3rd person’s P.O.V

“OK! So please consider one more thing. There will also be me”, Yujin frankly suggests, with a confident attitude so convincing, that she herself doesn’t know how confident she is.

Hearing those unexpected words, Minju’s heart suddenly stops, misses a beat, she looks up at Yujin. For a moment, every function of Minju’s body seems to be frozen. She doesn’t realize she is staring straight into Yujin’s eyes, and doesn’t notice that she is looking back. Minju slowly observes those big round eyes, they are black and look like the night sky with one or two twinkling star. Slowly she turns to look down at the tall, straight nose, and begins to unconsciously admire the facial features of her. Minju never thought that Yujin would be so pretty, maybe it’s because they haven’t met so many times, so the time they spent together wasn’t long enough for her to see and recognize her beauty. And Minju’s gaze finally lands on those plump and pouty lips, Minju is completely absorbed. At that moment, she suddenly want to place a light kiss on it.

The idea startles Minju, it is weird, Minju realizes that she suddenly have a wish that isn’t right at all, obviously it is very... weird. She is confused by the thought that just popped into her head and what she is feeling from the heart. Trying to regain her senses, Minju quickly turns her face away, she immediately wants to avoid Yujin’s gaze and starts to feel embarrassed.

“Erm... but I’m not saying it now”, Minju awkwardly replies.

Yujin also feels the atmosphere is a bit awkward, but still, she doesn’t regret her words even a little.

“So will you be able to watch me run? If you’re cheering for me, I’ll definitely do well”, Yujin changes the topic.

“Yes. I hope the beginning of the year in high school won’t be too busy, I also think I’ll have time to come cheer for you”, Minju wonders what high school will be like, she hopes it will be easy getting used to the new environment and quickly adjust to life in Seoul. But maybe it will be okay, because beside Minju, there are still friends who love her very much.

“I also want to quickly get to know what high school is like, hopefully it will be fresh. I’m so bored with going to school, it’s not fun at all”, sighed Yujin. For Yujin, when her best friend Yena is gone to high school, which means there is no more disruptive Duck and Duck duo, the school has lost most of the joy, which has existed very little. She also don’t have much motivation when the subjects are still too easy, Yujin only spends her efforts on playing around and athletics. Now that Minju has appeared in high school, of course, Yujin will want the time to pass faster.

“Why are you bored? I see that you have a lot of friends around, and teachers like you too”, Minju recalls the scene in the morning, Yujin’s track and field team was very happy and other friends came to watch them practice, the atmosphere is very fun. And Wonyoung too. Replaying the memories in her head makes Minju accidentally see Wonyoung’s face and actions then, and suddenly they makes her feel a little uncomfortable.

“It’s not that bad, but it’s not very attractive either. But are you okay? What happened? Are you not feeling well?”, feeling Minju’s face suddenly change, Yujin asks worriedly.

“No, I’m fine. It’s nothing”, Minju hastily replies, she wants to quickly brush away her feelings, before Yujin could realize anything. She couldn’t say the reason, it is better to hide it and bear the frustration in her heart than let Yujin know about her jealousy.

“Well then. I’ve been worried since morning that something bad has happened,” Yujin is now able to breathe a sigh of relief.

“We finished eating. I’m sorry. Having to go out in the sun on a lunch break like this, are you tired? Do you want to go home and rest?”, Minju is happy that Yujin came and the two of them had a good chat, she also knows that Yujin was willing, but she still regrets a little when she most likely interrupted her rest time.

“No problem. You wanted to meet me so I should come, I want to see you too. I feel happy. How about you? Are you tired?”, Yujin really wants to ask Minju to go out somewhere but I still prioritize her choice, if Minju feels tired, the outing can be saved for another day.

“A little bit tired. But I don’t want to go home. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other,” Minju smiles. Since morning until now, her legs have been walking too much, they feel a bit tired. Moreover, her mood and mind were always busy thinking, struggling with complicated emotions coming from the heart. But being with Yujin like this makes it all so light. Minju wants to spend a little longer with Yujin, the feeling she are giving her is very comfortable and peaceful.

An idea suddenly pops into Yujin’s mind: “So let’s come here with me. It’s not very far, and you can rest when we get there. And I think you will like it.”

“Um!”, Minju smiles and nods in agreement. Even though she doesn’t know where it is, she can completely trust Yujin.

The two leaves the restaurant and Yujin lead the way, but she is only half a step ahead of Minju. Once again during the day, Minju starts to have a strange feeling, she notices her heart is emitting strange emotion. But this time the new feeling is not unpleasant at all, on the contrary, it is extremely pleasant and somehow makes her see the world around more beautiful, colorful and shimmering.

“Tada! Here we go,” Yujin is excited to be able to introduce to Minju one of her favorite destinations. Minju takes a look and realizes that they are standing in front of a store, the sign clearly showing that this is a bookstore.

“Bookstore? I didn’t think you’d be interested in this place, you normally hate books”, Minju is surprised because Yujin have never mentioned reading to her before.

“Haha! No, I don’t read books, I just read manga”, Yujin laughs, “Let’s go inside!”

As soon as they walk through the door, Minju is overwhelmed by the size of the bookstore. It is a large space with thousands of books of all kinds inside, the middle atrium shows Minju that except the ground, there are even more 3 floors. She thought this was just an ordinary bookstore because its door wasn’t too big and the glass windows didn’t reveal much of the space inside.

“On the 1st floor are best-selling books, popular literature books and stationeries. The 2nd floor is for textbooks and others for students. The 3rd floor is books about different fields such as foreign languages, science, history, sports, music, cooking, etc… The 4th floor is comic books, free reading area and a refreshment counter. Choose what you like and come to the 4th floor with me,” Yujin said in a series of words as if she were the concierge of a bookstore, with a smart and confident expression.

“Woah! You seem familiar with this place,” Minju exclaims at the fluency of her words. She doesn’t expect that besides a cheerful and energetic Yujin, there is such a smart and attractive Yujin like that.

“Actually, I often skip school and come here to read manga”, Yujin gives a very bright smile, as if it is something to be proud of, “But sometimes I also want to change my mind and read other things so I’ve already mastered this bookstore.”

“You plan to go to the 4th floor first? I’ll take a look around”, Minju also wants to try to find out what’s interesting here.

“Should I go with you?”, Yujin asks. A few minutes ago, Yujin was so excited to be able to read the new volume that she had been waiting for all month. But now she can’t bear to let Minju go around the bookstore alone, moreover it might make her wait a longer time. Compared to reading manga, it’s still better to be with Minju.

“Um! Be my guide,” Minju replies with a smile, ready for a short tour of the two.

“No wonder you still have so much energy. Go!”

They start walking and looking around the bookstore floor by floor. Yujin sometimes shows Minju interesting things she comes across, Minju responds and enjoys all of it. The two of them just browse the shelves and pause to look at the books with beautiful covers, they don’t even open a page. Because these books seem to play a very minor role in their excursion, mainly they want to go for a walk together. After about more half an hour, the two decides to go to the space on the 4th floor so they can read comics and rest at the same time.

“Choose the comics you like and go over there”, Yujin points to the free reading area, where there are both seats and places to lie down for people to read and relax, helping Minju to know and go there after choosing a few books for herself.

“OK”, Minju gestures with her hand.

“Do you like fruit juice? I’ll buy them”, because Yujin already knows what she’s going to read and where to find it, so getting the manga is pretty quick, she can use her time to buy drinks while waiting for Minju.

“Um. I like them”, she replies with a smile.

Hearing the answer, Yujin quickly walks over to the refreshment counter and orders two glasses of juice. Taking advantage of the time when the bartender is preparing them, she goes to the bookshelf containing her favorite manga, searches for the latest volume and comes back. With the manga and two glasses of juice, Yujin reaches to the reading area to wait for Minju.

Yujin thinks maybe it would be better to lie down and read the comics than to sit, because Minju is probably already a bit tired. The reading places have an inclined surface similar to a recliner, we can lie down comfortably while the head still have the right height. She chooses a place for herself, which is quite close to another empty place for Minju so that they can chat if they want without affecting the people around.

Hesitating in front of the shelves filled with all genres of comic books, from manhwa, manga, manhua to comic, Minju doesn’t know what to read. In the end, she decides to pick up a bunch of manga from different series, hoping that some of them would be suitable. Minju heads to the reading area with a pile of manga in her arms, she looks like a hardworking college student planning to read documents at the library all night. That image immediately catches Yujin’s eyes as she approaches.

“I’ve never read a manga before. If I choose many different books, I might find a series that I like”, Minju says as soon as she gets close enough, she must have seen the big question mark on Yujin’s face, so she explains before Yujin could open .

Even Minju looks so silly like that, Yujin still thinks she’s cute.

“You can lie down there”, Yujin points to a place where Minju could lie down and enjoy reading.

“Um,” Minju nods and sit down. She picks up a manga and begins to lean back. Yujin quietly watches her.

Minju is in a good status, Yujin guesses because the manga is making her laugh. She glads Minju seems to like that manga, only then Yujin can begin her one.

Suddenly a thumping sound from the books distracts Yujin. The sequel to the previous volume is going interesting, Yujin is not happy that she didn’t even reach the 10th page when someone interrupted. But Yujin’s annoyed expression immediately disappears when she sees Minju standing right next to her. She just brought the pile of her manga and put it on Yujin’s place.

“I’m bored of lying there! Can I be here with you?”, Minju asks as soon as Yujin takes her eyes off the pages and looks at her with surprised eyes.

“Nae!”, Yujin can only answer briefly, of course she couldn’t refuse such an offer from Minju. She’s confused as to what Minju is thinking, she’s just sure Minju’s making her heart race, nervous and a little embarrassed.

But actually it’s the same on Minju’s side, she is also nervous and shy when asking that question. Minju took a risk after she finished reading the first chapter of her chosen manga, it was fun and engaging, but at that moment Minju suddenly felt something was missing, like she needed someone there to share it, or someone to make the space around her less empty and safer.

Yujin shifts slightly to the left, leaving half of the place for Minju. She tries to act normal in front of Minju, like how they always talk and play when they’re together, but now she looks so flustered that she can only keep her eyes on the manga to hide without being able to say a word. Minju lies down on Yujin’s right, fitting into the space she have just created, comfort and peace immediately appear to her inside and out, quickly fill in all the shortcomings she felt before. Minju has to admit that she loves the feeling now, she’s glad she dared to ask Yujin such an odd thing and even though it’s a little shy and embarrassing, it’s totally worth. Minju wants to say thank you but she can’t open .

“Are you comfortable?” Yujin asks as she felt Minju stop moving her body and found a comfortable lying position.

“Um, I feel so good”, Minju replies and couldn’t hide the smile on her lips. Her face clearly shows satisfaction and happiness. But Yujin couldn’t see it, her heart is still beating so fast that she doesn’t dare turn to look. Yujin is afraid of being caught by Minju’s eyes and it would make her want to run away because of shyness, and in this situation there is nowhere to hide.

Yujin stares straight at the pages in front of her, what happening is very interesting, but she can’t concentrate on it completely. A part of Yujin still notices Minju’s presence by her side even though she tries to ignore it. Knowing that the manga could no longer retain its appeal, Yujin gives up. She don’t think she should read it in distraction, because that will be a waste of a good manga volume, the effort of waiting for a month won’t be worthy rewarded. Feeling that Minju doesn’t move a bit, Yujin takes a chance to peek at her because she guess Minju is settled and fully focuses on her manga.

But Minju’s eyes are already closed, her head is nodding forward. Yujin sees that Minju still has the page she is reading in her hand. “She must be tired”, Yujin thinks. Afraid of waking Minju up, she tries to keep her position, doesn’t dare to move her right arm. Yujin’s left hand slowly pulls the manga Minju is holding out and put it aside. She shyly adjusts Minju’s hands to make them a comfortable position. Yujin is about to try to get back to her manga again, but she is uneasy when she sees Minju’s head nodding slightly. Yujin slowly moves her body up a bit, she uses her left hand to gently let Minju’s head rest on her shoulder. Suddenly Minju lets out a long breath that startles her, but Yujin smiles when she realizes it’s a sign that Minju is feeling better and ready for a good sleep.

Yujin stays like that for a while and then continues reading her manga. Sometimes she sneaks a peek at Minju, and Minju is still in the dreamland. Yujin is able to concentrate on the manga again, reading it properly without further emotional interruption. She’s satisfied with the wonderful things it brings and get even more excited when the volume is over. But the new volume is still a month away, and within Yujin’s reach right now, there is no other choice other than the one Minju just read. And then it’s over, in order to get the next volume of it, she’ll have to lean over and reach for the pile of Minju’s manga, but if she do that, Minju will wake up, so Yujin just accepts it and does nothing. After a while, Yujin’s right shoulder feels a little sore, she’s just a middle school girl after all. Yujin starts observed every line and every part on Minju’s face carefully, she now looks so relaxed. Seeing Minju sleeping so soundly, Yujin couldn’t bear to wake her up, so she just endures it a little longer, doesn’t think it’s a big deal. But Yujin doesn’t know that this will make her shoulder feels sore more the next few days. Anyway, for now, being with Minju like this is so wonderful to Yujin, she can tell the world that she’s so happy. Being a small headrest for Minju to have a good sleep isn’t a great thing, but it is enough to make Yujin feel a little proud.