The students grumbled and freely threw their dissatisfaction towards the previous examination paper while walking out of the hall. Some shook their heads in disappointment, while some pretended as if nothing was important. It was best described as; they gave up. Yaerin wasn’t excluded. She also found that the paper was more challenging than usual. It did not seem to follow the pattern of questions from past-year papers.

“Yaerin-ah.” Jihae came closer and hugged Yearin’s arm. “I don’t think I can enter Yonwei University now,” Jihae said while faking a cry. Yaerin just laughed at her friend while rearranging her pencil case and books neatly in the bag. They were quite disorganized when she left them in a hurry just now, before entering the examination hall.

“I don’t trust you,” Yaerin replied, jokingly.

Jihae released Yaerin’s arm and crossed her hand on her stomach. She narrowed her eyes on Yaerin who pretended not to see her reaction. “Yah. Did you just say you didn’t trust me?”

Yaerin held back her smile and zipped her bag. She then turned to Jihae and tilted her head, simply mocking the other girl. “Yes, I don’t trust you, Park Jihae,” she repeated her line for the second time. “The harder the examination paper is, the higher the marks you will get.” Yaerin raised her brows playfully and walked away.

“Yah, Yoo Yaerin! Where are you going?” Jihae asked, “I want to try the doughnuts in the new store.”

“Oh.” Yaerin held her chin. “I’ve heard about that new shop, but sorry, Jihae-yah. Not in a mood to eat sweet food.” She pouted.

Jihae nodded, totally knew how Yaerin could not stand sweet food. The girl would get severe dizzy later. “Arasso.” She forced a smile. “But where are you going?”

“The place you won’t like,” Yaerin answered and stuck out her tongue before walking away, leaving Jihae. “Public library!”

“Tsk. Library again, Yoo Yaerin?” and Jihae sighed. She could not believe that she lost over books in getting Yaerin’s attention.

.   .   .   .   .

The automatic glass door slipped opened, and Yaerin inhaled the cold air inside the building delightedly. She entered and gave a small bow to the permanent librarian. Her action was repaid with a wide smile from him. Without wasting any more time, she walked to the social science section.

It was silent. Too silent that she barely heard anything except than her own breathing. Not even footsteps. Looking around, she finally saw no one there. Then, her eyes landed on the big clock, hanging in the middle of the room. It looked like a chandelier at the ceiling which had three moving needles in it. “Oh.” Yaerin tilted her head. “It’s only 2 PM. No wonder it’s empty,” she whispered softly to herself and gazed at the line of books on the very top of the shelf. Then, she hung her head lower, staring at the carpet. There was supposed to be two or three stools in every section. And she saw none.

Yaerin rolled her eyes in frustration and went to the next section. None. She kept looking at the other sections and there was no stool. And finally, she gave up. Walking calmly with her teeth gritted secretly to the counter, now, the librarian was nowhere to be found. Yaerin scoffed.

“This is damn irritating.” She grumbled alone while going back to the section she was standing before. She stopped at the same particular spot and attentively gazed at that one book.

Rising up on her tiptoes, she stretched her left arm as much as she could to reach the book. “Ahh!” She scowled softly and stood properly, with her both hands holding her waist. Bitting her lower lip, she put down her bag on the floor, and tried to reach for the book once again. She was struggling very much.

And the wasteful struggle came to an end when there was a hand which appeared from nowhere, on her behalf, got the book for her. Yaerin froze on her spot. To spin around was going to be the worst choice because when her head unintentionally bumped on that person’s shoulder, she could mentally measure how close they were.

“Now.” It was a hoarse voice. “Here’s your book,” he offered her politely, taking a step backward.

Yaerin turned around and was greeted with his friendly smile. He was wearing a school uniform. However, the public library vest has covered his name and the logo of his school. For a couple of seconds, Yaerin took her time to stare at him.

“Thank you.” She finally broke the staring contest and accepted the book from him. His smile was still hanging on his face, like an endless flow of river, never ends. “Can I have…” Yaerin turned back to the shelf and pointed towards another book that was placed on the top. “That book as well?”

He shifted his gaze to the book and leaned closer to the shelf to take it for her. “This one?” he asked while glancing at her.

Yaerin shook her head. “No, no. Next to it.”

“Ah, this one,” he said and grabbed it for her. “There you go.” He handed the book to Yaerin.

Yaerin smiled, simply delighted to see how dusty those books were. Her fingers enjoyed so much to have the grey dust attaching themselves at the tip of her fingers. She opened one of the books and as usual, nobody has read it. “I like these. No one has read them,” she voiced out, absentmindedly without realizing that the library helper was still there, gazing at her.

He raised his brows, surprised with her remarks. “So, you like to be the first person to read something?”

Bewitched with the content of one of the books, she paid less attention on him. However, she listened to him well. “Not only the first to read. I like to read good books that no one has found.” She giggled.

And now, he found himself difficult to shift away his gaze from her. He always turned a blind eye to girls with short hair. As long as their hair did not pass their scapula, he would never bother. But this girl, how can she look so pretty, he smiled.

“Yah, Kim Seokjin!”

Both Yaerin and Seokjin were startled and their attention averted to a group of boys who just made their way in the library. The librarian was back at his position and cleared his throat loudly as a warning. Their gleeful faces turned serious for a moment and they bowed to him, keeping their mouths sealed.

Seokjin laughed a little, seeing his friends who were whispering to each other. They still had not spotted him. His eyes then returned to her. And he was surprised to have their gazes locked. She did not seem to flutter or blush while staring at him, and it made his heart raced.

“Seokjin?”