He arrived at the library. A reign of silence governed over the place, even moreso than usual. No shadows stood by the shelves as he walked past them. No slouching figures focus on a book sat at any of the vacant tables at the centre. The perpetual smell of musk, old tree and leather apparent to his nostril still, tingling his nose with a sense of safety. Akin his room, but where instead the smell of his scent, the sea breeze that trespasses into his room via his open window and the musty odour of slight damp on wood were his blanket of comfort.

He approached the library's main desk, and set himself behind it, placing his bag underneath the counter. He took a seat by the desk and exhaled, relaxed. Being one of the first ones there mean an extra amount of silence and no irritating new students, or bickering boys, or -

“Kyungsoo.”

“Ah!” yelped the fair student, suddenly taken out of his meditating self-summary.

“Sorry, didn't mean to scare you.”

“Yifan,” Kyungsoo evoked his name, reassuring himself of the rather quirky smile the taller blond had on his otherwise intimidating, chiselled face “hey, it's alright, do you need anything?”

“No, just...” the statuesque blond looked to his feet and took an awkward pause in his answer, “I just wanted to check on you, since you know...”

“Yifan,” Kyungsoo called the taller top ranker, to get him to look at him in the eyes, “I'm fine. I still keep in touch with them on a regular basis.”

“But it's different, isn't it?”

The fair boy could not hide his expression in regards to the question; disappointment, “Yes...” the reply came in a lower volume and a lower level of energy, “but, you know, change can be good. It is for them, at least. They're furthering their studies and their future.”

“But what about you?”

“Why does everyone ask me that... ?” Kyungsoo enquired himself, feeling as if the world was on some sort of recurrent joke that he did not understand, “I'm fine. There is a bigger picture to imagine, not just my childish behaviour. For God's sake...”

“I don't think missing your friends is childish...” stated Yifan, in a manner unlike a of a proud member of the school's popular basketball team.

Kyungsoo sighed, often not accustomed to the great dichotomy between the tall blond's intimidating appearance and rather meek and subtle personality, “I'm sorry, Yifan, I didn't mean to snap at you. But, I keep answering the same questions. The answer is I'm fine.”

“Okay, if you say so, but now that you're friends don't keep you as much company, would you like to hang out after school?”

“I have work after school and I finish at around 8pm.”

“That's okay, I finish cram school around that time as well, 19:30.”

Kyungsoo shrugged, seeing no issue in coming home late, seeing as his sisters often get home late as well, “Okay, if you're available at that time, why not?”

Yifan revealed a bright, pleasant smile, elated by the reply “Usual place?”

“The burger place? Hmm... can we go to Happy Pie Pizza? My sisters ordered from there weeks ago and I am craving it again.”

“Sure, if it's not full, it tends to be in the evenings.”

“I'll pay this time, since I have a part time job and all.”

“But I like inviting you,” the Chinese blond moued “My mother gives me this allowance to treat my friends, but seeing as you're my only friend...”

Kyungsoo crossed his arms and sat back on his chair, determined on his decision “You can invite me, but I'll pay. If not, I'm not coming.”

“Fine,” Yifan yielded “today we split.”

“Fine, next time, I pay for us.”

“Very well.”

Yifan took a seat in one of the nearby tables near the librarian's desk, whilst Kyungsoo immersed himself in his book. The novellisation of the children's movie Up; it did not make it any less tear-jerking. In between pages, Kyungsoo would pull the phone out of his pocket, and eager wait for any notification from his friends.

There were none.

He sighed, disappointed that the day was heading the same direction of the last week – very little to no correspondence from his friends.

“What's got you down, Cute Soo?”

Kyungsoo seethed in anger at the mere sound of the voice, and even more so at the inappropriate nickname “You, for a start, Sehun.”

“We're making good headway in our friendship,” said the sleek city boy excitedly “you're being honest with me.”

“Argh... !” Kyungsoo groaned and pressed his temples and massage them in meagre attempts to calm the storm of a headache that he felt coming, “what do you want?”

Sehun leant over the counter looked down to the fair student with a smug look upon his face “You haven't shown me around, yet.”

Kyungsoo sent a questionable glare at Sehun “I thought Jongin was supposed to do that?”

“Yeah... no, I don't think he will.”

“He would've, if you didn't insult him, having just met him.”

“He seemed like one of those always-do-the-right-thing, praise-me, look-at-me and everything-I-do-is-special kind of guys. I hate those kind of guys.”

“Awfully judgemental of you.” commented Kyungsoo, taking note on how the new student was quick to jump to character archetypes.

The boy rolled his eyes, letting out a puff of air “Just returning the favour from those types of people.”

“I wish I could say you were absolutely wrong...” Kyungsoo mumbled, returning to his book.

“So,” Sehun continued once again into another topic “got any plans for lunch?”

Kyungsoo clenched his eyes shut, searching for the inner strength in his soul to convert into patience, for his reserves were low already “No, seeing as I don't have lunch.”

Sehun pursed his lips, raising his hands and gesturing them as if they were scales, weighing his options “No lunch, as in, no free time for you, or no food?”

“No food, forgot to bring any,” Kyungsoo replied, not glancing at the boy's vivid gesture “but my body is used to not eating at this time of day.”

“If I treat you, will you hang with me?”

The student librarian rose his head to look at the city boy, narrowing his eyes in suspicion and grimacing at the concept of buying his time “You can't buy my time like a , Oh Sehun. Ask one of our classmates instead, they seemed thrilled that you transferred here.”

“What about you? Aren't you thrilled to have a new classmate like me?”

“I am so thrilled I am in despairing tears just thinking about it.” Kyungsoo replied in a flat, uninteresting tone, near sighing his words out.

“Am I dreamy, is that what you're trying to say?”

Kyungsoo closed his eyes once more, inhaling and exhaling very slowly. The limits of his last patience were being tested, with sharp breaths and gritted teeth, he spoke in short bursts, in a low tone “Just. Ask. Somebody. Else. Please.”

But his growls and rude answers were no deterrent for the tempest that was Oh Sehun: Persistent, annoying and overconfident – a recipe of absolute hair pulling irritation for the fair student. As per his wishes to survive the day, he withstood the boy's presence during his library shift, and subsequent lessons after it. If his threshold for tolerance had not increased then his resistance against brain aneurysm did, he thought to himself.

And when the lunch time bell rung, he cherished it, for it was time to head to the usual hide out; the closed off outside corridor connecting the school building. Except, it wasn't the trio's hide out anymore, it was now, solely, Kyungsoo's.

He headed to the second floor and headed to the west side of the building where beyond a pair of neglected double doors was a rustier one, with a worn out sign displaying 'do not enter'. Ignoring the signs and the unspoken signs, rust and dust, Kyungsoo pressed on, through the double doors, through the rusty one to an empty corridor outdoors, connecting the two buildings that formed the whole school structure. On the other side of the outside co