~ chapter three ~
library

____________________________________________

I tell my love to wreck it all
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall
 

Kai sipped on his drink. His mind was becoming dark little by little, but he liked to drink. Everyone knew why. It helped him to forget.

The bartender raised a brow at him, wiping a glass. He had a funny, curled moustache and a warm, but sharp stare. He leaned closer, putting the glass on the counter with a tang. 

"Aren't you a little bit too depressed for a young, strong and healthy man?" he asked. Kai looked at him, frowning his brows, with a slight pout.
 
"Looks like I wasted my youth, ahjussi," he answered, smiling. The man blinked and opened his mouth to say something, but the voice interrupted him.
 
The boy turned back and his heart clenched. He cursed under his breath and slammed his hand with the money on the counter with a bang. He slipped from the seat and started to walk away in a fast pace, pushing aside the crowd of people standing on his way. But soon, he felt his wrist being squeezed and he almost tripped, being jerked back.

"Stop," she hissed. He turned to face her. The music was too loud for him to hear her properly. Or maybe it was because of the alcohol? This way or another, he could see that she was angry. It wasn't an usual sight for him. Honesty, it scared him. Another thing he didn't know about her.

"Why are you here?" he asked, or rather mumbled.
 
"Because of you of course! Why are you doing this, Kai?!" she shouted.

"Doing what?" Kai asked, slowly getting mad. He didn't want to see her here. 

"Getting drunk! I can't let you do it-"

He grabbed her hand violently and pulled her closer. His breath was hitting her face. His touch was rough, smirk playing on his lips. 

"I'm not your little toy anymore. I'm not your puppy as well. It's over. You don't have to follow me or be responsible for me. I don't mean anything to you, you are doing this just because you are scared of what people will think of you. Because they know that it's because of you," he said with a hiss. He pushed her away and she was looking at him with disbelief. 

"Live your life," he said with a grimace. "And just... Let me... Just leave me alone," he added weakly, turning around.

When he came back home, he was unable to think anymore. Shouts, laughs and loud conversations filled his ears and he frowned when he saw Suho surrounded by six guys. Suho was shouting something while covering his ears, when the rest of the guys was... well, laughing at him because of some reason. They were patting his shoulders, talking among themselves with excitement and rolling on the floor. Kai entered the living room to see that and he burst out laughing. Everyone turned at him and continued to laugh while greeting him. 

"Are you fangirling over him?" Kai said, pointing at his friends. Someone hit him with a pillow and he curled up a bit, protecting his face, smiling widely. Taemin waved at him to sit and Kai went over to him with curiosity. 

"Well, you don't know what happened yet," said Chen, the guy who worked with Suho and Luhan at the cafe. Kai frowned his brows. 

"We had some new workers hired today," Luhan added. 

"Stop it already! There's nothing going on!" Suho shouted. Kai raised his brows and clapped his hands like a seal, and then he pointed at the other boy, his mouth in a shape of 'O'.

"No way! Hyung fell in love again?!" he shouted. Everyone burst out laughing because of his quick and right guess and Suho pouted slightly. 

"Okay, stop it, come on!" he shouted and ran to the kitchen, almost tripping over Chanyeol. Once said, no one could stop that crazy group from spazzing about something for the rest of the day. Suho knew that he has to wait for them to calm down. 

Kai turned towards Taemin, who threw his arm around his shoulders out of a habit, grinning at him.

"Who is it?" Kai asked, making his hyung laugh. 

"The girl they hired. Luhan said that Suho was staring at her with puppy eyes all the time. And he was helping and following her the whole day," he answered. 

"Her name is Hyo Rim. She's quite cute," Chen said. 

"And very kind too. I think that she's totally Suho's type," Luhan added, laughing. 

"I want to see her!" Xiumin pouted. Kris patted his shoulder.

"We can go and see her tomorrow," Minho said, munching on his chips. 

"NO!" Suho shouted from the kitchen and everyone laughed again. 

~*~

Kai woke up from a nightmare. He was covered in a thick layer of sweat. Soft rays of the sun broke through the curtains; he jumped out of his bed, breathing rapidly. 

His alarm clock rang a second after. He stared at it for ten seconds before realizing that it's actually ringing and finally turned it off. His ears hurt because of the sound. He got up on his sore legs and sniffed. Dust was dancing in the soft air. He stared at it before standing up and going to take a shower. It was 8 am, Suho was already working. After showering he slowly and quietly creeped to Taemin’s room to see his best friend thrown over the bed, with a pillow on his head and some kind of teddy bear between his legs. His hair was a mess. Kai smiled and went to the kitchen. Usually, he didn’t eat much. After everything what happened, he was too depressed to eat, and because of that his stomach literally shrinked. Right now he took out the milk from the fridge and a pack of honey cereals from the drawer. He made himself a bowl, not even minding the cold milk. He liked it better. 

He took his bag with the most important things, wore his coat and got out from the house. The weather was cloudy and unpleasant. The snow was still fresh though. He greeted his neighbor, who was going out with a dog at the same time, and ran towards the library, glancing at the watch from time to time. He finally stood in front of the old, wooden building with a big signboard and gold letters, which were telling the world that it was the oldest library in the city, historic even.

But even though it was historic and all, there wasn't a lot of people visiting. There were a few usual visitors, sometimes some old people would come. Kai liked to see young people, around sixteen years old, coming here and snickering through the shelves, enjoying that special atmosphere, scent of old paper, dust and wood. Kai liked this place a lot. It was weird, because in the past, he didn’t read. And also, he didn’t like silent places. And now, when he just entered the big room he finally felt at the right place – he belonged here.

“Good morning,” he said to an old woman sitting on the counter. The woman glanced at him and fixed her glasses, a smile spreading on her lips.

“Good morning Kai. Did you sleep well?” she asked, trying to fix her wild, white hair. Madame Suliman, as Kai used to call her, was his boss. She was a very kind and warm person with great knowledge and real love for books. Kai was calling her like this because her favourite book from the childhood was ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ and she really resembled him of that character. She lived above the library, in a small apartment on the attic. She had this huge semicircular window with amazing view that was like pulled out of an interiors magazine.

“Yes, thank you,” Kai answered, looking around. “Where’s Dante?” he asked. As on cue, he heard a loud and long meow, and after that, a fat, white cat brushed his leg, purring. Kai jumped slightly at the touch, smiled widely and took the cat to his arms. After dangling it a bit in front of his face, weighing him in his hands and chuckling, he embraced it gently, holding him like a child, patted his head and scratched his ears. The cat was almost dying of pleasure.

“Oh, you. He likes you too much,” Madame said, shaking her head. “I wish he would just come to me like he does to you," she shook her head in disbelief. "Okay sweetie, please take your place and help me with these. We have to clean up this mess and classify the books under the ‘G’ letter. Arasso?” she asked, and Kai only nodded, putting the cat on the ground. He left his coat and bag on the chair and went to help.

The day went by really quickly. The weather became awful and the rain started to pour. The sky became dark and so became the library. When the work was done, Madame lighted up some candles, because it was nicer like that. Kai sat on the table with one of the books. Dante came to him and rolled up into a ball beside him. The wind was rumbling outside. After a few minutes, Kai glanced at Madame and saw her trembling. He raised his brows.

“Are you cold?” he asked politely.

“Oh, a bit. What would you say about lighting up a fire in the fireplace?” she answered. Kai raised his brows ever more with shocked expression.

“We have a fireplace here?” he said, shocked, and looked around. Madame laughed.

“It’s covered with some materials, but it’s in front of the couch, sweetie,” she said and got up. Kai followed him and soon he really did saw the fireplace at the end of the room. Madame even had some wood, and Kai had matches. They suffered a lot before finally lighting it up, but it was nice to sit in front of the warm fire when the weather outside was the exact opposite.

Kai thought about drinking a hot chocolate with some cookies now. And for Madame, maybe something hot like a tea would do. He looked around. There were only them in the library, the last person left around half an hour ago. He glanced at his boss.

“Can I go to the shop? I’m hungry,” he lied a bit, but with good intentions. Madame frowned.

“Well, we don’t have any clients, so it’s okay I suppose. But it’s really awful outside, are you sure that you want to go ?” she asked, really worried. Kai smiled at her, feeling warmth in his heart a bit. He nodded quickly.

“I will be okay.” he said and stood up. Dante meowed at him, when he took his bag and ran out from the library.

He got wet right away because of the rain, but the shop wasn’t really far away, so he managed to go there. He picked some sweet buns with jam inside, a fruit tea for Madame and even a can of food for Dante, even if he already had a lot of it. He didn't forget about the chocolate either. He paid and went outside.

At first he wanted to run straight to the library, but something stopped him suddenly. He turned around when the hint of red danced in the corner of his eye and saw the girl from yesterday. She was running, soaking wet, and hid under the tree beside the scene not so far away from him. He realized that he’s still standing in the rain with food, but, not knowing why, he ran towards the girl. He then saw a man running from around the corner. He saw the girl, who was turning her back to him, and started approaching her.

Kai ran towards her and approached her first. He bumped at her lightly, making her gasp, and glanced at the back. The man hesitated, but finally turned around and went away. Kai was already really wet, but the food was fine. He looked down to see a pair of big, dark eyes staring at him.

“Ahjussi?” she asked, frowning and tilting her head slightly. Kai’s eyes widened, and then he snorted.

“I’m not an ahjussi, I already told you,” he said. He realized how stupid it sounded, she was just joking. When did he become so serious?

“Why are you here again?” she asked, looking around. It seemed that she knew about the man who was chasing her. Kai opened his mouth to say something, but he stopped.

“Um…” he started. “Well, I don’t… I don’t know?” he said, scratching his head. “You are soaked. Come with me, I know a place where we can… hide,” he said, looking around again and nudging her by her elbow lightly. He already started walking, but the girl didn’t follow him. He turned to face her.

“Quickly, I’m getting really-“

“Why?” the girl suddenly asked, tilting her head again, in expression of wonder and curiosity, but a bit of distrust as well. Her brows wrinkled for a second, her whole face telling him that she doesn't trust him. Kai really wanted to get away from the rain already, but she seemed like she didn’t mind being soaking wet. He wondered though.

Why?

Maybe because he was curious about her. Maybe because he liked her laugh. Maybe because he was just helping out, because something was telling him to help out people. He would propose this to anyone, not only her, right?

“Because it’s raining, it’s cold- no, it’s freaking cold, you are soaked, and some weird guy is following you. Is that enough?” he asked, trembling. “Hurry up, I’m going.”

He turned and started walking to the library. Soon, he heard the girl’s quick footsteps and she joined him. They ran to the library, gasping lightly. Kai checked the food.

“Why here?” the girl asked.

“I’m working here.”

“Really?” she asked, her eyes wide. Kai glanced at her and felt something weird in his heart. A throb, maybe a squeeze. He stopped his eyes on her flushed cheeks, wet, a bit curly, red hair and beautiful eyes. He turned away quickly, swallowing.

“I never saw you here,” she finished, taking off her coat. Kai frowned, but didn’t ask anything. He just pointed to the right way and soon, they saw Madame with Dante on her knees. When she saw them, she gasped. She started shouting and scolding Kai for getting so wet, running around them and telling a lot of things they didn’t understand.

“I will bring you some towels,” she finally said, and they bowed to her, dumbfounded. When she disappeared behind the doors, they glanced at each other. The soft light of fire was already warming them up. The girl smiled suddenly.

“You are keeping me company for the second time already,” she said. “Thank you for helping me out… again.”

“Again?” Kai frowned his brows. Before the girl could explain, Madame came with the towels. They started drying up, and soon everyone were sitting on the couch, together with Dante who was now hugging the red-haired girl, and eating their buns. The fireplace was cracking pleasantly and the tea was warming them up.

“You didn’t have to buy me tea, Kai,” Madame said. The boy shrugged, chewing on his bun.

“But I wanted to. And besides, I can drink it too right?” he said. The girl beside him smiled and hugged Dante tighter when she finished her bun. The blanket from Madame was warming her up and her hair got really curly because of the rain. They heard a rattle and someone came to the library.

“I will take it, it’s our dealer,” Madame said and stood up. The girl smiled a bit at the word 'dealer' and her eyes wrinkled adorably. They heard Madame chatting with a middle aged man.

They were left alone. Kai was still eating, the girl was patting Dante’s back softly and staring at the fire. She turned her head.

“Thank you,” she said.

“You already said that,” Kai answered with a chuckle.

“I know, but still. How come we are bumping at each other all the time?” she smiled.

Kai wondered about the same thing, but didn’t say a word nor answered for that question. There were a few minutes of silence between them.

“Why was that guy following you?” Kai asked. The girl froze, but shook her head.

“That’s a… long story. And boring,” she said.

“I have a lot of time.”

“It’s not something that a stranger should know, don’t you think?” she asked and Kai finally looked at her. She had a painful look on her face.

“Maybe because I’m a stranger, you can tell me those things,” Kai whispered. “Well, I can’t force you. I was curious.”

“I know.”

Silence again. Kai finished his bun and sipped his tea. Dante yawned.

“The last time we met, you told me ‘be healthy’ when I sneezed. Why?” Kai asked, again, because of the curiosity. That girl was a one big riddle for him. From the time they met.

“I’m not from here. From where I am, we are saying ‘for your health’ or ‘be healthy’ when someone sneezes. It sounds better in my language though,” she said, laughing a bit. Kai nodded.

“Where are you from?”

“That’s a long story too.”

“How a place you were born in can be a long story?” Kai snorted, but shut up when he saw her puzzled look. She was a bit tense. “Hey, don’t tell if you don’t want to! It’s just curiosity, curiosity~” Kai almost sang, sipping on his tea. 

“Then, guess. Guess who am I and what I’m doing,” she said, smiling and turning to the side to face him. He did the same. It was kind of natural. They both leaned on the back of the couch, looking at each other.

“You aren’t from Korea. And you are running away from someone… You are an illegal tourist, who is chased by the secret governments, because they don’t want anybody know that they let a girl slip to our country,” Kai said, making her laugh. She shook her head.

“Try again,” she said with amused face. Kai wondered.

“You have some magic powers. You are being chased by the wizards who want your power to teleport between countries,” he said and she laughed even louder. Kai smiled a bit.

“Really now?” she asked.

“What? I’m trying the every genre of books. We already had an action and a fantasy book.”

“What’s next?”

“A science-fiction book. Are you an alien?”

“No!” she shouted. “You are an awful guesser!” she laughed loudly and this time Kai laughed as well. Some ringing was heard. The girl with red hair picked up her phone and read something on the screen. She squeezed the cell.

“I have to go. Thank you for your help,” she said, standing up.

“But it’s still raining. And I didn’t guess right yet,” Kai said, pouting slightly.

“Sorry, I have to go,” she said and stood behind him. He was still sitting on the couch. He raised his head to see her going out, and then something cold landed on his forehead.

“That’s for the bun,” the girl whispered, smiling. He stood up when she was already beside the exit, holding a coin in his hand. The girl bowed to Madame before going out.

Kai stared at the coin that she gave him and frowned his brows.

“How weird,” he whispered to himself.

Weird was the state of his mind, soul and heart. He was curious about the girl’s life and identify, but it wasn’t some kind of bad curiosity. He wanted to… help her, somehow. Yes, she was pretty, her laugh was pretty, but it wasn’t that. He wasn’t looking at the girls like he was looking at them some time ago. So this time, that feeling was really weird for him.

He held the penny and squeezed it before hiding it in the pocket of his jeans. Dante was sleeping peacefully on the couch. He patted him and looked outside the window.

For the rest for the day, he was seeing hints of bloody red colour everywhere he looked.

Sorry that this chapter is out so late, I was on vacation ;x
Thank you, everyone, who are reading this now. AFF is weird lately, playing tricks on me. Anyway, I will try to update soon, sorry of this chapter , I really wanted to add it after the long break. 

I will work harder to make the chapters more interesting. 

Thank you for reading! : ) 
 

*the main pic is from here x *