Sooyoung straightened her seat, leaned back to the chair where she had been sitting for hours. As a second year college student she had been studying too much, she thought. Her back was ache a bit since she kept typing nonstop for the last three hours, trying her best to finish her homework: writing a story.

Her short writing class’ homework was forever abandoned, since the topic of it was love, something she’s not familiar with. She had been trying to write it but still, it didn’t work; the story was either too flat or too cheesy, and she almost gave up finishing it. Sooyoung just couldn’t put the right feeling to her story; since she lacked experiencing love. She’s really wanted to give up and would just write whatever, right when she saw him.

Sitting two desks away from her, the guy who enjoyed reading the thick machinery book just like reading a comic, comfortably leaned his back to the chair; just like what Sooyoung did. They’re sitting facing each other, if there’s no one sitting on the tables between them. But somehow, no one managed to sit there whenever both of them stayed at the library.

At first, Sooyoung didn’t notice his presence there; she’s too busy looking for anything except for her laptop screen. It’s just one day of her writing times that she felt so stuck that she started to straightened her body, stretching her arms, and yawning pretty big; and that’s the first time she noticed him. She accidentally looked at him, looking all prime and serious while reading the thick book with the glasses stayed comfortably on his nose. He seemed to be in his own world, unnoticed his surroundings. She didn’t know who he was, but somehow she enjoyed his companion.

They met three times a week; it was coincident turned habit actually. Sooyoung was always have free time on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. The time didn’t have to be exact, but on those particular days, she would find him there, reading while jotting down his notebook.  Every time she felt stuck or bored, she would just secretly look at him. Sometimes, she tried to guess his character.

What is his name? What is his major? Why he always reading a thick book and keep writing a note? Was he a cool person? Or maybe a funny one? Or a geek one? Does he have friends?

Sooyoung thought of so many things about him in her mind, but he was never showing who exactly he was. All she knew was hat he’s this one kind of serious dork, probably tried to solve Einstein’s formula or something sound like that…

After four weeks of routine, Sooyoung finally got to know his name. Last name, to be exact.

“Hey, Shim! Catching up for some games today?” a guy with pale face and messy wavy hair came, taking a seat next to him.

He smiled as the guy sat next to him. For the first time since they met, Sooyoung saw him smiling. It was captivating and somehow Sooyoung blushes a little when she saw him smiling. She couldn’t hide her excitement over it.

“Got a paper to be done, sorry. Aren’t you supposed to prepare your sheet for the musical?”

The pale guy shrugged lazily. “The great Cho Kyuhyun gets it done last week of course. No need to worry” he winked while patting the shoulder of that Shim guy.  “Well then, bye! Gotta go!”

The Cho Kyuhyun guy left the tables, waving at Shim. Sooyoung watched him as he left the library until she couldn’t see his back. Sooyoung thought maybe she could use some information about Cho Kyuhyun to dig up more about this Shim guy. Sooyoung stared back to Shim’s table, and that time he was looking at her; Sooyoung looked back at him too. Both of them were staring each other, doing nothing. Sooyoung was about to smile to him right when he looked away from her and went back reading his book again.

Sooyoung chuckled. That was close, she thought.

Another week passed and Sooyoung kept on her habit: meeting Shim at the library. He would always sit there calmly reading the book, while she glanced at him. Ideas were flow her mind whenever she saw him. She thanked him a lot because he made her inspired to finally create a story line; one thing she could never accomplish for the past few weeks. It took her 3 weeks to finally write and revised her works.

And for every meeting has an end, Sooyoung was also close to her finalization for the homework. This Friday was her last day to complete and hand her assignments. Sooyoung revised her story at the library, where Shim, as usual, sitting there; life less, drowning deep to the book that he read. Sooyoung re-read her story again and after making sure that there’s no mistake, she’s confident to hand her homework.

Sooyoung cleaned up her table, putting her books and several of her stuff to her bag. She brought the copy of her assignments, her notebook, and of course, her favorite latte. She walked passed Shim’s table. Until now, she still didn’t know his full name, because apparently there’re more than 30 people having Shim as their family name in her university and Sooyoung wasn’t bother at all to cancel her mission to find who the right Shim was; plus, she liked to call him Shim.

She’s merely centimeters away from Shim, but Sooyoung wasn’t dare to do anything to him; like, said hi to him or something like that. So while passing his table, Sooyoung glanced at him and walked a bit closer to him and whispered, “Thank you, Shim” and continued walking like there’s nothing.

She smiled as she passed his table, with a little grin formed on her lips.

Thank you, Mr. Inspiration.

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“So finally these two people at the library didn’t know each other?” Yuri asked when she was done reading Sooyoung’s story. Yuri and Sooyoung were just taking a break from their classes and met up at the boulevard.

Sooyoung nodded while munching the bread that Yuri brought, along with a refreshing orange juice. Yuri frowned and looked back at the story again, re-reading it.

“Ah, this is frustrating me. Why didn’t they try to know each other? Couldn’t you make it like that?” she’s commented again.

“I’m done writing it, Yuri. Plus, Mrs. Lee said that it’s great enough. I earned A for this story, that’s enough. ‘Not too lovely, not too cheesy. Well done, Miss Choi’” Sooyoung repeated what her lecturer said. She’s so happy to get her complimented, as Mrs. Lee was known as a killer lecturer.

“But I love this story… Wait a minute” Yuri rolled her eyes and looking at Sooyoung curiously. “Were you dating someone? You’re not good in writing love story plus you are in building relationship…”

“Well, I still could read somewhere about love story; not saying plagiarized it but I believe I just could write it as long as I want it”

“Everyone wrote better when they experienced the things they wrote, Sooyoung” Yuri sounded really curious right now. She winked at Sooyoung, who suddenly blushed.

She formed a thin line on her lips.

“Maybe… I’m having a crush. Maybe…”

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“Here’s your latte” the cashier at the cafeteria gave a cup of latte to Sooyoung.

“Thanks!” she took it and went out from the queue. She’s having a break before continuing her next class, and a cup of latte sounds like a great deal for her. She took her iPad out from her bag and walked in the alley while checking her emails.

“Choi Sooyoung?”

Sooyoung looked away from her iPad and frozen. She almost lost her grab of the latte cup as she realized who was standing in front of him. It’s the Shim guy, standing in front of her. He wore his glasses along with a plaid shirt, just like usual…

“Y-yes?” Sooyoung stuttered a bit.

“I think you left this…” He took out a notebook from his backpack. The notebook was filled with lots of post it and several highlight seen there, Sooyoung name was written at the cover of the book. Sooyoung gasped and realized that she finally found her lost notebook.

He gave it to Sooyoung, who took the notebook and put it inside her big hand bag. The Shim guy wore his backpack again and put his hands to his jeans pocket. Silence. Sooyoung was looking around, while the guy in front of her coughed to cover the awkward silence between them.

“Well… Thanks, by the way. Erm, where did you find it?”

“On the library. Found it near my desk…” he answered.

Sooyoung suddenly remembered that the last day she went to the library when she met him, she busily packed her bag, and not realizing that her notebook was fell to the ground.

“Oh… Okay…”

“Well…”

Both of them nodded and took different way, crossing each other. Sooyoung still felt her heart beat faster; she couldn’t hide her big smile due to the meeting with Shim. She’s already had Yuri in her mind, she couldn’t wait to tell her about her meeting with him.

“By the way..” The Shim guy suddenly speak again, making Sooyoung turned back and saw him still stood there. “My name is Shim Changmin” he said.

Sooyoung looked at him in confused; she didn’t ask him though. Changmin smiled at her, one of his smiles that she likes. She smiled back to Changmin.

Changmin then nodded to Sooyoung and turned his back, leaving Sooyoung clueless. Changmin grinned widely, realizing that he finally talked to his crush; his stranger crush for the past 2 months. He enjoyed having her around him whenever he’s at the library; but not until she didn’t appeared there for the past few weeks and he seemed to be kind of…missing her presence. But now that he met her again, he felt excited.

See you around, Choi Sooyoung.

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Just a short one.

I miss Changsoo lately...