Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Songmin stretched, reaching up and arching her back as much as she could in the stiff wooden seat. I'm finally finished! Thank the gods, I feel like I'd go insane if I had to sit here for any longer.
She closed her laptop, feeling it shut with a satisfying click as the magnetic mechanism held the top and bottom closed. Slipping it into her messenger bag, a fleeting thought entered her mind for just a second.
The pastel paint stains are barely visible.
The thought had faded by the time the clasps on her bags snapped shut and was completely lost to time by the time she stood up and pushed her chair in. Closing the three open books on the sides of the table, she slung her bag over her shoulder, stacked the books, picked them up, and left to find a book cart.
She loved the library at this time of night. She didn't know exactly how late it was, but it was past eleven and it was the time of night where the only sentient things in the library were two to three exhausted STEM students and the ghosts of students who'd died among the shelves of books, unable to Dewey-Decimal their way to the books they needed and cursed to forever roam the labyrinth that was the library.
The musk of paper, old and new, followed Songmin as she walked, trickling out from the shelves around her. Some of the older ceiling lights flickered in a way that wasn't creepy but was somehow comforting, casting a hazy yellow hue over the books.
The library as a whole was warm, and although Songmin normally preferred colder temperatures over heat, the climate was reminiscent of that of a beloved childhood blanket that offered protection on snowy winter days.
Finding a relatively empty book cart a few shelves down near the elevators, Songmin set the books down and pressed the button for one of the elevators. The hum of the gears pulling up the elevator droned softly in the silence of the fifth floor. She could hear the slow flipping of pages a short distance away.
A muted 'ding' signaled the arrival of the elevator as the doors slid open. Stepping inside, Songmin pressed the button for the lobby floor.
The ride was smooth and quiet. The doors slid open upon reaching the ground floor and Songmin stepped out, walking to the library doors. Her footsteps were muffled by the carpeted floor. The spacious room was empty. As she neared the doors, a new sound grew louder, a familiar pattering. Her heart sank.
She reached the heavy metal doors and scanned her keycard. The small red lights on the door locks turned green. She pulled open the door and stepped out into the night under the small awning over the doors.
It was raining.
The door closed behind her and the green light turned red again. Songmin stood still under the awning, listening to the rain fall.
The sound was calming. The water droplets pattered against the concrete platform on which the library was built, a rounded sound that was gentle on the girl's ears. The far-off beeping of car horns could just barely be made out.
