Sanghyuk finds himself standing helplessly in front of the bookshelves yet again, staring up at unfamiliar book spines.

“You’re too tense,” Jaehwan says and his grip tightens on Sanghyuk's shoulders as he stands behind him on his tiptoes, peeking around to see the books. “You need to relax and just let the book choose you.”

“Is this like that thing in Harry Potter?” Sanghyuk asks a little sourly. “The wand chooses the wizard?”

Jaehwan chuckles behind him and seems to lose his balance a little, plastering up on Sanghyuk's back for a moment and Sanghyuk is glad Jaehwan can’t see him blush.

“Something like that,” Jaehwan replies finally. “Now concentrate on the books.”

Sanghyuk sees familiar titles like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Lord of the Flies, but decides to leave them there, even if half of them are books he has only heard of but never read. Jaehwan said he should rely on his gut feeling, so that's what he does, reaching out for a book on the top shelf, jostling Jaehwan on his back enough for Jaehwan's hands to fall off his shoulders and catch his waist. Sanghyuk flinches, almost yanking a dozen books down, and Jaehwan lets go of him like he touched burning wood.

"Sorry," Sanghyuk mumbles, flustered, and when he turns around, he sees Jaehwan standing in front of him with a pretty blush spreading across the bridge of his nose, tinting even the tips of his elf ears pink, his hands hovering aimlessly in the air. He's still half a head shorter than Sanghyuk and his general build is still so much smaller, and Sanghyuk knows these are not supposed to be things to fall for in a person, but , he feels himself mentally trip with every glance takes at Jaehwan.

"You— you chose that one?" Jaehwan asks in a strangely high-pitched voice.

Ah, yes. His voice, too. That's also another Jaehwan-thing worth falling for.

Sanghyuk takes a deep breath and blinks down at the book in his hand.

It's a thin paperback, not as worn as Cryptonomicon was, its condition suggesting that it hasn't been read a great many times. He turns the book around and traces down the patterns on the cover: it looks like a printed circuit board; the neon turquoise lines almost glowing on the dark blue background. It's entitled Straight Line, and Sanghyuk turns it around in his hand again, opening it at the first page, frowning at it.

"There's no author," he says, looking up at Jaehwan who seems quite jittery, pulling the sleeves of his sweater (a mint green knitted piece this time) over his hands, avoiding Sanghyuk's gaze.

"Really?" Jaehwan asks, walking to the chair he pulled by the window.

"Have you read this one before?" Sanghyuk asks, following him to sit down on the carpet with his back against the wall right next to Jaehwan. Sanghyuk looks up at the boy, but Jaehwan won't look back down at him.

"I think I have," he replies, opening Bram Stoker's Dracula at the page he had previously left off. "I can't really remember."

"Is it that bad?" Sanghyuk grimaces at the paperback in his hand. "You said you remember most of the books you've read."

"I don't know if it's bad," Jaehwan shrugs and he finally glances down at Sanghyuk, the nervousness still visible on his face, hiding behind his watery smile. "I guess you'll have to see it for yourself."

"Yeah," Sanghyuk mutters. "But why does it have no author?"

"Some authors prefer to remain hidden from the public, you know," Jaehwan says, and there it is, a truly happy smile, somewhat even condescending as he flicks Sanghyuk's forehead. "Noob."

"Nerd," Sanghyuk fights back and catches Jaehwan's hand, his fingers wrapping around Jaehwan's own. He holds it one second too long and they're already two blushing idiots again; a scene right out of a sappy romance novel.

Straight Line is quite intriguing as it is, and the more Sanghyuk reads of it with his head resting against Jaehwan's thigh, the more he doubts Jaehwan could forget this story if he ever read it.

It's something Jaehwan would like, Sanghyuk thinks, with the storyline centring around a young genius learning how to build androids just to save the love of his life through building her again after she dies, installing their shared memories into her mechanical brain, and Sanghyuk finds himself into the story.

There are fingers in his hair, blunt nails scratching lightly, and Sanghyuk gets dragged back into reality by Jaehwan's hand on top of his head.

"Ugh?" he groans, and as he blinks up at Jaehwan, he feels his eyelids moving heavily like he would fall asleep anytime. He didn’t even notice he’s been getting tired.

"The library's closing," Jaehwan says, smiling down at him, his hand falling away from Sanghyuk's hair.

"Oh," Sanghyuk takes Jaehwan's left hand gently, pulling it into his sight to look at his watch. "Wow. Okay, yeah. We should leave, huh?"

"Unless you want to hide away behind the shelves," Jaehwan grins and he must see something on Sanghyuk's face, because he starts laughing a beat later, covering his mouth. "I was just joking, we can't actually do that, Hyerin knows we're here."

"Pity," Sanghyuk says, but gets on his feet, placing a clean handkerchief between the pages. Jaehwan takes the book from him and hides it between other paperbacks, along with Dracula.

"You seemed quite preoccupied with the story," Jaehwan says once they're standing on the street, in front of the coffee shop, Jaehwan waving at Hongbin who's standing behind the counter inside. He turns back to Sanghyuk. "Is it that exciting?”

"It's pretty good," Sanghyuk nods. "I'll come tomorrow, too. I really want to read it some more."

"Well, I'll be here," Jaehwan chuckles.

"Don't you have anywhere else to be?" Sanghyuk asks, smiling.

"Not really," Jaehwan shakes his head. "Besides, I'm glad I'm not alone anymore."

Sanghyuk almost chokes on his own saliva but manages to hold back, his second reaction being reaching out for Jaehwan's scarf to adjust it around his neck, pulling it further up so it bunches just under Jaehwan's mouth.

"Thanks for showing me... everything," Sanghyuk says awkwardly.

Jaehwan nestles into his newly arranged scarf—judging by the way his eyes begin to crinkle, hiding a smile behind the clothing item.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then," Jaehwan says.

"Yeah."

It's fleeting and nearly unnoticeable, but Sanghyuk's heart almost blows up inside his chest as Jaehwan wraps his ice cold hand around Sanghyuk's warm one, squeezing his fingers lightly, only to let go a moment later, averting his eyes and turning around to leave for the bus stop.

Sanghyuk catches something from the corner of his eye, and when he turns towards the coffee shop window, he sees Hongbin resting his chin in his palms, fluttering his eyelashes at him, a dimpled smile sitting on his lips. Sanghyuk decides it's better for him to go.