Date Completed: 14 May 2017

Song Recommendation:  Henry - Real Love

Minor Pairings: JoyGi

I was writing my thesis on Elizabethan Literature and out of stress, I'd written two fics that reflected whatever it was that I was researching on XD Thanks for subscribing, commenting & upvoting my previous story! To be honest, that was probably the best one I'd written so I hope you're not putting your hope up for this one.

A little bit of background: In As You Like It by William Shakespeare, Rosalind is a female character who disguises as a male and travel with Celia, her cousin. It has been suggested by many scholars that the bond between Rosalind and Celia seems to be more than simple familial love but in the end, they both marry someone else.

But I promise by fluff for this fic.

my guilty pleasure

Joohyun wandered in the huge library alone. She half regretted not taking Amber’s offer to guide her around the library just now. Probably it was for the best, since the girl’s flirty eyes and too wide a smile indicated she had something else other than being Joohyun’s guide of the day in mind. Amber had accompanied (read: dragged) her around the campus and pointed out buildings and people around them. Joohyun was not even sure if she could remember all of those, the girl was too loud, too excited and Joohyun felt like whimpering when the girl tried to make her less-than-subtle advances towards Joohyun.

When it was late evening, Joohyun got reminded of the only place that Amber did not give her a thorough guide when her eyes fell on the white building located near the school’s hall. Joohyun politely told the Chinese-American girl that she wanted to stay and look around the library for a while. Amber enthusiastically offered to show her around but she had refused, stating that she would only be there for a short while and it was quite late so Amber should get going first. She hesitantly left after Joohyun hinted that her boyfriend might pick her up when she was leaving (she had no boyfriend nor did she swing that way but best not to give Amber any more motivation.)

Joohyun marvelled at the smell of old books mingled with the new ones, being arranged neatly on the shelves. She had always loved books; she found comfort in reading fictions and she enjoyed reading history books for some reasons, which was why she chose to do her degree and master in history. There were not a lot of people around the library since it was not exam season and as Joohyun wandered, she stumbled upon the literature section which looked more isolated than other shelves and she saw no other students being in this corner. Joohyun was thinking of sitting there for a while and catch her breath when her breath really got caught up in .

She had walked over to Renaissance Literature section and saw a girl in red hoodie, sitting on the floor amongst the shelf, mouthing inaudible words to herself. Her blond hair fell from her pulled up hoodie and covered a part of her face but Joohyun could see from her uncovered side profile how beautiful she the girl was. Joohyun was not the type of person who would initiate a conversation but this time, she cleared softly, trying to get the other girl’s attention. She almost felt bad when the girl jumped a little from surprise but she could get a clearer view of the girl’s face now.

And good lord, she was ethereal.

She was not a real blonde, Joohyun could see now the darker roots that started to grow and peeked out of the blond hair when the girl’s hoodie fell. She had a long, prettily curved nose and a wide, twinkling eyes. Her eyebrows seemed to move at her every expression and right now, they were both raised in surprise and Joohyun wanted oh so badly to smooth those eyebrows back to their place and she bit her lips, trying to control her goddamn hormone and her minds’ gears turned faster as she tried to break the awkward silence that befell between them.

“Uh, sorry for disturbing you, but I thought your hair looks nice and I just have to say that.”

She could not believe she just said that. Oh god, how embarrassing could you be, Bae Joohyun? Great, now this girl would mark her as someone who would talk to strangers just to compliment their hair.

The other girl’s shocked expression subsided and she responded with a sheepish smile. She ran her fingers through her hair a bit, not in a conceited way but more in a self-conscious way. (Joohyun thought her knees went weak from the girl’s actions, this girl clearly did not know the effect she had on Joohyun.)

“Thanks, I’m glad you like it, I guess. But the colour’s starting to come off, I’ve been too busy to care about hair maintenance.”

She shrugged and Joohyun mentally patted her back for picking a conversation that actually interested the girl.

“Well, that should be fine, I think your natural hair colour would look good on you too.”

Joohyun could really slap herself this time for that one. How brazen, how bold! She was usually more reserved than this. There was something about this girl that made Joohyun dropped all of her restraints and spoke more of what was on her mind. The girl looked more amused than taken aback and she chuckled a little at Joohyun. (Joohyun was quite sure her face was only a shade lighter than the dark red hoodie the other girl was wearing right now.)

“So you come to the place where the Master of Romance dwells to romance another, miss? You sure know the old adage of ‘right place, right time.’”

Joohyun was initially confused by the ‘Master of Romance’ reference but when the girl stuck out her lips a little at the direction of the books on the shelf, Joohyun recognized the neatly arranged Shakespeare’s books. (She might also stared at the lips for a little longer than necessary but who wouldn’t?)

“Ah, Shakespeare. I’ve been involved in staging one of his plays before, Romeo and Juliet. I wouldn’t call that as romance.”

Joohyun crinkled her nose as her mind brought her back to the awful time when she was forced to be Juliet during her degree. The girl laughed at this, probably a little louder than what was normally allowed at the library (if they even allowed people to laugh at all) but then again, it was like their own little world. There was no one else for almost a kilometre away from them and the shelves around this area were deserted.

“I guess you’re right. Some people would find that kind of romance as a bad example and some would take it as a model for true love. To each their own, I guess.”

The girl hummed a little at this and Joohyun peered at the book she was holding.

“As You Like It? I take it you belong to the latter category of the people that you described.”

“Me? It depends. Some days I belong to the first category, other days I lump myself in the second category. Depends on what my lecturers ask me to write.”

The girl pointed to a stack of books on the floor beside her and Joohyun saw a list of names she herself was quite familiar with. Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser. She was doing some hard core reading of Renaissance literary works apparently. Joohyun walked closer to the girl and sat beside her, leaving some respectable distance as two strangers but the girl flashed a blinding smile at Joohyun and scooted closer, holding out a hand.

“Wendy, third year Literature student. You?”

Joohyun accepted the offer of handshake with a shy smile.

“Joohyun, I’m going to start my master program here next week, in renaissance history.”

Wendy gasped, fell open and she placed her free palm on her chest. Her eyebrows were wilding again and Joohyun felt more tempted to touch them (weird as it sounded) now that they were practically sitting right next to each other.

“You’re a Korean! I thought so! Hah!”

Wendy started speaking in Korean and Joohyun got distracted from looking at her eyebrows.

“Wait, you’re a Korean too?”

Her pronunciation sounded a bit odd, as if she was not a native speaker of the language but her grammar and vocabulary were fine. Wendy hummed and she looked brighter than before (and Joohyun had no idea how that was possible.)

“Yeah! I moved here when I was eleven. Wait, you’re doing master…so that means you’re an unnie to me! Joohyun unnie!”

There was something about the way Wendy pronouncing the word unnie that seemed so familiar to her, Joohyun guessed she used it often. This was proven right later during their conversation when Wendy asked Joohyun’s age and she squealed when she found out Joohyun was the same age as her older sister. The girl listened attentively and carefully when Joohyun talked, as if every word that came out of Joohyun’s mouth was important for her (at least, Joohyun would like to think so.) They talked about the basics, their age, a little bit on their family, how Joohyun came to study in Canada and Wendy laughed when Joohyun told her about Amber’s tour.

“That’s how she usually is with newcomers. Don’t worry, she’s kind but she kinda flirts with a lot of people. I think her crush is this one girl from fashion school but I can’t be too sure.”

Wendy’s eyebrows were furrowed as she thought and Joohyun changed the topic to somewhere closer to where they were.

“So what are you doing here this late? This is the beginning of the school year. There is barely anyone around.”

Joohyun knew it was a bad idea the moment Wendy pouted at this question. (She really should stop doing these kind of things with , it was too distracting for Joohyun.)

“I have to prepare for my thesis this session, that’s why I’m stuck here instead of basking in the beautiful fall weather.”

Wendy lamented and Joohyun laughed. Her laughter came to a halt suddenly when the lights were suddenly switched off. Joohyun yelped and draped herself on Wendy, making the girl tumbled full bodied on the floor too. (If Joohyun was not so scared, she probably would have recognized the fact that she as on top of Wendy and died there and then from embarrassment and happiness.)

Wendy quickly recovered and helped Joohyun to get up to sit again. She shoved her hand in her pocket and pulled out her phone, cursing under her breath.

“We’re locked. The library is closed for the day. I should’ve realized the time.”

She said the last part sadly and Joohyun’s heart was tugged with guilt.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have distracted you.”

“Don’t worry. Not the first time this happened. Usually they would make an announcement moments before closing but you can’t really hear it from here. The staffs that make rounds to check whether there were students left behind can’t be bothered to walk this far too. We’ve complained but there’s still nothing done.”

Wendy shrugged, and Joohyun felt a lot calmer when she knew the girl was used to this. She took out her own phone and opened the flashlight app before placing it between them. Wendy smiled gratefully at her before she fidgeted with her phone and placed it at her ear, clearly trying to make a call.

“I gotta make a call, my housemate is going to be worried about me.”

Joohyun wanted to nod but Wendy’s attention on her was broken the moment a ‘hello’ was heard from the other end. Weirdly she talked in a mixture of English and Korean. Joohyun could only hear one part of the conversation but she could guess what was being said at the other end as Wendy’s expression kinda spoke for two people.

“Ddeulgi, I got stuck in the library again.”

“No, I’m not alone this time. I made a new friend and we’re stuck together.”

Wendy winced as loud shouts were heard from the phone and looked apologetically at Joohyun.

“No, bear. She’s not an axe murderer. You should stop watching all these weird horror movies. She’s a student who happened to be here too the moment they closed the library.”

“How is she weird?! Are you insulting me now, Kang?”

“I know, I know. I brought an extra sweater just in case it would get too cold around here.”

“Right, just keep it in the fridge, I’ll reheat them later.”

Joohyun was starting to ‘aww’ in her heart when she heard how concerned Wendy’s housemate was about her when Wendy’s next word pushed her from the edge of the hill (metaphorically speaking, of course).

“Love you too.”

She ended the call and put the phone next to Joohyun’s phone before she turned and rummaged her bag, looking for something. There, as her phone wallpaper, Joohyun could clearly see Wendy pressing her cheek and smiling goofily with another girl with her lips pursed and both of them were making the peace signs. The girl had monolid eyes that seemed to disappear when she smiled and while a lot of people said Joohyun was beautiful, this girl looked like she should be in the list of top 100 prettiest women in the world.

This picture could drip with honey from all the sweetness it oozed. Joohyun stuck her tongue out a little, deep in thought and disappointment when Wendy turned around, pulling with her a bright orange oversized sweater.

“Here, it’s going to get colder at night. You can use this when you’re sleeping.”

Wendy flashed Johhyun her goddamn disarming smile again and this time, Joohyun ducked her eyes and stared at the floor, away from both of their shining phones.

“What about you? Wouldn’t you be cold?”

“I’m alright, I’m used to Canadian winters. If it gets too cold, I’m just going to steal it back from you.”

Wendy said this in a joking manner and wrapped the sweater gently around Joohyun’s shoulders.

“There, it’s a bit large for you since Seulgi is taller than you, I think. But all the better.”

Wendy seemed pleased at this and Joohyun squeaked out a response before she could hold herself back.

“Seulgi?”

“Yeah, my housemate.”

Wendy did not offer any other explanation on this and she started to stack books and placed her head on top of them, clearly getting ready to sleep. She patted at another stack of books arranged beside her head, signalling Joohyun to sleep there.

“Sleep here, beside me. Might be a tight fit to sleep like this between the shelves but at least we won’t be too cold. We can share each other’s body heat.”

Joohyun blushed at this and she was lucky it was not noticeable in