A tear trickled down a puffy cheek and when the boy reached for it, his hand grazed the bristly surface of his chin. He should remember to shave upon returning to his dorm room. Though when exactly that would be, he couldn't tell. Wiping off the lingering mush from his face and swallowing the residual gushiness that had clogged his throat, he leaned back in his chair to check on his neighbour, presently fast asleep on an open textbook.
"Jimin! Wake up! You're drooling all over the pages!"
He was royally ignored.
"Hey! I don't want to be billed for damaged documents! Come on!"
Jimin barely opened one eye but it was enough to notice the hastily concealed evidence. An accusatory finger slowly lifted. "Your eyes are red. And it's not because of lack of sleep because I clearly remember you taking a two-hour nap earlier during my so-called shift."
He flipped the handbook over. "And the Tangible and intangible history of modern and contemporary art doesn't sound like a tear-jerker to me."
No one could fool Jimin. Especially not Taehyung who was very much aware of the fact that he was a walking open book. "Okay. Fine. My favourite author just updated. And I may have got a bit — emotional because that new chapter was just — so gooooood!"
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Jimin let out a hopeless sigh. "You are reading fics five days before your midterms and I can already hear my mum blaming your poor results on me being the bad influence your mum suspects me of being. Ugh."
"On the contrary. Thanks to you, I've been able to enjoy the best cubicle this place has to offer for the past — he glanced at this phone — 18 hours! A personal record!"
"Which is why I suggest we call it a night. It's 3:00 AM and sleeping on this chair is not good for my posture."
"But his shift isn't over yet," Taehyung whined.
Jimin scrunched his nose. "So you really don't care that you smell, that your skin is oily, that your hair is a mess, and that your face is all swollen because of the ramyeon we had at midnight. Not to mention the sexy beard you now have grown."
The look of panic on Taehyung's features brought out a giggle.
"Jimin! Don't make fun of my emergency! You need to help me fix this!"
There wasn't much the other could do but twist the knife in the wound. "Sorry your Highness, the hair-make-up-coordination team has been dismissed for the night."
"That's not funny."
"It was your idea to camp in the library just so you could check out some books and exchange two words with hot circulation desk clerk."
"Eight."
"Eight what?"
Taehyung silently counted using his fingers to confirm, "it was eight words. Not two."
Jimin heaved a sigh, filling the slumberous silence with its desperation. "At this rate, you might be able to get a hold of his phone number sometime — [he peeked at his non-existent wrist watch] — next year. But I'm willing to bet he won't be available by then."
"What makes you say that?"
"Cute guy with tattoos and piercings to die for? Why do you think we had such a hard time securing these cubicles in the first place?"
As always, Jimin's observations could not be disputed. Taehyung realized how, despite the late hour, every table in the vicinity was occupied. A line of students had even formed in front of the circulation desk.
"Why do you insist on stalking him in the library?"
"I'm not a stalker! Besides, I have reasons."
"I'm listening."
"I have no idea what he studies, so I don't know where else to find him on campus. I never saw him in any of my art classes, and you would have told me if he was a dance major."
"Fair enough. What other motives do you have to justify your borderline lurking?"
The fingers carding through Taehyung's tousled locks paused as small firecrackers sparkled in his sleepy stare. "To be perfectly honest, I'm entertaining this foolish hope that I can recreate the meet-cute of my ship in this fic I'm reading."
It was proving quite difficult for Jimin not to roll his eyes at the confession, but his heart had a soft spot for Taehyung's puppy ones. And knowing how passionate the other could become about his online fiction catalogue, he opted for feigned interest instead of potential hurtful dismissal.
"How did they meet?"
"Let me read it to you." Scrolling to the desired paragraph, Taehyung took a deep breath before speaking. "Serendipity encounters all have one thing in common: the good fortune of being at the right place at the right time. These two had never crossed paths before and probably never would have, had fate wished it so. Thankfully, for the sake of our story, destiny allowed their hands to meet as they reached for the same b--."
Someone behind them cleared their throat. "We've had complaints, so I must ask you to either take this reading session outside or quiet down."
Hot clerk was standing right there, pointing at the exit with his tattooed fingers. Fifty shades of red did not begin to describe the crimson mutation Taehyung's epidermis underwent at that moment as the boy gathered his belongings, eager to vanish from the face of the Earth.
Rubbing salt into the wound, Jimin whispered, "there goes your meet-cute". Unlike his friend, however, Jimin still had his wits about him and so he asked the assistant librarian, "me and Tae over here have this bet going on. I suspect you are a law student and he believes you're more into philosophy. So please tell us, who won?"
The guy broke into a smile. "You both lose." Sending a wink Taehyung's way, he added, "I study creative writing."
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Here's another little one-shot written for Authors Unite last month and slightly edited for this book. The prompt was as follow:
Ups! Gambar ini tidak mengikuti Pedoman Konten kami. Untuk melanjutkan publikasi, hapuslah gambar ini atau unggah gambar lain.
