Taeyeon always prefers to study in her room. Away from people’s eyes, her room where she can be her own self. She’s not comfortable being in public places. Her heart will beat furiously, her palms become sweaty and her mind always feels like people are giving her stink eyes or people are talking bad about her. That is why, no matter what happens, she will make sure that she is always around her friends. Only when she is with the people she is comfortable with, she will be calmer. 

So the word ‘shock’ was and is an understatement for her friends and even her own self, when Taeyeon decided to come to the faculty’s library ALONE this afternoon. They were walking back from the lecture hall, and they needed to walk past the library to go home when she dropped the bomb. “Go home first. I think I'll stay in the library today.”

She never saw Yuri, Sooyoung and Sunny turn their heads that fast in her 4 years of friending them. It was a funny situation for her, she laughed. Of course, the three girls bombarded her with a few questions, too astonished at Taeyeon’s words.

“What are you doing there?”

“You have a meeting with who?”

“You want to refill your bottle?” 

The last question was from Sunny. She is used to Taeyeon's usual pit stop at the library to refill her water bottle before going home. Their journey home is not that far, only 10 minutes of walking but because they need to use a pedestrian overpass with endless stairs, too much energy is used and Taeyeon gets thirsty easily. 

“Nope. It’s too hot in our room so better to stay here”, Taeyeon’s chin points at the library, fidgeting on her spot.

“You can just open the door Taeng. It’ll be better. No need to stay–”, Yuri stops talking when Sooyoung holds her hand. She wants to ask what Sooyoung wants but the other girl just shakes her head.

Eyes staring deep into Taeyeon’s eyes, trying to find whether Taeyeon is being real or not. “Are you sure?”

Suddenly she feels like has been twisted. No sound can be heard so she just nods. Telling Sooyoung that she is sure about her decision. But maybe for 30% only. Surely she won’t tell this to her friends.

“Alright then. Call us if there’s anything. Leggo girls.”

Sooyoung waves at Taeyeon and forces Sunny and Yuri to move forward, continue their walk home. 

She can see they are actually reluctant to go by the way they walk at the slowest pace they can. However, Taeyeon feels grateful to have friends like them. Those who are ready to cocoon her from reality but also the one who respects her to break away, for her own benefit.

One hour in the library alone, she still feels good. The library has cubicles for self study and Taeyeon was lucky to get an empty spot to sit at. 

Music on, eyes on the screen, she manages to do half of the questions for the criminal law tutorial. It’s an achievement for her to do a tutorial this fast. Maybe the air conditioning works wonders.

‘Tap, tap’

Taeyeon smiles when she sees her friend, Hyoyeon, slowly tapping the barrier between her cubicle and Hyoyeon’s.

“Still have class?”

Shaking her head, she shows her laptop’s screen to Hyoyeon. The other girl just grimaces looking at the tutorial’s questions and Taeyeon just chuckles slowly.

They have the same tutor for criminal law subject, Dr. Janet, but different classes. Dr. Janet is famous among students for being an unpredictable lecturer. One second she can be ni