“You! Let go!”, she commanded the young man who grabbed the book with her.

“Huh? Why would I? I’m the first one who saw this book, you let go”, says the man, now intently looking at her.

She became furious, this book is so rare to see since its author has stopped writing the series, and now that she’s seen a copy, she wouldn’t let it go that easy.

“You could wish, but nah-ah, I wouldn’t let you have MY book!”, she said while shaking her index finger from her other hand that’s not holding the book in front of his face.

The guy then smirked. “Your book? I’m sorry, Missie, I saw this first, I touched it first, therefore, this is MY book!”

“Who are you calling Missie?”, she’s furious now but decided to keep calm and thought of a way to resolve the irritating situation. She just got a job and she doesn’t wanna ruin her good mood because of some rude guy who plans to take her book away.

“Okay”, she starts off. “Since I don’t wanna ruin my good mood because of some guy, I have a suggestion”, she looks directly at the man.

“Some guy? Me? Oh, well, I’ll let that one slide”, calming himself, he asked, “So, what’s your proposition?”

“Kai Bai Bo! Best of three, no, make it five. The one who wins three times could get the book, is that fine?”, she asks, confident she’ll win.

“You’re on! Kai Bai Bo, it is. But first, we should put the book down, for a fairer competition. On three, we let go, okay? No cheating, please”, he said with a warning tone.

“I’m not a cheater, if there’s one, that would be you, you don’t look trustworthy to me”, she retorted.

He smirked at her. “Okay, hana tul set”, and they let go of the book, letting it lie on top of the other books on sale.

They resumed the game of rock paper scissors. The first two rounds went to Hyun Hae. Smirking, she says triumphantly; “Haha, I am winning, surrender now and accept defeat!”

“Have you forgotten? It’s best of five, lady, the following three will be mine!”, he says full of confidence.

Just like what he said, the following two rounds went with him, they are now down to the final round.

“Kai Bai Bo!”, they said in unison. Hyun Hae has paper, while the man has scissors.

“Yahoo!”, shouts the man. “Who’s the loser now?”, he teases her.

Hyun Hae wants to protest but she always plays fair. With a heavy heart, she accepts defeat. With her shoulders drooped down, she turned to see the young man already paying for the book at the counter. She quickly exits the shop.

After paying for the book, the young man still has a wide grin on his face. He’s been looking for this book for a long time and finally, he has completed the eight-book set of The Vampire Chronicles. He’s a big fan of vampires, he’s always fascinated at their abilities to read minds, jump great heights, their strength, and of course, their immunity to disease, and the access to forever. But aside from all of those, there’s a deeper reason with this fascination he have yet to admit to anybody else.

With the book kempt on his chest, he turned to look for his opponent for the possession of the said book to more, but, she’s gone already. He didn’t got to catch a glance of her. He tried to run after her and look for her, but she’s nowhere to be found.

A little disappointed, Wait, what? Who’s disappointed? He cut his thoughts. He went on his way home. He’s feeling funny how the face of the girl he just had dueled remains in his mind. He keeps seeing her irritated face when she saw that he’s also holding the book, keeping it from her possession; how she laughs silly triumphantly when she won the first two rounds of their battle; and how it immediately dropped low when he won their duel. She was so into the game that she doesn’t notice him staring at her, which made him more amused. He even thought that it will be okay if he loses so long as he sees the happy expression on her face.

Wait, what? Me? Okay to lose in a crazy duel that might mean losing the rare chance to finally own a complete set of my most favorite books? All just to see a random stranger happy? No way! He shouts to himself. But, he must admit, that girl is cute.