What Books and Pocky Sticks Have in Common
The end of another school day.
With afternoon homeroom dismissed, the students grabbed their bags and filed out of the classroom in chattering clusters.
Suyeon watched Yeoncheong and the others head off with unmistakable envy in her eyes.
"Uuugh... I wanna go hang out too..."
"Teacher Jisu asked for you, remember?"
At Hasol's words, Suyeon bobbed her head, making no effort to hide her annoyance.
"Yeah, she said she had something to talk to me about. Probably club-related."
Promising to be right back, Suyeon headed for the teachers' office, and the rest of the group made their way to the library.
Soyul, one of the library club members, had let them know that while it wasn't another treasure hunt, there would be another after-school event with prizes on the line.
"This time I'm definitely winning something."
"Same. There was barely any time at lunch."
They'd also promised Seobin they'd stop by. Unlike Hasol, Yeoncheong and Nayun had walked away from the treasure hunt empty-handed, and their competitive fire was blazing.
Seoha and Hasol—who had, surprisingly, found the library event genuinely fun—were along for the ride too.
"I don't really need more prizes, though."
The moment Hasol said that—she'd already found two notes tucked into stick snacks and claimed prizes for both—Yeoncheong and Nayun growled in unison.
"Ugh. So annoying."
"Right, Hasol? That last one was just unfair."
While the three of them bickered in good fun, Seoha stayed out of the conversation entirely, wearing an unreadable, inscrutable expression.
"Seoha, you think so too, right?"
"...Huh? Oh... what?"
Yeoncheong studied her friend closely. Somewhere along the way, Seoha had gone a million miles away.
Would things go as well as they'd prepared for?
The library event that Seobin and the library club members had fretted over turned out to be a triumph—the word "success" hardly did it justice.
The lunchtime treasure hunt had clearly spread by word of mouth, because the library was more crowded than it had ever been.
Soyul, who had run the lunch event, was nowhere to be seen. Instead, they found Seobin, assisting with the afternoon's activities.
"Seobin, looks like all that worrying was for nothing, huh?"
When Nayun strolled over with a friendly grin, Seobin looked up from arranging the prizes.
"Oh, Nayun. I know, right? I never dreamed it would go this well."
Seobin insisted it was all thanks to the help Nayun and Yeoncheong had given, and the two of them countered that the event itself had simply been brilliantly planned, the compliments bouncing back and forth.
What finally silenced the three of them was the student serving as the emcee.
"Alright then—'Find the Book in the Library!' You can tell what it is from the name alone, right? Any participants? First-timers get priority!"
"Me! Me!"
Nayun thrust her hand into the air, radiating her determination to snag at least something. Picked on the strength of her shout alone, she marched up beside the emcee.
Watching her friend, Hasol's lips twitched.
"A girl who never reads, guessing where a book is... Brave, honestly."
"Th-that's... actually, it might be... exactly the point of the event."
"Huh?"
When Hasol asked her to repeat that, Seobin ducked behind Yeoncheong. She'd only been comfortable with Nayun and Yeoncheong because she knew them well; Hasol, whom she'd barely spoken to, was apparently intimidating.
Yeoncheong relayed Seobin's muffled explanation at megaphone volume.
"She says the game was made to help students who don't know where anything is in the library."
Having pieced together how the game would work, Hasol praised the planner, saying she thought it was a great idea.
"Ahh, I get it now. Really well made."
"R-really...?"
Seobin's lips flapped wordlessly behind Yeoncheong's back. There was no need to ask who had designed the game.
Just as Seobin and Hasol were slowly bridging the conversational gap, the emcee—having finished explaining the rules like everyone else—started the game.
"I'll describe a book. Whoever brings it back to me first wins."
Amid the nodding participants, Nayun's grimly determined face stood out instantly.
"The first Japanese winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature."
While most of the students stood there blankly with no idea, a few latched onto the hint of literature and bolted for the shelves where the novels were shelved.
"A novelist—Kawabata Yasunari."
Only then did Nayun and the other students dash for the bookshelves as well.
"This book famously opens with the line, 'The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country.' Its title is..."
Students who had already guessed the title frantically swept their fingers along the spines, while those still in the dark waited on the emcee's next words.
"You don't know it? It's a really famous book."
"Ah, just say it already!"
After a brief round of teasing back and forth with the participants, the emcee revealed the title.
"Snow Country!"
"Found it!"
But one student who'd caught on to the title early had already plucked the book from the shelf.
As Nayun and the others lamented their miss, Seobin peeked out from behind Yeoncheong with a smile of deep satisfaction.
The book's category, the author's name, and finally the title.
Even without a firm grasp of the classification system and call numbers, knowing those three things was all anyone needed to find a book.
Those who caught on to the game's hidden purpose darted for the shelves the instant the emcee opened her mouth. Nayun, still clueless, could only hang back and sheepishly trail the faster students.
"Nayun, you've got this! Use your brain!"
"I am using my brain!"
Nayun barked at Hasol for no good reason.
Oblivious or indifferent, the emcee carried on enthusiastically with the next book.
"It opens with the line, 'Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure.'"
"Nayun! You know this one—you have to get it."
By pure coincidence, it was the very work written on the losing ticket Nayun had pulled during the lunchtime treasure hunt.
The memory clicked into place, and she shoved past her rivals to snatch the book—claiming her first prize at last.
"Yeoncheong, Nayun won...! Yeoncheong?"
Her friend had vanished. Hasol craned her neck, still riding the high of wanting to celebrate together.
Robbed of her hiding place, Seobin wiggled her fingers and murmured,
"Um... Yeoncheong stepped out for a second..."
"Seoha!"
Yeoncheong caught up with her friend, who had slipped out of the library unnoticed.
Seoha hadn't said a single word, so unless Yeoncheong had been keeping an eye on her from the very start, she'd never have noticed her leave.
At Yeoncheong's call, Seoha stopped in her tracks and turned. As always, she intended to put on an unconcerned face and send her friend back to the event.
But—
"What's been bothering you?"
Unlike her own oblivious parents, Yeoncheong had noticed her friend's subtle strangeness—both back at the festival and again today.
Hasol and Nayun might puzzle over Seoha's inscrutable expressions like everyone else, but Yeoncheong—who wore her own heart on her sleeve at all times—was different.
With Seoha continuing to plead the fifth, it fell to Yeoncheong to drive the conversation.
"Was it you? Hiding behind the bookshelf earlier?"
"...No. I don't know what you're talking about."
It should have ended there—shamelessly denying it with a perfectly blank face. But a hesitation, blooming from some flicker of surely not, tripped her up.
"It's... the thing is, Suyeon kind of... confessed? To me, a while back. So, so... I'm sorry. Anyway, if I hurt your feelings, I'm sorry."
Why does she look upset? Why did she suddenly leave? Not knowing that the two of them were competing fair and square, Yeoncheong had offered an apology—and Seoha hurriedly cut her off.
"No. Don't apologize. It's entirely my own petty insecurity."
Hand still clamped over her friend's mouth, Seoha hesitated for a moment. The look in Yeoncheong's eyes said she wouldn't be satisfied without a real explanation.
In the end, Seoha had no choice but to confess her childish jealousy.
Compared to Suyeon's gift, her own had seemed so shabby that she simply couldn't bring herself to give it...
Yeoncheong took a moment to gather her thoughts and choose her words carefully.
"Hey. This is something Seobin taught me—do you know what books and stick snacks have in common?"
"Books and... stick snacks..."
At the nonsense-quiz question, Seoha shook her head.
Yeoncheong chuckled, as if she'd expected exactly that, and explained.
"A book exists to record something—knowledge, or some feeling—and pass it on. And a stick snack is a way of delivering feelings you can't normally put into words."
Yeoncheong paused, doing her best not to let the meaning Seobin had shared lose any of its shine.
"In the end, a book and a stick snack are just the wrapping. What matters most is the feeling tucked inside."
Having successfully carried the words' meaning across, she flashed Seoha a proud little smile.
"So no matter what anyone gives me, I'll be happy to receive it. That goes for Suyeon, and obviously for you too, Seoha."
Feeling an inexplicable heat rise in her cheeks, Seoha lowered her eyes and looked away.
She thinks this every time.
People could be so kind. Not kind out of obligation or a lack of anything better to say—genuinely, sincerely kind.
The friend who was forever flustered by jokes and always seemed to end up on the losing end of them, being this warm when it truly mattered—maybe that, Seoha thought, came down to how she'd been raised.
"If it's okay with you, I'd love to have your gift right now, actually."
Seoha, lost in thought, flinched.
"...I'm sorry."
"Why? Did you throw it away?"
"No."
After a pause, Seoha hung her head and said,
"I ate it."
She'd poured time and effort into making it, and besides—it had been too much of a waste to simply toss, so Seoha had eaten it all herself, wondering the whole time if Yeoncheong would even have wanted it.
Yeoncheong blinked twice, then burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! How was it?"
"...It was delicious."
Yeoncheong escorted a sulking Seoha back to the library.
"What took you so long?"
Prize clutched to her chest, Nayun smirked and pointed at Suyeon and Siyeon, who had apparently arrived at some point without anyone noticing.
"Suyeon and her twin were playing the stick-snack game just now. It was hilarious."
"The stick-snack game?"
Beyond the twins—one flailing her arms and demanding, are you insane?—Yeoncheong could see students and the emcee laughing and carrying on.
Once again, it fell to the library club's Seobin to explain.
"We thought it'd get boring if it was only book-related events, so..."
"Any more challengers? Come on, it's not like you're doing this with boys—it's just girls, and your lips might only *maybe* brush. Why is everyone such a coward?"
As the emcee goaded the students from the back of the room, Seoha raised her hand.
"Oh, our student council president setting an example, I see. And next to her, the girl who became famous at this very festival."
"Huh?"
At the emcee suddenly calling on her too, Yeoncheong lifted her head.
And then.
"Eh?"
She discovered her own hand in Seoha's grip, raised into the air along with hers.
Pressed by the emcee and the chanting students, Yeoncheong had no choice but to mount the stage.
Two chairs, set facing each other. Yeoncheong sank into the seat prepared for her, while Seoha draped her blazer over the back of hers in a clear show of resolve.
Taking the stick snack the emcee handed over, Seoha leaned in and whispered to her.
"We've done this once before. No problem, right?"
"Uh, um? Right here?"
As Yeoncheong glanced around, hyper-aware of every eye on them, Seoha took hold of her shoulders.
"You don't have to do anything. Just stay still."
With those final words, Seoha bit down on the stick snack, and her face drew closer.
The game was supposed to be a picture of two people sitting across from each other, closing the distance bit by bit... but Seoha had seated Yeoncheong in the chair and was slowly advancing on her all alone.
One waiting in place, one steadily closing in. To the watching students and the emcee, it merely looked like part of her strategy.
Slipping in between Yeoncheong's carelessly parted legs, Seoha gazed down at her from above.
Hurry up and bite, the stick snack tapped lightly against Yeoncheong's lips. She finally caught the tip of the snack—pushing its way inexorably between them—with nothing but her teeth.
Unlike the other girls who had tested the waters, Seoha had nothing to hold back.
If their lips touched, so be it; if they didn't, that was a pity and nothing more.
At the sight of Seoha advancing without a shred of hesitation, audibly crunching through the stick snack, the spectators and the emcee shrieked.
"Insane—she's insane!"
"Are they actually gonna touch? For real?"
Nayun and Hasol, who knew the truth of their relationship, clutched each other and shook, raising an absolute ruckus.
"And you're just going to watch this?"
"If I go break that up, it'll only make everything weirder."
Their own contest long finished, Suyeon stood behind Siyeon, gripping her twin's uniform tight, unable to tear her eyes away.
Every time the blue eyes blinked, the crimson ones filled more and more of her vision.
The red gaze boring straight into her. A breath—not her own—brushing the tip of her nose. The soft curve of lips and lash-lines. A fresh, clean scent drifting along silken black hair.
Everything she'd been too overwhelmed to notice in that first, sudden moment registered one sense at a time.
Unable to match Seoha's relentless momentum, even the onlooking friends gulped and tensed up.
If even the spectators were trembling, how much worse must it be for the one at the center of it all? The instant Yeoncheong, unable to hold out any longer, squeezed her eyes shut—
Seoha pounced, engulfing her completely.
"Kyaaaa!"
"What—what is it?!"
"Why are you covering it up!"
The emcee twisted her head to hide the crucial moment, and the breathlessly watching students erupted in protest all at once.
But it was already over.
Catching the falling remnant of the snack, Seoha grinned down at Yeoncheong.
"Don't worry. We didn't touch."
She wasn't reckless enough to do that—not with their entire school life still ahead of them, anyway. Even Seoha minded who was watching.
As if their lips had never met, she handed the paper-thin remaining shard to the emcee.
After all, she had eaten the feeling that was meant to be delivered to Yeoncheong...
"Sorry. There was no other way to give it to you."
"H-wha...?"
A completely foolish sound spilled from Yeoncheong's mouth, her brain failing to catch up.
And off to one side—
Seoha, you'd go this far?
Faced with her rival's boldness, Suyeon found herself wondering whether she was the one holding back too much.