Amongst the Quiet Books || Sera and Natalia

[Deleted]

When Mi-Yun Park was not engaging in any of her night time activities, she practically lived in the library where she worked every single day of the week (excluding Sundays). It was peaceful here, and the North Korean was constantly surrounded by any book you could imagine. It was the ideal setting for her, and Mi-Yun honestly did love her job. It gave her the simple pleasures in life everyone needed to stay sane in such a chaotic city.

...Well, Mi-Yun wasn't exactly sane but that didn't really matter at this point in time.

So far, today had been reasonably uneventful. She had read the morning papers with interest upon seeing new articles and reports about "The Silencer's" latest kill, then spent the majority of the early afternoon glaring at a group of kids: supposedly a study group who were spending more time shouting and laughing than working. But otherwise, nothing had happened in particular.

Like most days, Mi-Yun was expecting to spend her time reading and occasionally telling various people to be quiet in the library whilst experiencing strange glances and confused expressions at her lack of speech. It would just be a normal day. Maybe she would have lunch with Sera later, but otherwise nothing in particular was planned for Mi-Yun. Just sit back and relax, watching to see where the world was intending for you to go.

Not expecting anything to occur, she sat at the front desk with her nose buried deep inside another book. That was until the sound of footsteps approaching caused her to raise her head and peer over the pages to get a look at who was coming her way. Someone in need of help finding or checking out a book? That wouldn't be surprising. Putting down her own novel, the librarian put on a smile to greet the approaching figure.

[Deleted]

I MUST ADMIT, I FEEL LIKE A MONSTER

Sera, having just woken up only an hour ago, was lacking something of interest to do. She had mused over several possibilities – searching for a victim, driving around and breaking some traffic laws, or perhaps visiting Mi-Yun at the library where she worked when the North Korean wasn't sadistically cutting out people's vocal cords. After a moment of contemplation, Sera settled on the last option. She didn't live too far away from the library and thought of possibly also driving dangerously to the place, but then scrapped the idea. No, today she was more in a people watching mood. Occasionally, she liked to partake in observing potential victims; she always thought it was amusing to see the way people lived “normally” and wasted their precious lives away... Which could be stolen at a moment's notice if they weren't careful enough. (Sera, of course, wasn't envious of people living ordinary lives. No, not at all.) The walk only took about fifteen or so minutes, give or take. On the way, Sera had passed by an overexcited group of kids shouting about mysteries and crimes and detectives – she hadn't looked too closely, but one of them had seemed familiar in a way, but smirked in amusement. Those kids were nowhere near ready to be able to deal with solving crimes from her what she inferred; they were far too loud, clumsy, and any decent lawbreaker would be able to hear them coming for miles. Besides the rowdy children, the streets were unsurprisingly filled with chattering people; many of them tourists. Sera recognized some languages such as French, Chinese, and Italian; as well as some accents such as American. She considered perhaps luring one or two away, for the sake of possibly attempting to make headlines in their home country's news. She knew that occasionally happened, and was briefly tempted, but eventually decided with regret not to be deterred from her point of destination. The skies were a dreary shade of gray, threatening to rain at any time when Sera entered the library. The air inside was considerably more crisp than the mugginess outside, and with a sly smirk, made her way to the librarian's desk. The bookshelves smelled pleasantly of paper and had the usual scent of fresh books. She smiled innocuously as she made eye contact with those dark, brown irises, and was amused to see such a serene expression on her fellow murderer's face. It was not one that belonged. ”Good morning~. There's a book I'm looking for... Perhaps you could help me find it.”

WHY WON'T SOMEBODY COME AND SAVE ME FROM THIS

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GS AND BTN

[Deleted]

TAKE THESE BROKEN WINGS AND LEARN TO FLY

Kelly, Kendrick, Kennedy, Kenner... Andrews.

Violet eyes that had been doing their routinely scanning of stocked books twitched, a pale hand rising to pluck that misplaced book from its spot. Didn't people know their alphabet by now?

Natalia happened to be in the romance section of books, working as was customary to make sure that the shelves were all in their proper order by author. It was painfully common that library goers decided to place books wherever they pleased, especially when it wasn't even in the correct category. The book was carted over to where the A author section was, fit in with the rest of the romance books with the cliché couples on the covers. The men always had to look like Fabio with their lack of shirts and long hair flowing in the wind... it made her scoff. Men never looked that perfect, and these relationships weren't real anyway.

She didn't want to linger here, lest someone caught her looking at all these cheesy romance novels. Not that she was interested in any. Or ever read any of them in her life. Not at all. She continued strolling down the aisle, continuing her observing to make sure that nothing else was out of order. The library was never as quiet as everybody thought, for there was always a noise around every corner to reach paranoid ears.

The ruffling of pages, the scuffing of feet, the lilt of various accented voices speaking in hushed whispers to each other. There were always those that would make horrid noise on purpose, disrupting the peace of everyone else for their own leisure. She never bothered too much with those groups, because one; they tended to jeer or make gestures at her, or just not listen to her at all, and two; she unfortunately would be at risk of losing this job were she to stab a blade through their faces. It was a nice mental image, but she'd rather not disappoint her siblings by being fired.

She never really treated anyone with a smile, not even a forced one. She came here for the benefit of keeping herself at peace and out of suspicion regarding her other job, enough that it almost felt like a second home here in this building. She'd answer questions, stamp books, throw books into the cart to be returned, and that would be it for being social. Otherwise she was able to curl up and read a book of her own as she pleased, until another disruption came up. Aside from the other librarians.. well, thankfully one of them was quiet all the time.

Her blonde head lifted, noticing through a gap between two shelves that that particular librarian and another figure were conversing. Not that this was different from any other occurrence, though the one with brunette hair just barely sparked familiarity to her. The two women together seemed different than any other chance meeting.. but who knew whether this was her sort of business to pry into? Natalia was usually never one to approach other people, especially not with any blatant intention to make friends. They could just be talking about stupid girl gossip for all she knows.. well, somehow. Even if she was one herself, she barely understood how other girls work.

So she'd pull this off subtly. Before anyone would happen to notice that she was suspiciously staring through cracks in shelves, she finally resurfaced to approach her spot at the front desk, sitting and smoothing down her dress. "I jost mate sure everythink is put back correctly," she offered in a mutter to Mi-Yun, eyes sliding coolly over to the Italian without much expectation for a response from either of them.

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

[Deleted]

It was a rare occurrence for Sera Russo to show her face in Mi-Yun’s place of… civilian work. And yet, there the Italian stood right in front of her, those amber eyes making direct contact with incredibly darker brown, lips curled up into a smile… Hmm… it had been a while since the two had seen each other. Mi-Yun always did like the sight of those eyes~
For a moment, the Korean was caught off guard, and there might have been a slight spark suddenly flashing behind her almost ebony coloured irises.

But, her friendly façade had quickly dropped the moment she had realised who was here, the expression turned blank, and all Mi-Yun did in reply to the woman’s comment was raise an eyebrow. Yes, maybe it was an interesting change for Miss Russo’s surprise visit, but unfortunately, Mi-Yun did not have time for it. Not today, anyway. No, she was far too busy glaring at those kids in the corner, reorganising books and hunting the shelves to catch any stupid, love-sick teenage couple who thought it was a good idea to make out in the library.

Besides, there was the risk that Sera popping up into Miss Park’s “normal” life could… cause a few disruptions further down the line. Mi-Yun’s day and night life were two very separate things, and should have been kept that way for as long as possible. Sera should have known this- they had made a deal a while back not to interfere with each other outside of… “business”. And by business, she meant the business of pleasure, aka the truly awful~ deeds the two of them got up to after dark~

With this in mind, it should have come as no surprise to the Italian that all she was going to get today was a blank expression, a roll of the Korean’s eyes, and a rather irritated sounding note, scribbled down on a scrap of paper with a pen which wrote in blood red ink.

What the hell are you doing here, Sera? I thought I told you never to come here! And don’t give me any of your “I wanted to check out a book” bullshit. If you need to talk, we’ll meet tonig

But before she had a chance to finish scribbling down her message to her…. “friend”, the other “woman” in Mi-Yun’s life decided to make her appearance known. And thus, her day life and her night life collided together.

Oh great.

Not checking to see if Sera had a chance to read the message or if Natalia had caught a glimpse of it, the Asian woman was reaching forward and crumpling it up quickly, before it was casually tosses aside into a small rubbish bin under the desk. Once that was said and done, Mi-Yun turned her head to face Natalia, simply giving her a small nod of thanks in response to her earlier comment. She wasn't even going to bother faking a smile today.
What followed next was a rather… awkward silence, as the shorter woman of the trio began glancing from Sera to Natalia slowly.

God, Sera! Couldn't you have waited until my lunch break to come see me?!

Well, somehow Mi-Yun needed to clear the Italian out of here. Clearing her throat (which sounded more like a very raspy, soft choking noise that really, if neither were used to, would have been inaudible- it was lucky they had both spent enough time around Mi-Yun to be used to such sounds) to get both women’s attention, the Asian quickly pulled out her trusty little, portable communication device and the next moment, was hurriedly tapping in a small message to be played back to the two of them.

“Natalia, this is Sera. A friend of mine,” the female automated voice came out, much quieter than usual, as the volume had been turned right down (they were in a library, and the peace must not be disturbed!). Mi-Yun quickly turned to face Sera, eyes narrowed rather dangerously as the voice continued reading out the input text. “She was just leaving.”

That was a not-so subtle hint for you, Sera. Get out and stop forcing your way into Mi’s “other life”. You saw enough of her after dark anyway!

@sera Russo, Natalia Arlovskaya

DANKE ϟ

[Deleted]

I MUST ADMIT, I FEEL LIKE A MONSTER

Oh, how Sera adored that look. That devious smile and the gleam in Mi-Yun's lovely dark eyes... She licked her lips, and refused to break eye contact. It would probably turn into another one of their staring contests -- they were both quite competitive indeed, and their contests always sparked something interesting later in the night. ...Except Mi-Yun broke it off early, choosing instead to take on her more annoyed persona, and her expression turned into a glare. Sera sighed, disappointed. Oh well. She couldn't have expected too much from bothering Mi-Yun while in the middle of her so-called "civilian occupation" -- seriously, a librarian of all things? -- and she had been told numerous times to never visit her while she was working. Of course, Sera was never one to follow the rules. She awaited Mi-Yun's note, her scribbling somewhat audible in the library, and drummed her fingers on the desk. This seemed so boring; she wondered how Mi-Yun could even begin to stand it. And knowing the Korean's personality, Sera was surprised Mi-Yun hadn't once stabbed any of the patrons here. Although, that wasn't considering the possibility of her leaving them alone after hours-- "I jost mate sure everythink is put back correctly." A heavily accented voice broke into the conversation. Sera turned to face the intruder with narrowed eyes; she didn't like having her time with her Mi-Yun being cut short. Cold blue irises were staring her down, and she stared back, apprehensively. The feeling of possessiveness was rising in her chest to her throat, and she felt the need to snatch her property away from possible threats. The woman standing in front of her was currently the top threat. She wanted to get rid of this threat. As soon as possible. But before she could move, Mi-Yun made a noise. It was the scratchy, horrible noise that only she could make and would only make when she really wanted to get somebody's attention. Sera didn't like it very much, and disliked it even more that it was being used now of all times. Mi-Yun began tapping into her device that would speak for her, and Sera waited impatiently, still glaring at the ashen blonde woman. This would not do. She was going to find a way to remedy this, and soon -- even if that meant removing this woman from Mi-Yun's life. “Natalia, this is Sera. A friend of mine." Now Sera turned to glance at her "friend", disbelieving. Using that term was enough, but her actual name in front of a complete stranger? Oh, Mi-Yun was going to get it. She leered back, and stubborningly crossed her arms. It was times like this when her stubbornness was her worst and best trait. “She was just leaving.” "No, actually, I just got here, Mi," she stressed the other woman's name, tone low and irritated. No way in Hell was she leaving now. Mi-Yun would have to kill her and drag her cold, dead body to the dumpster in the ally. (She was willing to bet the Korean would do it too -- but that didn't matter right now.) "Shouldn't you be treating your customers with some respect?"

WHY WON'T SOMEBODY COME AND SAVE ME FROM THIS

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GS AND BTN

[Deleted]

TAKE THESE BROKEN WINGS AND LEARN TO FLY

Even while she was nearer to the paper in Mi-Yun's possession, violet eyes did not care to stray. She wasn't going to be nosy and try to read whatever it was that was written, and it was only after the paper was crumpled that her gaze followed its descent into the trash bin. Her attention lifted again when she caught that twitch of Mi-Yun's head, registering the Korean's silent response with one of her own. Awkward silences weren't a stranger to her and she wasn't in any rush to break it. If anything, it was this tension. The way Sera was staring at her. It was clear that she had wound herself into something stupid, and now it was too late to get herself out of it.

A sigh, exasperated and only vaguely audible, released from Natalia's nose. Her eyes flitted across the desk to stare once more at the newer woman, caught and undaunted by such piercing amber eyes. As cold as it always was, Natalia's expression had a bored drawl to it, wanting to show that she felt little threatened by Sera's presence.

"Natalia, this is Sera, a friend of mine." And so the silence was broken by the automated voice. She noticed Sera's reaction (to the voice as well as Mi-Yun's sound, which did not incite as unhappy a reaction from Natalia) and how keen both women seemed to be on glaring at each other. Natalia wasn't going to interrupt until both ladies were finished, so she let the disinterested voice in her head think for her instead. So this is what friends do. Glare at each other. If this tense triangle weren't so ridiculous, she might have even been entertained. But she wouldn't let any emotion like that show through.

Now she listened to the tone of Sera's voice, the near growling of words that were spat at her Korean co-worker. Perhaps this triangle had long since been a duo that she just happened to interlude. She knew nothing of this woman, after all, and that went double for the relationship that she shared with Mi-Yun. If this was jealousy Sera was acting upon, then she wouldn't have any problem understanding - but that sympathy didn't mean Natalia wanted to continue having any part in this. She leaned back in her chair, fingers perched on its arms to tap there.

"Sera," she uttered, not intending to cordially greet her but to prove that she had noted the introduction. She then went on to address the issue at hand with an input of her own, sparked by Sera's attitude to introduce an attitude of her own accord.

"If I haff interroptet a private conversation betveen you two, then let me remint you that this is a poblic library. I vork here ant this is vhere I stay, ant you can expect that other costomers are goink to come to Mi-Yun jost the same." There was a pause, attention settled once more on the Italian there before her. The look in her eyes was almost daring the Italian to make a further scene out of this. Natalia's leaving would probably mean defeat, so she was going to stay put. "Bot da, off course, costomers shoult be treatet vith respect. Is there somthink you needet?"

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE