Research of any kind was not Soohyuk's best point. He could be proactive and productive in different ways so, naturally, he lost interest fairly quickly. however, instead of walking into his room and watching dramas like he'd usually do, Soohyuk decided to stick by Miran's side, waiting patiently for her to speak about her troubles.

That was supposed to take around a few minutes but it took more than an hour and Soohyuk was getting bored. Since he's been throwing subtle glances at her for the last ten minutes while also looking longingly at the door, Miran decided she should give him what he wanted.

"What's wrong?" She asked but he didn't answer. 

Miran sighed and took her glasses off. It was bad enough that she had to wear contact lenses outside of her house but the work was cringing and her eyes hurt. She rolled the chair towards her friend and leaned back comfortably.

"I know you. What is it that's bugging you?" She asked, giving him her full attention.

 "It may not be my place to ask but have you been thinking about your breakup?" He finally asked the dreadful question.

Miran scoffed and turned her chair back towards the white laptop, "You're right. It's not your place to ask or get involved for that matter,"

"Have you even registered where you are working? It's the ROMANCE SECTION."

"And? It's not like there won't be other works to edit if I get the chance."

Soohyuk raised an eyebrow and moved closer to her, "You have never fallen in love, Miran. I don't know what you think you know but that is definitely not what they want from you."

"And how would you know what they want from me?" She asked annoyed.

He scoffed and folded his arms in front of his chest childishly, "They gave you all the bad authors out there. The ones who people never heard of because their work is meaningless."

Miran stopped typing and looked down at the list of her authors: Nam Woohyun, Lee Susan, Cha Hakyeon and IKim Youngkwang. That last name was bugging her.

"Have you read the list?" She asked, having the man take a look over her shoulder, "There is a name on the list, one that I haven’t heard of in a very long time."

"Is that name more important than the rest?" He asked innocently.

She nodded, "It's a name with meaning. I wonder if this person has any idea what he's writing about."

"You don't know love so you don’t have the right to judge him." Soohyuk stated firmly one again, annoying her with his overflowing sincerity.

Miran her lips and glanced at him from the corner of her eyes.

"Do you? Does anybody know what love really is? Just like me, you never had a passionate relationship where you actually got involved, have you?" She stated coldly.

Soohyuk frowned and looked down at his hands, his mind swirling with thoughts. No matter how much he was trying to shrug her statement off, it was tugging on his heart.

It was a few hours later when Miran stopped reading stuff about Woohyun and closed the document, feeling like she wasted time on a piece of junk. She leaned back and rubbed her forehead, feeling tired and sore. Soohyuk was already asleep, snoring softly while drooling on her pillows. She sighed and opened the document with authors and their works once again.

“Kim Youngkwang, when did you even return to South Korea?” She mumbled rubbing her neck.

Next morning, Miran woke up feeling more uncomfortable than before. She opened her eyes and groaned when she noticed Soohyuk’s legs spread over her stomach. If he were to twitch in his sleep, he would hit her straight in the ribs. Thankfully, she woke up in time and rolled him aside, getting up and preparing for another working day. 

Her phone buzzed on the couch and she remembered that she left it there so she wouldn’t be tempted to send texts full of curses to her boss. Miran chuckled when she saw 4 new texts, all from Hyungsik. All of them were saying the same thing but in a more or less provocative manner: he wanted her to get in front of Henry & Co Library by 10 o’clock. It was still 8:45 am so she had enough time to drink coffee and even wake up Soohyuk.

“You’re late.” Miran snapped as soon as Hyungsik arrived in front of the library, “I understand 5 to 15 minutes. I understand even 30 minutes but you are one hour and a half late.”

Hyungsik, on the other side, seemed fine; if anything, he looked like he woke up and remembered he had a job in the last few minutes. He was dressed like he was going to the store around the corner, not a library.

“Stop checking me out and get inside,” He mumbled, pushing her lightly towards the front door. “Henry & Co is a library with a long history of well mannered staff and bestselling books. Our company has been working with them ever since your cousin debuted, or even before when Heechul wrote his biography,”

Miran raised an eyebrow at the latter information, “He wrote his biography? Shouldn’t someone else do that for it to be a biography?”

“He has his ways.” Hyungsik was throwing information as if it was nothing, “Anyway, this serene place attracts women of different ages so naturally it became the romantic hot spot in Seoul.” He continued, leading his employee further into the library.

Miran stopped and took a long look around her: shelves were along each side, full of old and new books from different regions, genres, writers, countries or ethnicities. It genuinely looked more like a shopping mall than anything but it was beautiful. She took a few steps towards the white stairs and looked up, seeing people wandering around every level.

“Can I help you?” Asked man dressed very fashionably in a white shirt tucked inside his black jeans with a model-like height and body.

Miran’s eyes widened slightly and crawled back to her boss, whispering to him, “Is that what you meant with well mannered staff?”

“You don’t have to look so content.” Hyungsik whispered before planting a wide polite smile, one for business purposes.

Miran rolled her eyes and waited in the back, her eyes curiously watching everything. The shelf closer to her had mystery and thriller books. In one corner was one book that seemed lost, like someone took it and didn’t bother placing it back after they finished.

The brunette peaked at Hyungsik and saw him speak continuously with that model-like man, doing his job or whatever. She puckered her lips and sneaked down towards the shelf. With every step closer, the cover of the book seemed more familiar. She reached out to take it but her hand only grazed lightly the cover.

“What do you want to do later on, Miran?”

Miran looked down at her hands before she raised her head and stared deeply into her tutor’s eyes.

“I want to express myself freely and help those who can’t.” She responded earnestly. Her eyes were sparkling every time she spoke about her passion. “Will you help me?”

The man chuckled. He wasn’t much older than her but he was definitely a good home tutor.He was also that one person whom she looked up to and respected more than anyone else. 

“The question is do I want to help you or do I want to let you experience life by yourself?”

Back then, that person meant more than her own family and yet she couldn't hold onto him. She didn’t dare ask him for help afterwards, not that she had the chance. After she graduated high school, Soohyuk went on the model career and spent one year in Singapore while Miran ran in order to hide her broken heart. She ended up studying in the UK and when Miran returned, nothing was the same anymore so she begun a new career alongside her best friend, who was there for moral support.

“Back then, you could have just helped me...” Miran mumbled, reading the title again before her eyes set on the cover itself. He most defiitely chose it personally.

“We still have work to do, newbie!”

Miran flinched when she felt the strong slap on her back from none other than her boss. Her eyes widened and quickly shrugged the memory away.

“Yes, yes, work. I’m going to ask for my authors.” She mumbled as she turned around and walked past her boss to the model staff.

Hyungsik raised an eyebrow as he watched her go ask for books that were probably in the very back, long forgotten and untouched.

 “Your authors, huh?” He whispered thoughtfully before turning towards the book he caught her staring at.

For a moment, Hyungsik felt like he should check it out and find answers, especially since it was about his employee. On the other hand, she wasn’t going to last long in the field so he shouldn’t bother. Yes, not getting involved had made his life easier.

“Henry&Co is a Carousel library offering space for reading, socializing and artistic exploration in the heart of the city. A bistro on the top floor, a basement and a multimedia space dedicated to contemporary art gallery on the first floor, the library is preparing to tell a new story in a street with a vibrant commercial tradition. It’s a place where readers can go and experience good taste.” A confident Miran began the presentation a few hours later.

Heechul was standing with Jungseok and Hyungsik, listening her with a playful smirk on his face.

“This won’t do. Her authors have been listed as goosebumping horrible. She has to make them appeal to the market not to themselves.” Jungseok muttered, his owlish eyes staring at the business plan in front of him.

“They won’t pay for authors no one has ever heard of.” Heechul pitched in.

“That is not entirely true. They did hear about them but never had the interest to check out their works.” She continued professionally.

“And how do you think a Carousel library will change our financial issues?” The head of the Accounting Department asked, his tone rushed like he was in a hurry to get his assignment and go back to work.

“Miss Miran, what is this meeting about? I don’t see any connection between a popular library and the ever growing pile of manuscripts.” Heechul surprised the young employee with his professional take on the matter..

“Usually, readers give spoilers on SNS and the re's a growing number of webtoons and stories written freely all over the internet. Romantic books are just like Korean dramas, they have a certain plan that they go after and the ending is usually unrealistic but women love it anyway. But what do they love exactly? Why are they so caught up into dramas? Because of the way it’s done technically, the lights, the dialogue? No. It’s the characters and their portrayals.” Miran explained as simply as she could. “I noticed during my lecture that my authors are bad not because the story is cheesy –the story follows the romantic plan all the way to the end- but because their characters fall in love through some kind of miracle and they dive straight into loyalty and commitment when real life couples need time to express their feelings.”

“So the problem is the characters not the story?” Jungseokasked, finally rising his head and looking at her. “What do you plan to do then?”

“I plan to meet them personally and advise them accordingly. Also, I will proof read every single project they are working on at the moment and will make it proper for sales.”

“And how do you plan to do that when you don’t like romance?” Hyungsik asked with a playful smirk.

Miran’s eyes fell on her boss, narrowing slightly making her look like a sly fox. The woman tried her best to contain her amusement, taking full responsibility of what she was going to say next.

“I’m counting on you, chief editor, to teach me what real romance is.”

Hyungsik froze while the rest of the staff turned to him. The editor chief swallowed nervously when he noticed the ghost of a smirk on Jungseok’s face. 

For those who want to know, the Carousel Library exists in Bucharest, Romania. It's called Carturesti Carousel and it's one of my favorite places to go and read.