lost_boy | (no subject)

Even though I knew it wasn't going to be the job I worked forever, I loved working at the library. It was peaceful most of the time, except when the kids got a little wild, and there was a lot of organizing, which I found I liked more than I had ever expected I would.

It was probably part of why Eddie loved me so much, I thought, grinning to myself as I shelved the books I had on my cart. Eddie liked to be organized and I was very good at it.

But the library was calm, especially on a Saturday afternoon nearing close, and as I finished with my books and pushed my cart back toward the front checkout counter, I wasn't properly paying attention to where I was going. Admittedly, I was distracted. I was almost in a meditative state, having been on my own for the past hour, simply shelving over and over, the motion calming. I was also ready to leave, thinking about the evening ahead and what I might do, when I turned a corner and nearly rammed my cart directly into someone.

"Oh," I said, then sharply yanked the cart back just before I hit the other man. "Oh no, I'm so sorry. Did I hit you?"

I was almost certain I hadn't, but I needed to be sure.

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It's always a slightly strange thing for him, spending time in the library. Two and a half years ago, when he first got here, Sihyun thinks he wouldn't even have bothered. Nearly all of the books are in English, after all, and he'd believed that he didn't remember all that much from the high school classes he took in the language. It turns out that being thrust into a world where most people only speak that language has done a lot to jog his memory, which is more extensive than he would have expected. He definitely wouldn't have read entire books in it, back home.

Then again, he didn't used to do that much reading at all. He would sooner have gotten lost at the piano with a sheaf of manuscript paper and a pencil than in the pages of a book. That hobby is one he started picking up a few months before his arrival, while in the hospital recovering from the surgery that saved his life, and that's only grown here. He doesn't have a piano anymore, after all, and he only plays while at work now. Even if that weren't so, he doesn't think he would be composing anymore. Reading fills some of that time, gives him something to do.

Wandering around the library now, he isn't looking for anything specific so much as he is waiting to see what jumps out at him. He just doesn't expect it to be a cart. Letting out a short, surprised laugh, he takes an instinctive step back, but shakes his head both to the apology and following question. "No, you just missed me," he says. "It's all right. I wasn't paying attention."

"Neither was I," I admitted, having the good sense to look a bit sheepish as I ran my hand through my hair to push it off my face. I had jerked to a stop so quickly, it had gone spilling into my eyes. I kept my hook on the handle of the cart, knowing people weren't always comfortable with it at first glance.

"I'm almost done my shift, so I was a bit distracted," I said. "But are you looking for something? I can help you find it."

Even if he was just looking for some recommendations, I had plenty.

"Nothing specific," Sihyun answers, shoulders lifting in a noncommittal, uncertain shrug. It would probably be easier if he did have something in mind, at least a genre or something to start with. At least that way, he wouldn't be wandering so aimlessly that he nearly barrels straight into someone, though it's a little comforting to know that the near-collision may not have been entirely his fault.

"Just seeing what might look interesting. Though I would take any recommendations, if you have them."

I loved helping people find something to read and I lit up in a smile as I nodded.

"I do," I replied. "Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction? I personally like fiction better, I like getting lost in stories, but I know not everyone likes that as much as I do."

Some people wanted to read about history, they wanted to know what was happening in the world, they wanted to learn how to be better people. I respected that and understood it, but when I was reading, I wanted to get lost and not think about anything real.

"No, I prefer fiction, too," Sihyun replies, smiling in turn, warm and, if anything, a little relieved. It's easier to ask for recommendations from someone so openly enthusiastic, not just offering a polite response and sending him on his way. It helps, too, when he still feels a little out of place, far more capable of reading in English than he would have expected, but still always aware that it's not his first language.

"Getting lost in stories, like you said. Finding all sorts of different ones."

"Okay," I said brightly, and smiled. "Come over here. I'm Jamie, by the way, I've worked here for awhile. Mostly I read to the kids during story time and do the shelving, but I like recommending books to people, too."

I was moving in the direction of the general fiction section, having a few that I really liked and knew were still on the shelves, as I'd just put them back within the last half hour or so.

"It's nice to meet you, Jamie," he replies, smiling in return. "I'm Sihyun. And I appreciate the help. I never really know what I'm looking for." The last, he adds with a hint of self-deprecation, amused by the fact of it. A couple of years ago, after all, a library full of books in English would have been the last place he'd have expected to find himself.

"At least, not when it comes to books."

"Neither did I when I first started," I answered, looking over one of the shelves for the book I was thinking of. "I read a lot of books I really didn't like before I started to find ones I did. This is the first I read that I felt like I couldn't put down."

I finally found the book and pulled it off the shelf, then offered it to Sihyun.

"True Grit," I told him. "It's a novel about a girl whose father is killed and her quest to avenge him."

"That sounds like something I would enjoy, I think," Sihyun says, taking the book and turning it over in his hands. At a glance, he doesn't think he would have been drawn to it at all, but the plot certainly sounds like something that appeals to him.

He knows a thing or two, after all, about seeking vengeance for a dead loved one.

"I'll give it a try. Thank you."

"You're welcome," I said, pleased to have helped. "It's really well written and I liked it, too, because not many books where and when I'm from had young girls as the lead character."

There were other major characters in the book, of course, but I quite liked that there was a story like it in the world. Many like it, actually, in that sense, but that had been rare in the books I read back in London.