Archive of Our Own

Jungeun adjusted the strap of the bag on her shoulder as she strolled down a busy street in the early afternoon. Though work on her master's thesis had been running pretty smoothly, she had recently encountered a bit of a roadblock, and no amount of research on the internet had been able to provide help. So, following a suggestion from her roommate, Jungeun decided to take a trip to her university's library, in the hopes that she might be able to find something, anything, of use for her writing.

(And maybe Jinsol sent her out because she wanted to have the apartment for herself and her girlfriend that day. But that's a story for another time...)

Once she arrived at the library, she headed up the floors until she reached the photography department, where she proceeded to scan the shelves to find a few books on her topic. She searched the floor thoroughly, reading each spine of every book and for some even the blurb if the title of the book seemed useful enough. Before she knew it, an announcement rang through the halls, stating that the library was going to close in a few minutes.

In the couple of hours Jungeun had spent searching for books, she had managed to collect a total of three for her research. After a quick read of their introductions, she decided they would be most helpful for her thesis, and so she made her way back down to the main desk to check out her finds. No employee was in sight, so Jungeun rang the bell that had been placed on the counter. A voice called out from behind her.

"I'll be right there!"

Jungeun turned around but saw no one. They must be behind a shelf, she thought, and called out for them to take their time as she returned to her books and began absentmindedly flicking through one. The sound of footsteps brought her out of her focus. She looked up to greet the librarian, but the words got caught in her throat the moment Jungeun laid eyes on her.

(Someone wheeled a bag of fireworks into her chest.)

Her mind went blank. What was she about to say? Doesn't matter. Everything that mattered was the angel in front of her and that she stayed in Jungeun's line of sight for the rest of her life. How could she ever walk out of this library knowing that a woman as beautiful as her was casually walking around in the same town as her? She was a safety hazard for Jungeun, who could feel her heartbeat speeding up and pounding loudly in her ears. And yet, she couldn't tear her eyes away from her, no matter how hard she tried.

The woman behind the counter gave her a small yet kind smile before looking down to quickly fill out a form that was lying on her desk. She wore her light auburn hair in an over the shoulder braid, with a few strands framing her face. Jungeun's breath hitched. Why had she never gone to the library before this? She could feel her face heating up rapidly as she stammered while trying to form a proper sentence as a greeting.

The librarian looked up at her, the same smile still grazing her features. "Sorry about that. There are a few books that need rearranging back there." She nodded towards the pile in Jungeun's hands. "Are those your picks for today?"

Knowing better than to trust her voice, Jungeun simply nodded and handed her books over along with her student ID. While the woman worked on scanning their bar codes and swiped the ID, she quickly and discreetly checked her top, hoping to find a nametag, to no avail.

"You're all set! Just make sure to bring them back by the end of the month."

She has a beautiful voice too…

"Um. Miss, are you alright?"

Jungeun was ripped out of her thoughts by the librarian speaking to her again. She shook her head and grabbed her books that had been placed back on the counter, along with her ID. Looking up at the woman one more time, she managed to squeak out a quick "Thank you!" before turning on her heel and all but running out of the library.

Once she was out of the building and had rounded the corner, Jungeun dropped her stack of books on the ground and bent over slightly, placing her hands on her knees to catch her breath. Whether she was catching her breath because she had just sprinted out of the library or because of her encounter with the auburn-haired beauty not even a full minute ago, that was anyone's guess.

By now, the streets had cleared a bit, with the majority of people already having made their way back to their homes at this hour. Luckily for Jungeun, there were very few people left to watch a woman in her mid-twenties sprint out of the university library as if she were being chased by a ghost.

The sun was starting to set, and upon unlocking her phone, Jungeun realised just how much time she had spent looking for sources. Jinsol had called her a few times and left a dozen or so messages, her tone growing increasingly more worried as more time passed without a response from Jungeun. She fired off a quick text to ease Jinsol's concern, placed her books in her bag and her ID in her wallet before straightening up to head back home.

While thinking about the librarian the entire time, of course.

***

"Fucking hell, Jungeun. Took you long enough!" Jinsol said from where she was comfortably seated on the couch, watching a movie on their old TV. Jungeun stretched as she closed the door behind her and dropped her bag on the ground, shoulder aching from having carried three rather heavy books all the way from the library back to her cramped apartment. Her back cracked loudly. She dragged herself over to the couch and plopped down next to Jinsol.

"So…" Jinsol started, reaching for the remote to mute the movie. "Did you find anything?"

Too exhausted to speak, Jungeun merely nodded as she closed her eyes for a moment. Without meaning to, her thoughts immediately went back to the pretty librarian. During the entirety of her ride on the bus, Jungeun could not take her mind off the woman. What was her name? How old was she? How long had she been working at the library? Did she like girls? Would she like to go on a date with Jungeun—

A flick on her forehead snapped her out of coming up with more questions to ask the librarian eventually. "Ouch!" Jungeun yelled, opening her eyes and coming face to face with Jinsol's mischievous grin she had become too familiar with in the three years they had been living together.

(Scenes of Jungeun walking in on Jinsol furiously making out with whatever girl she had been dating that week—before Heejin, of course—on their shared couch flash through her mind, along with the multiple times that Jinsol had so cleverly managed to time her use of their milk perfectly to make sure that Jungeun would not be able to enjoy a bowl of cereal in the morning on the day she had just so happened to be craving it. For both of these scenarios, and many more, the closest thing to an apology that Jungeun managed to receive from Jinsol would be that stupid, infuriating grin of hers. If Jungeun played her cards right, she would receive the occasional hug too. Why did she still live with her?)

"I really need to start looking for apartments, don't I?" Jungeun rubbed her forehead as Jinsol pouted in response to what she had said.

"But your life would be so boring without me!" Jinsol wiped the pout off her face and replaced it with a smirk. "Now, tell me which girl has your mind all over the place! Don't say it's Jane again, we went over this already."

"No, it's not Jane, you idiot," Jungeun answered with a frown. "It's just…I guess I met someone at the library?"

Jinsol gasped. "Who?"

"An employee who works there. She checked out my books." Jungeun sighed as she stared at their coffee table, which wasn't much of a coffee table considering that it was actually just one of their moving boxes that they had flipped over and never bothered replacing with an actual piece of furniture. "The moment I saw her, I felt as if I had seen an angel. It's like I forgot how to speak."

"What's her name?"

Jungeun slowly turned and smiled at Jinsol awkwardly. "Ah…funny that you mention it." She chuckled. "...I actually didn't catch her name."

Jinsol looked at her and blinked, the bright smile that had been growing on her face disappearing within a few seconds. She placed her face in her hands and groaned loudly.

"Look," Jungeun started, raising her hands up defensively, "I tried to find a name tag! It's not my fault that she decided not to wear one!"

"And you didn't—not even for a moment—think of, oh, I don't know, maybe asking her for her goddamn name?"

Jungeun opened her mouth to answer with a clever retort, but none came to mind. Jinsol was right. Why didn't she ask for the hot librarian's name? Next to her, she heard Jinsol groan once more.

"Okay, so here's what you're going to do." Jinsol grabbed Jungeun by her shoulders and pulled her towards her, so close that they could count each other's individual eyelashes. "You—" Jinsol shoved her index finger into Jungeun's chest roughly, which, first of all, for the record, was completely unnecessary considering they were the only people in the room, and second of all, ouch—"are going to head back to that library tomorrow. I don't care what book you have to check out, if you have to get a fucking cookbook even though you haven't as much as looked in the direction of the kitchen ever since we moved in—" she ignored Jungeun's offended gasp— "then so be it. If you come back home tomorrow without a name…" she paused for dramatic effect. Jungeun looked at her, eyes wide, and gulped.

"I actually don't really know what my threat was going to be." Jinsol smiled brightly at her, finally extracting her finger from Jungeun's chest. "Just, please, for my sake and for yours, get her name. And maybe her number! God knows you haven't had a good lay since—"

Jungeun launched a pillow at her face.

***

"Okay Jungeun, you can do this," Jungeun whispered to herself as she walked down the same street she had not even a full twenty-four hours ago. Although her plan was originally to go back in the evening, she had barely managed to wolf down the last bite of her cereal (with milk, no thanks to her roommate) before she was unceremoniously shoved out of her apartment by none other than Jinsol, who wished her a quick, "Good luck!" before promptly slamming the door in her face. Jungeun huffed at the memory.

She fiddled nervously with her bag strap and headed up the stairs towards the entrance of the library, her mind filled with thoughts about the librarian. No matter how hard Jungeun tried, she could not get the woman out of her mind.

She's a demonic woman, Jungeun thought. She's a demonic woman and I want her badly.

Luckily for Jungeun, after skimming through the books she had checked out the day before, she realised there was a gaping hole in her research for which she couldn't find any extra information—therefore, her trip to the library was actually warranted. She had a specific topic in mind and was going to scour the photography section until she found something of relevance, and if in addition to that she managed to secure the pretty librarian's name (and maybe even her phone number), then she would take the day as a win.

Walking into the building, Jungeun immediately noticed that the front desk was unmanned once more. She felt slightly dejected but continued towards the photography department, remembering that although she'd like to see the librarian, her main goal was to find a book that could help her with her thesis.

Once she reached the correct floor, she got to work again and began searching each shelf for a book that she could use. This time, her search was fruitful after only half an hour—a quick glance at the cover and skimming through some of the pages was enough for Jungeun to be convinced with her pick, and so she walked downstairs.

By the time she reached the ground floor again, the pretty librarian had assumed her post by the front desk and greeted Jungeun with a warm smile that made her heart flutter. The librarian's hair was in the same braid as it had been the day before, but she was also wearing round glasses that took up half of her face. Jungeun tried her best to hide the blush that was threatening to spread across her cheeks.

(The fireworks in her chest lay dormant for now, ready to be lit up at any second.)

She handed over her chosen book along with her student ID to allow the librarian to scan everything into the system. While the woman was busy, Jungeun searched her top once more in an attempt to locate a nametag, but didn't find anything. She exhaled loudly in frustration and looked up to make eye contact with the librarian once more, which caused her brain to short-circuit. Pretty. She's so pretty. God, she's gorgeous.

"Alright, Jungeun, you're all set for today!"

"Huh?" Jungeun?

The librarian tilted her head slightly to the right and Jungeun tried her hardest to not melt at how cute the action was. "Jungeun, that's your name, isn't it?"

Nodding, Jungeun managed to stammer out, "Yeah, but how'd you know that?"

"Your ID," the librarian answered and smiled. She held it out to let Jungeun take it and put it back into her wallet. Fuck. That makes sense.

Just as Jungeun grabbed her book and was about to put it into her bag, something compelled her to look up. It felt as if a voice in the back of her mind was yelling at her, so she caved and directed her gaze upwards, towards the librarian, who turned and looked back at her. The moment their eyes met, Jungeun's mind went blank. She could only think about how beautiful the woman standing in front of her was.

(Someone lit the fireworks.)

Quickly, she realised she had been standing and staring silently for long enough to be considered creepy. Wanting to avoid humiliation, her mouth moved faster than her brain did.

"Seems kinda unfair that you know my name but I don't know yours, huh?" she blurted out.

(The fireworks exploded prematurely—the poor soul that had tried to light them was caught in the blast while screaming, Jungeun, what the fuck?)

The librarian looked at her without saying a word. Jungeun felt her face heat up rapidly as she shoved her book into her bag without looking, eyes still focused on the gorgeous woman standing right across from her who hadn't said anything in what felt like an eternity. She was about to sprint out of the building and get in touch with Sooyoung, who she knew was involved in some sort of shady business practices (despite adamantly denying it multiple times) and could therefore somehow get her hands on a fake passport for Jungeun so she could flee the country and start a new life abroad, when she heard a faint giggling that only grew in volume.

The giggling brought Jungeun's mind back to the library, where she was still standing across from this demonic woman who was now hiding her mouth behind her hand as she laughed softly, all while not looking away from Jungeun.

I'm so fucked.

"Ah— I'm, I'm sorry about that, um—" Jungeun tried to look for any excuse that could explain why her mouth thought it would be a good idea to move without checking in with her brain first. Nothing came to mind and she fought the urge to let out her signature pterodactyl yell. Jungeun was about half a second away from dialling Sooyoung's number when the librarian's giggles softened and she spoke up.

"You're right, it is unfair." A small laugh. "My name's Haseul, it's nice to meet you!" She reached her hand over the counter and offered it to Jungeun, who stared at it in awe for a few moments before realising she was yet again making a fool of herself in front of the pretty librarian—Haseul, she reminded herself—and so she shook it. It was so soft.

(The smoke cleared. The poor soul who lit the fireworks emerged from the rubble, somehow unscathed.)

"Haseul," Jungeun repeated, liking the way it rolled off her tongue effortlessly. "Jungeun. But you already knew that," she added, shifting her gaze away.

Haseul giggled once more, and in that moment Jungeun realised she would gladly make a fool of herself every day for the rest of her life if it meant she would be able to hear that laugh over and over again.

"Well then, Jungeun, I hope you have a nice time reading all of your books. Don't forget to return them!" Haseul let go of Jungeun's hand and smiled at her, a real, authentic smile—with teeth and all—not the small tug of her lips she was probably used to giving students, a far cry from the smile that had Jungeun swooning in the first place; and yet, she couldn't help but think she liked this version a lot more.

On her way home, as Jungeun stared out of the bus window and watched the buildings pass by, all of her thoughts were once more occupied by Haseul. In her mind, she was already moving her schedule around to allow for some free time to visit her once more.

So that's all that it took for Kim Jungeun to fall in love: cute, whisker-like dimples and a name.

***

jindori

[moomin]

SOS

[jindori]

???

[moomin]

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK

[jindori]

??? ARE YOU OKAY???

[moomin]

NO

[jindori]

jungeun istg if this is about the librarian

[moomin]

she has a name, dipshit

and yes it is about haseul. she smiled at me :D

[jindori]

heejin says congrats on getting your shit together and asking for a name

i say if you keep me up tonight while talking about her the entire time i will personally make sure your parents disown you

[moomin]

acting like you and heejin haven't kept me up all night before

[jindori]

that sounds wrong

[moomin]

YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN

I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN ABOUT IT, JINSOL.

jindori reacted with 😂 to your message

***

The next day, Jungeun woke up bright and early, sat down at her desk and flipped open her newly borrowed book in order to make a sizeable dent in her to-do list for her thesis.

Less than an hour later, she said a loud goodbye to Jinsol who was still locked inside her bedroom. Knowing Heejin had arrived late to visit her yesterday, Jungeun did not want to stay behind to listen for a response and accidentally hear something she would never be able to forget. She quickly opened the door and stepped out of the apartment.

After all, she still had a few months left to hand in her thesis. Surely, Jungeun could afford to take a bit longer with writing it, especially when she had matters of the heart to attend to with urgency!

The bus ride from her apartment to the library lasted almost an eternity. An eternity that Jungeun gladly spent thinking about Haseul, but she couldn't prevent a bubble of nervousness from slowly forming in her stomach, making her shoulders tense. What was she supposed to say to her? She didn't have a book to look for this time around, as a matter of fact, heading to the library today was more of an impulse decision that she decided to not second-guess after being unable to focus on her research earlier that day.

As they slowed down to a halt on a stop that Jungeun didn't recognise, she half debated on getting out of the bus and heading back home. Her train of thought was interrupted by her phone vibrating in her pocket. She took it out and tapped on the new message she had received.

heekie

[heekie]

i sense you're about to chicken out from talking to haseul…

don't do that!!!!!!

[moomin]

?

how tf

sent

Jungeun pocketed her phone and resigned herself to her fate of having to actually have a conversation with the newfound love of her life that day.

Once the bus arrived at her stop, she got out slowly, wanting to prolong the amount of time she had before coming face to face with Haseul again. Just the thought of seeing her was enough for the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up. She took a few calming breaths as she walked down the practically deserted street.

A slight breeze cooled her face. Jungeun had left her apartment late as to avoid the morning rush of students heading to university and employees heading to work, but early enough for the streets to not be crowded with the rest of the local population wandering about and trying to spend some time in the fresh air.

Without realising it, she quickly arrived in front of the library. She looked up at the building, which looked straight out of a painting due to its old construction work and bright blue sky shining behind it, exhaled loudly for good measure, and walked up the stairs.

Her plan was to head straight towards the counter and strike up a conversation with Haseul. However, she overestimated her confidence.

The moment Jungeun looked at Haseul, with her long hair spilling over her shoulders, seated behind the desk and deeply engrossed in whatever she was typing on the computer, her legs developed a mind of their own.

She walked past Haseul, quickly looking in her direction to offer her a smile but not looking long enough to see whether or not it was returned, and hid behind the first bookshelf she saw. Her heart was beating rapidly as she took a few breaths to bring it down to its usual pace.

Remembering the hand mirror she had placed in her handbag earlier that morning, Jungeun took it out and checked her reflection. Her hair was completely messed up, and she cursed her morning self who decided it would be a good idea to leave the house without properly styling it.

Jungeun placed the mirror on the shelf and started messing with her hair, combing her fingers through it in an effort to get rid of any knots that might have formed while she was making her way to the library. She pushed it up lightly in an effort to generate some sort of volume and avoid having it fall straight down, and lightly touched up her bangs to have them frame her face as nicely as they could given the circumstances.

All of this for a girl…

She was about to take out her lipgloss—or maybe it was Jinsol's, she could never be too sure—when she heard someone cough next to her. Jungeun felt her heart drop when she looked to her right and saw Haseul looking at her with an amused expression, one eyebrow raised slightly. Her stomach did a flip at the sight.

(Someone struck a match inside of her chest.)

"You having fun back here?" Haseul asked, chuckling at the sight of Jungeun slowly and discreetly grabbing her hand mirror and putting it back in her bag.

"Yeah, um…" Jungeun balked, looking at the shelf and grabbing the first book she saw without reading the title. "I was just getting this book. Not everything I read has to be for university, you know?" Her voice gained in pitch towards the end of the sentence and she slapped herself mentally for it. Haseul smiled at her.

"Of course! I'm glad to hear there are still some people who enjoy reading," she replied, holding her hand out for Jungeun to give her the book. Hesitantly, she did. Her fingers brushed slightly against Haseul's hand and she inhaled sharply at the feeling. It was so soft.

She looked up at Haseul, who was already staring at Jungeun. A beat passed between them. They remained rooted to their spots, unmoving, hands still grazing each other. Jungeun couldn't will herself to look away from Haseul, eyes big and curious, as if she were wondering why exactly they were still staring at each other. However, for some reason, Jungeun felt that Haseul was also unable to tear her gaze away from her.

(The match got closer to the firework's fuse.)

The two women were forced out of their little bubble by the loud beeping of a car horn outside of the building. The noise caused Jungeun to jump a little and her hand twitched slightly, brushing against Haseul's with more intensity. Simultaneously, they jerked their hands away, and Haseul cleared her throat. She held the book up and nudged her head backwards, in the direction of the counter. "I'll just, uh, go ahead and…" She muttered the rest of the sentence under her breath as she turned on her heel and walked away quickly and quietly, the same way she had made her way to Jungeun earlier.

(Hastily, the match was blown out.)

Jungeun exhaled shakily, bringing her hand up to her eyes and staring at it, still feeling remnants of Haseul's touch lingering on her fingers. Without thinking, she softly stroked her fingers using her other hand and brought it closer to her face. The light flowery fragrance made her head spin.

Snap out of it, Jungeun! she heard a small voice—resembling Jinsol's, if she thought about it some more—yelling at her in the back of her mind. She shook her head, lowered her hand, and walked out from behind the shelf.

At the counter, Haseul greeted her with a bright smile, as if nothing had happened just a few moments earlier. Jungeun made sure to snap a mental image of Haseul's dimples and ingrain it in her mind, filing it away in the depths of her brain to look back on in case she missed that smile someday.

A voice pulled her out of her daydreams. "Sorry about this, but I actually forgot to ask for your student ID. I need it to check the book out and assign it to your profile."

Jungeun let out a small noise of recognition and reached for her wallet, placing the ID on the desk for Haseul to take. While she would usually hand it over directly, Jungeun's reaction to slightly grazing her hand not even a full minute ago was enough excitement for one day. She wasn't sure if her heart would be able to handle any more than that.

Haseul thanked her, swiped the card and scanned the book's barcode with practised ease. Jungeun watched as her nimble fingers danced across the keyboard, filling out some sort of form that she couldn't see. When her fingers stopped moving abruptly, Jungeun looked up at Haseul's face, only to see a slight frown etching her delicate features; another mental snapshot was taken. She reached towards the book and opened it in the middle to read a few sentences.

"Oh, you speak English?" she asked, still looking at the book and catching Jungeun off guard.

Jungeun tilted her head slightly. "Huh?"

Haseul laughed as she looked up at her. "That's your answer to everything, isn't it?"

When Jungeun didn't reply, instead simply raising her eyebrows and slightly opening her mouth in confusion, Haseul shook her head and waved her hands.

"Never mind. It's just—" Haseul gestured to the book. "It's in English."

Oh. "Right, yeah, I speak a bit," Jungeun lied. Absentmindedly, she reached up to twirl the ends of her hair, missing how Haseul's eyes followed the movement of her hand. "I'm just trying to expand my vocabulary by reading more." She added a nervous laugh at the end of her sentence. Despite Haseul's expression not changing at all, Jungeun faintly recognised a slight flush creeping up her cheeks.

Haseul raised an eyebrow and lifted the book to show Jungeun the cover. "By reading Fifty Shades of Grey?"

Fuck.

Jungeun blinked and nodded. "Yeah!" she said, trying her hardest to sound somewhat convincing.

Haseul stared at her for a few moments before shrugging and handing the book and her ID back. "Enjoy your reading!"

Jungeun grabbed her things and almost sprinted out of the library, only thinking to look back over her shoulder to yell a quick, "Thanks, I will!" once she was halfway through the exit.

She could've sworn she heard a small laugh coming from behind her.

***

"There's our Jungie!" Heejin ran towards Jungeun excitedly and enveloped her in a hug, one which was graciously returned. "So…" She moved backwards towards the couch and sat down next to Jinsol, who wrapped an arm around her shoulders smoothly. Jungeun couldn't help but scowl at the movement.

Heejin chuckled as she nuzzled into Jinsol's side, staring at Jungeun. "You know I can see your face, right?" Jungeun quickly schooled her expression back to her usual neutral appearance. "I see you followed my advice about staying at the library."

Jungeun nodded. "How did you even know why I was headed there?"

"Oh, I didn't," said Heejin, laughing. "I just wanted to annoy you a bit. It's not everyday that we see you pining over someone who isn't Jane."

Next to her, Jinsol giggled, causing Jungeun to send her a glare. Jinsol put her arms up. "She's not wrong, you know."

"I know," Jungeun answered, walking towards the couple and draping herself across the both of them. While Jinsol groaned loudly and tried to shove her off in response, Heejin wrapped her arms around Jungeun and pulled her towards them. "God, I made a complete fool of myself today."

"Sounds like an everyday occurrence to me," Jinsol remarked, dodging the slap that Jungeun sent her way at the comment. "Alright, alright, what did you do this time?"

Jungeun looked up at the other women. "Promise you won't laugh?" Upon hearing their confirmations, she buried her face in Heejin's chest, disregarding Jinsol's protest—"Excuse you, that's mine,"—and mumbled something under her breath, too quiet for anyone else to hear.

Heejin slapped her butt and ignored the surprised squeak that came from above her. "Speak up!"

"Both of you are so annoying." Jungeun pushed herself off the couple and dragged herself towards the empty spot at the end of the couch. She frowned and blew a stray strand of hair out of her face. "Haseul may or may not have caught me fixing my hair and makeup while hiding behind a bookshelf today, and she may or may not have laughed at me for a bit because of that, and I may or may not have given her a random book I grabbed off the shelf in an effort to save face, and we may or may not have brushed hands, and I may or may not have sniffed my hand afterwards because her hand cream smelled good," she rattled off as if reading her shopping list. After a moment of thought, she added, "Right, and the book I gave her? Fifty Shades of Grey. In English."

A moment of silence passed through the living room. Heejin had her eyebrows raised while Jinsol tilted her head, opening her mouth slightly as if looking for the right words. After a while, she pursed her lips and blinked. "Girl, you don't even speak English."

Jungeun buried her head in her hands. "You don't say?!"

"Look, there's no need to panic," said Heejin, trying to calm Jungeun, who was as pale as a sheet of paper and on the verge of ripping her hair out. "How did Haseul react to it?"

"Well, first she asked me if I spoke English, to which I obviously replied yes—" Jungeun ignored Heejin's exasperated sigh and the sound of her smacking her forehead— "and then she sort of asked me why I was practising my English with Fifty Shades of Grey. That, I didn't know how to respond to."

After a few moments, Jinsol spoke up. "So, long story short, she now thinks that you're kind of a pervert?"

Jungeun, again, launched a pillow at Jinsol's face.

***

Upon entering the library for the fourth day in a row, one thing—or should one say, person—immediately stood out to Jungeun.

A young woman, definitely younger than her, most probably a third year in university if Jungeun had to guess, stood behind the counter and was sorting through a pile of books. She had long, dark hair, a near constant smile on her face, and above all, was most definitely not Haseul. Jungeun tried her hardest to not sigh audibly.

She walked towards the counter, subtly looking around the entrance to see if Haseul was simply lurking behind one of the tall bookshelves but much to her disappointment, she found nothing.

A loud and chipper voice pulled Jungeun out of her observations.

"Hello!" the employee behind the counter greeted her enthusiastically. Jungeun turned to look at her. Despite it only being nine in the morning, the woman was about as cheerful as Jungeun liked to think she was whenever Jinsol would decide to spend the night at Heejin's instead of the other way around. That is to say, she was practically vibrating with excitement.

Jungeun smiled at her and greeted the woman back, her eyes instinctively trailing downwards in an attempt to locate a name tag—and she did. Yerim. Nice name, although Haseul is infinitel—

Wait.

"Oh, so you do have to wear name tags…" Jungeun mumbled lowly, but not low enough, as Yerim perked up.

"What was that?"

"Nothing! Quick question, are you the only employee working today?"

Yerim tilted her head slightly. "Hm…no, I think our manager is also working today." Upon seeing Jungeun's eyebrows shoot up, she continued. "I'm not quite sure where she is right now, but I think she's on her break. Any specific reason as to why you're looking for her?"

Jungeun's face heated up and she could almost feel the redness spreading across her cheeks. She scratched her temple in an attempt to hide how flustered she had become, but it was too late. Yerim's mouth opened slightly before her lips spread into a wide grin, and she started jumping up and down while clapping as she put two and two together.

"Oh! I see!" she said excitedly, her volume level most definitely not appropriate for their location, more specifically, her place of work. Jungeun tried to shake her head to deny any allegations, but before she could properly voice her protests, Yerim had already picked up her phone and was rapidly dialling someone's number.

Please don't call Haseul, please don't call Haseul…

"Hey, Haseul!"

Fuck.

"Listen, I need you at the front desk. Right now. Seriously. It's an emergency, I don't know how much longer I can last here without you please Haseul come here right now wait no they're coming please hurry—" Yerim screamed bloody murder into her phone before abruptly hanging up the call and nodding at Jungeun. "Alright."

Jungeun stared at her, extremely confused, when suddenly she heard a door slam open. Her head whipped around and she came face to face with Haseul, who stood on the other side of the room, panting while looking more beautiful than Jungeun had ever seen her be. Her usual prim and proper hair was slightly tousled and her glasses were sitting askew on her nose, obviously having been placed there in a hurry. She took them off and rushed towards the front desk, nodding at Jungeun in greeting. Jungeun's heart took off racing as she noticed a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead.

(Whoever was stuck inside of Jungeun's chest to man the fireworks sighed as they readied yet another match.)

"Yerim," Haseul whispered through gritted teeth, probably hoping that Jungeun would not be able to hear her talk. She did. "What on earth were you talking about?"

To Yerim's credit, she did not falter at all under Haseul's intimidating gaze, surprising Jungeun. Isn't she her boss?

"This is the emergency!" She smiled brightly and gestured towards Jungeun. "Your friend here was looking for The Hunger Games, and I quite frankly have no idea where to find it. So I called you!"

What?

Haseul stared at her coworker for a moment before sighing and running her fingers through her hair, trying to quickly comb it and make it look neat again. She turned to face Jungeun and gave her the brightest smile she could muster as she placed her glasses on the top of her head.

"Follow me."

Jungeun's heartbeat only picked up the pace as she trailed behind Haseul. She turned around while walking to give Yerim a quizzical look, but the woman only grinned and winked in response.

They walked up the stairs to the third floor. "This floor's my favourite," Haseul commented as they passed shelf after shelf in search of the book that Yerim had told them to find. "I love science fiction. Sort of surprised you're reading one of these, though, considering your pick yesterday…" She looked behind her at Jungeun with a faint smile.

"You're never gonna let me live that one down, are you?" Jungeun replied, blushing slightly. Haseul simply laughed and continued walking straight ahead until they reached the last bookshelf on the floor.

Haseul skimmed the books, her fingers tracing each and every spine until she found what she was looking for. Jungeun's breath caught in her throat while she watched Haseul focus on her mission, her eyes squinting slightly as she scanned the titles. Little butterflies fluttered around in her stomach once she registered that Haseul was mumbling the titles under her breath. Jungeun exhaled shakily, hoping that Haseul would not hear. Luckily for her, she didn't, and continued her search.

(Slowly and carefully, the match was lit.)

Once she found the book, Haseul let out a little cheer under her breath—Jungeun tried her hardest to not swoon because of how cute she found it—and handed it to her.

"To be honest, I didn't really peg you for the type of person to read for fun," she said. "Once you're done with the book, you should definitely check out the rest of the trilogy. And the prequels. They're really good."

Now, Jungeun didn't live under a rock; of course she knew about The Hunger Games and the rest of the series, but she had never really considered reading the books after having watched the films. However, with Haseul's wide-eyed and hopeful gaze fixed upon her expectantly, it looked like she didn't have much of a choice.

(Even more slowly and carefully, the fuse was approached.)

She nodded enthusiastically. "You're right actually, I'm not much of a reader, but I want to change that!" Jungeun replied, choosing to not inform Haseul of the fact that she was only getting into reading because of the simple fact that she was crushing on her, hard.

This wasn't lying, it was simply her choosing to not reveal the full truth!

"That's good! Nowadays, there aren't enough readers left, I swear." Haseul sighed and crossed her arms. "I remember how people used to make fun of me when I was younger for reading, but hey, it's fun. And it's definitely better for you than mindlessly scrolling through whatever app is popular nowadays." She rolled her eyes as she finished her small rant, and Jungeun couldn't help but chuckle at her annoyance.

"You're right. I'll be honest, up until last week, I didn't really see the appeal of reading. But now—"

"After you started reading Fifty Shades of Grey?" Haseul asked, but there was no bite in her tone. Jungeun narrowed her eyes at her. We're close enough to tease each other now? She felt giddy at the thought of someone as pretty as Haseul finding her interesting enough to somewhat befriend.

"Anyway," Jungeun said pointedly, rolling her eyes slightly at Haseul and cheering silently when that earned her a laugh. "As I was saying, something changed. I guess I want to read more beyond just my university research, you know?" Sort of a lie. For now.

Haseul nodded and placed her chin on her hand. "By the way, what exactly are you studying? I figured it's something relating to photography, right?"

The earnest and genuinely interested tone with which Haseul asked the question caused Jungeun to pause for a moment before answering. She actually wants to know…?

(The fuse was lit.)

"I'm doing my masters in photography, I'm actually working on my thesis at the moment. Almost done!" She pumped her fist in the air, and. Haseul chuckled at the movement. "What about you?"

"Well, I finished my masters in Library Science about a year ago. I've been working here full-time for a few months now, started last August."

"Wait, so you've only been working here for a few months and you're already the manager?" Jungeun asked. She was already caught off guard by Haseul seemingly being only a year older than her, but managing to claw herself up to this position after not even a full year of employment surprised her even more.

"Yeah," Haseul replied, nodding. "In all honesty, it wasn't that difficult…this library is seriously understaffed. If you know anyone who would be willing to work for—" she mumbled this next part under her breath—"less than minimum wage, please send them my way!"

Jungeun couldn't help but laugh loudly. "I'll let them know." They stared at each other for a few moments, smiles spreading across their faces before someone flashed through Jungeun's mind—Yerim. Her nametag. Why didn't Haseul wear hers?

She took a deep breath. "Right, what I wanted to ask—"

The sound of a loud alarm clock caused Jungeun and Haseul to jump slightly. While Jungeun was disoriented, looking around and trying to find the source of the noise, Haseul begrudgingly reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone, which was ringing loudly. She swiped across the screen and held it up to her ear. "Yes, Yerim?"

Although Jungeun couldn't identify what Yerim was currently rambling about to Haseul, she could hear the excited tone of her voice, and the speed at which she was talking gave her the impression that it was some sort of emergency. Although, after learning what constituted as an emergency for Yerim, Jungeun was not so sure about the importance of the subject at hand.

"Yeah….yeah," Haseul mumbled, looking at Jungeun with an apologetic expression on her face as she listened to Yerim's woes. "Okay. Tell you what, I'll be down in a moment. Alright. Wait—no, no, Yerim, please don't burn—" The sound of Yerim hanging up the phone cut Haseul's warning off. She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at the screen for a few moments. She blinked.

Throughout the entire conversation, Jungeun couldn't help but stare at Haseul. She looked as though she was about to throw her phone out of the nearest window, and yet Jungeun was still completely enamoured with this woman. Their little moment that had been interrupted earlier was playing on repeat in her mind; she wanted to have Haseul's gaze on her forever.

(Frantically, the employee—no one would choose to volunteer to man these fireworks, after all—stomped on the fuse, trying to stop the fireworks from going off. It worked.)

Haseul put her phone into her pocket and reached out for Jungeun to hand the book back. "Sorry about that, Yerim's going on one of her tangents again. What were you going to say?"

Jungeun looked at her, mouth slightly agape as her mind tried to catch up with what Haseul was asking from her. Her eyes drifted from her face to her extended hand, and then to the book in her own hand, slowly putting the pieces together. She gave the book to Haseul and then met her gaze once more while pursing her lips.

"You know what? I actually can't seem to remember." Another lie.

"Ah, that's alright!" Haseul said cheerfully while walking out from the aisle, heading towards the staircase. "You might remember later!"

As Jungeun followed behind her, any thoughts regarding the name tag had completely vanished from her mind, replaced by images of Haseul's eyes, smile, and laugh.

(The employee seriously considered applying for work at the library.)

***

"The next hours are the worst in my life, which if you think about it, is saying something," Jungeun read aloud as she lied on the couch. Jinsol had left their apartment earlier that day to get brunch with Sooyoung, meaning that Jungeun was actually able to have some peace and quiet for the first time in a few months. Instead of using this time to advance her thesis, Jungeun grabbed the book she had borrowed earlier that day and found herself deeply invested in the story. Before she knew it, the sun was slowly starting to set and she had already read almost 400 pages, even taking notes at times so she could have something to talk about with Haseul the next day.

While Jungeun did feel bad about having lied to her in regards to her intentions in the library, she thought that by actually reading the book and making an effort to discuss it with Haseul, she'd be atoning for her sins. Righting her wrongs.

The priest from her local church that she attended as a child would be proud of her. Jesus would be too.

She was taken out of her complete immersion in the climax of the book by the sound of someone entering the PIN of the entrance door. Jungeun groaned when it swung open, and in walked Jinsol along with Sooyoung, both giggling like schoolgirls as they entered the apartment. Sooyoung stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of Jungeun, clothes wrinkled, hair all over the place, and generally looking completely dishevelled as she had been moving around the couch for the past six hours and hadn't bothered to take a single look in a mirror the entire time.

Jungeun placed her pen inside the book as a makeshift bookmark, forgoing her usual habit of simply dog-earing the pages as she feared Haseul would probably incinerate her for even considering it. She looked at Sooyoung and yawned, only now noticing the bag slung over her shoulder. She pointed at it. "What's up with that?"

Sooyoung looked at her bag and quickly pushed it behind her back in an effort to hide it from Jungeun's sight. "Nothing to see here, it's just…" A pause. "Your birthday present."

Jungeun raised an eyebrow. "My birthday was two months ago."

"God forbid a girl tries to get birthday presents ready early!" Sooyoung rolled her eyes and marched into their kitchen dramatically. Behind her, Jinsol shuffled towards Jungeun and tackled her backwards onto the couch, much to the latter's dismay.

"Get off me," she whined, trying to push Jinsol onto the ground to no avail.

For some reason, ever since she had started dating Heejin, Jinsol had become freakishly strong despite never even having thought about signing up for a gym membership. If Jungeun thought about it too much she could probably figure out where all that strength and stamina came from, but for her own sanity, she refused to do so, instead preferring to simply lie on the couch and accept the clingy Jinsol that had come home that day.

"You should really treat me better," Jinsol sniffed from on top of Jungeun. "Who else would ever entertain you the way I do?" She got tired of their cuddling quickly and pushed herself back onto her feet, noticing the book that was lying on the armrest. She picked it up and whistled, eyebrows raised. "The Hunger Games? I didn't know you liked to read."

Making an effort to wipe the imaginary dirt Jinsol had left behind off her body, Jungeun glared at her. "Yes, I do, actually!" She tried to reach for the book but Jinsol held it up, far out of her reach even after Jungeun stood up. Curse the 2 inches that she has on me!

"Ah-ah!" Jinsol reprimanded Jungeun and tapped her nose lightly with her free hand. Jungeun grimaced. "Be honest with me: you're doing this because of Haseul, aren't you?"

Furrowing her eyebrows, Jungeun stared at Jinsol for a moment, who stared back. Their battle of wills lasted an incredibly short amount of time as Jungeun gave up very quickly. "Yes."

A loud shriek left Jinsol's mouth before she could stop it, but the excited expression she wore told Jungeun that she wasn't at all embarrassed by it. She gave the book back to Jungeun before she started rambling.

"This is so cute! I know how much you dislike reading so when I saw the book I was incredibly confused at first, in all honesty, I thought that you might have been kidnapped by someone while I was out with Sooyoung—you know the people that she gets involved with, I figured one of them was to blame for it—and that they replaced you with a clone that for some reason really enjoyed reading. Boy, am I glad that wasn't the case! I don't even know what I would do with a clone in this apartment, in this economy, I mean, do they eat our food? Would I have had to buy special meals for them? So many questions that I don't have the answers to and that I won't need the answers to! Anyway, tell me more about Haseul! Why are you reading The Hunger Games in particular, is it her favourite book? Did she recommend it? Was it the first book you saw and you simply grabbed it while gay panicking over how pretty she is? Tell me everything!"

The admission of Sooyoung actually working with shady people flew over Jungeun's head completely the moment Jinsol requested for Jungeun to talk to her about Haseul. She plopped onto the couch, followed by Jinsol, and leaned against the back, staring at the ceiling as she tried to figure out where to even start. Her train of thought was rudely interrupted by Sooyoung quietly entering the living room.

"Do you mind? I'm trying to think here," Jungeun complained loudly.

Sooyoung pointed at herself. "Me?! I didn't say shi—"

"Shush," Jinsol interjected, patting the empty space next to her . "She's going to tell me more about Haseul!"

Any protest Sooyoung had started to muster died in her throat as she practically launched herself towards the couch, sitting down next to Jinsol with a small oof. "Spill."

Jungeun recounted the events of the entire week, starting with their first meeting three days ago and ending with her reading aloud some notes she had taken based on the content of The Hunger Games. Jinsol and Sooyoung listened with rapt attention. The former occasionally raised her hand to ask questions about Haseul while the latter only chimed in to accuse Jungeun of having homosexual urges, as if Ha Sooyoung herself wasn't the poster child of lesbianism.

"So, you're saying that this Yerim wore a name tag? But Haseul didn't?" Jinsol asked as she scratched her chin. Jungeun nodded. "Huh. Interesting…"

"Well, she's the manager, so she can get away with it, right?" suggested Sooyoung.

"Yeah, but it doesn't really explain why she doesn't wear one…" Jungeun huffed and motioned for the women to move apart to make space for her on the couch. She sat down between them. A comfortable silence fell upon the trio as each of them thought about what the best course of action would be for Jungeun. Sooyoung was the first to break it.

"You're just going to go back everyday until she catches the hint, aren't you?"

Jungeun sighed. "Yeah."

***

For the fifth day in a row, Jungeun found herself seated on the bus on her way to the library. She watched through the window as buildings flew past her, eyes slightly unfocused as her thoughts began to stray towards Haseul—but this had become a common occurrence in the past week. A part of Jungeun wanted to blame her for the fact that she hadn't done any work on her thesis for the last few days, a new record for her, but she knew it was no one else's fault but her own.

It was certainly not Haseul's fault that she was so beautiful, kind, funny, intelligent, hardworking, caring, and sympathetic that she took up every inch of space Jungeun had left in her brain. Only Jungeun was to blame for that.

Stupid, gay, Jungeun who was completely bewitched by her.

She sighed softly as she continued to stare out of the window and let her mind wander. The sound of her bus stop being announced brought her back to earth, and she stood up in order to get out.

(The employee sighed as they clocked in for another day at work with the fireworks.)

Even though she had only made her library visits a habit as of a few days ago, she no longer felt that nervous as she walked towards its entrance. Instead, a sort of excitement started building in her chest, growing with each step that she took. Was she already so attached to Haseul only after a few days of knowing her that she could influence her mood so intensely? Although Jungeun should've been concerned by this—getting attached to someone too quickly had never been a great experience in her book—she instead felt giddy at the thought. It had been a long time since there was anything in her life that made her giggle like a schoolgirl on a near daily basis.

Haseul truly was special. And Jungeun knew she couldn't let her get away.

That's why she had spent almost the entire night scrolling through the subreddit for The Hunger Games, reading fan theories and discussing them with herself out loud, much to Jinsol's irritation. She had made an effort to give Jungeun a death stare throughout the entire morning, which was also what prompted her to leave the apartment early. Jinsol was definitely not a person to be messed with. Most of the time.

The point is that Jungeun was armed with topics of conversation. She was actually prepared to talk to the woman of her dreams today; she walked up the stairs with a pep in her step and entered the library confidently, immediately seeing her new favourite person seated at the counter, lazily flipping through a book. Today, her hair was in a loose ponytail tied at the bottom of her head. The sound of Jungeun's steps prompted Haseul to lift her head and smile upon recognising her.

(By now, the employee—Jungeun should probably give them a name—knew better than to get a match ready. They sat back. They observed.)

"You're back!" she exclaimed happily—too giddily, considering that they were basically strangers, a thought which Jungeun filed away for later—and shut her book quickly.

Jungeun grinned at her. "I am, and you won't believe it but I actually finished The Hunger Games."

"No way." Haseul's jaw dropped as she stared at Jungeun incredulously. "It took me a couple days to get through it, and I practically inhaled that book. How fast do you read?"

Very fast when it involves you, Jungeun thought to answer, but decided not to. It was far too early to start flirting with Haseul, and no matter how badly she ached to shower her with compliments, Jungeun had to hold her tongue. Instead she opted for, "Faster than you by the looks of it!"

Haseul rolled her eyes but the smile on her face showed that there was no real venom behind it. "Yeah, yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night." Her faux annoyance faded quickly, replaced by wide, curious eyes. Jungeun melted. "What did you think of it?"

"It was amazing, seriously. I can't believe I only watched the films up until today. I've really been missing out."

"Right? The films are great too, don't get me wrong, but the books just go into so much more detail and really show how dark and grotesque the games really were. Like, Cato's death?" Haseul inhaled sharply and clicked her tongue. "Nightmare fuel. I couldn't sleep for a few days after reading it. My dad didn't allow me to read Catching Fire until I turned fourteen because of that…I had to wait three years for that book while others only waited one!"

Jungeun raised an eyebrow. "I can't even fault your dad for that, though. I don't think an eleven year old should be reading about a man getting torn to shreds for hours on end."

"At least I was reading!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Jungeun repeated Haseul's words. They stared at each other for a few moments before cracking up, small giggles spilling past both of their lips. Jungeun couldn't help but blush at the sound of Haseul's laughter.

Clearing her throat, she returned to the topic at hand. "Speaking of Catching Fire, I wanted to ask if I could borrow that one today."

Haseul nodded excitedly, happy that she'd be able to discuss the story with someone new. "It's on the same shelf from which I got the first book yesterday, remember?"

The problem was that Jungeun did remember. She remembered the entirety of the previous day incredibly clearly, as if someone had recorded it with an HD camera and stored the footage securely in her mind where it was playing on repeat, specifically any clips of or involving Haseul. However, Jungeun didn't want to admit this. Not just out of embarrassment or shame, but also because she wanted to spend more time with Haseul, even if that time was only a few minutes.

Before she could react, Haseul spoke up.

"Ah, what am I saying, the place is empty today anyway." Jungeun looked around. The entrance was completely deserted, lacking even the low chatter of students gossiping while pretending to study that Jungeun had gotten used to. "I'll just walk with you."

(Lip, the newly named employee, took a match out of the box and struck it.)

Not leaving any room for arguments, as if Jungeun would ever dare to disagree with her, Haseul turned on her heel and walked towards the stairs, leaving Jungeun scrambling to catch up with her.

"Hey—" Jungeun panted as she followed Haseul, surprisingly out of breath already. "I remembered my question from yesterday."

"Ask away."

"Why don't you wear a name tag?"

Haseul stopped suddenly, halfway up the flight of stairs. "Huh?"

"Who's the one who only answers with 'huh' now?" Jungeun grinned cheekily as she came to a halt next to Haseul. For some reason, she had never realised just how large their height difference was; Haseul had to tilt her head upwards slightly to be able to make eye contact with her. By the looks of it, Haseul had noticed it too, as a faint blush dusted her cheeks. Cute, Jungeun thought, trying to slow her breathing and ignore how her own cheeks were heating up rapidly.

(After a bit of hesitation, Lip lit the fuse.)

They stood there, in the middle of the staircase, for a few moments. Up until then, the closest they had ever been was on the day of the Fifty Shades of Grey debacle—a book which Jungeun had tossed somewhere in her room and had no plans of touching ever again. Even then, they had stood a solid arm's length apart from each other. This time, the amount of space between them must've been less than a foot. Jungeun could almost feel the air that Haseul exhaled shakily, as if she were just as nervous as her.

(The spark approached the firework with each second that passed.)

A small cough could be heard from behind them, snapping them out of their little world, and the two women moved away from each other to let a dark-haired student—who looked at them with a blank expression—walk past them. Jungeun could've sworn she heard a faint meow in the distance. Haseul cleared her throat.

"So, what was it you were saying?"

(The spark went out. Lip stomped her feet in anger and debated on handing in her two-week's notice.)

Jungeun clicked her tongue. "Right! About your name tag." With her index finger, she circled the air around where a name tag should be placed, diagonally below Haseul's left shoulder. "I noticed Yerim was wearing one yesterday and got curious as to why you don't wear one."

"Hmm…" Haseul thought for a moment as she continued walking up the stairs, her face returning to its natural pale shade. Jungeun swore she was going to try her hardest to make Haseul blush again. "I used to wear one in the beginning. Occasionally, there'd be a student who came in with the sole intention of getting my number, and they would be very blatant about it." She grimaced slightly, the memory making her cringe. "Something about them knowing my real name made me very uncomfortable, so I opted to not wear a name tag. I give out a fake name whenever anyone asks for it."

"Oh, that's smart!" Jungeun nodded in understanding, simultaneously feeling extremely guilty. She was definitely one of the students who was frequenting the library due to a small—or in Jungeun's case, rather big—crush on the manager. However, if she understood correctly, it seemed Haseul didn't really mind that. It was more so them being obvious about it that made her uncomfortable. If that really was the case, did that mean Haseul had no clue about Jungeun being completely smitten with her? After all, she hadn't given Jungeun any indication or impression that she was uncomfortable with their interactions. Beyond that—

"Wait, you use a fake name?" Jungeun asked after a few moments of silence in which her mind was going completely haywire, voice too high pitched for her liking.

Haseul—or at least, that's what Jungeun thought her name was—nodded.

"So Haseul isn't your real name?"

Much to Jungeun's surprise, the librarian let out an elegant laugh as she turned to look at her. Jungeun had to inhale sharply when she spotted her dimples making an appearance once more.

(Lip perked up with interest.)

"Jungeun, I only give out a fake name whenever the person who's asking isn't cute!"

Huh?

***

"Wait—" Jinsol laughed incredulously. "You're telling me Haseul said she only tells cute people her real name? And she said Haseul is her real name? So she told you her real name? Meaning that she thinks you're cute?"

Jungeun shrugged and looked at the ground sheepishly. "I wouldn't go that far…" she mumbled lowly, sounding almost defeated.

Jinsol turned to look at Heejin. "Please hold me back before I murder her."

"Hey!" Jungeun gasped in offense. "I'm right here, you know? I can hear you!"

"What makes you think that I care about that?" Jinsol's face was void of any emotion as she made unflinching eye contact with Jungeun. Sometimes, she was really terrifying. "Haseul quite literally told you that she thinks you're cute. Would you like to share your reaction to that with the class, Jungeun?" Raising an eyebrow, she folded her arms and waited for a response.

Silence. Heejin's eyes darted between the two women as she waited to find out who would be the first to break, and by the looks of it, Jinsol was the clear winner. Jungeun exhaled sharply and scratched the tip of her nose, breaking their eye contact and prompting Jinsol to turn away from her with a muttered "Thank god!" as she blinked her dry eyes furiously in an attempt to hydrate them. Her eyebrows were scrunched together in an angry 'V' shape, causing Heejin to giggle and pet her girlfriend's head.

The noise of Jungeun clearing her throat brought them back to the matter at hand. "To answer your question, Jinsol," she said, putting emphasis on the name while narrowing her eyes, "I said, 'That's understandable,' and asked her to check out my book immediately afterwards."

Both Heejin and Jinsol couldn't help but place their heads in their hands, almost completely in sync, which scared Jungeun a little. Is that what happened if you started dating someone? You essentially became one entity and were synchronised with them for the rest of your life? A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of it.

Although, if she imagined that happening with her and Haseul…never mind. It didn't sound so bad after all.

"Jungeun, I love you," Jinsol said, pulling her out of her daydreams. She put a hand on Jungeun's shoulder, reminding her a lot of when her own father used to pull that move after a terrible football match. "But you need to start being able to take a hint. That girl gave you the perfect opportunity to ask her out, and what did you do?" She waited for Jungeun to answer.

"Nothing…" she mumbled, so quietly that Jinsol's ears almost failed to pick it up.

"Nothing!" Jinsol yelled, surely waking their neighbours up from their slumber considering it was well past the average person's bedtime by now. A slap on the back from Heejin was enough to remind Jinsol of that, who yelled out an apology to the rudely awakened at the same volume. "You did nothing! How would you feel if you basically threw yourself at a girl and her only response was, 'Can I please borrow this book?'" Again, she waited for Jungeun to respond.

Jungeun's shoulders slumped and looked at the ground. "Not good…"

"Not good!" Jinsol repeated, her volume still inappropriate considering what time it was. A louder, harder slap on her back echoed through the apartment. Heejin quickly dropped a kiss and an apology onto the affected area but still fixed Jinsol with a death stare, telling her to cut it out or she'd be sleeping on the couch tonight.

(Secretly, Jungeun hoped Jinsol would not heed the warning. Too many times had she walked out of her room for a late night snack only to find a dishevelled Jinsol sprawled across the couch, staring at the ceiling with her signature Judy Hopps blanket—that Jungeun had tried to set on fire one too many times to still be able to get away with calling it an accident—covering her. Why Jinsol allowed for Heejin to kick her out of her own bed in her own apartment, Jungeun would never understand, but she could not deny how funny it was to witness whenever it happened.)

"Sorry, babe…" Jinsol chuckled nervously. "Please don't make me sleep on the couch again I promise I'll do anything just please don't let it get to that again we can work it out plea—"

A light flick to the forehead was enough to halt the word vomit that was making its way out of Jinsol's mouth. "Shush. Keep reprimanding Jungeun but lower your damn voice," Heejin said. Jinsol saluted her and turned to grab Jungeun by her shoulder once more.

"Son…there comes a time when every boy has to become a man." Her voice was low, clearly terrified of Heejin following through on her unspoken threat which was funny enough for Jungeun to almost move past whatever nonsense Jinsol had just started spouting. Keyword being almost.

"Son?" Jungeun repeated, eyebrows raised.

"Shhh." Jinsol placed a finger on Jungeun's lips and retracted it almost immediately. "Ew, cooties…just a second." She ran to the bathroom. The sound of the faucet running and Jinsol singing 'Happy Birthday' twice was almost enough for Heejin to grab her jacket and leave the apartment, but the peck Jinsol gave her once she came back enticed her to stay. How on earth did this woman get accepted into her PhD program? Jungeun asked herself.

"Anyway, as I was going to say before I was so rudely interrupted: you need to grow a pair. Get up! Get your girl! She's standing right in front of you and you refuse to do anything. Do you know how painful it is for me, for Heejin, for Sooyoung, for Jiwoo, for literally anyone in your life to watch this? Spoiler alert, it is incredibly painful!" Sensing that Jungeun was about to butt in, Jinsol raised her hand to silence her and continued. "No! No buts! The girl likes you! She really, really, really, does like you! Granted, I haven't watched the both of you interact, but from the way you describe everything, I am sensing serious gay vibes, and I know you aren't one to exaggerate anything." Jinsol took a deep breath.

"Jungeun, you're gay."

A beat.

"…thank you?"

"Not a compliment. You're so fucking gay, it hurts me to see you act like this. You're pining so horribly over this girl who you have known for less than a week—yes I know I was acting the same way about Heejin after a single day don't you dare remind me of that Kim Jungeun—and you're not even letting yourself have a tiny sliver of hope of her feeling the same way about you. Who cares if she doesn't?!"

"Well, I do—" Jungeun started.

"Who gives a fuck about what you think?"

"Bitch, let me spea—"

"Oh, so now all of a sudden you know how to speak, but when Haseul basically confessed to you, you forgot how to do so—"

"First of all, she didn't confess—"

"The woman called you cute, for fu—"

"Calling me cute isn't the same thing as confessing!"

"It basically is!"

"Is not!"

"Is!"

Their petty argument was brought to an end by a hand grabbing the back of Jungeun's head and ramming it forwards, straight against Jinsol's forehead.

"Fuck!" Jungeun groaned and placed her hands on the area of impact, which was quickly approaching a bright shade of red. She poked it experimentally, only to hiss loudly.

Yeah, that was definitely going to bruise tomorrow.

"Shit, Heejin! What the hell was that for?" asked Jinsol, who had lost her balance after the impact and was now splayed over the couch, her head buried in a pillow to ease the headache she was experiencing. Jungeun sat down next to her, still softly rubbing circles on her own forehead.

The culprit was standing between the two women with an unamused expression, arms folded. "I was getting tired of the squabbling. I'd say sorry, but I don't really feel that bad about it," Heejin said, but her actions contradicted her words. She sighed and quickly went to the kitchen, coming back with two ice packs. She handed one of them to Jungeun and placed the other on Jinsol's forehead along with an apologetic kiss.

(That was reserved for Jinsol only. Kissing Jungeun—no.)

Heejin clicked her tongue as she looked between them. "Look, Jungeun, I understand you might be afraid of rejection, but at the end of the day, would you really prefer to pine over her for god knows how long instead of just laying your heart out on the table from the get-go? You'd really prefer to carry these feelings inside of you for ages?"

"Yes, actually." Jungeun nodded. "I would."

"But what if in that time she finds someone else? What if you two become good friends and you have to watch her fall in love with someone? Do you think you could do that? Do you think you could live with the 'what if' of the situation?"

This made Jungeun think for a moment. Would she be able to support Haseul being with someone that wasn't her?

They'd only known each other for a few days, but Jungeun could definitely feel the beginnings of a good friendship blossoming, which obviously filled her with joy, but in addition to that, Jungeun was quickly developing real feelings for Haseul, feelings that she would have to hide if they were to become actual close friends. Having to watch Haseul slowly start to feel that same way about someone that wasn't Jungeun…

…she didn't even want to entertain that thought.

"…No," Jungeun spoke up slowly without realising, and yet, her voice was stern and unwavering. Never had she felt so certain about anything. She looked up at Heejin, now seated in Jinsol's lap. "I don't think I could watch her fall for someone else. I don't want to watch her fall for someone else."

"Well then, there's your answer." Heejin gave her a small smile as she wrapped an arm around Jinsol, who looked too happy for someone who had a dark circle forming quickly in the middle of her forehead. "Ask her out, Jungeun."

Steeling her resolve, Jungeun nodded. "I will."

***

The following month flew by in the blink of an eye. Days were filled with hours spent in front of Jungeun's laptop, typing away at her thesis, reading the different books she had borrowed at the library for her research and also reading those she had borrowed in order to make conversation with Haseul. Time was spent at coffee shops, with friends, getting pep talks from almost everyone in her contact list—including a nineteen-year-old barista with space buns at one point, although that was very much influenced by Jungeun's raging hangover from the previous night out with Sooyoung and Jiwoo.

("...so I'm just really confused as to what's going on between us, you know? Sure, we haven't known each other that long, but I can really feel a connection. I just can't stop thinking about her no matter what I do. Hell, the only reason why I head to the library nowadays is so that I can see her. Do you know how many books I've read in the past month just so that I have a reason to talk to her? Do you know how many?" Without waiting for an answer, Jungeun continued. "10 books! 10 books in one month, I'm actually going crazy. I don't know what to do at this point. I just want her to like me back."

"...that sounds nice, miss, but you're holding up the line." The barista shuffled awkardly behind the counter.

Jungeun sighed loudly and handed her a 10,000 won note. "Keep the change.")

Most importantly, trips to the library became a near daily occurrence, with Jungeun deciding to take her laptop with her to work on her thesis. After the fifth day of this, Haseul, being the angel that she was, started reserving a table for Jungeun to work at. Always on the ground floor, away from the entrance, but close enough to the front desk so that Haseul could drop by for a quick chat every so often and wish her luck. Close enough for Jungeun to be able to sneak a peak at Haseul deeply focused on her work.

Close enough for their gazes to meet every so often, causing both of them to blush furiously and look away.

With each conversation they had, Jungeun learned more and more about Haseul, such as:

1. Haseul had studied abroad in the USA during one of her final years of high school, which is why her graduation was pushed back by one year. She ended up having to leave early, though, and when Jungeun asked her why, the only answer she received was a mischievous giggle and, "Let's just say I was having a bit too much fun over there!"

2. She was the proud owner of a dog named Latte, and two cats named Elly and Peony. Jungeun quickly fell in love with the three of them after seeing a few pictures, similarly to how she fell for Haseul after having known her for less than a week. The parallels did not escape her.

3. Haseul was trained in opera, having learned throughout her teens and only quitting lessons once she was accepted at university. When Jungeun jokingly requested a private performance someday, Haseul simply winked and smiled, walking away quickly afterwards with her ears turning the same shade of red as Jungeun's face.

Throughout this time, Jungeun also learned one important thing about herself:

1. She was falling in love with Haseul.

Each visit at the library was followed up with a debrief at her apartment, always featuring Jinsol, but alternating between Heejin, Sooyoung, and Jiwoo as special guests.

"God, Jungeun, you're so fucking gay," Jinsol managed to choke out between barks of laughter after Jungeun had described the slope of Haseul's jaw and the angle of her nose in explicit detail.

"And you think she doesn't like you back?" Heejin asked, not even trying to hide her judgement in the slightest when Jungeun informed her of how Haseul's face went completely red one day after Jungeun had complimented her hairstyle.

"I genuinely don't know what to do with you," Sooyoung commented after Jungeun told them Haseul had worn the exact same hairstyle that she had complimented for an entire week straight.

"Please, Jungie, let me be your maid of honour," Jiwoo practically begged one night after listening to Jungeun recount the entire conversation she had with Haseul that day from memory.

The confidence that her friends had in Haseul reciprocating Jungeun's feelings influenced her own faith—by now, she had slowly started to come around to the idea of her feelings not being unrequited, and so, she left her apartment with one singular goal every day: asking Haseul out.

Every day, she returned not having done so.

***

Jungeun leisurely strolled along the street towards the library early in the morning with a small pep in her step. The clear blue sky with a light sunshine, not too warm but not too cold, perfectly mirrored her great mood; she had handed in her thesis not even a full 24 hours ago, and what better way to celebrate this than to visit Haseul and tell her about it? Maybe she could even ask her to go to a café after her shift was over.

They had seen each other almost every day for the last couple of months, the only exceptions being the days on which Haseul didn't work, and she would always make sure to let Jungeun know the day before if that was the case. By now, Jungeun was pretty sure Haseul at the very least saw her as a friend, as the stories she would tell Jungeun about her childhood were definitely not ones she would share with a stranger. It was a good place to be standing considering that they hadn't known each other for very long, even though it was not exactly how Jungeun wanted to be seen by Haseul. However, she was confident she could work her way up from there.

What was it that Heejin always said…the sky is the limit?

Sure. Why not? The sky was the limit for Jungeun.

Why am I taking advice from a girl who unironically says dattebayo? Whatever.

Call her delusional, but Jungeun had a feeling Haseul somewhat reciprocated her feelings. It might've been influenced by her friends constantly insisting that it is so, but even without their encouragement, Jungeun would've eventually reached the same conclusion. With the amount of times Haseul blushed after being given a basic compliment and some of her comments to Jungeun being borderline flirty, it was not very difficult to let the thought of actually having a chance slowly grow in her mind.

With the words of encouragement bestowed upon her by Jinsol in the morning fuelling her self-esteem ("If you don't get her number today, I'm taking matters into my own hands"), Jungeun walked up the stairs to the library, mentally running through the plan she had made with Heejin the day before.

("Okay, so. I'm going to walk into the library—"

"Uh huh."

"—walk towards the counter, see Haseul, and nonchalantly stroll up to her—"

"As nonchalant as you can be, Kim Jungeun."

"—and by the time I'm at the counter, she'll be swooning because of my casual and cool demeanour—"

"I don't think anyone has ever done that, but sure."

"—and then I'll lean against the desk, as such—" Jungeun placed her elbow against the wall and nodded at Heejin, face pulled into a Flynn Rider-esque smoulder— "and I'll look at her like this."

"Like you're constipated?"

Jungeun scoffed. "No. Like I'm cool. And collected. And totally not freaking out because of how gorgeous she is." A shiver ran down her spine and she frantically shook her head. "Psh, I don't freak out. No. That's not what Kim Jungeun does." Her voice cracked at the end of her sentence.

"Huh." Heejin seriously considered what Jungeun said for a moment. "Sure, totally not."

"Anyway, while she's—not me, but Haseul, obviously—freaking out over me, I'll be super relaxed and ask her: 'Hey, so, how'd you feel about, oh, I don't know, maybe catching a movie sometime? Just the two of us? Like, on a date?'"

Heejin scrunched her eyebrows together and placed her chin in her hand. She motioned for Jungeun to continue.

"And then she'll say—" Jungeun cleared her throat in an effort to reach a higher pitch to properly imitate Haseul—"'Oh m'gosh, of course Jungeun, I'd love to!' And then we'll watch the movie, get married, adopt a cat and a dog in addition to the dog and two cats she already has meaning I will be a stepmother, move in together, and live happily ever after." She looked at Heejin and waited expectantly for any feedback.

Heejin bit her lower lip to stifle her laugh as she stared off into the distance, trying to find anything to say about her friends proposal. "You're going to get married before moving in together?")

Alright, so what if the plan had a few issues. Big deal. Jungeun knew the gist of it. She'd somehow manage to pull of charming, nonchalant and casual at the same time in order to come across as less anxious than she really was. Which is to say she was actively trying to erase every semblance of anxiety that filled part of (read: all of) her body with each step that she took.

Lost in her thoughts, she absentmindedly entered the library and saw the front desk was unmanned. Her mind started running haywire; where was Haseul? The gateway that usually kept the majority of her anxiety behind lock and key broke and in came a stream of anxious thoughts that mixed with the many ideas Jungeun had to explain Haseul's absence.

Did she have the day off? Was she sick that day? Did she decide to quit her job and run away with her secret lover she hadn't told Jungeun about because they actually weren't that close and she had read into every single one of their interactions and made their friendship up in her head? Did she have a family emergency that required for her to miss work that day? Did she get fired?

Quickly settling on the third option, despite not having any evidence to prove that that was the case, Jungeun accepted her fate of having fallen for yet another unavailable girl. Her shoulders slumped. Of course this had to happen to her once more. The universe just wouldn't let her catch a break, ever, in her life.

Someone cleared their throat loudly behind her. Jungeun jolted out of her thoughts and moved aside, not having realised that she had been standing in the middle of the entryway for the past five minutes while she was having an existential crisis.

The counter was still unmanned. Feeling her heart sinking, Jungeun decided to take a look around. She knew the English books were on the first floor; after all, it was on this floor where she had accidentally found Fifty Shades of Grey and embarrassed herself in front of Haseul. Haseul, whom she wanted to talk to and was missing deeply right now.

(Lip cheered. No workplace accidents today!)

Regardless, ever since she had lied to Haseul and said she was trying to improve her vocabulary in English, Jungeun had been pestering herself to turn what she said into a half-lie by actually taking the time to learn the language.

Did she want to learn English because it would help her seek clients for her photography internationally? Sure, that's what she told herself and her friends. Was it actually because Haseul knew English quite well—due to her year abroad in the USA—and Jungeun wanted something else to talk to her about and also because she felt slightly guilty about having lied to her about knowing the language? Probably. Although the point of being able to use it for her work was also very attractive to her.

Lost in her thoughts, Jungeun moved from bookshelf to bookshelf and traced the spines of each book with the tips of her fingers, not really paying attention to the titles as she kept thinking about Haseul. As it was relatively early, the library was pretty much empty, which meant Jungeun could walk through the place undisturbed. Or at least, so she thought, until she rounded a corner and saw two dark-haired women at the other end of the aisle, giggling.

Jungeun recognised the laughter. She was sure she had heard it before. Maybe one of her friends had taken a trip to the library? She squinted her eyes to catch a glimpse of the women's faces.

One of them, facing Jungeun, seemed distantly familiar. She had long, dark hair with thick bangs that covered the entirety of her forehead and was smiling brightly. Maybe she had seen her on the street in passing? However, looking at her more, she definitely seemed to be model material—it could be that Jungeun saw her in a magazine or in an advertisement at some point. Regardless, she was a stranger.

While Jungeun was busy trying to figure out why that woman seemed familiar, the other woman turned around to look for something on the bookshelf, showing off her side profile. It was a side profile Jungeun was extremely familiar with and knowledgeable about, considering she had spent far too long staring at it from a distance, committing every small detail of it, whether it be the slope of her nose or the sharpness of her jaw, to memory.

It was Haseul, who for some reason now had bobbed, dark hair and was clinging onto the model's arm.

(Lip felt the earth shake around her. Maybe a workplace accident was still on the table for today despite the lack of fireworks.)

In any other scenario, seeing Haseul with her new hair would've probably caused Jungeun to faint on the spot. Her heartbeat was already starting to slowly pick up the pace. However, the fact that Haseul stood only a few meters in front of her and was holding onto another woman's arm caused a pit to grow in her stomach. Going to the library didn't feel very appealing anymore.

A heavy weight settled on her chest. She struggled to get air into her lungs as she watched Haseul be all over this stranger. Is this what it feels like to be crushed by an elephant? It must be. Why was she acting like this? She wasn't even dating Haseul. She had no claim over the woman, and yet it felt as if her whole world was falling apart in that moment.

Taking one last look at Haseul, who was now covering her mouth and laughing loudly at something the model was saying, Jungeun took off towards the exit, almost bumping into a few people in the process.

As she walked, she could hear her heartbeat thumping in her head as her vision slowly started becoming blurry. Breathing heavily and blinking away tears, Jungeun almost sprinted to the bus stop and got onto the next bus without checking whether it was the correct one. Luckily for her, it was.

She sat down in the back and pulled out her phone, sending a message to the one person she knew would be able to give her good advice. Locking her phone, she looked out of the window, watching as they passed cars, pedestrians, buildings. The sky was a bright shade of blue, and the sun had barely reached its peak now that it was around midday. She wiped away the tears that were streaking down her face and exhaled, trying slow down her heartbeat. In her lap, her phone vibrated. Jungeun tapped on the notification.

brat

[moomin]

EMERGENCY PLEASE HELP!!!

[brat]

We're at home rn, come over.

[moomin]

love you

brat reacted with 🖤 to your message

***

"Why are you here," a bored, flat voice came out from behind the door.

Jungeun straightened up and sniffed. "Your girlfriend invited me over, Hyeju. No need to be rude."

"Okay. Sure. Come in." Hyeju opened the door and let Jungeun admire her in her full, 165 cm glory. She wore a shirt with an image of a wolf howling in front of a full moon plastered on it, the one Jungeun had gifted her for a birthday a few years ago after which she was forced to listen to Chaewon beg for Hyeju to never wear it in public. Jungeun wasn't very sure if Chaewon ever really forgave her for that present.

As if she could read her mind, Chaewon peeked out from behind Hyeju. "Look at the shirt," she deadpanned, staring straight into Jungeun's soul and answering her question. Her light and airy voice starkly contrasted her stern expression. "This is what I have to deal with everyday. Look at what you've done to me."

"Yeah, but you like it." Hyeju pressed a quick kiss to Chaewon's head and walked towards their couch, grabbing a previously abandoned controller and resuming whatever game she had been playing before Jungeun had rung the doorbell like a madwoman. She left behind a pink-faced Chaewon.

"Well are you going to keep standing there or will you come in?" Chaewon asked, hand reaching for the door to slam it in her face.

Jungeun entered the apartment, which was surprisingly large for two university students who she was pretty sure were both unemployed. What made them renting such a nice place even stranger was the fact that Jungeun knew both of their families weren't well off enough to afford to pay for the girls' rent in addition to their own—

"So, Jungeun, will you tell me about this emergency you seem to be completely unaffected by or will you keep standing around in my living room and admiring the wall decor?"

The mystery of their source of income will have to wait for another day.

"Have either of you been to the university library as of late?"

Chaewon shook her head, and Hyeju nodded, still laser-focused on her game.

"Yeah, one of my friends works there. I went to visit her a few weeks back. Why'd you ask?" said Hyeju, not bothering to turn to make eye contact with Jungeun while she spoke.

"Ah, well, it's a long story…you might want to buckle up." Jungeun dove into a recount of everything that had taken place in the past two months, starting with her needing to find books to support her research for her master's thesis and meeting Haseul at the library. She went through the entire timeline in extreme detail, not leaving anything to the imagination, even grabbing a stray pen and a piece of paper that had been lying on their coffee table (an actual coffee table, not a cardboard box) to draw a picture of Haseul from memory which ended up looking like Hyeju's dog had decided modern art was his true passion and had picked up a pen with his paws to sketch a self-portrait.

A quirked eyebrow from Chaewon and a poorly concealed laugh from Hyeju were enough for Jungeun to crumple up the piece of paper and throw it behind her.

"Fuck, you two are so mean. Remind me to never come back for anything," Jungeun grumbled under her breath.

"So, Haseul, huh?" Hyeju didn't even try to act like she wasn't amused by Jungeun's dramatic love life. She paused her game and placed her controller next to her on the couch. "You know, my friend, Yerim, told me about this random woman that had come to the library the other day seemingly to only chat with Haseul. Never in a million years would I have figured out you were that woman."

Jungeun's eyes almost bulged out of her head. "You know Yerim?"

"Yeah, since birth basically. But anyway, that's not why you're here." Hyeju leaned forward and folded her hands together, placing them under her chin. She narrowed her eyes at Jungeun as if she were analysing her every movement. "You think you don't have a chance. Why is that?"

A loud sigh, just short of a sob, escaped Jungeun involuntarily. "She's taken."

Her friends' eyebrows shot up. "What?" Chaewon exclaimed, the doubt written all over her face mirroring Hyeju's expression. Their synchronisation reminded Jungeun of Jinsol and Heejin—why was every couple in her life slowly turning into the same person?

"Taken? Haseul?" Hyeju asked. Solemnly, Jungeun nodded, unable to stop her shoulders from slouching down slightly. She ran her fingers through her hair.

"Yeah. I saw her with her girlfriend earlier today and ran out of the library, but I don't think she saw me. Anyway, I messaged you straight afterwards and here I am…" Jungeun's heart felt heavy after recounting her day. Up until then, she still had had the slightest hope that there was a chance with Haseul, but telling her friends made the situation real. She didn't have a chance. Never had one.

"Can you believe I've only known her for about two months?" She laughed dryly. "Two fucking months and I'm already acting like this. Shit, I really don't know why she has this effect on me. I wish I knew."

"Damn, so you saw them making out or something?" Chaewon asked abruptly.

"What—no!" Even thinking about seeing Haseul kissing anyone that wasn't her was enough for Jungeun to feel nauseous. She didn't want to have that image in her mind, ever. Mentally, she cursed Chaewon for planting it there. "Fuck. Why'd you have to make me think of that?"

Confused, Hyeju tilted her head. "Remind me again why you think Haseul's taken?"

"She was talking to this woman." A shiver ran down Jungeun's spine as she was transported back to the library. "They were laughing really loudly. Haseul was clinging onto her arm and giggling the entire time. Oh, and, the woman she was talking to? Basically a model. I swear I've seen her in an ad before or som—"

A smack to the back of her head stopped Jungeun's rambling. "Ow! What the hell?!"

Chaewon simply stared at her with her signature raised eyebrow, hands pressed together against her mouth as if she were mid prayer. She didn't comment on why she had just delivered a blow with the force of a meteorite landing on earth to Jungeun's head.

"Please." A pause. "Please, tell me you're not serious."

"I…" She observed how Chaewon slowly raised one hand to bring it back down against Jungeun's head and decided to change the direction of her sentence. "I'm not…?"

"Thank god." Chaewon exhaled loudly with relief and feigned wiping sweat off her forehead with a tissue that was presented to her by Hyeju moments earlier. "Jungeun, look; I love you, but sometimes I genuinely fear you might not be the brightest bulb in the shed."

Jungeun frowned in offence but was silenced by Hyeju's glare. She gulped, unsure of what to say.

She didn't have to figure it out, as Chaewon simply continued. "I know this is going to sound crazy, but bear with me for a moment: did you ever, even for a moment, consider that the woman Haseul was hanging out with was…" She paused for dramatic effect. "Her friend?"

Pause.

Rewind.

Her…friend?

Although Jungeun had made it her life's objective to disagree with everything Chaewon—and by extension, Hyeju—said, she couldn't help but admit…she had a point. For whatever reason, Jungeun had completely forgotten about the concept of friendship in the past couple of hours.

If she really thought about it, she had seen that same smile, that same body language, that same way of holding onto other people before; she had seen it in Jiwoo. That girl was as jolly and affectionate with her friends as they came. Just like Haseul, by the looks of it.

Fuck. Chaewon is going to rub this in until our final days on earth, isn't she?

Based on the confident smirk that was growing on Chaewon's face, Jungeun knew she had hit the bullseye with her prediction. And yet, she found she couldn't care less about Chaewon's cockiness, as the spark of hope that had reignited itself in her chest was taking up all of her attention.

(Lip cracked her knuckles. Time for work.)

***

"This is the last time you're leaving without a number, Jungeun. Fuck! Get it together!"

A few passer-bys looked at Jungeun with mild concern as she bounced past them, mumbling encouragement (or insults, depending on your perspective) for herself under her breath. She didn't care if they thought she was losing it. Everything she cared about was entering the library, finding Haseul, and leaving with her number in her phone.

The pep talk, if one could even call it that, that Chaewon and Hyeju had given her the day before turned out to be the last piece of the puzzle that was her confidence that Jungeun needed to complete it. She sauntered about the crowded streets with a self-assured stride, as if she knew deep down how the day would go.

It was a perfectly sunny day. The sky was a picturesque light blue and the clouds looked as if they had been painted by Bob Ross himself. A light breeze blew past her, ruffling up her bangs slightly, but Jungeun let them be. She preferred the natural, slightly wild look. Hopefully, Haseul did too.

Entering the library, she noticed how quiet it had gotten over the months. Only a few students frequented the place nowadays, with the majority having already taken their exams and probably heading home by now. Jungeun was not one of them; although she was done with her thesis, she still had to wait for it to be approved and then had to get an appointment for her defense. She should've probably been more nervous about it than she actually was, but as of late, her mind had been focused on one person and one person only: Haseul.

Haseul, who was seated behind the front desk, not sorting through a pile of books or typing away on the computer for once. The more Jungeun approached her, the more she could see what she was so focused on; she was reading a book.

Jungeun couldn't help but smile at the sight of Haseul tucking a stray strand of her behind her ears. The bobbed hair was a change, that's for sure, but it was most definitely a welcome one. It made her seem like the spoiled only daughter of a rich lesbian couple. Jungeun was enamoured.

(Lip pulled out the final match that was left in the box.)

To not scare her as she approached, Jungeun made sure to cough a few times to announce her presence, the noise snapping Haseul out of her deep concentration. She looked up, a flicker of annoyance making itself known on her usually passive face but it quickly disappeared the moment she realised it had been Jungeun who had disturbed her. Haseul smiled brightly. Her book was forgotten within seconds.

"Jungeun!" Haseul pouted slightly. "Hey, you didn't show up yesterday, what gives? "

For a moment, Jungeun allowed herself to look at Haseul. To admire her gorgeous face, how her new haircut framed her features perfectly, how the hair was trimmed neatly just above her shoulders, how her slim fingers were wrapped around each other and fiddling nervously. Her big, yet soft smile, with her teeth on full display. The crinkling of her eyes. How the first thing she had asked was why Jungeun hadn't passed by the day before.

Without thinking, she gave her mouth permission to say the first thing that came to mind.

"Haseul, go out with me."

"Huh?"

(Lip trembled as she struck the match.)

"I realise this might be a bit sudden…" She trailed off, nervousness suddenly kicking in as she was about to begin her confession. Swallowing it down, she exhaled shakily and collected her thoughts. "I've had feelings for you for some time now, but I wasn't really sure what to do about them. We haven't really known each other that long, after all. However, as of late, I've realised the more I get to know you, the harder I fall for you. I don't think this is something that's going to change. I do appreciate you as a friend, I really, really do, but my feelings go beyond just friendship. I hope that's alright with you."

Haseul stared at her. No words fell from her lips as her eyes darted around Jungeun's face. The anxiety that had disappeared for a few moments came back in full swing, and Jungeun panicked as she tried to find the right words to express herself.

"It's just—fuck—you're so beautiful. Obviously, that's not everything, it's just the first thing that I noticed about you when we first met. I don't know if you remember, but I do, because I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since then, and then we started talking to each other, and you gave me recommendations on books to read, and I actually read them even though I haven't ever been much of a reader, and I actually ended up really enjoying those books so thank you for that, but anyway. I love hearing all of your thoughts and opinions on pretty much anything I read, and honestly I felt so honoured that you recommended your favourite books to me because it feels like you're letting me into your mind, in a sense? It's like you have a cave with all of your favourite things and you trusted me enough to not just give me a tour of the place but to also let me stay for a whi—"

A hand grabbed onto the front of her shirt. She was pulled forwards, almost losing her balance as she toppled towards the counter. Her hands reached out to hold onto anything, landing squarely on Haseul's shoulders as Haseul's face got closer, closer, closer to Jungeun's until—

Fireworks exploded in her chest as their lips met.

The kiss was short-lived—they were still at Haseul's place of work, after all—and Jungeun found herself aching for more, trying to chase Haseul's lips as she pulled away from her. She dropped a soft peck on Jungeun's cheek as an apology for having to break it off so soon.

"Jungeun," she said, giggling and softly stroking Jungeun's face, holding her as if she were made of the finest china that she would never want to break. The sound of her name rolling off Haseul's tongue was one Jungeun wanted to hear over and over again. "Took you long enough. I've been waiting for you to ask me out since you met Yerim."

"What?! Since Yerim?!"

Haseul nodded and giggled at Jungeun's shock. "I didn't want to ask you out myself because you should be the one courting me, not the other way around. Thank god you figured that out eventually."

Jungeun nuzzled against Haseul's touch and grabbed her hand to place a kiss onto it, making Haseul flush furiously (as if she hadn't been the one to practically drag her over the counter to kiss her in broad daylight). "I'm sorry it took me so long. I'll make up for it, I promise." She smiled.

"I know you will." Haseul cringed suddenly, as if she had been reminded of a painful memory. Jungeun furrowed her eyebrows in concern.

"Are you alright?" she said, moving to place a hand on Haseul's shoulder. The two women blushed at the contact but neither moved away.

"Yeah, but…um…" She looked at the ground. Her hand fidgeted with a strand of hair, twirling it around her finger. Jungeun found the sight incredibly distracting. "It's just, you've forgotten to bring back the books you borrowed. Like…all of them."

Internally, Jungeun smacked herself on the forehead. Fuck! Of course she had forgotten them, she was to busy with reading them to woo Haseul to remember to return them!

"Shit. You're right, I forgot." She shrugged. "That's alright, I'll bring them back tomorrow. I need to pay some sort of late fee though, right?"

Haseul nodded hesitantly.

"How much is it?"

"…350,000 won."

"Fuck."

("By the way, Haseul, before we go out I need to tell you that I lied to you. I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Haseul's eyebrows darted up in concern. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't start reading because I felt like it," Jungeun admitted, avoiding eye contact with Haseul as she felt her face heating up rapidly. "I started reading because I wanted to have something I could talk to you about. That's also why I kept on asking you for recommendations. But I couldn't just admit that straight up, so I bent the truth a little bit. Also, I don't speak English. Well, kind of. Not really. At least not well enough to say that I speak it. I only said that to save face because of the book that I borrowed. Remember that day when you caught me fixing my makeup over there? I just blindly grabbed a book without knowing the title and it turned out to be Fifty Shades of Grey in English, so I had to tell a little lie. I didn't want you to think—"

"Jungeun. I know."

"—that I was a— sorry what?"

Haseul stared at Jungeun for a moment, and Jungeun feared the worst, until she heard Haseul burst into loud, hearty laughter. She wiped a tear from her eye.

"Jungeun, I knew the entire time. About the lying, I mean." Seeing Jungeun's confused face, Haseul elaborated. "You really don't seem like the type of person to randomly pick up reading for no good reason, so I figured something external must've been motivating you." She smirked cheekily and reached for Jungeun's hand, stroking it softly. "I'm glad to have been that inspiration for you."

By now, Jungeun's face had gone a dark shade of crimson as she watched Haseul run her fingers along a particularly protruding vein on her hand. She coughed loudly and lifted her eyes to meet Haseul's stare, boring into her.

"What about the English?"

Haseul quirked an eyebrow. "Jungeun, no offense, but your English is terrible. It wasn't very difficult to figure out that you were lying about speaking it after having a short conversation with you."

"But you said my English was good!" Jungeun countered, offended.

"I had to tell a little lie too! What, did you want me to flat out tell you your English was bad after having known you for less than two weeks?"

Jungeun huffed. "Fine. We're even, then."

"No, you lied to me twice. I still have the upper hand."

"…Fine. You do."

Haseul pulled her down for a soft kiss, leaving Jungeun breathless and flustered.

"Yeah. I know I do.")