It was a Sunday morning when Joy heard a knocking at her door. About a week had gone by ever since Sungjae came to her house. In the last two days, they had been texting each other practically day and night. In such a short amount of time, Joy realized they both had quite a bit in common and started growing fond of Sungjae.

She opened the door and put two of her index fingers in a shooting motion while saying, “Wassaaaaaaaap?” Sungjae, who was holding about three bags of groceries, dropped everything and held his stomach, laughing. After wiping a tear away, he spoke, his voice raspy from laughter.

“What if that was someone else?” he said, barely breathing. Joy just shrugged with a smile and moved aside to let him in. Who knew three grocery bags could show off such a nice body? Her cheeks became a rosy pink.

“So, what’s with all this?” Joy picked up a bag of flour from a random bag. “Is this supposed to be the ‘Sungjae’ way of researching?” she tilted her head when she said “Sungjae.”

“You got it. I didn’t really find much about the ingredients so I thought we could, well, maybe try to bake a cake together and uncover the stuff ourselves.” his words trailed off near the end. Sungjae didn’t get the ingredients just to find out what’s going on, he wanted a reason to spend some extra time with Joy. He was starting to get fond of her as well.

Together, they laid out all the ingredients. Joy went through through a cabinet next to the sink to get Sungjae an extra apron. After she gave it to him, she spoke up.

“I took a pretty good look at that Olaf bookmark that was in the box.” she took it out from a kitchen drawer.

“Was there anything weird?” Sungjae asked, filled with anticipation and curiosity.

“Well, there was this.” Joy held up the bookmark and put a finger in between the two layers. Then, she peeled off one. There were small, but readable words running down its length.

“Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow--

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.”

            -‘A Dream Within A Dream’ by Edgar Allen Poe

“Huh. So this lady is into poems.” Sungjae let out a snort. “There goes my chances of deciphering this mess.”

“How do you know it’s a woman?” Joy asked, wondering why the person left this particular poem in the bookmark.

“Well, it was just an assumption. Females are more attracted to language while males are more attracted to math.” he shrugged. “But that doesn’t mean one or the other is not possibly a psychopath stalking us or something.”

Joy crossed her arms and went deep into thinking. She picked up the mysterious planner and flipped through the pages. She stopped on the last week of May.

August 31:

“Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.”

            -’I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud’ by William Wordsworth

“Hey, Sungjae, can I see your planner?” she asked, still deep in thought. Sungjae pulled out his own planner from his bag and handed it to Joy. She opened it up to the same exact page.

August 31:

“Look at the stars! look, look up at the skies!

O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!

The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there!

Down in dim woods the diamond delves! the elves'-eyes!

The grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold lies!

Wind-beat whitebeam! airy abeles set on a flare!

Flake-doves sent floating forth at a farmyard scare! --

Ah well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize.”

            -’The Starlight Night’ by Gerard Manley Hopkins

“Didn’t they just open up the hills for stargazing around here somewhere?”

“I guess we’ll have to see.”