Sehun inhaled deeply through his nose, letting the round, earthy smell of old paper settle in his chest. His sleepy dark eyes rose and fell from shelf to shelf of the library he had learned to call home in the past few months as he the dog-eared page of his book distractedly. It was quiet, the kind of silence that felt full and still and seemed to have a tangible presence, one that enveloped Sehun in a calmness that let him forget about everything outside.

This was inherently ruined shortly after Sehun heard the door swing open. His face immediately fell to a default mask of slightly annoyed apathy that served him well at school as he glanced at the boy who walked in, blabbing away on his phone. To his dismay, the boy approached him at the front desk of the library, leaning on the counter.

“Wait wait, hold on a sec,” the boy said into the phone before looking up at Sehun. “Hey.”

Sehun dragged his eyes away from his book and was met with a bright face and dark hair that stuck out from under a red snapback like paintbrushes. Sehun blinked. “Sorry, we don’t allow phones in the library.”

“Oh , yeah.” Sehun pursed his lips as he watched the boy yell into the phone that he had to go. His eyes flicked back up to the boy’s face when a thin hand was across the desk. “Well anyway, I’m Byun Baekhyun.”

His voice was slightly raspy, and it reminded Sehun of paper.

Sehun gingerly gripped Baekhyun’s hand and thought he might break it, whether this was due to his slender fingers or the way he seemed to constantly return to a volume just short of yelling, Sehun wasn’t sure. “Oh Sehun. How can I help you?”

Baekhyun fumbled around in his backpack to produce a crumpled sheet of paper he attempted to smooth out before him. Sehun watched his long fingers work through the creases, and a small part of him couldn’t deny that it was with a surprisingly effortless grace. His eyes snapped up to Baekhyun’s face when his voice punctured the silence.

“Do you know any good books?”

“Are you joking?”

“I’m always joking.”

Sehun felt the words tumble out by themselves, an automatic response. “Sorry, I have no idea.”

Baekhyun’s eyebrows shot up and his lips quirked into an amused smirk. Sehun watched the way his lips parted as his tongue slid over them. He thought he could see a faded spot of purple marking Baekhyun’s pale skin like a fingerprint. “Oh, you’re funny,” Baekhyun said, a challenge for Sehun to say more.

He felt the sensation of watching words flow from his lips. “A lot of people think I’m just mean,” Sehun laughed, more like a quick puff of air that hung between them.

Sehun’s quiet voice tugged at the corner of Baekhyun’s lips with the mark, and the boy cocked his head to the side thoughtfully. “Hmmm. I don’t think they’ve seen mean.”  Before Sehun could respond, Baekhyun in a deep breath through his teeth as his mouth stretched with his arms overhead. “So. Listen. You work here, right?”

Sehun looked pointedly down at his place at the front desk and back to Baekhyun. “Yes.”

Baekhyun didn’t seem to notice, either that or he chose to ignore it. Sehun was used to both reactions to his particular brand of humor. “Perfect, I need you to sign this, please,” Baekhyun leaned forward on his elbows as he slid the piece of paper from his backpack over Sehun’s book, flashing his brightest toothy grin and cocky gaze.

Sehun clicked his tongue, slowly lifting the offending sheet with pinched fingers like it might be toxic. “Uhuh. That’ll be 5000 won.”

“Okay.”

Sehun’s eyes flicked back to Baekhyun’s casual expression, and he studied it carefully before replying, “You know I wasn’t serious.”

Baekhyun laughed softly. “Well, sorry to be a hypocrite, but I’m afraid I wasn’t joking. I’ll do anything. Please. Just sign the sheet for me.” His raspy voice lilted under Sehun’s skin as he rested his cheek on the desk, peering up at Sehun through fluttering lashes. “Pleeease,”

Sehun’s face scrunched up in a way that made Baekhyun choke off his laughter in his throat. “Anything? Will you promise never to come back here then?” Sehun said, glancing at the paper out of sheer necessity. His eyebrows rose when he saw they went to the same school.

Baekhyun chuckled, drumming his fingers on the pages of Sehun’s book. “Well, anything but that. Coming back here is part of the deal, if you read my sheet.”

Sehun sighed, scanning the paper with a bored expression. “What is this, you have to read extra books for school?”

Baekhyun grinned, his face still planted on Sehun’s book. “Yeah, instead of detention.”

Sehun swallowed as he watched Baekhyun’s eyes flicker with something that made his throat dry. “G-get your face off my book, you delinquent,” he mumbled quickly, pulling it away as Baekhyun stood up with the same smile pulling his lips. “I’m not gonna use my authority to help you wiggle out of punishment, especially since I get the feeling you’ve done that a lot.”

“Hmmm, funny and smart,” Baekhyun hummed, cracking his knuckles. Sehun pursed his lips as he felt his cheeks flush. He his lips tentatively when Baekhyun’s cheery face tightened. “Please just take the money and do it. You seem like a nice enough kid.”

Sehun laughed incredulously despite the fact that he felt hot tendrils of anticipation clench his chest. “What, are you threatening me or something? I’m not impressed—”

He choked unceremoniously as slim fingers jerked him forward by the back of the neck with a jarring amount of strength. Baekhyun’s face was a hair away from his, dark eyes staring at him through heavy lids as he snarled, “Look. I’m not doing any goddamn reading, okay? You’re gonna sign this for me.” Sehun’s breath came fast and shaky through his nose as he watched Baekhyun’s other hand twist into the collar of his shirt while the boy’s lips curled around his teeth.

Sehun could say with a definite amount of confidence that this was the most exhilarating his job at the library had ever been. Instead, he said slowly, “I don’t have a pen. If you could get me one.”

Baekhyun’s eyes burnt a hole through him. The library was once again quiet save for the shallow breaths rushing from Sehun’s nose and the hammering in his chest. Both boys were completely still until Sehun continued, “And the 5,000 won.”

Suddenly Baekhyun blinked as if waking from a long sleep, and Sehun felt the fingers locked around his neck slide away like snakes. He shivered at the touch. “Ahhh, I’m so happy to hear that!” Baekhyun sighed, the sound rushing out of him like he’d been holding his breath. Sehun watched in disbelief as Baekhyun shoved his hands in his pockets, rummaging around for a few seconds before producing the money. “Really, I’m so relieved. Thanks. I really appreciate it.”

Sehun honestly didn’t know what to say as Baekhyun dropped the crinkled up paper onto the desk with a pen. “Uh,” was the eloquent reply he settled on while he tried to will his heart stop complaining against his ribs. Normally he craved the silence in the library, but now it was suffocating him more than Baekhyun’s grip around his throat. “I, name of employee at name of library, confirm that…” He squinted at the scrawl written in the blank. “Byun Baekhyun…has both checked out and completed one book over the span of fill in date—”

Baekhyun’s voice made him jump. “Look, I know you love reading and all, but you don’t have to say the whole thing,” he joked.

Sehun blinked a few times, trying and failing to process the current course of events. “Well, I honestly don’t really know what else to say since you kind of just almost beat the out of me.”

Baekhyun cocked his head back and laughed, once again too loud for the library. “That is kind of what happened, isn’t it? Ahh, don’t worry about it, in all seriousness I couldn’t do that to you.”

“But you’ve done it to other people.”

It was Baekhyun this time who blinked in surprise. “Ahh, but have I? Tune in next week to find out,” he said with a hand over his mouth, doing a cheesy but undeniably solid impersonation of an old TV show host.

Sehun rolled his eyes as he scribbled his name on the sheet that almost—well, actually, had—wrecked his afternoon. “My favorite show,” he muttered, sliding the paper back across the desk. “Please get out. Don’t expect me to do this again.”

Baekhyun grinned with all his teeth, bright and calm. “Thank youuu,” he sang, stuffing the sheet in his backpack. “I seriously appreciate it, Oh Sehun.” His eyes drifted down to Sehun’s open book as he blabbed away, and Sehun watched them fall. “Hey—”

“If you threaten me again I’m calling the cops,”

Baekhyun shook his head dismissively as though the very idea of him beating up someone was ridiculous. “No, no, I just…why do you like reading?”

Sehun was about to sling another snide comment at him when he looked up and paused. Baekhyun’s eyes rested on his book, but Sehun had the feeling he was looking straight through it, like he was squinting at something far away. “Um…I don’t know,” he started, his lips. “I guess…because it’s the only time in my life that’s quiet.”

Baekhyun’s head tilted up to meet Sehun’s gaze, peering at him through his black paintbrush hair. “Hmm. I’ve never really been quiet before.”

Sehun felt that he could hold him there like this for a long time, just through his eyes, whether he wanted to be held or not. It was a strange sensation that was both unsettling and intriguing, and he wondered how many wills had bowed and bent before those eyes. “I can tell,” he said simply.

Baekhyun chuckled, shrugging as he walked towards the door. “I’ll have to try it sometime, I think.”

At the sound of the door clicking closed, Sehun exhaled deeply into the space before him that suddenly seemed drained and empty. He worked at his lips until they were bright red, and that night he could think of nothing but paintbrushes and gleaming smiles.