Current Year 2013

Heejin carried the thick reference books in her hands with much difficulty. Taking small quick steps, she half-ran over to the nearest desk and placed the books down carefully not to make any unnecessary noise.

‘Why did I even take so much?’ She scratched her head and removed the first book from the stack. Futuristic, was the book title in big bold white electronic fonts. Heejin settled down with a smile and flipped it open.

She didn’t have a problem with her arts project normally but this was her final year project, thus explaining her overly enthusiastic research. Her cellphone rang in her pockets all of a sudden, startling her and also many other annoyed students around.

‘Sorry..’ ducking under the table awkwardly she picked it up. She should’ve expected this, expected that this was a call from her excessively overreacting friend.

‘YAH PARK HEE JIN! WHERE ARE YOU?!’ Heejin removed the phone from her ear incase Chaeri burst her eardrums.

Sometimes, instead of being thankful to this loyal friend, she could only sigh helplessly when Chaeri self-declared her mom. But Heejin knew the reason why; Chaeri likes her brother. So she formed an equation somehow; Brother = Father, Chaeri = mother, family of 3 happily ever after.

‘I’m in the library! You talk too loud!’ she whispered back and at the same time glancing around in case she’d attracted unwanted attention. Actually she already did whispering under the table like that.

‘YAH! It’s been an hour! I coming to get you and we’re going to eat!’ Chaeri hung up immediately before Heejin had the time to reply. She climbed out of her ‘hide-out’ and sat down defeated. ‘Looks like research has to wait again.’

Grabbing the thick hard covered books again she slowly made her way to the borrowing counter. Of course, being too focused on managing the weight of the books, she bumped into someone dropping the books in the process.

However, the person she bumped into grabbed the books just in time before they fell with a loud thud, saved from unwanted attention. Heejin apologized immediately bowing almost a perfect 90degrees full of shock. But she heard a chuckle instead. Lifting up her head slowly, the figure came clearer into the picture.

He was tall, well-built, stylish and cute? Is that an eye smile right there? Heejin flushed red when her gaze fell on him and looked away at once deciding to walk away right here right now.

‘Erm… books?’

Right! She’d totally forgotten about her books, which he was carrying instead. Embarrassed further, she stretched out her hands in an attempt to grab them over. But he took a step back and turned around walking towards the borrowing counter.

Putting the books effortlessly on the counter he turned back with a smile. Heejin mentally cursed herself for being a total idiot infront of this stunning looking guy. Same year? Graduate?

‘You’re welcomed.’ He said when Heejin just stood beside him quietly pondering over his age. Well done Heejin well done. More flustered than ever, Heejin literally gave herself a hard pat on her lips. What come next was regret and the sharp tingling pain she felt on her poor lips, but she managed the formalities nonetheless, stuttering though.

‘T…thank.. y..you…’  

He chuckled again and pats the books on the counter casually; the book title caught his eye too.

‘Futuristic? Is this for your project?’ He asked flipping through the pages while Heejin fumbled in her tote bag for the student pass. ‘Y..e……’ It wasn’t even hard to tell how she wasn’t someone who can multi-task well when her replied was almost an inaudible mumble. He chuckled again watching the girl dug through her supposedly deep and messy bag.

The librarian stared at the male and Heejin beside him with a whole look of pity on her expression. He spotted her staring and smiled back in return. Of course, he doesn’t like how she is judging the interesting girl beside him.

‘Found it!’ Heejin exclaimed in excitement with her student card on one hand. It wasn’t like she ran a marathon but she was breathing like one instead. He laughed again, secretly.

‘Park Heejin!’

‘I’m borrowing them already. Give me a moment.’

Chaeri came through the doors at the moment but soon shifted her gaze to the boy beside her friend. Protective-Sequence activated.

‘You are?’ She squeezed into the gap between the two of them, intentionally by means to separate him from her of course.

‘Yah! Lee Chaeri can you calm down, he helped me with these books.’ Chaeri jerked her chin towards the tall stack infront while keeping the borrowing slip into her wallet delicately.

Chaeri literally scrutinized him once again from head to toe and nodded with pursed lips. Looks decent.

‘Well, thankyou for helping out Heejin but from here we can manage ourselves.’ She replied with another not so friendly smile. He got the cue immediately and took a look past her at blank Heejin. ‘Thankyou.’ Heejin added again and he turned around and left with a smile.

‘Who is he?’ Chaeri asked routinely again taking half of the books in her arms and glared at Heejin for the weight of these.

‘You need them too for the project,’ Heejin read her expression well enough. ‘I don’t know him, I just bumped into him accidentally and almost dropped these on him.’ Heejin shifted the weight distribution of the books in her hands difficultly.

‘Okay then. What shall we eat later?’ her smile returned.

‘We shall place these back in the classrooms first.’ Heejin replied lifting the books up then almost dropped them again.