Mr. Smith dismisses us and I decide to stay after class—well, at this point I don’t really have a choice. “Hello, Aubrey. What can I do for you?” he asks in English, in which I was more comfortable with when speaking to him because sometimes his Korean can be a bit rough. But for an American who learned Korean not even a year ago, I give him credit.
            “Tell me that it’s okay for me to e-mail my assignment to you tonight.” I say quickly. By the time I got home last night, I was pissed at G-Dragon for denying me for the second time. I, then, realized I had Mr. Smith’s assignment due the next day, which is today, and began reading the stories he assigned. I fell asleep in the midst of reading and didn’t have enough time to finish the assignment. “Come on, Smith. I really did attempt to read the stories, I just fell asleep. At least I read one story! I was exhausted from the shoot.”
            “Which story did you read?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Tell me about it.”
            “The Story of an Hour, which is pretty sad I would say.” I reply. I pace back and forth. “Mrs. Mallard heard that her husband died and that brought happiness and freedom into her life. She literally had a moment in her room where she was just in complete euphoria—which is a monstrous joy in that time period because divorces weren’t common so if you weren’t in love with the man you married anymore, and you get a divorce, the whole town would talk. Anyways, she went downstairs and then the door opens and out pops her husband like ‘hey, I’m not really dead.’ Seeing him gives her a heart attack because she was taken aback so suddenly, but the doctor’s diagnosed the cause of her death with a broken heart.”
            “Huh, interesting.” he says, eyeing me. He takes a deep breath and nods his head once. “Okay, fine. I’ll give you until ten to e-mail me your assignment.”

            I am going insane. The stylists are doing my hair and makeup at the same time, my phone is blowing up with text messages from Hyunjoong and his “problem” (which I really didn’t care about so I tossed my phone over to Trisha and Jiyeon), and my keyboard is starting to feel sticky. “Hairspray is supposed to go on the hair, not on my laptop.” I spew out at the stylist, rolling my eyes. My life was set out for this, but it seems as if her life wasn’t set out for being a hair stylist.
            I set my book on top of my laptop, and set my laptop on the table. I walk up beside G-Dragon on the set, still a little pissed at him for the past two days full of denial. “Let’s just get this over with,” I mumble mainly to myself. He looks up at me with the same facial expression that makes me want to choke him until he turns blue. I roll my eyes at him, seeing three flashes coming from the camera. He and I pose for the camera, acting as if we were even remotely close to being friends.
            During break, I pulled away from G-Dragon’s arms and walked off to the table to finish up my assignment. I glanced at the time on the right hand side of my screen—7:30 PM. I had approximately two and a half hours before my extended deadline, and five more stories to read. Hopefully we can end this photo shoot by eight or eight-thirty and I can head to the library to finish up this assignment in peace and hopefully check out a book. I was running out of things to read.
            After finishing my synopsis of The Gift of Magi, I grabbed my book and flipped to the page where The Monkey’s Paw began. I lean my back against the wall and begin reading. My eyes scanned through each line faster than a hummingbird’s wings: The talisman fell to the floor, and he regarded it fearfully. Then he sank trembling into a chair as the old woman, with burning eyes, walked to the window and—
            “Aubrey!” G-Dragon calls.
            “What?” I snap, looking at him. He blankly stares. At this point, it didn’t even bother me. I just needed to finish this story. And it was getting so good!
            “Break’s over.” he says. I roll my eyes and set my book down on the table.
            “Damn it.”

            I set my phone on the table after checking the time, which pretty much gave me anxiety. 8:55 PM. It was 8:55 PM. My life was not set out for this. My life was not set out for failing an assignment in which the professor gave me an extended deadline so I could finish it. This is not about to happen to me. I quickly scavenge for my car keys and slip my laptop in my bag. I grab my book and walk over to my mother, who was in the middle of a jumble of glasses filled with champagne raised in the air, passing by the stooges. “Going to the National Assembly Library to finish my assignment for Smith. If I need you, I’ll call. Iced caramel macchiato tomorrow morning.” I say to them.
            “Hey honey, were you not a part of the toast we just gave?” my mother asked, coming out from the group. I shake my head.
            “No, I wasn’t. Going to the library to finish my assignment.” I explain quickly. before walking toward the door that led to the hallway, only to be stopped by someone calling my name. I roll my eyes. I do not have time for conversing. I turn around to see G-Dragon walking toward me. “Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me tonight.” he says. “I feel bad for not being able to hang out with you the other night.”
            I take a deep breath and shake my head. “Can’t.” I say before walking out. Never in my life would I ever have thought that I would deny G-Dragon. Never in my life would I ever have thought that I would fail an assignment either, and if I don’t get my together, that’s going to happen.

            “I’m sorry for coming in so late. I just really have to finish this assignment and I just need peace and quiet.” I sigh once I reach the front desk, out of breath from running up the stairs.
            She looks at me with cheerful eyes. “It’s okay,” she says. “I’ll let you stay. When have I let you not? As usual, lock up when you’re done, okay?”
            I give her a little smile and nod. “Thank you,” I bow. I’ve stayed here multiple times before and she doesn’t mind. Well, at first she did. She was actually really pissed at me because I snuck in here once (climbed through the back window, but they fixed that problem a long time ago) and accidentally fell asleep reading a book. I expected some type of trespassing charge against me, but all she did was scold me. After that incident, she has always let me stay after closing hours.

            I finish reading The Monkey’s Paw and begin my synopsis on it. “I’m leaving now!” I hear the ahjumma shout.
            “Okay, have a good night!” I shout back. I continue on with my assignment, taking a moment to glance at the time.
            “Hello,” I hear a voice say.
            “Holy !” I gasp, jumping in my seat. I put a hand on my chest and feel my heart tearing at my ribcage. I turn around to see the that scared me—G-Dragon. “What the are you doing here?”
            He holds his left hand up, my phone appearing. “Your friends told me where you were. I wanted to come by and give you your phone.”
            “You could’ve left it with my mother or something instead of stalking me, do you realize that?” I ask him. I close my eyes and flush out all distractions. “Forget it. I have forty-five minutes to write an approximately ten sentence synopsis on each short story I am assigned to read and I have to read four more stories. So if you could just set my phone somewhere and leave, that would be spectacular.”
            I turn back around and continue my synopsis.  “Do you need help?” he asks.
            “No,” I take a deep breath and huff in frustration. I continue typing; just one more sentence.
            “Don’t you ever get scared staying here late at night by yourself?” he asks. “What if you get robbed?”
            “Yes, because everybody wants to rob a library.” I reply, sarcasm spewing out of my lips as I keep my eyes on my laptop screen.
            “But what if—“
            “Oh! My! God!” I raise my voice with each syllable, turning back to face him. He was closer than before. “Can you not be so bothersome?!”
            He gives me a childish smile. “Then let me be helpful. Come on, what story do you have to read next?”
            I close my eyes, irritated with him. If this is the only way he will shut up and stop asking me questions. I roll my eyes, now irritated with myself for coming to this solution. I grab my book and throw it at him as if I was pitching a softball. Damn it, he had good reflexes. “I underlined what stories I needed to read in the table of contents. I’ve read up to The Monkey’s Paw.” I explain, flipping through my binder. Thank God Mr. Smith gave us a handout over our assignment. I go down the list of stories. “I’m going to read Regret next, so read any story after that one. Give me a synopsis on the story after you’ve read it, and don’t let me fail. I mean, no offense, but you don’t look like the reading type.”
            “Well, neither did you.” he says.
            I look at him for a moment, and then I turn back to my laptop. “Touché.” I admit. Now I have to look up the damn story on the damn Internet because this damn boy has my damn book.

            I finish my synopsis over Regret and let out a sigh of relief. “Finished?” Jiyong asks, leaning against the table.
            “Yes,” I say, getting ready to type what he was going to say about whatever story he chose. “Alright, what story did you read?”
            “Doe Season,” he replies. Different words form in my head. Girl hunting, ocean, woods, feminism, masculism, crows flying.
            “I read this story in high school,” I say, trying to make the pieces fit together. “But I can’t remember much.”
            “Well, there’s a girl named Andrea who likes to be called Andy because she wants to be more masculine…” he begins, walking back and forth holding the book in his hand. He continues on, relating feminism to the ocean, relating masculism to the woods, and comparing Andrea to Max.
            “And then the crows represent a foreshadow of an omen!” I gasp in excitement once the details all come back to me. And just like that, I have fifteen sentences over Doe Season.
            “You know, I thought you were ignorant but you proved me wrong.” he smiles.
            “Well, I’m not stupid,” I say with furrowed brows. “I was valedictorian of my class for a reason.”
            “Really?” he raises an eyebrow, laughing. “Was your speech something like ‘I hate all of you, goodbye’?”
            I falsely laugh along with him. “It’s funny because you’re joking, but that’s how it really went down.” I say, looking up the last story I had to read. I can see him staring at me in disbelief in my peripheral vision. I give a little smile to myself. It was the best speech ever.

            All of the angels have shined down upon me and looked past all of my sins. Finally, the e-mail was officially sent at 9:58 PM and I was done. I close my laptop and grab my book, slipping them both inside of my bag. I look over at G-Dragon who was reading a book. He looked concentrated, his warm chestnut eyes moving left and right in centimeters. My heart felt warm.
            Suddenly, a phone rings. I continue to pack up (or at least act like it) as he answers his phone. I stand up and push in the chair, making my way toward the front desk to grab the key. “Since you’re finished, do you want to go out to eat?” G-Dragon asks as he makes his way up to me. I walk over to the front door and slip the key through and lock it—it was one of those doors that you could leave out of, but you couldn’t get back in.
            “Hmm,” I say as if I was actually thinking about going out with him. “Two days ago, and maybe even yesterday, I would’ve said yes. But then you denied me twice. So to go with a guy that has humiliated you two times in a row or to not go with a guy that has humiliated you two times in a row?”
            He follows me back to the front desk where I set the key down. “Well, if you think about it,” he says. “I had good reasoning: I thought you were a .”
            “That’s not the first time I’ve heard that,” I give him a good-job-you-cracked-the-code smile. I tap on the book still in his hands. “Make sure you don’t take that book. As for me, I’ll take my dignity.”
            I make my way out of the library, heading down the numerous flights of stairs. Suddenly, my phone rings with a text message.
            Kwon Jiyong: I’m taking the book.