~ A LIBRARY SIDE STORY ~

She runs the student magazine. Changmin remembers seeing a profile photo of her in one of the first pages, atop the contents. In fact, through the days at university, migrating between lectures and the library and the study hall, Changmin had gotten the impression that this Yoona was everywhere, and adored by most. She’s one of those people who everybody knows a little about, or just knows of, and she belongs somehow, even slightly in everybody’s lives. There was the occasional rumour of a professor taking her to a faculty dinner, or a story about her from years back, head bent over a sink as her body flushed itself out. But for the most part, as Changmin went about his uncomplicated, academically successful and well-organised life, he did not care too much for the fabled Im Yoona.

Certain parts of the study hall are quieter than others, and given the nature of the majority of students, there was always a low hum in the air, with keys on laptops being hit and students confirming definitions and theories with one another. Changmin’s sister would joke about him living in the library and study hall, which was somewhat the truth. Studying and learning never really stopped for him at any point, and he felt that it was a much more worthwhile application of his time than pursuits such as the Disney Appreciation Society and the Basketball team (as badly as a few of the players tried to recruit him in).

On the other hand, the graceful and alluring Im Yoona seemed to be involved in several societies on campus, and regularly appeared on social media to make announcement about various activities and to say important things to responsible people. There was an air of perfection to her that those outside her very inner circle of friends – who Changmin perceived as all tall, slender, well-dressed girls studying some assortment of Arts and Business degrees – breathed in. This well-coordinated, eternally perfect girl. Although Changmin had heard once, from a friend who had heard from Sooyoung, a friend of Yoona’s – that in person, she laughed with the greatest intensity out of her friends and most boyishly, and had many misadventures in high school and her first year on campus, and had a string of boyfriends sourced from various, now unreachable places.

All in all, Changmin had not expected her to cough, say “excuse me” and inquire on if the seat beside him was taken some few weeks before midsems.

She is gracious and polite and every bit the rumoured ladylike Yoona, but she also doesn’t concentrate very well. She asked about what Changmin was studying – what does he want to do after he graduates - does he have a part-time job – how has she not met him before? She speaks with excitement, like she is meeting somebody important and stunning, like he’s the only person in the world that she’s interested in speaking to. Changmin sighs sometimes, in between questions, and points to her textbook and notes, and says that she should be studying them instead of studying him.

He is a little shocked he is joking with her already, and they have only just met. Yoona is a very engaging person. He likes her already, right from the beginning. From the tips of her black-booted toes to the very top of her deep brown hair. She has a lovely smile, and Changmin can understand why the Photography Society is obsessed with her. He also wonders though (a little guiltily, because it is so rude to think bad things about a good person) if this is the golden age of Yoona’s life, and will the rest of her time be an anti-?

Changmin hopes not when Yoona eventually plugs herself into music, and traverses a chapter in her public relations textbook. She has lovely features, and Changmin has to catch himself before he is blatantly staring at her.

She doesn’t notice, and she leaves later that evening, all smiles and politeness. She is impossible to dislike, Changmin feels, and is pleasantly surprised to find her in the library the next day, this time in a different desk. And again and again, it seemed that now she had entered his life, she wasn’t leaving so easily. Sometimes she looks up and she smiles and waves, before she looks down to tend to books. Other days she is sitting with a few friends, other girls in modest sweaters and collared shirts. She doesn’t notice him then, but she does wave on the way out. Sometimes she stops by and asks how he is.

She asks him to read one of her essays one day, and asks for his email. Changmin feels that it’s rather out of the blue, this request – but he went along with this request regardless, feeling that there was no harm to it, and he had time. At first he reads her marketing essays and research projects, but one day, she adds him on several social networking sites all at once, and Changmin can’t help this feeling in his gut that there’s got to be more than just his free casual tuition she’s interested in.

Changmin is pleasantly surprised when she drops by his workplace with a friend (her name is Sooyoung, he overhears), and orders crème caramel and mocha. She is gracious and encourages