the librarian ❆ kagehina

the chronicles of a paper cup.

shōyō winced painfully, feeling the coffee inside the cup through the paper. it was too hot to drink, and now the pads of his fingers are an agitated red. he shook it off and left the coffee to stand and chill, and he rolled away from the computer behind the desk.
there was an intimidating stack of books climbing towards the ceiling in a lopsided tower on the wrap-around cubicle desk, and he huffed lazily as he approached the pile; these were all the books to be put on the old, rickety cart for clearance sale, and shōyō was bestowed with the oh-so-pleasant job of organizing them to look appealing for purchase. every few months the library racks up damaged or used textbooks and novels that don't get checked out, so they charge a dollar per book, place them all on a cart, and leave them out for anyone to come and take. it helps with donations for buying new books and improvements to the library, so even though the work is tedious, shōyō doesn't kind much.

he's been working at the campus library part time since his freshmen year of college, and it's the only place he can truly find solace within the stressful confines of school. the library offers internships to gain credits, and since he's such a reliable student, the library took him on as an employee and he's kept the job since; surrounding himself by books takes the weight off his shoulders, even if it's just for a few hours.

he began by organizing the heavy loads of books by color, hoping that a spectrum would be more eye-catching; he pulled a few red covers into a pile, and then settled for some oranges. he let his fingers dawdle over the worn covers and ripped pages as he went, and the library was silent- a little too silent, he thinks. the quiet can be nice, but no noise feels a bit uncomfortable to him. he looked around just a moment to see if anyone was around, but behind his turned back, the creaky wooden door opened and shut swiftly, leaving chilled november air lingering in its wake. shōyō jumped at the sound and whipped around only to see a student in the doorway. he was tall, and had dark hair, and he also seemed to be on quite the mission. he bee-lined straight for the mystery novels, and shōyō stifled a chuckle as he returned to his color coding.
the library always has at least one student inside to keep the books alive. without people around, they fall stale, old, forgotten. they're so used to shōyō that they don't hold as much life around him as they used to. he may take comfort in their presence, but books need eyes- eyes that do not belong to their safe-keepers. they used to whisper with their stories of love and loss, and now they just sleep for him.

the tall boy emerged from the labyrinth of shelves he disappeared into with three novels in hand; one was a thriller, and two were murder mysteries. shōyō hurried to slide behind the desk and check the books out for him.

"hi! is that all you've got for today?"

"mhm. uh, here's my ID," the student held out a little black card with his name and student number on the front side, covered by shiny laminate. he must take care of it, shōyō thinks. most cards he sees are dented and beat up.

"great, thanks!" he punched the numbers into the computer and reached for the scanner to log his books out of the system by their bar codes. "so, you're a suspense reader, huh?" he inquires, running his fingers along the back covers of the boy's choices.

"today i am," he replied, "last time i checked out fantasy novels. it changes fairly often."

"it's hard to pick a favorite when every book is a favorite," shōyō smiled.

with a few clicks, the books were signed out under the boy's name, and he slid the short stack across the counter and smacked a return date receipt on top, the other hand still typing the ID number in to confirm the check out.

"okay, so, two weeks for the books before they have to come back. if they're late, you'll have to pay a fee."

"okay, thank you very much!"

"you're welcome..." shōyō raised the ID to his eyes and saw his full name, "kageyama."

"oh, call me tobio," tobio pursed his lips bashfully, taking the ID back and collecting the books into his arms.

"alright then, tobio. don't be late with those books!"

"i won't. thank you very much, have a nice day."

"you, too!"

shōyō leaned back into the creaky desk chair and watched the boy wobble out of the library with his books in one hand and his phone in the other, and he let out the chuckle he'd been holding in. he seemed nice enough- kind smile, warm eyes. he looked like a boy who truly likes to read... shōyō liked that.
he reached over to take a sip of his cooled coffee, but then grimaced at how cold it'd gone. he placed it down and begrudgingly swallowed the sip, and got out of his chair to return to his color coding.