Soojung spends her break in the library because she wants to give Jinri and Myungsoo some time alone together. She has been thinking that Jinri might probably need it and it’s proven by the sudden giggle that Jinri lets out when she tells her that she’s not going to spend her break with two of them. Jinri asks her for the last time is she okay with it, and she nods as she playfully shoves her away.

She walks until she reaches to the very last shelf in the library and sits down on the cold floor. She leans herself against the wall and takes out a packet of crackers from her pocket before she eats them. She doesn’t know eating alone could be that lonely. It isn’t the same loneliness when she comes to an empty house because her father is not there. It’s more suffocating because it’s Jinri that she’s talking about—Jinri that’s always with her and today she’s not there.

She sighs. It’s okay, Soojung. It’s for your own and Jinri’s good.

Realising that she has another 25 minutes free before the next class starts, she reaches the book she brought and turns to page where she last stopped before she starts reading. It lasts for a good couple of minutes before she finally lost herself in thought.

“Why do you love reading so much?” he asked a couple of days ago. He peeked at her book and he chuckled when realised it was an English book.

“Why do you love magic so much?” she asked back, finally averted her gaze from the last line she read to him.

“Who says I love magic?”

“You don’t?” Soojung couldn’t help but to gasp.

He grinned before he shook his head. “No, I don’t.”

“Then why do you do it?” she asked. “Humans are supposed to do the things that they love, aren’t they?”

“Sometimes,” he said. “Happiness doesn’t come with things that we do, but come from people all around us. I like it when people smile, laugh, chuckle over my tricks. When I see how happy they are, that’s when the happiness comes, you know? The satisfaction and happiness you get from making people happy. I think that kind of happiness will last long because it’s shared with lots of people. And from that, I start to love what I am doing even though I am not a big fan of what I am doing now.”

Soojung stared at him after that, admiring him and his words. She then broke into a smile.

“What about you? Why do you love reading so much?”

She shrugged. “Because it’s an escapism.” She said, and when he raised his eyebrows, she continued. “It says things I want to say, and it says things I want to hear—something I will never get to experience in actuality, and that’s why I decide to live there when I feel like it. It’s a great accompany, isn’t it? It’s always there and when you feel like everything’s too much and feel like run away, you’ll just have to lost yourself in the book.”

Myungsoo chuckled upon hearing what she said.

“It says things?”

She nodded, and she somehow loved the look on his face—he looked at her so gently, with a very faint smile, and he listened to her words very carefully and it felt different from how Jinri listened to her. Jinri made her feel loved, but Myungsoo made her feel cared.

“The characters,” she replied. “They say wonderful things and it’s great because when reading, we don’t fall in love with the characters’ appearance. We fall in love with their words, their thoughts, and their hearts. We fall in love with their souls and—” She chuckled. “I’m sorry. Talking about books can make me really excited.”

He chuckled as well. “So, who’s the character that you’re in love now?”

“Peter,” she said and she smiled afterwards. “Peter Kavinsky.”

The bell rings and she gets up very quickly that she’s almost lost her balance. She takes a deep breath and as she walks to the locker to pick her things for her next class, she couldn’t help but remembering what Myungsoo had said and how he doesn’t really love what he’s doing but does it anyway because he’s happy when the people all around him is happy.

She smiles, thinking that Myungsoo’s really a great guy, and she rea