district 17 | svt

8

{ D - 179 }

During their Free-time Period, Junhui and Seohyeon went back to the Library, where they would usually go for meetings. They secretly made their way back into the meeting room, careful not to be seen by anyone. Although most of the crew never came to the meeting room besides on Resting Days, Junhui and Seohyeon decided to come whenever they were able to, even when it wasn't a Resting Day. Seohyeon wanted to learn as much as she could, and Junhui was happy to teach her.

The secret meeting room was filled with shelves of old book full of the history of the past, old literature, and fictional stories that had been hidden away from the citizens of the District on top of all the random trinkets stored as well. After all, it was a secret room inside the Library; of course there would be books inside. Junhui, along with the other boys, had read these books and discovered all of the hidden information. Now, it was Seohyeon's turn.

The two sat at the table side by side, a book open for both of them to read. Junhui would point out different colors every now and then, telling Seohyeon the name of each one. Seohyeon was engaged in all the information the book contained. There were pictures of all sorts of different creatures, along with facts about each creature beside the picture. Junhui told her they were animals, pointing out different ones the interested him the most when he read the book for the first time.

They opened up another book, which had all sorts of information about different sciences. Seohyeon read eagerly about weather, climate, seasons, changes in the atmosphere, and different types of landforms, and types of precipitation. What intrigued her the most was the pictures of rolling hills (at least that's what she remembered them to be called from prior pages in the book) covered in a thick layer of some sort of white powder that appeared to be falling from the sky. She asked Junhui about it, and he gladly explained it to her.

"It's called snow," he said, "In the past, certain places in the world would get snow during the wintertime, you know, a season with cold weather."

"It's quite beautiful," Seohyeon said, her eyes still focused on the picture, "Do you know why we don't have it here?"

"I think it's for the crops," he said, not really sure himself, "Snow is cold, which isn't really good growing produce and stuff. Plus, when it gets too cold, our bodies don't respond well."

Seohyeon nodded, a little disappointed that snow longer existed in the District. Yes, there were many cons to having snow, but was so beautiful and mesmerizing. She thought it was such a pity to get rid of.

As they continued to read more, Seohyeon could feel Junhui's gaze drift away from the book. When she glanced in his direction, she noticed that he was looking at her now and not the pages. Her face flushed, her eyes darting back to the book with embarrassment. The sight only made Junhui smile as he continued to stare at her with adoration.

"You know, you're really pretty," he said randomly, causing Seohyeon to blush even more.

She awkwardly cleared her throat as she closed the book, slowly pushing it farther away from her to make room for a new one. She pointed over at the stack of books that was right next to Junhui, which made the boy turn his head in that direction.

"C-can you... pass me another one?" She said quietly.

Junhui only chuckled and took one book off the pile and place it in front of them. He knew she was too embarrassed to say anything about his compliment to her, but he was okay with that. Reading these books together was good enough for him, even if she never would reciprocate his romantic feelings. Her being by his side was all he needed, and that's exactly what he had.