Hyewon likes to sit in the library, not really because she uses the library or anything, but it’s a nice quiet place to stay, undisturbed, reading ebooks and manga on her iPad and pretending she’s studying, textbook and papers spread out on the table in front of her. She even touches them once in a while, highlights a passage, crawls out a scribble of notes.

She gets decent marks anyway, even if she doesn’t study.

But there’s another reason she likes her favorite spot in the library.

From where she sits, next to the long line of windows, on the highest platform as the tables go down in wide steps to the bottom of the library, seven floors down, she has a bird’s eye view of a certain other student.

Sakura.

They’re in the same literature class, 18th century something or other— Hyewon figures she’ll have to check one of these days before the exam but it’s summer session anyway so who cares— but she’s pretty sure Sakura doesn’t even know she exists. Or anyone else for that matter.

Sakura is the kind of student, Hyewon has rationalized to herself, who doesn’t think that other students are necessary at all. Or at least that’s how she makes herself feel better. Because she’s been watching Sakura for a while, they’ve been in a few other classes together, over the years, even though Hyewon started a year after Sakura, and there’s something about the other student that won’t let Hyewon forget her.

Sakura is kind of scary. She doesn’t smile very much and when people accidentally touch her it seems like they’ll be cursed. Or maybe I just read too much manga. Hyewon thinks about Kimi ni Todoke which she will absolutely never even admit the existence of.

Ever.

But she thinks about it anyway, as she flips through pages of Naruto again because she can’t believe how it ended. Maybe if she reads it again it will go away. When she looks up again, Sakura is gone.

—

Sakura sits at the second table, window side, and she won’t share with anyone else. Hyewon has seen her walk into the library through the foyer, appearing at the foot of the study table staircase, only to see that someone is sitting at her table. Instead of going to a different table, even if the next one has no one sitting at it at all, she’ll just turn around and leave again.

Hyewon sits at her table, papers spread out absentmindedly, literature and grammar ruffling in the slight breeze from the air conditioning, and watches Sakura go. Why don’t you sit anywhere else? she wants to ask, badly, but Hyewon isn’t on speaking terms with Sakura yet. Not even coexistence terms.

—

Sometimes, though, she wonders if Sakura does know she exists. As more than just another random student in some of her classes, anyway. There was one time when Hyewon ran into class late, this was last semester or so, and the only free spot was the chair next to Sakura so, panting, she slid into the spot. Only to have Sakura stand up and leave the classroom entirely.

She still thinks about that.

Am I that unlikeable?

Hyewon sits in the library, flipping page after page, watching the other students sleeping on their textbooks or idly doodling on papers in the warm summer sun shining through the glass wall, and tries to convince herself otherwise.

Looking up from her iPad, she sees Sakura walk in with a pile of books which she dumps on the second table. Hyewon wonders what would happen if Sakura ever looked up, ever saw Hyewon starting at her. What would you do? But she never does, only slips into the chair by the window and leans over her papers.

Hyewon sighs, but the sound is lost in the faint breeze from the central air.

—

She’s walking into the library after class, iced drink in hand but skipping lunch because of the unusually hot weather this summer—it feels like a storm is building, fidgeting students and stuttering professors and pencils that don’t slide over paper but catch on invisible faults, their leads splitting into slivers of graphite—when she sees someone heading for the second table.

Sakura’s table.

Without even thinking about it, her body faster than her brain can catch up, Hyewon is darting across the lobby floor on long legs, completely ignoring the dirty glance of the other student as she cuts in front, dashing up the steps and dropping her books onto the second table with a loud thump. A few other students look up from drooling on their textbooks, and Hyewon bobs her head apologetically before sitting down in the aisle seat and trying to figure out what she’s done.

Now what are you going to do when Sakura comes? she asks herself, but there’s no answer, not that she was really expecting one. This isn’t an anime, after all. She ends up perched nervously on the chair, rocking back and forth slightly as he pretends to both study, though it’s obvious she’s doing no such thing, as well as read on her iPad, but she keeps running her eyes over the same lines over and over without absorbing any of their meaning. Hyewon’s eyes keep flying up whenever she hears the automatic doors swish open, and she still doesn’t know what to do.

And then Sakura is walking in, and Hyewon’s heart starts racing in her chest.

Maybe. . .I could just say hello?

But a passing student accidentally walks into Sakura, who jerks back from the unexpected contact and frowns, as the student doesn't even bother to apologize, just keeps walking.

Sakura is frowning.

Hyewon starts gathering up her things without thinking about it, and when Sakura starts climbing the steps, glancing up to the second desk, she’s already standing with her books in her arms as she nudges the chair in with her hip and passes Sakura on the way down.

Hyewon wants to look back, but all she allows is a quick glance to make sure that Sakura has taken the table she saved for her.

—

It somehow becomes a kind of uneasy routine after that. Hyewon’s not even sure how it happened but she always heads for Sakura’s table now, spreading her things over the surface and spending more time watching the lobby than reading the text on her screen, tiny insects fluttering in her stomach every time someone walks through the doors.

Even when someone’s already at the table, Hyewon grabs another seat wherever she can find the closest spot, not even both