Chapter Text
Crash! Jinyoung’s ears perked up. It was a familiar sound, the book cart falling over. But Jinyoung was the only person on duty at the library, so it couldn’t have been one of the clumsy new hires. The only other option was even worse, a clumsy student.
Jinyoung quickly made his way towards the source of the sound, and sure enough, there was the cart on the ground, surrounded by scattered books, their pages wrinkling and spines being abused. Jinyoung rolled his eyes when he saw the culprit. He didn’t like to stereotype, but when you’ve worked in the same place for three years, you start to really know your clientele. Bleach blond hair, lip gloss, and a studded belt was the type of client that needed to have their hand held as they perused the shelves, lest something bad happen to the books.
As Jinyoung approached, he noticed there was a bigger problem than just the appearance. Dirty converse, an iPod blasting something loud, and chewing gum . Jinyoung cleared his throat and one of the boy’s headphones popped out of his ear in time to hear Jinyoung.
He turned around, startled to see Jinyoung standing behind him.
“Hello. Do you need some help?” Jinyoung kept his face controlled, even though he was burning up on the inside.
“Um,” he looked back at the shelved books, then at Jinyoung again. “Yeah, I do. I'm trying to find books for my creative writing course.”
Jinyoung pulled his reading glasses out of his front pocket and read the course syllabus the boy handed to him. “Oh, you have Dauber. I took his class when I was a freshman too.”
“What year are you?”
“I’m a graduate student,” he muttered, eyes scanning the packet a million miles a minute. There were quite a few books on this syllabus, and if he remembered correctly, this class wasn't easy. But if he could find all the books for him, hopefully, he wouldn't have to see him in the library again until next semester. He looked away from the page and back at the books on the ground. “You’re in the right area, but not the right aisle.
The boy’s eyes followed Jinyoung’s and landed on the books. “Oh no! Did I knock those over? I did, didn’t I?” He quickly scrambled to pick them all up, not being very careful in his haste.
“It’s fine, really. I’ll do it.” Jinyoung’s smile fell, but that was about all the displeasure his face revealed.
“No, I insist.” He quickly stacked all the books onto the cart, which Jinyoung methodically and silently, organized to his liking.
“Your books are in the next aisle over,” Jinyoung said as he began pushing the cart with him, the boy following behind in pace.
“I’m sorry about the cart, I’m Bambam by the way, and I just transferred here from Thailand. I’ve always wanted to come to Korea, You see, my mom owns a lot of Korean restaurants-”
At this point, Jinyoung couldn’t bring the smile back to his face. His patience was slipping as fast as the boy was talking. He looked for the books as quickly as possible, droning out the boy’s words, but he just wouldn’t shut up. Just how many rules was he breaking? Loud music, loud speech, destruction of books, and chewing gum ?!
He quickly whipped around, all the books he needed, collected into his hands and ready to be passed on. “Bambam, is it?” Jinyoung's eyes crinkled and his grip on the books in his hands was tight.
Bambam smiled, nodding his head enthusiastically.
“Here are all of your books. Check out is in the back. If you can write as fast as you talk, you should get an A.”
Jinyoung was working in the back later that day but could hear a loud voice squeaking in the front that could only belong to a freshman. Jinyoung was just glad he wasn’t the one having to deal with people right now. But that happiness quickly ended.
“Jinyoung, there’s someone asking for you.”
No there isn’t , Jinyoung thought. There better not be.
Lisa came into the back to meet Jinyoung.
“I’m not working the front desk,” Jinyoung said seriously.
“I wasn’t going to ask you to!” Lisa defended. “But there's this little Thai boy-” Jinyoung squeezed his eyes shut. Oh fuck, oh no. “And he said ‘Is there a guy here? I met him this morning. He’s really cool and serious, and he needs glasses.’”
“Did you tell him I was here?”
“Of course I did!” She beamed.
“Of course you did,” Jinyoung mirrored.
Jinyoung made his way to the front, smiling at the boy who grinned back, saying “Hi!” much too loudly for Jinyoung’s liking.
“Hi, Bambam.”
“Hi, Jinyoung-hyung. I need your help in finding books again.”
Jinyoung gritted his teeth behind his smile. Lisa must have told him his name. “Let me see your syllabus.”
Bambam handed it over and Jinyoung pulled his glasses out to survey it. Another writing class. Jinyoung read the course description this time: a requirement to fulfill for all majors . If he was a writing major, then why didn’t he have a better appreciation for books and a library?
He moved the paper away from his face to look at Bambam who was quiet, blowing bubbles with his chewing gum.
“Do you want a piece?”
“There’s no gum in the library.”
“Oh.” He pulled the gum out of his mouth and wrapped it into a piece of paper which he then stuck in his pocket.
Jinyoung cringed internally. “Don’t put it in your pocket, throw it away here.” He brought the empty trashcan over the desk for Bambam to toss his gum into.
Jinyoung led them to the fourth floor of the library and put his glasses back on to read the numbers lining the spines. It felt unusually quiet and it was because Bambam was silent.
“Did your class go poorly? You're not talking.”
“No, I'm just a little sad. My Korean isn't as good as I want it to be.”
“It's only your first year. Cheer up. There's lots of time to improve.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“I’m most definitely right. Here are two books, but the third I have to order it from a different library. We’ll probably have it the next time I see you.”
Bambam nodded accepting the books as they walked back to the elevator.
Jinyoung put his glasses back into his pocket when they arrived back on the first floor, realizing he left them on longer than necessary.
“Why don’t you wear your glasses all the time?”
“I only need them to read.”
“Oh.”
“Ready to checkout?” Lisa asked.
“Thanks, Jinyoung-hyung! See you soon!"
Jinyoung sighed, waving over his shoulder as he retreated to the back, knowing it would be too soon.