1.

Look at those humans.

Look at that boy who pretentiously bumps his shoulder against a girl's unsuspecting back.

Look at him, he's grinning. He's bending over to pick up the book. Barf. What is this cheap method realness? Now he's gonna offer the book back to the girl while smiling brilliantly, saying sorry, hoping to look cool. Oh my God he really does that, I wonder why I can predict everything right? Now the girl's gonna look at him with sparks of lov—

"What the ?"

Le blink.

Oh.

The girl has just slapped him. While telling him to watch where he goes and, quote, ing stop purposely knocking over girls just to reenact some k-drama scenes as if you're the main lead, unquote.

ASDFGJAHSKGDSJHGAFH YOU GO, GURL!

That's refreshing to see, phew. I almost feel bad for the dude, but I'm also afraid to witness a makjang drama replaying itself in front of me. A couch could only take a cliche plot so many times, after all.

Hmm? Why are you staring questioningly at me?

...oh.

I've just forgotten to introduce myself, don't I? Well, I'm a couch. Name? Hmm. I don't think I have a name. I'm just an ordinary, boring, old couch in the library of a college I don't even bother to remember what its name is.

Aint no couch got time for that.

Speaking of couch, someone has just walked over and prepared his to land on my comfortable old cushion. I hope he's not the farty type. I hate farty type.

Hngk.

Sorry, did that confuse you?

That was a noise I unconsciously make whenever someone sits on me. Even babies. The difference is, with babies, it's hngk in a suppressed-mental-squealing kind of way, while with non-babies, it's hngk in an I'm-too-old-for-this-heavy-loads-no-offense-to-your-weight-though-I'm-just-seriously-old kind of way.

Hey, this dude's bottom smells kind of nice. Okay, that might sound creepy to you, but only because you aren't a couch like me. So don't judge.

*sniffs* Hmm. Maybe it's the parfume.

Must've been the parfume.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, I'm a library couch. Which means that I'm always in the library. I'm old, though, so I'm basically in a secluded corner far away from new visitors' sight. Which is kinda sad, because I like seeing new faces. But it's also okay, because then those who still seek me usually carry a story with them, rather than just a casual visit.

I like stories.

They don't always tell their stories out loud, but I can see it in their faces. In their expressions. In their gestures. And sometimes, in their interactions with someone they meet while they're within my sight.

It also means being a witness to an overused attempt at romance, but once in a while I get a plot twist, like today, for example, and I can't really complain for that. A couch gotta accept what's there and refrain from upsetting the Gods of Couch-Haven.

"Oh, you're here."

Nah, that wasn't me. Couch can't say words out loud, not in the way you humans will understand, anyway. Else you'll be undergoing shocks. Some couches are less patient and polite than me, they're so savage... especially when you try to fart on them quietly. Ha.

Anyway, that was the boy sitting on me, speaking to a girl—ohhh, that was the girl from earlier.

Le blink.

"Thank you for saving me a seat, Key," the girl gushes.

"Haha, no problem. I was free anyway, but I really need to go now."

"Chaeyeon?" the girl teases, grinning. The boy rises and shoves her jokingly, but not answering. Judging from the faint red on the tip of the guy's ears, though, I think the girl is spot on about this Chaeyeon gal.

"Cut it, Yoona. Just sit and read your book."

"I totally will," the girl sticks her tongue out, plopping onto me.

I tune the rest of their conversation out, waving it away as one of those ordinary conversations I often hear. It's great to see the friendship between this Key guy and the Yoona gal, though. I might still have faith in the male species of humans, after all.

Speaking of this Yoona gal...

I'm actually not new to her. She's always around every Thursday, bringing a book with her to read over. Her legs would be up, folded neatly with her knees snug against her chest. She'll began to mumble several words as she read through the passages, swimming into a tale she hasn't been in before.

But it's not all.

No, it's not.

This ordinary routine won't be complete without a girl sitting on a chair across me, several meters away. She's got a laptop with her that she always sets up on the table—whom  I call Tablo and totally hates me for it—and I don't think she actually does anything to the laptop except to hide her taking a peek to Yoona every once in a while.

Totally a creep if you ask me.

But, a creep or not, I'm a curious couch and asking is what I do best, so...

What's that girl's story?

2.

Remember when I said an ordinary routine won't be complete without a girl sitting on a chair across me to creep on the Yoona gal?

Well, Tablo told me her name today.

After I heard a boy mentioned it first.

So basically, Tablo's information is useless. As usual. No surprises, he hates me. Haven't I told you that?

Anyway, her name is Yuri, apparently, and she's friend with a boy who likes to dish out people's bad habits. Why my impression of the boy is like that, you ask? Well, for instance—

"Oh my God, noona, just talk to her and leave the life of a stalker!"

The Yuri girl yelps and immediately shuts her laptop, with her other hand flying to clamp over the boy's mouth.

"Sssh!"

"Hfuu hfathe!" the boy grins triumphantly behind her hand.

"One of these days, Minho, I will kill you and—"

"Are you sure you want to kill me while she is watching—"

"LALALA NO ONE HEARS YOU AND YOU ABSOLUTELY WON'T WANT TO REPEAT IT AGAIN," Yuri yells, smothering the boy with her bag so hard that I'm almost sure I heard a choked sound from him.

And you know the thing that always happens when you're making a scene in front of the one you stalk?

Yep, the librarian kicks you out.

This's still a library, people.

3.

It shouldn't take a long time before Yoona discovers Yuri, me thinks.

Actually, I was betting with Tablo that the shenanigans the day before—where a lanky boy basically publicized Yuri's crime and got them both kicked out from the library—was enough for Yoona to take notice. I lost, Tablo won, why you ask? Because Yoona, bless her innocent self, was sleeping peacefully through the whole ordeal.

e.

You might wonder what shortcomings a couch could possibly get from losing in a bet against a table. Well, I'm now under a condition to not call Tablo Tablo for a month. He wants to be called Desku. I think he's gone mental.

"Yoona."

The two bickering friends are approaching me, books of fishing in their arms. It's Friday.

Why are they here on Friday...

"You really need to help me," Yoona mumbles, "I know nothing about fishing and I will totally embarrass myself..."

"Do I look like I know how to fish?" Key snorts, putting the books down.

"You look like a fish," Yoona suggests.

"Says the flounder," Key retorts.

"I'm sorry?" a voice interrupts, "I heard you talking about fishing."

The two besties stop and turn, and I pride myself in not needing to look to know that it's Minho. Yuri's in her usual place, but with a big dictionary book this time, in place of her laptop.

"Um," Key blinks. "Minho? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, hyung!" Minho beams. "Well, I overheard you about fishing and I had a friend who reaaaaally likes to fish..."

"Actually," Key interjects, "the only fishing we're going to do is a playstation game about fishing, and this flounder," he gestures to Yoona who makes a face at him, "is going against her arch-nemesis so she really wants to win.."

Minho blinks.

"A... console game?"

"Yes."

Minho blankly stares at the books they're bringing with them.

"Yoona is a very paranoid person," Key offers. "Especially if she's about to face her arch-nemesis."

"It's okay," Minho determinedly replies. "My friend is good at fishing games too."

"Oh?" Yoona perks up. "Can you introduce me to this friend?"

Minho grins. "I thought you'd never ask. She's in—"

He turns towards where Yuri sits.

Both besties follow his action.

And they stare, at the empty chair and empty Desku.

"Blast," Minho scowls, "where has she gone to again??"

4.

It's not until three days later that any of the 'fishing trio' waltzes around me again. Interestingly enough... maybe because it's Monday... it's Key and Minho, with Yoona nowhere to be seen, and Yuri not in her usual spot behind Desku. (I still can't stop myself from mentally berating the name. Tablo is way cooler. WAT IS DESKU EVEN, WHY DOES HE HAVE A BAD TASTE IN NAMES.)

I want to cancel him from my friendlist.

"You didn't tell me that the arch-nemesis is her brother, hyung," Minho complains.

"You wouldn't believe me," Key shrugs. "Even I couldn't believe it at first."

"Now her bro hates Yuri's guts," Minho frowns, plopping on top of me. Oh, his bottom smells nice too.

"Any males losing to her in a fishing game by a landslide would hate her guts," Key dryly remarks. "It's okay, Yoona was having a field day because of that."

I nod sagely to their story. Apparently Yoona and Yuri had finally met. And apparently, Yuri freaking smashes the fishing game, even though I'm sure Minho was gambling with fate when he declared that she's good at it. Sometimes fate blesses you just like that.

"About them," Minho mutters, "hyung, don't you feel something whenever you see them together?"

Key stares.

"Like, a fluttering feeling from the bottom of your stomach?" Minho coaxes.

"Minho," Key interjects slowly, "they were always sitting at least one meter away from each other."

"I know. Didn't you feel it? A tingling feeling in your heart because it's so nice, and suddenly flowers bloom in every corner of your sight like you're watching a shoujo anime—"

"Minho," Key hisses. "As far as we know, they have only met once."

Minho stares at him. "I ship."

Key groans, bumping his head to my arm. "You've got to be kidding me."

"What's wrong about shipping them?" Minho demands. "Don't tell me you view—"

"No, it's not like what you think," Key quickly clarifies, straightening up again. "But listen, you shipping them can make everything awkward—"

"They're already awkward," Minho points out.

"—even more awkward, and you could very well destroy what could've been—"

"Or I could be the catalyst that helps them grow their love so the drama won't turn into a one hundred episodes long with cliffhanger as its ending," Minho offers.

Key twitches. "I see that nothing I'd say would change your mind."

Minho nods happily. "Glad we're on the same page."

The older male sighs. "You know what, I have the rest of today free so just for fun... tell me why you ship them."

Key hasn't even finished breathing the last word when Minho launches off into a long speech about the not-really-a-couple couple that gets his heart burning everyday.

And thus begins the tale, dear readers.

The day I witness Choi Minho turning Key into a fellow Yoona *heart emoji* Yuri shipper.

5.

The day after, Yoona visits me with only a book in her hand.

It's one of the little things I like from Yoona. She still sticks to physical books, when some people carry gadgets and read out their materials from digital ebooks. Not that it's wrong to have digital ebooks. I'm just a library couch. I side with the library folks, and physical books are my people. Peace out.

"Hi, Couch-nim," Yoona greets me before settling, gently caressing my arm with her free hand.

Times like this, I wish I could talk in human language just so I could return her greeting. As a reply, I try my best to fluff my cushions instead.

"I only bring one book with me," Yoona pouts, still talking to me even if she can't hear my answer. "Because other new books are already borrowed and I'm not in the mood to reread. But... I guess it also means that more people are reading books nowadays..."

I listen diligently to her soft rants, while Desku makes urgent hissing sounds.

I look over.

Yuri's there.

I blink, not really expecting to see her there, because she hasn't been for a while already. This is not ordinary. Then again, it's not even Thursday.

I mentally shake my head.

Appearing right behind Yuri is Minho, who wears the stupidest grin ever in my history of knowing the boy.

Yoona's still telling me things, drifting off from books to a fishing game and how her brother actually flops at it, while Minho and Yuri seem to exchange some arguments.

Desku just signaled me that they're arguing about whether or not Yuri should go and say 'hi' to Yoona.

I signal back to him to just trip Yuri and be done with it.

Turns out, like a useless desk he is, Desku can't move his legs (me neither, but I'm not the one with the mission to trip anyone). But Minho can, and so he does. He appears to be surrendering to Yuri's opinion, lets her to walk towards Desku (I TOLD YOU TABLO IS WAY COOLER), and then innocently puts his foot in a strategic place.

Yuri trips.

The loud sound that accompanies Yuri's dramatic fall has Yoona pausing her story-telling. She looks over, eyes widening as she sees Yuri whimpering on the ground.

Cue Minho's acting.

"Oh my God noona, are you okay? I'm so sorry!"

Bless Minho and his annoying arse. He doesn't look sorry at all, that little .

Yoona shifts, obviously concerned. Desku is relaying the conversations happening near him to me. I guess he's not really useless when he wants to.

"Shut up and just help me," Yuri grits out.

"Oh no, what to do? She is looking at you now, noona."

"She's not, now shut up and be thankful I'm not bringing my laptop—"

Minho looks at Yoona and waves, not minding Yuri's obvious mental breakdown, and Yoona waves back, eyes crinkling to form a concerned smile.

"SHE'S OKAY!" Minho half yells, and Yuri wobbles back to her feet, only to slam her forehead against Desku because oh God she befriends a jerk.

Yoona giggles, nodding instead of replying with a half-yell herself because she's sane enough to know not to get on the librarian's bad side, unlike some people.

Desku says the collision between Yuri and his top should be enough to cause a concussion.

Minho just doesn't care. He drags Yuri to Yoona because I don't know. Maybe he finally figures out that there's a technique to communicate without half-yelling—and that is to talk in a decent distance.

"Release me," Yuri hisses, and release her Minho does, but only after they arrive in front of Yoona and Yuri has no chance to escape the fateful meeting like she usually does.

"Hi!" Minho excitedly waves, again.

"Hi," Yoona smiles. Her gaze zeroes on Yuri who quickly hides a grimace, "Are you okay, Yuri-sshi?"

"Um," Yuri runs her fingers through her hair, "yeah, I'm okay, sorry about this idiot."

Said idiot is taking a step back and I think he's hyperventilating because his OTP finally interacted, this time without a fishing game as the topic.

"Are you often around?" Yoona asks, and I snort. Oh Yoona, you have no idea.

"Yeah, I'm usually by my laptop over there—" Yuri points to Desku, effectively shoving Minho aside with the swing of her arm before he could excitedly add 'STALKING YOU' to the explanation, "—doing things. Hehe."

I mentally list this 'hehe' as the epitome of an awkward laugh.

"I see," Yoona smiles. "I'm usually here, so... you're welcome to sit next to me anytime, if you want."

Minho drops to the ground.

Yuri looks torn between wanting to thank Yoona or letting the ground to swallow her alive because God, Minho is an embarrassing shipper to have.

"What's he doing?" Yoona asks, peering at Minho who slowly begins to roll away from them. Probably to give them some privacy. Or probably because it's too much for him to take and he wants to spazz in a more appropiate place away from his ship's ears.

"Don't mind him," Yuri croaks. "He's just... trying to symphatize with the library's floor. He does that sometimes."

Yoona nods slowly. "I... see..."

"And Yoona-sshi?"

Yoona looks up. I look up too, ignoring Desku's grunt of pain when Minho bumps into one of his legs.

"I'd like that," Yuri smiles. "Thank you."

THE END

(...not. I have a part two, which I will try to finish and post before this week ends. ^^)