“To buy or not to buy? That is the question…”

“Just buy it. I’m hungry,” YongGuk whined, rubbing his stomach. “Let’s get going.”

“But wait,” I pulled at his sleeve as he was about to walk away. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“Why does it take so long for you to decide?” he sighed. “It’s just a book. Just grab it and pay already.”

“You don’t understand!” I pouted. My grip on the book tightened as I thought of all the beautifully crafted words that filled these 368 pages. “It’s not just a book! It’s the –”

“Yaa,” he sighed again, scratching the back of his head. “We’ve been in here for more than an hour, we need to move. HimChan’s waiting for us.”

“HimChan?” My heart instantly raced at the mention of his name. “You didn’t tell me we were gonna have lunch with HimChan-oppa.”

“Yaa, why is it that you always call him oppa but not me?” YongGuk glowered at me.

“Because he’s older than me,” I shrugged and then smiled as he clicked his tongue.

“Yaa,” he said in his deep, threatening voice. “HimChan and I are the same age, you brat.”

“So what?” I giggled. He then reached over to squeeze my shoulder. It was supposed to hurt me but it felt more like a massage. YongGuk didn’t get why I never react to his physical threats. It was funny. “Yeah, that’s it. How about the other side too?”

“Eyyyy,” he raised his fist but stopped when he noticed a worker was watching us.

It was the kid from the other day, DaeHyun. He bowed his head respectfully and then carried on with his work. “Stop it, YongGuk. You’re embarrassing me.”

“You stop it,” he countered. “And that’s YongGuk-OPPA.”

“Whatever,” I waved away his words with the book in my hand. “Oh, so should I buy this…?”

“Eish, hurry up and decide already!” he said exasperatedly. “Aren’t you hungry?”

“I am, but…” I was still torn between my decision and indecision. If that made any sense at all.

“C’mon, let’s go pay,” he began walking towards the counter.

“But I don’t have any money…”

YongGuk stopped but only for a while. He didn’t even turn around, and then he just went on and exited the store.

“YoungGuk-ah! Yaa! YongGuk-oppa~”

“I’m not paying for you!”