A PLAN FOR LOVE ✓

twenty three : yeonjun

I duck inside the library, completely soaked from head to toe. Nothing like biking down a hill in a torrential downpour to make you feel alive.

As I’m drying my squeaking shoes off on the entryway rug, a hand wraps around my arm, pulling me into a small alcove just next to the front doors.

“Ew,” Beomgyu says, rubbing his hand against his new jeans. “You’re wet.”

I roll my eyes, then pretend to squeegee the edge of my shirt onto his. He jumps out of the way, glaring at me. “Yeah, well, I would’ve waited out the storm in the chem building if it weren’t for someone texting me every ten seconds asking when I was getting here.”

I crane my neck, looking past him into the main room, my eyes landing on a rectangular table by the café where Huening Kai and Taehyun are already sitting, books open in front of them.

“Did you go over yet, or have you just been creepily standing by the front door this whole time?”

“Creepily standing by the front door,” Beomgyu replies, hoisting up the straps on his enormous backpack.

I give hkm a once-over. Not only does he clearly own an umbrella, but he looks pretty good. He’s got his new jeans on and a cute graphic T-shirt we picked up.

I nod, slightly impressed. It’s a definite improvement from his usual four outfits. “I like your jeans!”

Beomgyu’s cheeks redden slightly. “Thanks.” He glances down at his clothes. “Took me, like, an hour to decide on an outfit. Wanted to save the best stuff for a real date.”

“Nice. I like that kind of thinking. Now…” I grab his arm this time, spinning him around to face the main floor of the library. “Let’s see what Taehyun thinks.”

We head over to the table, and Taehyu and Huening Kai look up as we arrive.

“Hey!” Taehyun says, scooching his books closer to make room for us. Huening Kai follows suit, hoisting his enormous engineering textbook out of the way, a sea of brightly colored highlighters sitting in front of him.

“Hey,” Beomgyu responds as he… plunks down in the chair farthest from Taehyun.

“Cute shirt!” Kai says, and Taehyun nods in agreement, which… is better than nothing.

“Hey, Gyu,” I say, tapping his chair leg with my foot. “Don’t you need to use the outlet?” I nod to the open seat directly across from Taehyun, hoping he gets the hint.

Thankfully, he does.

“Oh! Right. Yeah,” Beomgyu says, his eyes wide with nerves as he switches seats.

Pull it together, kid. The whole team is counting on you.

“You do the reading for Mr. Do’s class?” Taehyun asks, holding up a copy of 1984.
Beomgyu and I nod, and I give him a look that screams, Say something.

“Yeah, uh, thought we left that in high school, but I guess not.”

Good, finally some progress. The joke hits and Taehyun laughs, shaking his head. “Tell me about it. Once was more than enough.”

On this particular book, I actually agree with him.

The small talk gives way to studying, and I spend the next hour trying to be interested in ionic and covalent bonds, while Beomgyu not-so-casually glances across the table at Taehyun a hundred and one times, her pen tapping noisily against his notebook.

I lean back and stretch, my damp clothes squeaking on the chair under me as I eye the bookshelves at the front of the library.
I’m already through the chunky fantasy I got the second week of classes, and I’ve been itching to grab a couple of books after my fight with Soobin. And with my mom. Especially since I haven’t heard from either of them since last night.