I dedicate this drabble to sooyahs because of her inspiration tag on this post ("screams" baby is the cutest). Something really quick to hold you guys over until I finish the next chapter of Seven Sins. This is quick and horribly unedited so please don't judge me too hard. But I hope you all like it! ~Admin Kelc

They sit at a table in the quieter part of the library, away from the busy entrance and computer commons, towards the back near the periodicals and atlases. Stacks of books are scattered around them. Some on the desk, others on the floor at their feet.

They work in silence.

She purses her lips as her eyes begin to wander. She watches students snake through the rows of shelves and walk by their table instead of jotting down dates and key historical figures. Her eyes fall on the boy sitting across from her.

He works diligently, quietly, eyes scanning the page of the book he has opened in front of him, pen swiftly moving across the page of his notebook.

She’s always admired him for that: his work ethic. Action over words. She guesses that’s why he’s ranked second in their class.

He looks up, eyes shaded by thick framed glasses, and meets her gaze.

She quickly drops her eyes down to her own notebook and pretends to scribble something down. She stares down at the words but doesn’t quite read them. She’s waiting for him to go back to writing so she can breathe again.

But he’s still looking at her, she can tell. There’s no sound of a ballpoint scratching against paper or the turning of a page. He’s quiet, or well, quieter than normal.  

She bites her lip as she tries to concentrate but lets out a sigh as she fails miserably.

“Um, Myungsoo?” she says softly.

The boy looks up from the page he’s reading, silently answering her call.

“Uh, I just wanted to thank you,” she mumbles as she stares down at her notebook, “you know, for agreeing to be my partner for this project and for having so much patience with me. I know that you wanted to work alone.”

“Oh, no problem,” he says with a flustered laugh.

She twirls her pen around her fingers, a nervous habit of hers, as she tries to ignore the way her chest has slightly tightened, “I feel bad though. You’re probably going to be doing most of the work anyway.”

“Why would you say that?” he asks, genuine curiosity in his low voice.

“Because I’m really bad at history and you’re all smart in everything. I mean you already have twice the amount of notes I do.”

She gestures between their two notebooks, his page almost full while her’s barely reaches halfway. She gives him a sheepish shrugs and goes back to twirling her pen.

“Can I see them?” his soft voice barely reaches her ears.

She looks up to see him holding a hand out towards her. She hesitantly passes him her notebook.

His eyes quickly scan the page.

“You have some good stuff here that we can use in our presentation,” he grins and hands the notebook back to her. Her chest tightens again.

“Really?” she asks as she rereads what she had written down.

He nods, “You got all the important dates and people.”

“I did?”

He nods again.

Her lips perk into a smile. He takes off his glasses and rests them on the table as he stands.

“I’m going to go get something from the vending machine. Do you want anything?”

“No, I’m okay.”

He’s about to walk off when he turns back to her.

“You know, you’re not as bad at history as you think you are.”

When he throws her a heart-stopping smile before walking towards the library’s entrance, hands stuffed in the pockets of his uniform slacks, she thinks her chest might have just imploded.