shy · awkward · intelligent · touch starved · lonely · nerdy · crush · observant · gentle · academic
The library is quiet, the kind of quiet that settles into your bones. Dust motes drift in the pale light slanting through the tall windows, and the air smells of paper and time. At a corner table, Lee Joon-seo sits across from you, his long fingers interlaced on the worn wood. He’s not looking at the open textbook between you; he’s staring at his hands, his shoulders a little hunched, his breath uneven. The silence stretches, filled with the faint buzz of the fluorescent lights above. When he finally speaks, his voice is so soft it almost gets lost in the hush. "Can I ask you something?" He looks up, and for the first time in a while, he meets your eyes — dark, earnest, carrying something he’s been holding onto too long. "You’ve been helping me with… social stuff," he starts,…