cigarette smoke and love.

knee socks.

the crisp sound of the bell ringing sounded through the air.

monji and namjoon walked into the establishment side by side, while the latter of the two took in his surroundings with curiosity.

he's never been to this side of the shopping district before, the building itself having been squished in the further corner away from the main street. his first impression of the place would have been 'comfy'. the atmosphere was a stark contrast to the liveliness that was outside moments ago, however here, it was a low buzz of chatter that dusted the background and wouldn't break your concentration paired with warm lighting coming from the widows illuminating the store.

"cool place innit?" the girl beside him beamed up towards him, "it's always quiet in here regardless of the day, and they serve tasty pastries, so i consider it a win-win." she not so subtly bragged about the place before ushering him deeper inside the shop.

"how bout' you go pick a seat first? i'll go order since i can haggle a discount outta the owners," she smiled mischievously, "any particular coffee order or pastries you want?"

he gave her a thoughtful glance, "just a regular coffee is fine, and uh," the tall male took a pause before looking away in embarrassment and mumbling out, "if they have any chocolate waffles i wouldn't mind some of those."

"waffle man, huh? i can respect that." monji gave him an approving pat on the back before pushing him towards the seating area and proceeding to make her way to the counter.

the law major watch the girl skip away from him and towards the counter where she loudly greeted the cashier, who already had a look of dread etched on her face when she saw the shorter female.

turning away, he decided to listen to monji's earlier words and walked further into the shop to find a suitable place to sit for the time being. as he walked, the gangly male could not help but notice the amount of books that lined the sides of the wall. psychology, fantasy, self help, the genre of each book deviated from one another as his eyes scanned over them in interest.

"oh my gosh, they have kafka." his eyes went wide in excitement as he spotted the familiar title and he immediately beelined towards said book. gently picking it up, his hands eagerly flipped to the cover page as his eyes hungrily took in the words that littered the paper.

"did you find victoria's secret in there?" came monji's amused voice as the male snapped his attention away from the book in his hands. he looked at her in confusion before remembering where he was and what he was supposed to be doing, which made him grin bashfully at her.

the art major chuckled at his reaction as she gently grabbed his wrist, leading him toward on of the many tables that was close by. she pulled out on of the chairs and directed him to sit down in it before making her way to the opposite side and doing the same for herself.

"sorry, I got distracted when i saw this on the shelf," he gestured towards the book which he still had in his hand, index finger placed in-between the pages he was reading before he got interrupted, "it's hard to reserve or even find any copies of this in the library. i've been trying for months!"

the female gave him an incredulous look, "i'm no genius or anything, but couldn't you have just found an online copy or something?"

in return she got a look of disbelief from the male, "but it feels different!" he protested loudly.

"the act of flipping the pages of the actual book itself is an experience that online books can't give. it feels like i've made no progress when I read online books because i can't see how many pages I've read." he ranted passionately and persuasively to an amused monji, who could only stared at him with a smirk on her face as he continued his defence against the use of online books.