Author's POV

“Is this the right place?” The man blinked at the library in front of him.

He looked at the address you had texted him again before looking left and right. “I guess so.”

Placing his phone away, he tucked his hands into his pockets before he entered the building.

To his expectations it was silent and he immediately scanned the place for you.

He didn’t see you anywhere and decided to ask for assistance.

“This book doesn’t go here—neither does this one. Why can’t people just put—oh no the binding on this one needs to get fixed.” Yejin was rambling on to herself in one of the isles as she carefully placed the book onto the cart.

“Hm, what do I have to do today?” The woman pursed her lips out and tried to come up with a list in her head.

However, after a few seconds the task was proven too difficult to accomplish. Yejin always preferred saying what she had to do out loud better. It made things easier.

“Excuse me?” Someone tapped her shoulder and she jumped, startled.

A small, squeamish squeal escaped her lips as she held onto her chest. “I’m sorry,” he quickly apologized. “Did I scare you?”

Yejin eyed him and her nerves faded away. “I-it’s okay.” She gave him a slight bow and just as she was about to wheel the cart away, he ran up to her.

“I actually need your help,” he declared. “You work here, correct?”

The woman stopped, pushed her spectacles back and carefully nodded her head.

A bright smile came over his face as he released a sigh of relief. “I’m actually here because my—uh friend asked me to come pick up something. Her name is Wu Xinlei. Do you happen to know her?”

“Oh! You must be—uhm—shoot. What was your name?” Yejin squinted her eyes and kept tilting her head. “She told me it was something like—no, that doesn’t sound right.”

Scratching her head, Yejin strained to remember the stranger’s name you had told her earlier but was failing miserably.

“Xiumin. My name is Xiumin.” The man chuckled, finding her irresistibly cute.

“Ah that’s right,” Yejin snapped her fingers. “You’re Xiumin. That was the name. Xiu. Min. How did I forget? Aigoo.” Next, she knocked on her head with one hand while the other one began to push the cart.

She was leaving again and she didn’t even realize it!

“Hey, where are you going?” Xiumin chased after her but it was like she didn’t hear him.

He had to run in front of her and block her path for her to stop. “Omo,” she squeaked again. She stuck her neck out, almost like a turtle and looked at him with wide eyes. “Can I help you?”

For a second, Xiumin wondered if she suffered from alzheimers. He examined her from head to toe and realized that although she dressed kind of older, her face was actually youthful.

Perhaps she was just a victim of short-term memory loss.

“Yes. Where is Xinlei?” He questioned, getting straight to the point before she got the chance to run away again.

“Xinlei?” Yejin repeated as she looked around. “She’s not here.” She pointed out like it wasn’t the most obvious thing in the world.  

“I see…” He was waiting for her to continue but she just picked up a book and started flipping through it. “Uh—would you mind telling me where she is?”

“I just repaired you last week. Aiyo—I’m going to go crazy. I don’t get why people can’t just be careful. Don’t they understand books are like babies? Speaking of babies, omo! I forgot to leave them food.”

Before Xiumin could even react, Yejin scurried to her desk a