"I was wondering if you can let me borrow your book for a while." A guy asked. She was reading a book in a crowded coffee shop, latte on her table almost half-empty.
"Pardon?" She was confused as she had never seen him before. Nor that she had lent someone one of her books. She sat straight and marked her page, then stared at him. "Why would I-"
"Just for five minutes." He cut her. He seemed to be in a hurry. She looked around but couldn't figure out what his situation was.
"I don't lend books to people." She sipped her latte, ignoring his anxious stare. "Especially to ones I know nothing about. Or of his name."
He nodded in agreement. "Well, okay. Thanks for pointing that out." He then left her table and walked back to his seat, looking annoyed.
"What a random man..." She sighed and continued reading her book. After a page, his issue then piqued her interest. "What is it with this book anyway?" She looked closely to her book.
It wasn't a new book from recent publishing. She bought it from a flea market two weeks ago. The bird on the cover put her thoughts to buy the book, despite any ideas what the book was about.
Then she heard fast footsteps near her table.
But before she noticed what was that.....her book was no longer within her grasp.
The guy from before, swiftly took her book and ran away outside.
"This jerk, really!" She took her stuffs and ran after him, thinking that he wouldn't be that far.
But he didn't run far. If anything, he just stood outside the café and read the book closely. She approached him and almost wanted to throw her bag.
Yet she stopped upon seeing him reading the middle part of the book. His expression told her that he was looking for something. 'Is that book really that interesting?' She thought.
"I know you're going to hit me anyway, but let me finish one paragraph first." He said, gesturing his hand to keep her distance with him.
She just furrowed her eyebrows and did as he said, hoping she would get her book back. Crossing her arms, she waited.
Then he closed the book, with a content smile drawn on his face. "Here." He handed her book back to her. "Thanks."
She stared at her book for a few seconds before shoving it into her bag. He stood in front of her as if he was waiting for something. "What now?" She asked.
"Aren't you going to hit me?"
She let out a sigh and walked toward another direction. He quickly chased her. "Just go away, you weird."
"Wait, wait... Okay, sorry." His apology made her stopped. "Sorry for being...weird, I guess."
"It's not a guess, it's the truth."
"Yeah, sure, okay, I'm the weird one. But don't you want to listen to my explanation?" Him being flustered, strangely looked cute to her.
"So there's a backstory on what just happened?"
"More or less." He contemplated.
"And...?"
"My friend's brother wrote that book. And I remembered him telling me some chapters from his drafts but I can't understand one thing and he won't tell me. But it's hard to find the book itself."
"Where do you even look for? It's not that hard to find books."
"I rarely go to bookstores for a start...hehe."
She rolled her eyes. "So you were reading the part you don't understand and that's it?" She looked at him suspiciously. "Should I even believe that your friend's brother wrote this? This day is weird already. I will mark my calendar."
"Yes, that was all. I wanted to borrow for a while, just like I said." He grinned awkwardly.
"You should have just told me that you need to read a chapter or two. You can't just barged in and took my book away like that."
"That is way I apologised."
"Fine, whatever." She took few steps away from him.
"By the way, my name is Park Chanyeol." He said cheerfully. She didn't even bother to look back. "And I have your bookmark with me."
She immediately turned around and found her bookmark was in his hand. To check her eyes, she looked for her book in her bag. The bookmark was gone indeed. It was her favourite bookmark, given from her mum as her 10th birthday gift.
"Give it back!" She walked faster to get her bookmark back.
"Tell me your name first."
"Jung Myungbin Now give me that."
"This looks ancient." He studied the bookmark and kept avoiding her hands.
She then hit him with her bag. He yelped in pain.
"What are you doing??"
"You said it yourself, I can hit you." Frustrated, she forced her last strength to take back her bookmark.
"That was for the book, not this." He argued. "You have anger management issues."
"And you have an issue on taking stranger's stuffs abruptly." She jumped higher to get her bookmark. This time she noticed that he was pretty tall.
"I just want to have a chat with you."
She stopped her motions. His facial expression was softened.
"Besides, I need to befriend with you in case I want to reread that book again." He flashed a smile.
She dropped her shoulders and sighed, heavily. "Maybe it was a bad idea to go out today." She murmured.
"So...?"
"Fine. Let's have a chat. But not in that café again. The coffee was so-so."
"...the coffee was so-so." They said it at the same time.
She cleared her throat and took her bookmark quickly while he was fazing out. "Let's go."
"Wait for me." He put an arm on her shoulders. "I feel like we're friends already."
"Put this away or I will make a use of my swiss army." She shoved one hand into her bag, getting ready to take something out.
He removed his arm in a slow motion. "Now I'm curious what do you have inside that mysterious bag...."
"A finger or two, maybe from different people. Or was it the same..?"
He stared at her momentarily. Then smiled brightly. "I like your dark humour. Totally my style."
"What if it wasn't a humour?"
"I'd love to have a psycho friend, then." He smiled foolishly.
She noticed his smile this time. 'He wasn't so bad.'
And either way, she was going to mark that day anyway.
///
