Kalon

Chapter 27

Jihyo might’ve not understood why on earth Y/n would pick an old, shabby bookshop as a place for their first date. And yeah, it makes sense, Y/n gets it; it’s not very romantic at all, you can’t talk much, and it smells of old books and mould in there.

That’s why Y/n was worried about asking Sana about it in the first place. Sana once told her that she’s never read an actual book in her life before. The only ones she’s read were school books or the ones they were forced to read back in high school, and even those she just skimmed through or looked up their summaries on the internet.

So Sana doesn’t like books all that much, and maybe taking her to a goddamn bookstore was one of the worst ideas in Y/n’s life.

But it’s something like Y/n’s safe place.

And this date with Sana scares her. A lot.

So she thought being somewhere she felt comfortable with would calm down her anxiety about this whole thing.

The bookstore is like the barbecue place they went to weeks ago; a hole in the wall place, barely visible for people who don’t know about the store’s existence.

It resembles Sana’s workplace in a way; it’s dark inside, but it’s a warm kind of darkness, and even though the place is quite packed with rows and rows full of bookshelves as well as tables for people to either study there or read, it’s a thousand times more inspiring than the public libraries at their universities.

Y/n’s best assignments were written in here, and the ones that flopped miserably were written next to a noisy medical student who stuck his chewing gums underneath the table, thinking no one saw him.

Y/n saw him, and she judged him, but it’s because of him that she started looking for another place to study, so maybe she should be thankful for him effrontery.

Sana is already there when Y/n arrives, and just the sight of her back, her curved waist and her long legs has Y/n’s heart beating faster and her stomach doing stupid summersaults.

She takes a deep breath and approaches her, tapping her on the shoulder to make her turn around. Sana does, looking confused for a second, but then her features soften. They melt into the warmest smile Y/n has ever been given, and it takes her a lot of effort not to do something stupid, like maybe cry.

“Have you been waiting for long?” Y/n asks, feeling a bit warm in the face when Sana won’t stop smiling at her.

“No, I just arrived.” Sana assures her. She bites her lower lip, looking like an excited school kid. “You look good.”

The statement takes Y/n by surprise, because she really doesn’t, and she’s about to tell Sana as much, but then she remembers that this is a date, and that it’s probably a normal thing to say to your date when you see them.

“Thank you.” She answers. “You too.”

“You’re wearing your glasses again.” Sana points at them, a teasing glint in her eyes. “For me?”

Y/n scoffs and pushes past her to open the door. “My eyes were hurting. Don’t flatter yourself.”

Sana snickers behind her and follows her into the bookstore. Y/n greets the man behind the front desk and he greets her back with a warm smile, the smile growing bigger once he sees Sana trailing after Y/n like a puppy.

“I don’t feel like I belong here.” Sana whispers, and Y/n can’t stop the smile spreading on her face when she notices that Sana is actually holding on to the hem of Y/n’s shirt, like she might get lost if she lets go.

“Why?”

“Because this is a place for people who appreciate books.” Sana sighs. “And I don’t. And I think the books know. They’re judging me.”