intervals of 10 seconds as Kat had done.

Alan, on the other hand, just photographed a few things so it wouldn’t look like he was slacking off. Still, the way Kat smiled when happy about what she was doing made her at least a bit more approachable.

Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad? He needed to confront his fear of interacting with people anyway.

"What do you think of this one?" Kat approached the two with a smile, showing them a picture of a cluster of flowers.

Arthur leaned closer to look at it.

"It’s nice," he said, studying the picture for a moment. "But I think it would look even better with people in it."

"People... why?"

"Yeah. Look."

Arthur pointed toward the flowerbed.

"If I take the picture from here, the flowers in front will fill most of the lower part of the image. You two can stand a little farther back, between them. The flowers will frame you without covering you completely."

Kat’s eyes immediately lit up as she looked at the flowerbed.

"That actually sounds really cool!"

Arthur smiled and raised his phone. He decided he would be the one taking the actual picture. As such...

"Then you two are modeling."

"Us?" Kat asked, giving a side glance at the shaking Alan.

"Yep, you two should go for it." He slapped his friend’s back, pushing him to do it.

Kat wanted to take the picture soon, and she agreed it made much more sense to have Arthur as the photographer instead of Alan.

So she grabbed the shy boy’s hand and dragged him into position.

Once they were in position, Alan looked down, feeling way too anxious.

"This is not going to work..." Kat mumbled. "Hey! Relax..." She asked at first, but then thought better of it.

People asking her to calm down never helped reduce her anger. So she doubted telling him to relax, or to feel comfortable, would have any effect.

"Actually, you can stay nervous — whatever, just do exactly as I say. If you get me, then nod!" She said in a bossy tone.

Alan nodded, unsure about everything.

The blond girl stepped dangerously close to him and took a hair tie from her pocket, the one she usually used when she was going to hit the gym.

"Can I tie your hair?" She asked.

Alan nodded, and she gestured for him to kneel down, as he was much taller than her. She quickly tied his hair, so his bangs would make him look like a haunting.

Then she instructed him to keep a simple pose, looking to the horizon. He had a nerdy look, so going for a contemplative pose, playing with the smart archetype, probably would be pretty good.

Arthur watched with a smile, not rushing them at all.

To begin with, his objective was just to force Alan to interact more with people. At first, someone pushy and aggressive like Kat may look like a bad option, but he believed Alan needed some push.

Besides, her being good looking also helped. Men would always give their best when there was a good looking girl around — it’s just in their instincts.

Even if someone a bit kinder and more open to getting closer to Alan would be better for helping him socialize.

But where would Arthur even find such a convenient otaku beauty? Did girls like that even exist?

Anyway, the man gave a few last instructions to the duo. More specifically to Kat, who made sure both of them would be properly in frame, and well positioned to receive sunlight.

Then he began taking the pictures. First of both of them together, then focusing only on Alan, and at last on Kat.

Most of them came out bland, until a perfect gust of wind gave him a great opportunity. He quickly took a picture of Kat, the sunlight making her blue eyes shine like the sky and her hair look as if it were made of gold. Several leaves danced around her, making the simple garden look almost magical.

As class was finished, they needed to head to lunch. Kat still wanted to take more pictures, but Arthur decided his best friend needed a break.

"See you tomorrow," Arthur said, taking Alan with him. "I will send you all the pictures I took; you can choose the one you liked the most."

"Okay, once I have chosen one, I will message you so you can give your opinion too," she said with a big smile.

Arthur blushed just a bit; he needed to say, Kat could look really great when she was not being all bitchy.

The duo of friends finally walked away, and the blond continued taking pictures. Then she headed to the gym, and after it to her house, where she ate dinner alone as usual.

Finally, she sat in front of the computer and began checking the pictures Arthur had sent her.

She scrolled down; most were pretty good, but then she found the last picture Arthur had taken of her.

Kat blinked.

For a moment, she simply stared at the screen. The sunlight made her eyes shine, her golden hair seemed to glow, and the leaves around her made the whole picture look almost unreal.

"Whoa..."

A faint blush appeared on her cheeks.

"Is that really me?"

She zoomed in, unable to hide her smile.