“I THINK I have a crush on Philip,” Joanna said while staring out the glass door. From where she’s sitting, she can see the gym where Philip works. “This is the third time that I saw him today. I think this day won’t end without me falling for him.”

Che gave her a frowning look. “Falling?” she laughed. “Are you out of your mind?”

“Do I look like I’m out of my mind?” she asked back, not taking her eyes off the gym entrance. “Should I start going to the gym and lose weight?”

Che burst out laughing and received glares from the library visitors. “Sorry,” she said and continued giggling at her. “Do you want to be a skeleton? Look at your thin body. You looked as if you’re not going to make it tomorrow.”

Joanna glared at her. “So, do you think you got a nice body?” She gave her a scrutinizing look from head to toe. “With your over-all appearance, you won’t fit as the female lead in the story.”

Che’s expression turned dull. “How could you say harsh words to your best friend?” she asked, pissed off. “Do you want me to post it on social media that you are the irresponsible author of various deleted stories in the online reading website?”

Joanna pressed her lips together and exchanged a measuring look with Che. “Fine, I’m sorry…” she ceased and shifted her gaze towards the gym. “How am I going to see him?”

Che arched a brow. “Why do you want to see him?”

“Are you deaf?” she asked. “I told you I wanted to see him because he’s my crush.”

“Are you serious about that, Joanna?” Che asked. “Philip is not interested in you, even a bit.”

“How did you know? Are you friends? Family? Classmates? Neighbors?” She gasped. “Don’t tell he’s your…” When Che frowned at her, she continued. “Don’t tell me you are his biological mother?”

“Darn—”

“Shh!” The elderly woman on the table just a few meters away from the reception desk glared at them. “If you can’t lower down your voices, please go to the place where we can’t hear your gossips.”

Che covered her mouth, then looked at her with furrowed brows. She gestured her hand at her to follow her inside the restricted shelves. “It’s your fault, you nitwit,” she hissed while they’re finding a corner to sit and continue pissing off each other. You’re such a—”

“Shut up,” she said in a lower tone, almost a whisper. “If you just agreed on what I’m telling you, we won’t be shunned like this by an elderly woman who looked like a librarian than us.”

“Totally,” Che said and laughed. “But it’s better. We won’t have to stay at that desk and waited for them to finish reading the books.”

“Sometimes, I don’t know why people still kept coming here in the library when you can now read everything on the internet,” she said sighing. “It’s much convenient. You don’t have to borrow and bring heavy books home just to get the few details that you need on your research paper or thesis, or reviewer.”

Che looked at her. “You know what? Sometimes I wondered why did you become a writer if your beliefs are all against publishing.”

Joann laughed. “And, sometimes I wonder how did you become my best friend if all you do is contradicts everything that I say.”

“It’s because you’re always out of your mind,” she said and gave him a soft knock on her forehead. “Just like what you told me a while ago, you’re saying that you’re having a crush on Philip when as far as I can remember, you just mentioned to me that you hated the type of man that spends half of his life in going to the gym.”

Joanna frowned at her best friend. “What?”

“Did you forgot about it already? Did the brain cell where you stocked that memory snapped?”

“Che, are you the one who’s out of mind?” she asked, moving her finger in a circular motion on her temple. “I know that he spends almost half of his life inside that gym. And you know why? Because he’s the owner.”

Che’s mouth fell open. She scratched the corner of her brow. “But that doesn’t make him an exception, right? He’s still one of those men who are a gym addict. He just made a living out of his obsession.”

Joanna shrugged her shoulders. “We can’t teach our heart who to love,” she said and propped her chin on her knuckles. “I’ll think of ways to be noticed by my senpai.”

“I wish you luck,” Che said and stood. “I’ll just assist the old woman. I think she’s gonna borrow the whole library.”

When Che left Joanna, she decided to roam around the shelves of thousands of books. She and Che have been working part-time as a librarian in their city’s public library for three years now. Joanna is a bookkeeper, but she seldom collaborated with accountants and worked in the office because her thoughts were always distracted by pending plots. And, because she doesn’t want to be labeled as the absent-minded bookkeeper by her officemates, she decided to be a freelancer and live on her own schedule.

It’s been three years since she resigned from her job and started writing. She has written hundreds of stories but never finished even just one from them. Joanna sighed. She doesn’t know why, and until now, she’s still looking for answers.

Joanna stopped walking passed by shelves when her eyes caught a book that looked doesn’t belong on the categorized shelves. She checked the label of the shelves and frowned.

“World Atlas Section,” she said as she walked towards the particular book. “Why it’s here?” She took out the book and looked at it. “Fiction. Maybe Che was reading in private again and hid it here so nobody could borrow it.”

She was just about to put it back on the shelves when she read her pen name on the bottom of the front cover. Joanna’s brows furrowed. The title was also familiar to her!

“S-Sorrowful Kiss?” She lowered her gaze on the author. “Written by Hana Jo…” She opened the book and looked at the publish date. But the back of the front page was blank. “What is this? Is this really my book? But it can’t be… I haven’t finished this story, and… It’s impossible!”

Because of shock, Joanna dropped the book on the floor. She was just about to pick it up when Che called her. “Che, you won’t believe this—”

“You won’t believe this too!” she told her excitedly. “Philip is here, and he’s asking for a good books recommendation. I told him you’re the one he should ask about it!”

“Wait, I will show something—” Joanna paused when she looked back at the floor, where she dropped the book and saw nothing. “Where did it go?”

“What is it?” Che asked in a knotted forehead.

Joanna looked around the shelves. The vacant space where she found her book was now filled with a different edition of Atlas. Am I just hallucinating?

“Joanna, what is it that you wanted to show me?” Che asked again.

Joanna shook her head. “N-Nothing…”

***