Jongdae hated libraries—no, he despised them. That people would rather sit around and read in a quiet room, filling their ears with silence and their eyes with words, was beyond him. He could never sit down for two minutes, let alone read one page of a book. It had been impossible for him. So, it was a wonder when he found himself sitting for almost an hour in a deserted table on the far side of the room, with nothing but a stack of books and his idiot of a friend. Said friend, Baekhyun, was nowhere in sight, having excused himself to search for a book...forty-seven minutes ago. Jongdae almost groaned loudly, until he remembered where he was. Instead of waiting for his friend, he went to search for him. Jongdae went around the library, searching every nook and cranny, waltzing around the shelves in hopes of finding his best friend. It took him a couple of minutes before finally locating him. There, on the far side of the room, on the very last shelf where no one seemed to even spare a look, was Baekhyun, sitting crossed legged on the floor with a book on his lap, his back pressed on the shelf behind him. His head was bowed down as if he were reading. Someone passing by would think he was intensively reading, but Jongdae knew better.

Jongdae walked toward his sleeping friend then crouched down beside him, making sure he sat as close as possible. He leaned towards Baekhyun’s ear and murmured his friend’s name, his voice hoarse and low. Startle, Baekhyun mumbled No, get away from me! as his hand flew up, but Jongdae was not fast enough and Baekhyun’s hand hit his face.

“Dude!” He whined, touching his cheek where Baekhyun had unintentionally hit him.

Baekhyun, finally realizing it was his friend and not a monster or something remotely terrifying, grabbed Jongdae’s face and stared at it. “Jongdae? Oh! It’s really you. Thank god. I nearly had a heart attack.” He let go of Jongdae’s face and picked up the book that fell off his lap when he jerked awake, as if he hadn't just hit his friend.

“Well, you nearly took off my head,” Jongdae barked, glaring at his friend.

Baekhyun was about to respond when the librarian suddenly came into view, her eyes sending them daggers. The two immediately scrambled back to their table, trying their best to be as quiet as possible. The librarian now had her eyes on them—always watching.

They were warned to never make any noise or else they would be kicked out of the library and be banned from it.

--

“I’m never going back to that place again,” Jongdae sneered at Baekhyun.

They were now heading to the nearest café. Jongdae had demanded Baehyun to come with him, since he was the one that dragged him to the library. Baekhyun immediately agreed, because where there is food, there is Baekhyun.

“Yeah. Yeah. You always say that, yet you always find yourself in the library with me, anyway.” Baekhyun chuckled, earning him a slight push from Jongdae.

The cafe was full when they got there.

“You don’t work here,” Baekhyun remarked, blinking at the young man—good looking, lanky, and very bored—behind the counter.

“Sehun’s helping out today,” Minseok, the barista, and Jongdae’s cousin, said. “We’re one man short and we needed help. Sehun said he’d be happy to help, so here he is.” He returned to his task behind the Coffee Machine. Jongdae noticed Sehun’s ears turning a nice shade of pink, but he pretended he didn't.

“The line is getting longer. Are you guys going to give me your order or not?” Sehun asked, sounding annoyed, but making sure he kept is voice low, so Minseok would not hear him.

Baekhyun raised his brow at the taller boy. “Be nice, Sehun, we’re customers, after all.” The duo gave Sehun their orders and then looked for a table. They found an empty spot by the corner. They saw a couple looking for a table, and when Baekhyun noticed that the lovely couple spotted the empty table, he immediately dragged Jongdae to it and almost did a victory dance when they managed to get to it before the couple did. After their coffee date, the two finally decided to go back to their dorms.

--

Despite Jongdae’s protest, he still found himself sitting on the same seat, sharing the same table, on the same place he vowed never to set foot in: the town library. This time, he really needed the books the place provided. Their professor had assigned them homework that needed thorough reading and Jongdae had no choice but to visit the library for help. Baekhyun had mocked him and Jongdae punched his friend, quite hard, in return.

The library was not as crowded as it was the last time Jongdae was there, and he was grateful. Upon deciding which books he needed, he excused himself to search for them. He made sure his steps were light, not making any noise, just in case the Librarian would hear him and decide to kick him out. Or worse, ban him from the place.

Carefully inspecting the first shelf, he glided his hands through the spines of every book, taking his time with searching the books he needed. He realized how quiet the library was and found it very peaceful. It still was not his favorite place, but he wanted to stay there for a while. When he reached the third shelf, he carefully read the titles. The books he needed were somewhere around there. He took out his card and searched for the book he needed. It was taking a long time and he was getting frustrated.

“Do you need help?” someone asked.

Jongdae turned to the direction of the voice and saw a boy. A little taller than Jongdae, his right cheek showing a dimple when he smiled. Jongdae was not thinking of finding out how deep that dimple was by poking it with his finger. No, not at all.

“Yes. I’m looking for this book,” Jongdae gave the title and the control number of the book to the boy. “I think it should be somewhere here, but I can’t seem to find it.”

The boy nodded and then proceeded to look around the shelf Jongdae was inspecting. He went to the end of the shelf, up on the shelf stairs, and continued to search for the book. Jongdae walked towards the foot of the stairs, surveying the boy. He had toned thighs and nice behind—Jongdae’s wasn't really thinking of groping it, no, not really.

“Are you the Librarian’s assistant?” He asked curiously, not forgetting to keep his voice as low as possible, but still loud enough for the boy to hear. The boy did not say anything, though Jongdae thought he heard him chuckling before he saw the boy’s shoulders lift in a shrug. “I’ve never seen you here before,” Jongdae remarked, as if he were always in the library. Again, there was no response, but the boy seemed to have found what he –and Jongdae—was looking for and started climbing down the stairs.

“Here,” the boy handed him the book and Jongdae got to look at him more closely. He was kind of cute, were it not for the slight, annoying smirk gracing his face.

Jongdae took the book before mumbling "Thanks," and watched as the boy walk away. He started to return to where Baekhyun was when he remembered something: Wait, I didn’t even get his name.

-

Jongdae had really no reason to be back at the library—aside from wanting to get the dimpled guy’s name, of course. So there he was again, back on the spot he was a few weeks ago. This time, he went alone. Baekhyun said he had more important things to do than watch his friend drown himself in pile after pile of books, as if he wasn’t the one dragging Jongdae into the library—he did not need to be in the library just yet. Jongdae thought his friend just wanted to go shopping for eye liner and random stuff, and he did not want Jongdae to make comments about his choices. And to be honest, Jongdae would rather go to the library alone. It wouldn’t help tagging Baekhyun along only to have him silently—probably not so silently—judging Jongdae.

When Jongdae arrived at the library, it was empty, save for the Librarian—who seemed to recognize him instantly and gave him a warning look upon his entrance—and a lonely guy near the entrance. Heading first to their usual spot, Jongdae dropped his backpack before having a look around the shelves. Or pretending to look around. The library was pretty much empty and the dimpled boy Jongdae met a few weeks ago was not anywhere in sight. Jongdae almost resorted to asking the librarian where the boy might be, but he would be revealing the real reason why he was really in the library, so he decided against it. Searching for the other boy would not be unusual, but Jongdae thought the librarian despised him—and Baekhyun—enough that, only by talking to her Jongdae would be kicked out of the library. Also, what if the boy was not really an assistant librarian? Jongdae would be risking his access to the library by asking the librarian something that isn’t related to any of the books on the shelves.

He’d been looking around for a while—the librarian would check on him with her suspicious stare—and, really, Jongdae thought he should just leave, but he actually wanted to stay a little bit longer, so he continued exploring the shelves. He found himself in the fiction section. Grabbing a random book, he crouched down, leaned on the shelf behind him, opened the book, and started reading.

-

“Hey.”

Jongdae felt someone poking his cheeks. The assault on his cheeks continued, until Jongdae realized he fell asleep and someone was trying to wake him up. Thinking it was the sullen librarian, Jongdae immediately sat up, causing the book he was reading to fly from his lap. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the loud clash of the impact of the book with the floor paired with the annoying voice of the librarian scolding him.

But none of it came.

Jongdae opened his eyes. Instead of seeing the librarian, it was the dimpled boy standing right in front of him, his arms raised showing Jongdae his book.

“Hi,” Jongdae muttered, raising his hand to wave at the boy.

“Hello,” the boy smiled, handing Jongdae’s book back. “You shouldn’t be, err, sleeping here. Miss. Kim might see you and you might get in trouble.”

Jongdae took the book and then nodded dumbly, more focused on staring at the other boy’s dimples rather than listen to what he was saying. He just really wanted to poke it. “Thanks,” he mumbled.

The other boy smiled again. “It was nothing—“

“Jongdae. My name is Kim Jongdae.”

“It was nothing, Jongdae. I’m Yixing, by the way.”

The name sounded foreign to Jongdae and he deduced the dimpled boy—Yixing—might be a foreigner. He kind of looked like a foreigner, now that Jongdae stared at him longer.

There was an awkward silence after that. Nobody seemed to want to talk and just stood there facing each other, until Yixing said he needed to get back to Miss Kim, in case she needed help with some materials.

Wait, Jongdae thought, I can't believe he got to poke my cheeks when I couldn't even poke his dimples!

-

Jongdae constantly visited the library after that. The librarian still looked like she would kick him out of the library every chance she got. But Jongdae did not care. At least he got to spend time with Yixing, the Library assistant. Sometimes, he would help Yixing with the shelving of the books. At first, Yixing would not let Jongdae help.It’s my job. You’re, like, a guest here Yixing had said once. But Jongdae wouldn’t have any of it and Yixing finally gave in. Before the getting-to-know stage of their friendship, and even when they first met, Jongdae was already a little bit in "like"—not "love", because that would be too fast and a little too deep—with Yixing. So now that they had spent so many hours a day, a few times week, together, Jongdae knew he was a little bit more in like—still "like", because he was not sure with "love" yet, still too soon—with the dimpled guy who worked at the library.

-

Jongdae found himself with Baekhyun at the cafe. This time with Sehun who didn’t have to work behind the counter anymore.

“I think I like someone.”

“You think? Aren’t you supposed to be certain you like someone to like them?”

“Yeah, take Sehun for example. He’s pretty sure he likes Minseok-hyung.”

Sehun gasped and his eyes have gone wide, as wide as their friend Kyungsoo’s. “Hyung!”

“Come on, Minseok-hyung didn’t hear anything,” Baekhyun assured, motioning to where Minseok was attending to a customer, a few tables away, perfectly out of earshot. “Anyways, this isn’t about you, this is about Jongdae, so shut up.” Sehun pouted but kept quiet as Jongdae told them about the dimpled guy he met at the library.

"I’ve always thought there was a reason—and yes, I know it wasn’t because of the books—that you were always going to the library," Baekhyun had marveled.

Sehun had suggested he should confess. "It’s a win or lose situation, hyung." But Baekhyun countered him, asking how he could advise something like that when he couldn't even tell his crush his feelings.

Jongdae took Sehun’s advice. He figured there would be no harm in trying. It would certainly be harmful to his heart and ego if –or should it be when?—Yixing rejected him. He figured all he had to do when the worst happened was to pretend he never met a dimpled guy who worked in the town library—but he never even get to poke the dimple!—and never set foot in that said library again.

Yixing was doing his daily stacking when Jongdae found him.

“Hey,” Yixing greeted when he saw Jongdae, his dimple showing as he smiled.

Jongdae was nervous. He was afraid his heart might leap out of his chest with how fast it was beating right at that moment. Yixing’s smile was not helping at all.

“Uhm,” Jongdae started, “remember that book you lent me last week? I’m already done with it.”

“Really? Great! How did you find it?” Yixing asked.

“I liked it. There’s this one quote though, can you help me with it?” Jongdae rummaged through his messenger bag and took out a book. He stepped closer to Yixing and opened the book. “Here... Read it.” He handed the book to Yixing, his finger never leaving the words he wanted Yixing to look over. Jongdae held his breath as he anxiously watched Yixing reading, his heart still hammering in his chest. Yixing’s lips suddenly lifted in a playful smile and Jongdae didn’t know what to think.

Yixing lifted his eyes from the book, closed it, and stared at Jongdae, his smile cheesier and broader. “I would say “C,” but Miss Kim is watching us right now,“ he said, and Jongdae knew his face was a mirror of Yixing's. “Maybe later, though, after work?”

“Yeah, sure. No problem,” Jongdae said and he had to restrain himself from squealing—a manly squeal, of course—with how happy he was.

Yixing took Jongdae’s hand and squeezed it. “See you later,” He said.

Jongdae nodded and took off with a skip in his step, to the nearest table to wait for Yixing.

Maybe Jongdae was a little bit in love with Yixing—just a little.

-

On the book Jongdae wanted Yixing to look over was a sticky note. The sticky note had an arrow pointing at a quote. Below the arrow was a list of choices: a) Yes; b) a; and c) Kiss me :3

The quote the arrow was pointing was “Will you be my girlfriend?” but the girlfriend was crossed out and above it, the word boyfriend was written in ink.

Will you be my girlfriendboyfriend?