The next morning, Kyungsoo was awoken by the sound of his phone vibrating.  Picking it up, he swiped the screen to view the message, squinting into the bright light his eyes were not yet accustomed to.

The text contained only one word: .

Good morning to you, Kim Kai.  When and where would you like to meet up today to discuss the project?

While waiting for his aggressor’s response, Kyungsoo checked the time to see that it was already 10:00.  He looked around the room to see Jongdae still passed out, and Baekhyun already gone.  SoFo was still fast asleep, curled up peacefully on Jongdae’s slumbering face, but Kyungsoo figured he would have to get up soon to go to the bathroom.

His phone vibrated once again.

Noon at the café down the street from the school

Which one? XO?

Yeah

K.

Kyungsoo figured this was his cue to leave.  He put the now empty Tupperware container into his overnight bag once again and carefully lifted SoFo from Jongdae’s face.  Tiptoeing quietly out into the living room, Kyungsoo put his shoes on his feet and the leash on SoFo’s collar before he quietly let himself out the door.

When he got back home, his parents were curled up together on the couch, his dad with a newspaper and his mom with a fashion magazine.

“Hi honey, how was your night?  Did you win your video games?”

“Hey mom, I had a good time.  And I didn’t win all of them, but I certainly did win the most often,” Kyungsoo replied with a wicked grin.

“That’s my boy,” Kyungsoo’s father said proudly.  “Do you have any plans for later today?”

“Yeah, I’m supposed to meet a boy from my English class to work on a project.”

“A boy, hmm? Is he cute?” His mom asked, doing the responsibility of any good mother.

“Sure, he’s physically attractive, but he’s a real and I’d much rather punch him in the face than kiss him.”

“Honey, that’s rude.”

“Whatever.”

His parents returned to their reading as Kyungsoo went to take a shower after making sure that SoFo had enough water in his bowl.

After showering, Kyungsoo combed his hair back as he usually did, and threw on the same pair of jeans from yesterday and his favorite graphic tee; a shirt with a beaver on it that said: “dam tired.”  The stupid little cartoon beaver with his unamused expression and his steaming cup of coffee never failed to make Kyungsoo smile.

After gathering all of his English materials, along with a copy of Jane Eyre, Kyungsoo made himself a sandwich and hurried out the door.

“Have fun!” He just barely heard his mother call before shutting the door behind himself and hopping on the elevator.

Kyungsoo reached the café at exactly noon.  He walked through the door and looked around for Kai, who was of course not yet there.

Heaving one of his favorite exasperated sighs, Kyungsoo walked up to the counter and ordered himself a frappe.  He wasn’t really much of a coffee person, but Kyungsoo found that he really enjoyed a good frappe, especially of the caramel variety.

After receiving his sweet coffee beverage from the barista, Kyungsoo took a seat by the window affording him a good view of the sidewalk, and thus of Kai’s imminent approach.

Kyungsoo didn’t mind waiting, really.  He was usually the punctual one of his friends, and often found himself spending a lot of time waiting around.  Some people would get irritated and bored in this situation, but not Kyungsoo.  No, Kyungsoo was a lover of people watching, and enjoyed spending idle afternoons inside cafes watching the pedestrians through the window.  And as the weather was still nice, there were plenty of pedestrians out and about, attending to their daily lives that Kyungsoo could watch.

In fact, he got so caught up in watching the crowds through the window that he was taken completely by surprise when Kai sat down across from him, a steaming Americano between his large palms.

“Fancy seeing you here,” is the way that Kyungsoo greeted him.

Kai merely grunted and took a sip of his coffee.

After a few seconds of slightly awkward silence, Kai pointed to Kyungsoo’s head and asked, “Is your head okay?”

Slightly taken aback by Kai’s apparent concern, Kyungsoo eyed him suspiciously.

“My head is fine, thanks for asking.  Worry not, no matter how many blows to the head and consequent loss of brain cells, I will never lose as many as you did when your mother dropped you on the head as a child.”

Kai’s face flushed in anger.  “Shut it !” he hissed across the table, “I was just trying to be nice since we’re stuck together for the next two goddamn weeks!”

At that, Kyungsoo’s face softened.  “I’m sorry, I know you were.  Old habits die hard I suppose.”

Kai merely looked at him with contempt before reaching into his bag and pulling out his own copy of Jane Eyre.

“Oh my stars and garters, wherever did you get ahold of a copy like that!?” Kyungsoo exclaimed, lunging across the table to grab a hold of the book and get a better look.

The pages were yellowed and smelled of musty old paper.  Kyungsoo flipped it open to a random page and buried his nose into the binding, inhaling deeply.  He then flipped to the front of the book to see that this particular copy was published in 1945 with original woodblock prints adorning its pages.  Kyungsoo flipped through the whole book, taking time to thoroughly examine each and every illustration it contained.

The whole time Kyungsoo was excitedly flipping through the pages, Kai just sat there and watched him, a slightly confused and mildly inquisitive look on his face.

Kyungsoo’s fervor wore off shortly and he looked up from the pages sheepishly to look at Kai.

“Sorry,” he began, handing the book back to its rightful owner, “Jane Eyre is one of my top two favorite books and I always get excited when I see such a beautiful copy.  Especially one as old and well maintained as yours.  Where did you get it?”

“It was originally my grandmother’s.  She gave it to me before she passed away because she knew that it was – “

“Was what?” Kyungsoo asked curiously.

“Was nothing.  off,” Kai was once again defensive.

“Look, if you were going to say ‘was your favorite book,’ that’s okay, I’m not going to make fun of you for it.  I would never make fun of a person for their favorite book, especially if that book is well loved by me also.

“I would never tease someone reading.  I strongly believe that it really doesn’t matter what you’re reading, it’s just the mere fact that you’re reading at all that is important.”

“You’re a real book enthusiast, aren’t you head?” Kai asked, hands unconsciously caressing the spine of his book, a movement that did not go unnoticed by Kyungsoo.

“Hey, I thought we had quit with the insults, at least for the two weeks we’re stuck together?”

“Yeah, fine, whatever.” Kai grumbled out.  “Now what was your idea for the project?  Because I was thinking that…”

An hour later and not only did the two of them have the basic skeleton of their project sketched out, but they had fallen into an almost comfortable discussion of ideas.

As much as Kyungsoo liked to claim Kai was illiterate, the opposite was actually the case as he quickly came to find out.  Jongin was not only a prolific reader, having read nearly as many books as Kyungsoo himself had read, many of his favorite coincided with Kyungsoo’s own.

More than just this, Kai’s grasp of the subject matter and themes and ideas of the books was really strong, and he had ideas about books they had both read that would never have crossed Kyungsoo’s mind.

Along with the end of their drinks came the end of their discussion of the project.  There was no more reason to stay together as they had done all that they could today, and yet for some inexplicable reason, Kyungsoo found himself unwilling to leave, and forgetting why it was he was so loathe to meet Kai today.

“So, what are your plans for the rest of the day?” Kyungsoo probed, attempting to draw Kai back into conversation.

Kai’s response was abrupt as he placed his book and notes back into his book-bag; “Getting the hell away from you.”

Ah, there it was; the reason Kyungsoo so strongly disliked the handsome boy sitting across from him.

“Well, in that case, I bid you Adieu my unwilling project partner, enjoy the rest of this sunny day.”  And with that, Kyungsoo got up and walked out of the quiet café and back out into the hustle and bustle of the street.