Sooyoung had always liked the solace the library offered. There were, more often than not, barely any people and she was given free rein to sleep and sulk as much as she liked without being bothered. Everything was quiet and calm, a stark contrast to the never-ending drama highschoolers always seemed to like. The librarian, Vivi, was also nice. She was a senior who worked there for a couple of hours after school, and she had started smiling at Sooyoung every time she entered. Sooyoung evidently went here a lot.

Today, however, she couldn’t help but feel like Jiwoo was ruining the solace she had come to associate with the library.

“You get what I mean, right, Sooyoung? Like, I would willingly drown everyday during our swimming lessons if that meant she’d save me every time. If you had seen-“

“I’m trying to study, Jiwoo,” she quietly chided, gritting her teeth as she tried to make sense of the numbers on the pages in front of her. Having her friend’s voice constantly attack her ear wasn’t helping.

“Oh! Right, sorry.” Jiwoo blinked and immediately quietened down, taking no offense. Sooyoung knew it wouldn’t last long before the hyper girl would unconsciously start talking again.

They were silent for a few minutes. Sooyoung was stuck trying to understand basic highschool algebra and Jiwoo was staring at her phone with a smile. In this corner of the library, Sooyoung had always studied, moped, and slept alone, but now Jiwoo’s whisper screams accompanied her. She didn’t even know why her friend came with her. Sooyoung was starting to get embarrassed with how many concerned glances Vivi threw their way.

“Jungeun’s offering to teach me how to swim!” Jiwoo half shrieked, half whispered, and Sooyoung gave up.

She leaned back on her chair with a sigh, grabbing her now cold coffee and taking a sip from it. At least Jiwoo brought her some fuel. Er, caffeine.

“I said I don’t really like the school’s pool, there are always a bunch of people there when there’s no class, and she offered to teach me either at their house’s pool or at the nearby beach,” Jiwoo continued rambling with a smile. “Imagine getting swimming lessons from Jungeun at the beach. That’s kinda far, though, even if it’s near, so I think I’ll go with her house instead.”

“They must be pretty loaded if they have a pool,” Sooyoung replied, deciding she’s better off humoring her friend than trying to wrap her mind around math that somehow had letters.

“Nah,” Jiwoo dismissed the idea while still smiling and typing furiously on her phone. “The house was given by her aunt.”

Sooyoung hummed. “Be careful,” she said simply. She wasn’t familiar with the girl Jiwoo had suddenly taken a liking to. She knew the girl was in their school’s swim team and had saved Jiwoo from drowning during one of her classes while the girl was on break, and nothing else. She wasn’t classmates with either Sooyoung or Jiwoo.

Jiwoo looked away from her phone to smile appreciatively at her friend. “Of course! I wouldn’t crush on a serial killer.”

Sooyoung stayed silent, eyeing her.

Jiwoo reached over to punch her arm with a whine, and Sooyoung yelped in pain. She cradled the violated limb with her other hand.

“I didn’t even say anything, you stupidly strong black-belter!”

Jiwoo and Sooyoung immediately heard Vivi shush them from their spot at the counter, and they tried to calm down, Sooyoung still playfully glaring at a quietly giggling Jiwoo.

“How’s your math going?” Jiwoo changed the topic and put down her phone. They made sure to keep their volumes low this time.

“Like ,” Sooyoung complained. “Why do we have letters now? I thought those were reserved for English.”

“That’s called Algebra, dummy.” Sooyoung could hear the amusement in her voice. “You at math.”

She glared at Jiwoo who had unashamedly dissed her with a sweet smile on her face. It didn’t help that the hyper girl, despite her carefree and outgoing demeanor, was leagues better than her at math.

“Is that why you’re here? To make fun of my suffering?” It came out more sorrowfully than Sooyoung intended, and Jiwoo made a weird whine-noise of sympathy.

“No, I thought I’d come with you to make sure you’re not dying. You’ve been spending hours here in the library everyday after school for the past week, and you’re even more irritable than usual on our morning walks to school.”

Sooyoung sighed, knowing it was all true.

“What am I supposed to do? We have a huge test next week and I understand nothing,” Sooyoung explained with frustration. “I already failed the last test; at this rate I’ll just fail the subject as a whole.”

“Want me to teach you…?”

“Jiwoo, no.”

Every time she tried, their sessions just turned into unproductive movie nights.

Jiwoo