Woohyun’s POV

I was heading toward the bus station to go to the library to do some research on a report I had to do because my teacher actually wanted us to learn how to go to a library to research instead of using the internet at home when I saw a familiar figure at the bus station and I could feel my heart beat accelerating when I realized who it was.

Kasumi.

She was sitting on the waiting benches, wearing a blue-and-maroon striped sweater and jeans, with her fringe tied up, making a cute little strand of ponytail sticking up from her head. She was looking really cute.

I suddenly grinned like an idiot as I walked closer to her, closer to the bus stop, feeling the butterflies I always felt whenever I was near her.

“Hey, Kasumi-sshi!”

She looked up and smiled brightly when she saw that I was approaching her. “Sunbae, what are you doing here?” she asked in her soft, quiet voice.

“I’m heading over to the library for some report,” I replied, boldly taking a seat next to her. “My teacher said it was good if we did that instead of always relying on the internet. What about you?”

She nodded, understanding. “Same here,” she said. “I finished the book I was reading in school and I wanted new book to read.”

I smiled fondly at her and she blushed, her cheeks going red. I looked away for a bit before I turned back to face her. “You really love reading books don’t you, huh?” I asked her. I smiled softly. I may not understand why she loved to read so much, but I can tell it meant a lot to Kasumi.

“I do,” she replied softly.

The bus came and we boarded the bus along with everyone else. It cost only about five hundred won for the bus fare but I paid a thousand won instead.

“For me and her,” I told the bus driver.

“Y – You don’t have to do that,” Kasumi insisted but her bus fare was already paid and I handed her ticket over to her. She blinked and took it from me.

I took her wrist gingerly and led her deepen into the bus where we sat down on the nearest two-seater seats as the bus began moving. I let her go in first, sliding in next to her afterward. “It’s fine, really,” I told her. “It wasn’t much, anyway.”

She looked at me with an unreadable expression. “Thanks.” She looked out of the window and looked curiously at the buildings we passed by.

“You’re welcome.”

There was this silence.

“Sunbae?”

“Mmm?” I turned to see her smiling at me.

“I passed my math test,” she told me.

“That’s great!” I congratulated. “See, I knew you can do it. But I didn’t know you had a math test.”

“I didn’t, either,” she confessed and I laughed, knowing that it was a sudden test, “but my teacher suddenly sprung the test up on us. I got eight out of ten correct, but that was enough for a pass.”

I smiled widely at her, glad to hear that she passed her test. It was a nice feeling to hear that your tutee was passing their subjects after you’ve taught them not because you take the credit, but because you knew they could do it. I smiled and squeezed her shoulder lightly in a friendly way.

“I’m really proud of you,” I told her sincerely. I really was. She was smart, I know, and she could do it once she understood.

She beamed happily at me.

Our stop came and we got off the bus and went inside the library. I went to look for my equipments for my report while she went to find a good book to read. Once we got what we wanted, we found a small table by the corner, away from everyone, and sat around there. I began my work while she flipped the book to the first page and began to read with interest in her eyes.

We both did our own things without talking. I was busy with my report and she was already lost in the book. I would look up occasionally to check on her but would be reassured when I saw that she was smiling.

At one point I stopped what I was doing to take some time to watch her while she read her book.

Whenever she got to the interesting part, she’d sit up straighter and her fist would be in to stop her from squealing. Sometimes she’d let out an involuntary gasp or squeal. When she’s confused, she’ll tilt her head to a side and frowned, her eyebrows pulling together. When she’s at the normal parts, she’d rest her chin on the table and read like that. I would get worried and wonder if she was asleep but then I’d hear the flipping pages and knew she was still awake.

I decided to continue on with my work when she shut the book and smiled brightly at me. She had tears in her eyes.

“That was a good book,” she told me. She took something out of her bag. It was a packet of tissue. She wiped her tears away, dabbing her eyes delicately, before she put the tissues back inside her bag.

“You finished it so fast?” I asked, shocked.

She nodded. “It was only a hundred and thirty pages,” she replied. “It wasn’t a lot of pages, so yea.”

I checked the time on my silver Cattier watch. We had only been here for an hour and a half and she managed to finish a hundred-and-thirty-page book within that hour. I shook my head.

This girl must really read a lot to be able to do that. I wonder how many book she reads in a year.

“Wow . . . I don’t think I’ll be able to even finish the book in a day,” I told her. “I like to read, but not as much, and only if it interests me.” I shrugged. “But then again, even if it does, I doubt I’d be able to finish it in a day.”

“Different people have different interests, I guess, but I really do love to read storybooks,” she replied. “I mean, it’s like, once I pick a book up and if I really like it, I won’t be able to stop reading.”

She smiled and looked at the book before she looked up to me. “I should go find another book, unless you’re done with your report?” She looked at the papers and books scattered in front of me.

“Ah, I’m almost done,” I told her. “But you don’t have to wait for me to finish. You can actually go home now.”

But Kasumi shook her head. “Sunbae paid my bus fare even when he didn’t have to, so the least I could do is to accompany you while you do your work,” she replied sweetly. “Besides, I want to read another book.” She went off to find another book to read. “I’ll be right back, sunbae.”

I shook my head in amazement. If she’s going to keep saying stuff like this, it’s going to make it completely impossible for me to stop liking her. Seriously, how she managed to say things like this to melt my heart is beyond me. Some more, she doesn’t even realized what she as doing to me.

When she came back, she was holding a thicker book.

“I’m not going to be here for that long, you know,” I told her lightly. “I should be done in another fifteen minutes, at the most.”

She shrugged, smiling. “Oh, I didn’t pick a book that would distract me for a long time,” she said. “I picked this book because it seemed interesting to read. I won’t be able to finish it now, so I’ll take it home and read it later.”

“You’re crazy. That book is huge. You will read anything as long as it comes in the form of a book and has words, right?”

She shook her head. “There is one book that I don’t read.”

“And what’s that?”

“I don’t read dictionaries for fun.”

I nodded as if I was approving her choice of books not to read. “Good. At least you’re not insane yet,” I replied.

“But I do sometimes search up words for fun,” she went on thoughtfully. She looked at me and smiled. “Then I’d end up searching for words for about an hour or so before I realize what I’m doing.”

I groaned and covered my face, shaking my head. “That’s the first sign of reading the dictionary for fun!” I wailed, pretending to be aghast.

She smiled and flipped to the first page of her new book to the first chapter. Sh