The Hidden Treasure

~17~

Hyejin smiled kindly at the man who so freely offered up his name. He spoke as if she should know who he was, but she hadn't ever seen him before in her life. "Nice to meet you, sir. Looking for a particular book today?"

Yoongi kept his smile fixed on her for a few seconds and then looked around, pulling his face mask down below his chin. So this was where Namjoon had been spending time. Figures it would be some kind of book shop or something like it. He slowly turned back to Hyejin and his eyes carefully took in the view of her. Not bad.

"Um. Well, I haven't been much of a reader as of late. Too busy with other things. But a friend of mine has been reading more lately and it sort of prompted me to take it up again." He let out a small laugh and watched her to see what she would do next.

"Oh really? You know, I wasn't much of a reader myself when I was younger. A lot of these books you see in here used to belong to my father. He was an avid reader." She smiled warmly and stepped out from behind the counter.

As she moved out to stand next to him, Yoongi noticed the class photo on the wall behind the counter. One face stood out and Yoongi's eyes narrowed as he fixated on it for a moment.

"What prompted you to start reading yourself," he said softly, his eyes still on the familiar face in the photo.

Hyejin laughed shyly and smoothed out some imaginary wrinkles in her skirt. "A friend in highschool. You could say he was my nemesis." She looked over as Yoongi snapped his gaze to hers. She was getting a strange feeling from this man.

"He must mean a lot to you then. Were you sweethearts or something?" Yoongi wasn't sure how much he should prod for information before he would risk sounding very weird.

"My friend and I? Oh no! No, no," she laughed.

Yoongi smiled in return. "Excuse me if I'm being too forward, but you are a beautiful young woman. But I really must ask. Do you have a boyfriend?" Yoongi turned on his full charm.

"Me?" Hyejin pointed at herself and laughed. "No." It embarrassed her a bit to say so but she saw no point in lying.

Yoongi gasped with eyes wide open. He brought a hand up to his mouth and made a disapproving noise. "Tsk, that will never do. You seem like a sweet girl. Too sweet to be stuffed up in this place all day."

Hyejin began to feel a bit uncomfortable.  The man's voice was low and rhythmic.  Almost hypnotizing.  She blinked a few times and smiled again.  "So enough about me.  What kind of books do you like to read?"  She moved over to one of the shelves and ran a few fingers lightly over the aging spines of a few classics.  She studied the titles intently and paused on one.  "Do you like classics?"

Yoongi eyed her back appreciatively.  "Mm, you could say that."  He clasped his hands behind his back and followed her at a safe distance through the shelves. 

"Love stories?  Historical fiction?  Action?  Suspense?  Thrillers?"  She looked back over her shoulder to see him following her, a soft expression on his face.  She felt her face redden a bit and she quickly went back to looking at the books. 

"I'm a hopeless romantic," he said, chuckling lightly. 

"Oh really?  No offense, but I wouldn't have pegged you for a romantic," she replied, a soft chuckle escaping her lips.

"Why's that," he asked calmly.

Hyejin nervously gestured towards his black hat and black mask. "Well, for starters, there's...that."

He chuckled and quickly removed his hat, smoothing down any out of place hair.

Hyejin noted his hair was lovely brown color. She quickly turned her eyes back to the books, hopelessly looking for some book to suggest to her present customer.