And then, it finally happened. It was an early on a Monday morning, exactly two weeks and three days (of Joohyun complaining and moping to her friends, mainly Seungwan) since her first encounter with American Lit girl. Joohyun was on her way to her favorite nook in the library to read before class when someone fell into step beside her.

“Hey stranger,” came a familiar voice, the same teasing lilt ringing in Joohyun’s ears. “Funny seeing you here, huh?” The person bumped her shoulder playfully in a familiar manner in the middle of the crowded corridor leading them towards the stairwell.

Although the English major had only heard the voice on one occasion, from the way the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, she knew exactly who it belonged to. Her neck nearly snapped with the sheer velocity Joohyun used to turn towards the voice.

Beside her, the American Lit girl flicks an eyebrow up as their eyes meet. Joohyun’s heartbeat quickened from its steady tempo to a rapid tango. In the other girl’s magnetic gaze is that knowing look a young woman has when she knows she’s caught someone’s full attention.

“Oh, it’s you again.” Joohyun finally musters up the strength to speak, and sure enough, she can muster out two words. Deep down, she finds it a bit ironic, being an English major. After all, from all the literature she’s studied, shouldn’t she have a better vocabulary to draw from? An embarrassed blush creeps up her neck and she looks away quickly.

“Yes, it is I,” American Lit girl confirmed with a wide grin. She stepped forward to hold open the staircase’s heavy fire-proof doors for them to walk through. Joohyun’s blush caught light in her cheeks, and she dipped her head in thanks. As the pair stepped through the threshold and began to climb the cement steps, Joohyun caught another whiff of the taller woman’s lavish perfume. It was positively tantalizing, with notes of spices and citrus and something else Joohyun couldn’t quite put a finger on. Whatever it was, Joohyun was dying to find out.  

“Did you miss me?” The melodic voice reverberated off the graying walls, tinted with a quiet snicker. Joohyun laughed, quickly recovering her composure as they reached the heavy metal door of the third floor.

“Not in your wildest dreams,” the English major teased, pushing her way through to the other side of the doors.

“Tough crowd, huh? The other girl clicked her tongue. The sound echoes off of the cinderblock walls. “Where are we headed, anyways?”

“My usual spot,” Joohyun replied simply.

Hardly anyone knew the exact location of where Joohyun liked to hang around most. She liked the idea of being hidden in plain sight. Most of the time, people breezed right by her without a second glance. If she needed a break from studying, one of her favorite pastimes was watching people stumble around, obviously lost, looking at the shelves helplessly. Only the English major’s friends could make their way to her amongst the twists and turns of row upon row of multicolored books. Even then, they rarely visited her.

Yet for some reason, she didn’t hesitate to lead the other young woman straight to her cozy little nook. She was entrusting a complete stranger with the one place she felt most comfortable, tucked away in one of the far corners of the third floor. After a few moments of weaving in and out of the endless and discombobulating maze of bookshelves, Joohyun led them to a small clearing. A pair of worn, but comfortable plush leather armchairs were set facing each other, separated by a small, circular wooden table.

Behind her right shoulder, Joohyun listened to the other young woman whistle softly in between her teeth. “Some place you got here,” American Lit girl mused, sizing up the place as she her heel, “It’s nice. Looks quiet. You sure do like your privacy, huh?” Joohyun shrugged her shoulders and slipped her backpack off, settling down in her usual chair – facing the outside world with a stoic look of defiance.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been up to the third floor before,” the other woman continues with a chuckle.

“Yeah, this is my favorite place to come and read. Not a lot of people even know this is back here. I don’t really like being disturbed so…,” she trails off. Momentarily, Joohyun allows her gaze to be trained on the other girl. She was slipping gracefully into the seat adjacent to Joohyun’s, still looking around them with awe plastered across her face. It felt a bit odd, having someone finally sitting across from her. But not bad.

“I bet,” American Lit girl laughs. “How’d you even find this little alcove? I mean, I haven’t been able to track down a single book here without one of the staff helping me out.”

 “I stumbled on it by accident. I was…trying to avoid this relentless guy who was trying to get me to go out with him.” Joohyun’s face turns a shade of pink, feeling flustered. “I spent my first two semesters here working in the library, so I knew a few tricks to get him off my tail, but he was a really quick learner. For a second, I thought I was actually done for when I spotted this little nook. I ducked in and he walked right by me.”

The other girl’s eyes were wide with surprise.

“Christ, that sounds like a nightmare. College boys, amirite? Relentless little rascals.”

Joohyun smiled politely.

“That’s putting it lightly.”

“True,” the other girl laughed. “I’ve been hounded by a few myself. It’s weird…at first, I thought it was a little flattering. But then it just got to be downright awkward. I don’t exactly swing that way, if you know what I mean, and whenever I tell them that, most of them can get pretty mean pretty quickly,” she admitted. She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly and Joohyun noticed her cheeks tinting with color.

Her heart leaped in her chest. So…American Lit girl’s gay, too. Much to think about.

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” Joohyun smiles.

The girl looks up at her with a start.

“Oh, so you’re…?” She points at herself, then at Joohyun, and back again. “Too?”

Joohyun laughs.

“Yeah. Shocking – I know.”

American Lit girl falls silent, probably lost in thought. She was gazing at the spines of the books next to her. Joohyun isn’t exactly sure what to say next, so she just stares down at her cuticles. She’s surprised even herself with just how much she’s revealed about herself to a stranger in such a short amount of time. Although her friends had been acquainted with Joohyun’s hideaway, it had taken a significant amount of time before she’d felt comfortable bringing them around. Not only that, but they usually steered clear of Joohyun’s little nook.

Normally, Joohyun appreciated their efforts to give her the alone time she always craved but sometimes she found herself a little lonely. American Lit girl looked right at home, sitting in the other armchair, slotted in between the bookshelves. With one of her index fingers, she had reached out a long arm and was tracing over book titles. It was then that Joohyun realized just how tall the other girl was, how long her limbs were.

She glanced at the books and tried not to frown to herself. She doubted the other girl would be interested in anything lining the shelves – they were in the historical section. These volumes thicker than some of the biggest textbooks she’d had were stacked against each other. Her eyes trailed back to the other girl, studying her.

American Lit girl was wearing a white button up long sleeve shirt tucked into a pair of distressed blue jeans and her pair of black Doc Martens. She looked nice, Joohyun thought. Her glistening brown hair cascaded down her shoulders and her almond shaped eyes seemed far away and distant, like she was distracted. Before Joohyun got caught staring, she looked cleared and looked down at her lap.

“You know, I’ve been looking for you all week,” Joohyun heard the other young woman say. She was rummaging through her backpack now, searching for something. Joohyun averted her gaze to her own, pulling out one of the many notebooks crammed inside of it. She still needed to get some homework done for her calculus lecture later that afternoon. Her heart began to hammer in her ribcage, though she wasn’t sure why. She could feel the burn of the other college student’s eyes on her, but she kept her gaze fixed on her notebook. Joohyun flipped to a blank page and set her math textbook atop the table.

“You have?” Joohyun cracked a tiny smile. She grabbed another book, an old paperback, and set it on her lap.

“Yeah. It’s not easy tracking down someone with your only lead being a scrap of paper that says, ‘Call me baby’, on it, you know,” the other woman jokes. There’s a playful glint in the other woman’s eyes when the English major finally looks up and returns the smile shining at her.

“That does sound a tiny bit difficult,” Joohyun retorts, and they laugh.

“So, what’s your name?” The brunette continues, leaning forward in her seat. There’s a gleam in her eye that Joohyun can’t seem to tear her eyes from. “I don’t