If there has been one thing that got Sanghyuk to read the 1168 pages long novel in a week, it was the prospect of seeing Jaehwan and possibly getting a cup of coffee with him.

It does happen like that; Sanghyuk hands Cryptonomicon back to the bored librarian who registers the event under Sanghyuk's name, but doesn’t even meet his eyes. Sanghyuk pulls a face he knows the girl won’t see anyway, and marches into the main aisle, his head snapping left and snapping right, looking for a mop of dark hair and a pair of round glasses too huge on a face too sharp-edged for someone so… small.

He finds Jaehwan in the reading room alone, with a cushioned chair pulled close to a window and Jaehwan sitting on it with his socked legs drawn under himself. He’s immersed in a book resting in his lap, head propped up on his hand. His brow is furrowed in concentration, maybe displeasure, and the sight makes Sanghyuk smile a little as he pads in, stopping right next to Jaehwan.

“Something bad happening?” he asks quietly, and Jaehwan looks up at him, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. Sanghyuk nods towards the book.

“Things I would never agree with,” Jaehwan says, and sticks a piece of paper (previously a shopping list, now serving as a makeshift bookmark) in the book, closing it afterwards. Sanghyuk reads the title of it: 1984 by George Orwell.

“You might be taking it too seriously,” Sanghyuk says.

“Have you read it?”

“Yeah, and it’s amazing,” Sanghyuk replies. “And Cryptonomicon was really good, too.”

“Oh?” Jaehwan perks up, a smile making its way on his face. “Have you finished it?”

“Yeah,” Sanghyuk nods.

Jaehwan scrambles to stand up, pulling on his sneakers without untying his shoelaces.

"Would you like to talk about it by a cup of coffee?" he asks, placing the book on a shelf where it doesn’t belong. When Sanghyuk looks at him questioningly, he just shrugs, saying, "It'll be easier to find when I come back."

He leads the way out of the reading room, and picks up his bag from the counter, the librarian not sparing the two of them a look.

The coffee shop downstairs is small and looks pretty unpopular, if the lack of guests on a sunny Saturday afternoon is any indication, but it's charming in its own way, at least to Sanghyuk.

"Hey, Hongbin-ah," Jaehwan greets the guy behind the counter.

The brown haired boy is far too handsome for a coffee shop worker; the kind that makes headlines on blogs, declaring him to be the “hottest barista” and becoming Instagram famous just because of the sheer fact that he’s attractive and isn’t on a runway but behind a counter. He is wiping a mug clean, his eyebrows running up on his forehead when he looks up at Jaehwan.

"How come you've climbed out of your cave upstairs?" he asks without saying hello.

"Couldn't you be a little kinder?" Jaehwan asks, pouting sadly. "I have a guest today. A newbie in the field of library-going. I still have a lot of work to do on him."

Sanghyuk snorts and Jaehwan looks at him, amused. The guy called Hongbin narrows his eyes, but then smiles, wide and blinding, dimples appearing in his cheeks, though it’s nothing short of sarcastic.

"What can I do for you, dear guests?"

"I'd like the usual," Jaehwan replies happily, and then both of them stare at Sanghyuk who feels a little uncomfortable, staring up at the menu above Hongbin's head.

"Uh," he says, "I'd like the same."

"I doubt that," Hongbin grumbles.

"Excellent choice!" Jaehwan exclaims, and then motions towards Sanghyuk, "Come."

They sit down in a booth by the window, Jaehwan placing his hands on top of the table, lacing his fingers, and Sanghyuk lets himself marvel at them a little, at their angularity and all of Jaehwan's bones looking so sharp and still so graceful, a wide silvery band glinting on his right middle finger.

"So," he says, resurfacing from his daze, "can I have a question?"

"Go ahead," Jaehwan says cheerfully, his kind smile appearing on his face.

"The librarian girl told me you don't work there. What do you exactly do at the library all the time, then?"

"He lives there," comes the reply from Hongbin who puts their drinks on the table. "He's pretty much a library freak."

"A compliment," Jaehwan nods and Hongbin grimaces at him, but then leaves the table. "I do certainly not live there, though I've tried to move in before, but unfortunately, the town leaders are quite against people looking for shelter in a library."

"You're kidding me," Sanghyuk mumbles, eyebrows raised.

"Am not," Jaehwan shakes his head and pulls his drink closer to himself. "They're pretty strict."

"I didn't mean that," Sanghyuk laughs at the absurdity of it all. "I meant you couldn't be serious about wanting to move into the library."

"Oh, I was serious about that," Jaehwan replies, taking a sip of his beverage through the straw. "I figured if I was going to spend most of my time there, I might as well bring my stuff with me. But to answer your question, I love books, if that hasn't been clear so far."

"It has," Sanghyuk snorts and then examines his own drink. It's a glass of... something, with dark syrup on the bottom and some coffee mixing with what seems to be vanilla ice cream, milk froth and whipped cream on top, sprinkles of cookie crumbs and caramel decoration sitting upon all of this, a spoon and a straw stuck into the whole thing. "What... is this?"

"It's called a 'bookworm'," Jaehwan answers, pulling out his spoon carefully not to drop whipped cream on the table. "Hongbin gave the name of it and it went through with the management well! It's something I invented."

Sanghyuk thinks about that for a second, and while he doesn't yet know Jaehwan all that well, he finds he isn't really surprised this is all Jaehwan's doing.

"Is this a latte with whipped cream and cookie crumbs and caramel and vanilla ice cream and... what's that on the bottom? Chocolate syrup?"

"Not exactly," Jaehwan says, happily turning over a spoonful of whipped cream in his mouth. "It's chocolate chip cookie flavoured syrup; the coffee shop's own thing."

"Looks like liquid diabetes," Sanghyuk murmurs.

"Hm, that might have been a better name for it," Jaehwan giggles and Sanghyuk grins at him.

'Bookworm' tastes ten times sweeter than it looks, but Sanghyuk drinks it all, engaging in a conversation about Cryptonomicon and other books with Jaehwan, finding out that Jaehwan has no one favourite book because he's simply too much of a nerd to choose. Sanghyuk listens to him most of the time, only sneaking in a comment about books he's read, but otherwise paying full attention to Jaehwan as he digs into his "coffee" with his spoon to reach the scoop of ice cream, talking animatedly about all the stories he loves. He seems very into the whole topic, sounding more passionate about it than Sanghyuk has ever felt about anything, bright smiles breaking out on his full lips, and adjusting his glasses every now and then, and Sanghyuk wishes Hongbin wouldn't tell them they're closing.

"Oh, look at the time," Jaehwan says, flicking his left wrist to look at his battered watch. "It's already past nine. We've been here for more than four hours."

"Astute observation," Hongbin calls from behind the counter. "I'm tired, so please, just pay and leave."

"Sad thing good conversations always end too soon," Jaehwan sighs and stands up, gathering his stuff.

"We could continue it another time," Sanghyuk offers a little quietly, afraid of being rejected like the first time.

"Yeah, just drop by the library anytime you want and we might be able to come downstairs," Jaehwan says.

"If you're not too engrossed in a book?"

"Exactly," Jaehwan grins and pulls out his wallet.

"My treat," Sanghyuk says touching the back of Jaehwan's hand to stop him. His skin is warm but dry and Sanghyuk, for some reason, files that away with all the other things he has learnt about Jaehwan today. He unsuccessfully tries to fight off a blush as he pulls his hand back. "Thanks for the talk and, well, the diabetes."

Jaehwan laughs at that, loud and boisterous, his eyes forming crescent moons and creasing at the corners, and damn it, he looks so cute the way he pulls his shoulders up like he's trying to hide his smile into the collar of his black turtleneck.

Sanghyuk pays for their coffees more than he would consider reasonable for non-alcoholic drinks, and they exit the coffee shop together, stopping in front of the door and watching Hongbin turn the sign around to 'closed'.

"Next time you come to the library, I'll let you choose something based on your gut feeling," Jaehwan says, huddling into his coat in the cold February night.

"I thought you were supposed to match me up with my better half of a book?" Sanghyuk asks.

"That's only the first step," Jaehwan replies and his eyes are sparkling as he says that. "I can see the potential in you to be my partner on this project and that means you need to learn how to choose good stories just by following your instincts."

"I feel honoured?" Sanghyuk laughs. "I guess?"

"You better do," Jaehwan says and hits Sanghyuk's shoulder lightly. "Good night, Sanghyuk."

"Good night, Jaehwan."

Jaehwan smiles at him one last time and then turns around, walking off towards a bus stop.

Sanghyuk watches him go and presses a hand on his stomach, trying to figure out if the movement inside is from butterflies or the drink, the possibility of it being the two mixing together hanging above his head.