Words lie on each page of the books and it soon sends Jongin away wandering to his imagination. He finds comfort from it, books are his haven and his escape. When everything seems to be falling apart, he picks up his book and goes for a quick ‘getaway’. 

He has his own bubble when he ventures into one of his books, even none of his friends can pop it without getting a glare from Jongin.

It’s one of those days where he goes to his favorite park and read until time passes by beneath each turned pages. 

The sun is shining brightly above the sky, it’s entering fall and the news reported of how windier it gets each day. Thankfully, his usual seat is underneath the tall trees, blocking him from the bright sunlight.

Before he reads, he always spares a good few minutes staring at his surroundings, enjoying how the cold wind blows. Jongin closes his eyes, savoring the feeling, a small smile on his lips. 

He always had a thing for parks, he can stay there for hours, especially when there’s a good book with him. 

He plugs his earphones in as he opens his book to the last page he read, and at once, he tunes out everything else and the world around him is a blur. 

Jongin focuses on his new book he bought a few days ago. He found one particularly eye-catching since it's a first edition from the 50’s and it gives him a more satisfying feeling of owning it.

Just as he’s into a few pages of the book, he sees someone sitting next to him in the corner of his eyes. He glances annoyedly at the person beside him, the latter staring to the view across them. 

When he feels Jongin’s stare, he looks at him with a look of sorry, “I’m sorry I forgot to ask. Can I sit here?” Jongin pops out his earphones as he sends his gaze around him and he sees there are a lot of empty seats around, so why would this guy sit beside him?

“There are empty seats around,” Jongin says softly, trying to sound polite but he fails as his voice comes out annoyed.

Sehun shows him his camera, and he gestures to the view in front of them, a line of buildings with the sky above them in an orange shade since the day slowly turns into night, “This is the best spot for me to take photos of that.”

Jongin wonders silently, but the seat in front me has a better view of the buildings, why would he still sit beside me? He shrugs it off in the end, getting back to his book since it’s getting to the interesting part.

“Agatha Christie? A classic crime fiction, not bad at all,” the guy beside him voices out, he’s busy taking photos before looking at Jongin again, a small smirk on his lips. 

Jongin has a stunned look, he knows Agatha Christie is a well-known author but he didn’t take the guy beside him to know anything about literature. The pale-white boy beside him has strong features, a sharp jawline, and piercing eyes, you can simply mistake him as someone who keeps up with the latest trends.

You shouldn’t judge people like that, you head, Jongin mutters in his head as he shakes his head. He hears the boy chuckling, “You thought I don’t know anything about the literature world?”

“Your face does seem like it,” Jongin grins sheepishly.

“Hold on there, I’m offended, and you should know I’ve nearly read all of Sherlock Holmes,” he puts his camera on the table between them, his hands motioning every word spoken from his lips.

Jongin nudges the boy to lean closer to him, and he whispers, “I’ve read all of Sherlock Holmes.” Jongin sees the boy’s mouth gaping slightly, looking very much surprised and he nearly laughed at the sight.

“Even the series that are no longer published?” he asks in an impressed tone, he turns his body completely to Jongin, getting interested in their conversation. Jongin notices the boy putting his camera back into his bag, in which he didn’t notice the bag in the first place.

Jongin nods his head, but he scrunches his eyebrows in confusion, “I thought they still had it in compilations? You know, those thick and heavy Sherlock books with all of the series,” and he sees the boy shaking his head, his silver-gray hair cascading gently.

“Sorry but not sorry, I don’t like compiled books, I like each series of books better,” Jongin nods his head in agreement, finding himself liking exactly what the boy said. “Does that mean you read all of them from compiled books?”

“No, those books are like encyclopedias, how’d you expect me to bring it anywhere? I’d usually buy first editions but not at once, if only I money.”

“First of all, they’re vintage, and first editions, I can get why you have issues of trying to money. Second, where do you buy those?”

Jongin laughs lightly, before shaking his head, “I won’t tell you where I bought it. It’s a secret,” he hears the other boy letting out a whine, his pleading eyes looking up to Jongin’s. All Jongin thinks is, holy his eyes are pretty and it's working on me, stay strong Kim Jongin. The boy is still pleading silently with his eyes and Jongin’s wall starts to crumble at those eyes, it’s sparkling and casting weird things at him and he hates it. 

Jongin mumbles, “I can’t believe,” when he gives up and the boy laughs at him, happy at his victory from simply pleading at Jongin with his eyes. “But first, I need to know your name. I can’t give out the name of my favorite bookstore to a stranger.”

“Sure thing, I’m Sehun, Oh Sehun to be exact.”

“Jongin, Kim Jongin to be exact,” Jongin imitates Sehun’s tone and the latter lightly punch his arm.

“I’ll write the name on this tissue right here,” Jongin points to a neglected tissue near them and he takes out the pen in his pocket, and starts writing on the tissue, careful not to rip the paper. 

“Is this shop like top secret or something?” Sehun chuckles at the sight of Jongin, so intent in writing on the tissue as he straightens it once in awhile.

“You can say so,” Jongin smirks, “I told you, I don’t give these out to random strangers and we just met.” 

Sehun sighs exaggeratedly as Jongin finishes writing the name of the bookstore he goes to when he wants to buy first edition books.

He scrutinizes the handwriting on the crumpled tissue. As a guy, Jongin’s handwriting is honestly neat but it’s hard to write on a tissue so it turns out like messy scribbles. “Is it called The Mysterious Bookshop?” Sehun’s voice edging in uncertainty, and he’s still staring at the handwriting.

“It is, and they specifically sell crime and mystery fiction and nonfiction books. That’s where I buy the Sherlock books and this Agatha Christie first edition,” Jongin lifts the book he’s holding to Sehun, who’s busy nodding his head, looking very serious.

“Let’s go there.”

“Wait, now? Like right now?”

“No, let’s go there next year,” Sehun answers sarcastically, earning a scoff from Jongin, “Of course, right now, Jongin.” The latter frowns, he’s about to try finishing his book after he’s done talking with Sehun because, in the first place, the boy had already interrupted his bubble. 

Now I need to put a hold on this book, thank you so much, Sehun, Jongin says in his mind, wandering until he finds an idea, “Tell me one good reason why I should come with you to the bookstore.”

He sees Sehun’s hand coming up to rub on his chin, eyes staring at Jongin then shifting to the book Jongin’s holding and he quirks his eyebrow. “When was the last time you bought a first edition book?”

“This is the last book I bought, why?”

“It seems like you’re almost done with it, Jongin. And from what I heard you talking, you sound like you like crime fiction books so much,” Sehun’s voice trails when he sees Jongin’s slightly astonished look. 

“I’m betting you don’t have any crime books left to read and you haven’t read all of Agatha Christie’s, probably aiming to. Am I right?”

“Are you psychic? You’re creeping me out.”

“So I’m right, am I?” He wiggles his eyebrows, his lips stretching into a grin. Jongin honestly wants to wipe that -eating grin on Sehun’s face because it makes him look even smugger. 

So Jongin stands up abruptly, and grumbles to a smirking Sehun, “Fine, let’s go.”

The first thing he feels when he enters the bookshop is the feeling of awe with shelves high up onto the ceiling, and every shelf full of books. Jongin walks ahead of Sehun as he sees the books shown on the tables near the cashier, they’re newly published books.

He sees Sehun walking further in front of him, nearing to one of the shelves and he crouches down, fingers coming up to touch each of the books as he reads the title to it. He comes up to Sehun, his voice a whisper, “Those are the old Sherlock compiled books.”

“Where are the other ones?” Sehun whispers back, eyes glancing up to a standing Jongin. His eyes follow where his fingers point to, a shelf at the other end of the shop. He stands up and walks his way to the shelf, eyes glancing at the stacks of books in the shelves he passes by.

In the quiet store, they’re the only ones there —and a guy by the cash register, who’s busy answering calls—. Jongin can’t help but notice how good looking Sehun is, intensified by how he’s so concentrated in looking at the stack of books.

He snaps out of his thoughts, he just met this guy in front of him right now, and they’re practically strangers. He barely knows anything about Sehun and vice versa.

After a good one hour or so of strolling around the store, looking through series of books from different authors, Sehun walks to the cashier with a heavy pile of books in his hands. Meanwhile, Jongin only has two books in hand.

Jongin laughs, “Are you seriously buying all of that at once?”

“Yes, I have no regrets honestly.”

“Man, that’ll cost you a ton of money, you’ll be broke right after.”

“I counted the total, and I’m 99 percent sure I have the amount of money,” he puts the books on the cashier, surprising the guy in the cashier at a number of books.

The cashier asks, smiling politely, “I’m going to remind you that these are first editions, are you sure with these?”

“Yes, I am very sure. Scan away please,” Sehun takes out his card from his wallet.

There’s an amused look on Jongin’s face when he sees the total price for all of the books Sehun bought, and Sehun is right there beside him, casually swiping his card to the machine.

“Holy , that amount can totally pay off a whole cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory,” Sehun laughs.

“But those are food, Jongin, you eat them and that’s it. There’s a value with books, you can keep them until who knows when.”

“Good point, but cheesecake gives me the satisfaction of feeling how desserts are heaven on earth.”

Sehun snorts, “Are you hungry? Do you want to go somewhere after this?”

Feeling embarrassed, Jongin’s hand comes up to comb through his hair, “In return, can we go to the Cheesecake Factory? It’s a mistake that I mentioned their cheesecakes because now I’m craving for one.”

Sehun snickers as he takes his card and the bag of his books from the cashier. The few minutes ahead of Jongin paying for his books, Sehun teases him a lot. It ends with fits of laughter from him, after hearing Jongin’s st