The secret in the camera
Lin Weixi carefully took out the second-hand camera from the box. The black body was a little worn, but the lens was still bright. She bought this with the money she saved from working part-time during the summer vacation, and now she finally held it in her hands.
The basketball court was deserted on weekends, its only noise from the cicadas beneath the blazing sun. Hiding in the shadows of the stands, she raised her camera for the first time, peering through the viewfinder at the court. Chen Wang was practicing his shot, his red jersey soaked with sweat.
"Click." The shutter sound was so soft that it was almost inaudible. His back was frozen in the camera lens - leaping, shooting, his arm drawing a beautiful arc. At this moment, Lin Weixi suddenly understood why some people love photography. There are some pictures that you just want to keep privately.
On Monday morning, she arrived at school half an hour early and hid in the corner of the teaching building. When Chen Wang appeared, pushing his bicycle, she quickly pressed the shutter. In the morning light, he was propped up on one foot, looking down to unlock his phone, his bangs falling to cover his forehead. The photo was unexpectedly full of life.
During the break, she pretended to tie her shoelaces and secretly took a photo of his silhouette standing in line. In physical education class, the corners of his clothes were blown by the wind while he was running, and his Adam's apple rolled when he drank water, all of these moments became her secret collection.
"Wei Xi, you've been so elusive lately." Chen Siyu suddenly patted her shoulder from behind, "Tell me the truth, are you doing anything secretly?"
Lin Weixi hurriedly hid the camera in her schoolbag: "Preparing for the photography club's homework."
The excuse was half true. The school was indeed holding a photography competition, but she was more concerned about the photos, which would never be seen by anyone.
After school on Friday, she followed Chen Wang to the library. He sat by the window reading, the setting sun gilding his silhouette. Lin Weixi hid behind the bookshelf, her hands trembling slightly as she adjusted the focus.
"Need some help?" the librarian suddenly appeared. "You don't look like you use a camera very often."
"I'm studying." Lin Weixi blushed, put away the camera, and fled.
That night, she exported her photos for the first time. On the screen, every detail of Chen Wang's back was strikingly clear—the protrusion of his shoulder blades as he bent to tie his shoelaces, the slight curve of his fingers as he turned the pages of a book, even the faint line of his collarbone visible at his shirt collar.
She labeled each photo with the date and location, creating a secure folder. The moment she named them, she suddenly realized she was acting like a perverted voyeur. But as her mouse hovered over those figures, a secret sweetness welled up in her heart.
On the eve of her midterm exams, she looked through the photos and noticed something interesting: Chen Wang pursed his lips when he was alone, but relaxed them when he was with others. This was a small detail he probably didn't even know.
A week before the photography competition's deadline, Lin Weixi took her most satisfying photo on the rooftop. Chen Wang leaned against the railing, basking in the sun, his eyes closed, his eyelashes casting a subtle shadow on his cheek. The wind rippled his hair across his forehead, and the whole scene was unnaturally quiet.
She stared at the photo for a long time, but ultimately didn't enter it. Some beautiful things are meant to be kept privately.
The camera became an extension of her secret love. Through the lens, she could gaze boldly and observe carefully without worrying about being discovered. Those frozen moments were the most authentic annotations of her youth.
Sometimes she wondered, if Chen Wang knew there was a woman filling his photos with his back, would he be horrified or moved? This unanswerable question, lost in the river of memory as the shutter clicked again and again.
Until the day of graduation, she took the last photo. Chen Wang stood at the school gate and looked back with a complicated look. At that moment, Lin Weixi suddenly understood that there are some distances that cannot be shortened by the camera.
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