“Seungwan, Chaewon says you can take a photo of her later after her classes end!” Haseul says in a cheerful tone. The bespectacled girl has the same, happy expression plastered on her face. It was another day in the library, and the two of them were now stationed in the Social Sciences section – which was just not the biggest section in the library, but it was also the busiest.

“What time will your classes end, then?” Wendy asks as she scanned the barcodes of the freshly returned books, making a mental note that she should also drop by Social Sciences, as the books she’s scanned so far were about things like children’s literature – which was a topic she was interested in, because she liked to draw illustrations for the said genre.

After Haseul logs in the last student that just went in, she looks at her watch. “About 4:00 PM if our professor doesn’t go overtime again.”

“My classes end at 4, too!”

“Alright, let’s just meet in front of the plaza.”

Seungwan nods, then thanking Haseul for the nth time. The latter smiles and then looks at her friend who was busy scanning books. She listens to the constant beeping until it stops.

“Haseul, this book won’t scan into the database…” Seungwan informs her friend. Haseul walks to her direction and tries scanning it again. “Hmm, this is weird…” is what she could only say. She scans the book inside out, then as she flipped to the back cover, she sees the lack of a barcode.

“This book isn’t from this section.” Haseul says. “Yet, this isn’t from the library at all.”

Wendy apologizes for not noticing. “It’s all right, Seungwan. Don’t worry!” Haseul comforts her. “I’ll just give this to the office up the sixth floor.” Then she unlocks the flap door. “I’ll be back in a sec…”

Wendy then stops scanning books, as she mans the counter. A few minutes into the job, a familiar face walks in front of the desk. It was Joy and Seulgi’s friend – the friend that they brought at the café she worked at. It looked like she was already done, as her bag was with her.

“Hi...” she greets in a soft tone, not wanting to disturb the other library patrons. “You’re roommates with Kang Seulgi, right?”

Compared to what she looked like at the café – a very fashionable and feminine coordinate of outfits - her hair today was somewhat messy, and she wore a baggy, oversized jacket and a pair of sweatpants. Seungwan smiles and nods at her question. “Yup! Is there anything I could do for you?” she politely asks a she adjusts her glasses.

“Well, I was supposed to give this to Seulgi…” then she lifts a paper bag onto the counter. “So that she could give this to you, but now that you’re here, I could just give it to you directly.”

Wendy tried to peek, but the opening was taped shut. “What’s this?” She asks, placing both hands on each side of the bag.

“It’s… a favor Seulgi asked of me.” The pretty girl smiles. “You can just open it later, if you’re busy.” Wendy still had no clue, so she just nods again. “I’ll let Seulgi know.”

Then as timely as it is, as the woman leaves, Haseul barges back to the hall and sits on a vacant stool.

“She wasn’t there, so I guess I’ll just hold onto this for a while.” She says as she catches her breath.

Seungwan looks at her tired friend. “I can give it later!” She says in a cheerful tone that may help comfort Haseul.

•   •   •

Placing both her backpack and the paper bag that Seulgi’s friend gave her onto the bench that was just outside the library entrance, Wendy takes out her phone out of reflex and checks for texts and other notifications. There weren’t any besides notifications from the games she’s been into recently, mentally reminding herself to check the games when she gets home.

“So I’m free for two hours…” Wendy whispers to herself, crossing her arms together. She rarely got free time in between her S.A. work and her classes, so it was a weird feeling for Wendy.

Her expression then lights up and stands up again. “I should go to Coffee Clemency!” She says to herself. Coffee Clemency was one of the cafes near the campus that she would frequent at. Her favorite drink from that particular café was their Iced Caramel Macchiato, of course with an extra espresso shot.

Settling down her iced beverage onto her favorite table, Wendy places the paper bag on the chair across, then she takes her sketchbook and pencil case out. Wendy would usually draw random stuff while she’s at cafes, as she thinks her brain can produce more ideas when she’s drawing outside their dorm.

Her favorite band was now blasting through her earphones as her hand started to follow and begin to sketch figures. Her thoughts are now all over the place.

‘Yeah, this character could work with that one…’

‘I’m gonna save this sketch for a future project.’

She then takes a sip of her sweet drink, fueling her imagination with more ideas.

But before she could pick her pencil up, her phone vibrates, and Wendy immediately picks it up and taps on the fresh notification.

It was a series of texts from Haseul.

Please log in to read the full chapter