“He’s here,” Eunji whispered to herself as her heart did somersaults upon seeing him in his usual spot in the library. She felt her skin tingle when she caught a glimpse of him curving his lips into a tiny smile as he was flipping through the pages of Stuart Little and seeing her reply to one of his sticky notes yesterday. The pages of Stuart Little became the silent witness of their blossoming friendship. It became the medium of their communication besides their usual exchange of smiles and little hi’s and hello’s.

I’m off campus today. I’ve been dying to know your name ever since. I’m Kim Sunggyu.

I’m Jung Eunji.

Pretty. It suits you.

Thank you, I guess?

I’m just telling the truth.

Tell me the truth, Sunggyu-ssi, are you perhaps, mute?

No, you might be surprised how good my voice sounds.

I like surprises.

I’ll surprise you, then. Can you tell me more about you?

I hate Math.

I love Math.

So we’re basically opposites.

Opposites attract.

A good point. But I hate Math.

I’ll teach you how to love it, then.

You mean you’ll tutor me?

Yes, if you’d like.

Well, shouldn’t we meet first?

Sunggyu leaned back in his chair before retrieving a sticky note from his stuff. He scribbled something on the paper and the sound of pencil scratching against the pad echoed in his ears. He carefully posted the note inside the small book in his hands and returned it back to its shelf. He then strode out of the row of shelves as his eyes wandered around the crowd. Then, once again, their eyes met. He gave her a quick smile and a wave which signalled her that he’s off to his class leaving Eunji with such an adrenaline in her bloodstream just enough to keep her excited about the note he left her.

It’s odd that they haven’t spoken to each other personally and chose to communicate through sticking notes on an old book in the library. They were lucky that no one have tried checking on Stuart Little. She was actually amused as to how the book felt like their private chat room. It was weird but a good weird because it kept her on her toes everyday. It kept her sane despite the stress Sociology and Trigonometry had caused her.

The moment Sunggyu left her sight, Eunji quickly left her chair and marched towards her favourite spot in the library. She took a quick turn to her left and let her fingers run across the row of neatly lined up books with their spines facing outward.

“5,4,3,2, and 1,” she childishly counted and let her hand rest at the very book Kim Sunggyu just returned a few minutes ago. Her cheeks flushed hot pink and her stomach sunk heavily as she turned into its last page and read the note he left her.

Go find QA538... Pretty, please?

“Heol,” she cussed under her breath after finding out that it was the only message he left her and it didn’t even answer her question. “But there’s no harm in trying, right? I mean he could have written his answer and pasted it on that book he wanted me to find. Right. I’ll just go find it,” she convinced herself and returned Stuart Little in its place. She then almost sprinted to the computers where she could do her book search. After pressing enter, realization began to dawn upon her.

“QA538 is a Trigonometry book?” she muttered in disbelief. After all these unusual exchange of sweet smiles and silent hi’s and hello’s the past few days she can’t believe that Kim Sunggyu is ditching her and telling her through their stupid exchange of sticky notes on an old children’s book that she needed to study math on her own. Or was she just too quick to jump on assumptions?

Pretty, please?

“Does he think that I’m just a pretty face and not worth meeting?”

Pretty, please?

“Ani, maybe he’s left another note in there.”

Pretty, please?

“But we always used Stuart.”

Pretty, please?

“Maybe he grew tired of Stuart?”

Pretty, please?

“Or maybe he grew tired of me?”

Pretty, please?

“But he just smiled at me when he left, right? It’s the same smile he always had.”

Pretty, please?

“Oh, damn it, Eunji. Just go find freakin QA538,” she uttered in annoyance taking a quick right on the Math section to find out for herself what he truly meant because she just realized that after all their unusual exchange of notes she just simply couldn’t read between the lines.

She scanned the Math books on the shelf and after a minute or two her eyes finally spotted QA538. Unfortunately, it was located way too higher than what she could reach. So she stood on the front part of her feet with no weight put on her heels, stretching out her arms reaching for the book. She struggled on reaching the book that she silently hopped trying to at least even grasp its edge that she didn’t notice the figure behind her with a single arm reaching out for the same book. When their hands met, reaching for the same book, Eunji gasped in surprise and hid her face in embarrassment for almost cursing the person behind her.

“Need some help?” he asked her and Eunji annoyingly turned to face the person behind her because she was obviously reaching out for that book for like three minutes ago.

“Well, isn’t it obvious that I-...” she suddenly couldn’t find her voice as her heart thumped so hard she swore it was audible.

It was him. Right there, towering so dangerously close to her was Kim Sunggyu.

He let out a chuckle before he greeted her, “Hi.”

Eunji’s throat suddenly turned dry and then he smiled just like he always did. It was only a small smile, but it was enough to make her go weak at the knees.

“Oh. Hello.”

It was their very first conversation and they both swore it won’t be their last.