My job was simpler than expected.

I'm glad I get to enjoy the peace and serenity in my workplace, I'm the type of person that prefers silence over noise.

Although, yes, I can be a bit noisy sometimes.

Since like.. A few days ago? I've been working part-time as a librarian now, and nothing satisfies me more than people walking in and out of the library, children with a look of amusement on their faces upon flipping pages of colorful books, teens' eyes getting absorbed into stories—it all really is pleasing. To find many more people falling in love with books of another world.

Until I fell in love with a girl at first sight.

I would usually watch from the counter as the short-haired brunette walked in through the entrance, her favorite chocolate brown sling bag hanging over her shoulders that's usually covered with a dull-colored pullover(which I had to admit, she looks a million times more attractive in that freaking grey pullover than when usual people wear them), while she turned left and made her way to the Fiction section of the library.

"Jiyeon-ah,"

"Yeah?" Thoughts interrupted, I turned around at the voice of one of the other librarians, Hyomin.

"Soyeon's on leave today. Would you mind arranging the books in her place?"

What mere coincidence, most of the organizing Soyeon unni does is at the Fiction section.

"Sure thing," I beamed, all my cheery thoughts on interacting with that one brunette showing on my face.

Good thing Hyomin was oblivious, and she left me alone for today's work.

I exited the counter and proceeded to get a partially-filled book trolley for Fiction books and pushed it over to the assigned area.

The tables and chairs around the Fiction shelves were occupied with mainly teenagers studying or finishing homework, so they didn't bother me suddenly pulling a trolley into the place. The only problem was—

There was barely any people browsing the shelves, so I was bound to bump into that brunette.

I stopped the trolley in front of one of the shelves and organised the untidy books in the trolley itself, arranging itself by its alphabetical code. From time to time I had to raise my gaze in hopes of spotting that brunette and my hopes would crash each time.

She's probably browsing at a different Fiction shelf that I'm currently at, I prayed.

I lowered my gaze for the last time before picking up a number of books and brought them into an aisle. I continued my job and threw those thoughts about that girl away.

Needless to say I was a bit disappointed. I always knew some readers would try avoiding going into aisles with librarians sorting books in the middle of them, I didn't know why, afraid of being judged, probably? Or afraid of getting into trouble with them, or—

"Hi, uh, do you know where Catching Fire can be found at?"

Was that.. Her? Because her voice sounded lower and more feminine than I expected..

Maybe because it was a whisper.

I turned my head and my face met with a shorter woman's, and at first glance I knew this wasn't the person I was looking for. I flashed the reader a smile to hide my frustration.

"Suzanne Collins, right? It should be in the 'S' category by the author's name, then."

I was confident that I hadn't dropped hints of my real mood as the woman still had a cheery(but soft) tone to her response. "Ah, I forgot who the author was!" She let out a soft laugh and thanked me before following my directions to her desired book.

A smile remained on my face until the woman was out of sight and my face turned back to its serious state. I quickly returned to focus on my job.

I continued with it silently until about a few minutes later, I felt a presence beside me. I turned to acknowledge it.

It was that brunette girl. And she stood, like, less than a metre away from me.

Her eyes skimmed through the different titles of books through her black, framed glasses on the shelves as she probed interesting titles from them.
She seemed literally perfect, the way she has a hand on her bag, the way she shifts her eyes left to right to find that absolute book, the look of concentration on her face as she was struggling finding good books to read—

She looked my way.

She must've noticed me checking her out—. I turned away quickly.

I heard her laugh. No.

Oh god, the embarrassment. I went back to do my job.

I continued shelving the books casually, still afraid that the girl would choose to make a move on me(yet also afraid that she wouldn't, because damn, this could be the only chance!). I moved around the aisle as I put books into their respective shelves while she.. She didn't move much. Only continued scanning the shelves for books.

It was pretty disturbing that she didn't roam around the aisle, but I tried not to let it affect me.

I had to walk beside her to shelf one of the last few books, and I could seriously feel her glare on me.

I snuck a glare back, though, and realized that she wasn't exactly looking at me.

She was looking at the bracelet on my left wrist, which was engraved with my name on it.

Is she going to try to talk to me?

I went to shelf more books, leaving that thought burning at the back of my mind.

As I was walking to and fro to finish the last few books, I got to a pretty close distance from her that a whisper escaped her lips.

"Uh, your name is Park Jiyeon, right?"

I in a large amount of oxygen. God, she finally spoke.

That soft voice, though..

"Yeah," I simply nodded as I tried to steady my breathing at the moment.

She gave me the most charming smile I've ever seen.

"Hi, I'm Ham Eunjung, do you know of any good books to recommend me? I really love fiction books, if that's necessary."

Each day ever since I started my job, I saw you with books clutched tightly in your hands, pressed close to your heart—and now, I wished I was fiction.