both eyes widen as they finally made eye contact.
"were you following me?" areum asks out of curiosity, gripping tightly onto the handle of her bag.
calculating the distance between him and her so that she could prepare herself to swing her bag towards him if he made any advances.
the man, scoffed at her "miss, youre getting wayyyy ahead of yourself"
he notices from areum's phone, whos screen is facing towards him, that shes headed towards the same place hes going to, the cafe.
"im not convinced" says areum firmly
"whatever, please. i have somewhere to be" the man said walking past her, feeling rather annoyed now that he had met the same person who accused her of stealing and now hes being accused of following her.
he was about to help her or at least guide her towards her destination since he had noticed earlier when he was walking behind her, that areum has been going to a different direction and stopping mid walking then going back to her phone.
"the audacity of that women" he mutters to himself.
meanwhile areum, still standing on the same spot.
he made her left to wonder, despite having to meet him for the second time, he holds a familiar presence, the same way when she had met her mother the first time she open her eyes.
but she couldnt decipher who he was
she tries to shake her concerns off, not wanting to ring the bell for the migraines to come as she figures that hes probably someone from the past or someone resembling a person from the past.
as she enters the cafe, she sees the book club members gathered under a banner in the corner. she walks over and takes a seat with the group, trying to mask her nerves.
"hi," areum greets them, putting on a friendly smile.
but as she was about to take a sit, he notice a familiar face sitting at the far end of the group table
its the same man from earlier
"hi, you must be new! areum, right?" a lady asks, snapping her back to reality, shes likely the club leader, judging by the badge on her coat.
areum nods. "yes, that's me."
"welcome to the book club, areum. i'm minji," the leader says with a warm smile. "we're a small group today; sometimes we get a lot of participants, and other times it's just us."
"ahh i seee" areum nods once again.
but as she was making proper conversation with minji, the man from earlier notices her as well, scoffing at himself as he realises the amount of times they had met is uncanny.
areum and the man had accidentally made eyecontact, which cause those two to shift awkwardly in their seats and look somewhere else.
"hes a member of this club too??" she mentally curses, wondering what he's doing here.
—-
before the reading begins, they were separated into groups, and despite the tension, areum and seungcheol find themselves paired together.
the two sits in one corner of the cafe, while the other two members sit across the room.
as they settle into their separate areas, areum and seungcheol sit in uneasy silence, the earlier encounter hanging heavily between them.
the book discussion starts, but the air is thick with unspoken words and tension, making the small space between them feel even larger.
"um" areum breaks the tension by saying the first word.
she glance up to look at seungcheol, her gaze softening as she finally looks at him "sorry for earlier"
seungcheol shift from his seat, not knowing what to do or say.
"its actually my first time going out after so long...so.im sorry for accusing you as a thief and a stalker" areum couldnt bring herself to look at him any longer than 10 seconds so she had her gaze down on her thighs, fiddling with her fingers.
seungcheol cough to break the awkwardness and smiled "oh its fine, no worries" said seungcheol though he was initially pissed off when he had been accused of those two things, but considering how sincere areum was with her apologising he couldnt help but sympathise with her.
"actually i was about to help you with navigating your way but you beat me up with being called as a stalker" explained seungcheol while raising his eyebrow.
areum covers her mouth with her palm, her eyes wide with surprise, but slowly replaced with a confused expression plastered on her face "ah, wait, how did you know i was lost? was it really that obvious?"
if i mention i saw it from her phone, she might actually think that i'm a stalker.
"you were pacing around, looking a bit lost..." his voice trails off, as he tries to make light of the situation.
areum's cheeks flush a deep red, and she looks down, feeling a wave of embarrassment. "that was so embarrassing," she murmurs, her voice barely above a whisper.
"but i'm really sorry about the misunderstanding. i swear i'm a nice guy," she says, placing her right hand on her chest in a sincere gesture, hoping to reassure him.
seungcheol has to stifle a laugh, though the way areum behaves just now reminded him of someone he knows.
he shakes his head to clear his thoughts.
"i'll be the judge of that," he says with a teasing smile, trying to lighten the mood.
"what book are you reading?" he asks, genuinely interested.
"memories of the past," areum replies, reaching into her bag to pull out the book.
seungcheol's eyes widen with genuine surprise. "oh! i'm actually reading the same book." he slides the book towards her, a look of excitement on his face.
"uwah, that's such a coincidence!" areum exclaims, her surprise evident in her tone.
"how did you come across this book?" he inquires, curiosity piqued.
i can't tell him it was from a dream... he might think i'm strange.
"i found it through something called a book blind date."
"book blind date?"
great, now think areum!
luckily a "book blind date" is actually a real thing, but due to the short span amount of time for her to prepare her words, she had to jumble up everything all at once.
areum nods enthusiastically. "it's like a regular blind date, but with a book. i bought it online, and it came wrapped, so i had no clue what it was about until i opened it."
seungcheol's eyes light up with interest. "that sounds really fun. maybe i should try that myself."
"yeah" said areum awkwardly while playing with a strand of her hair.
as the two begin to bond over their shared book, a connection starting to form between them, minji, sitting at a nearby table, overhears their conversation and a warm, contented smile spreads across her face as she observes them. "just like old times" she says softly to herself, her heart swelling with nostalgia and a deep sense of affection for the meaningful connection blossoming before her eyes.
