It didn't even take a day for the rumor to reach through the whole academy. Everyone had been talking about Irene's Saenity incident, the professors and staffs were not an exception. It was mundane if she had to hear the whispers all around her whenever she went to the dining hall or even to the toilet. Although some were polite enough as to pretend they were not gossiping about her whenever she glanced over them, there were also some who were not even bothered if Irene caught their sneers towards her. And of course Ara and her wonderful friends were those of the latter.

Sometimes, she caught Sooyoung looking at her with pitying eyes but that was it. Sooyoung did not even approach her after the rumor went off.

I'm not surprised, she would say to herself everytime she saw Sooyoung ignoring her. If I were in her shoes I would do the same.

Wouldn't I?

Irene thought she would get used to all the sneers and snickers thrown to her, but her heart could only take as much. So she would sometimes go to the library, finding herself to be at ease by sticking her nose between books she never knew she could be interested in. 

As someone who is naive in romance, she constantly found herself blushing and sometimes even squealing silently at a hidden corner of the library whenever came the part where the hero comes to save the damsel in distress, followed with a happily-ever-after. Heavy sighs would come out of her lips with a hit of realization when she realized she had finished reading the last chapter of the books. She realized her motivations to prove that she was also a Noble Fae had faded day by day into nothingness. 

A few weeks had passed until one evening, she blurted out the words she had actually been keeping at the back of her mind while reading the story about Romeo and Juliet, "should I give up?"

She realized she was not even paying attention to the contents of the pages in front of her, but instead she was dealing with voices inside her head. Should I just give up and go back home? Back to where I won't have to deal with magics? Somewhere I can accept who I truly am?

Back to square one?

"Now you start to sound like a hopeless romantic." Sooyoung mumbled as she leaned by the bookshelf, eyes scanning Irene as if she were a mess. Hands crossed in front of her chest as her right hand was holding a book, she rolled her eyes, "I'm talking to you, dummie."

Clearing her throat out of embarrassment, she hid her book behind her as she fixed her hair, trying to atleast look presentable rather than a damsel in distress like the ones she had been reading. "What are you doing here?"

"This is a library. It's a public place and I can be wherever I want to be." Sooyoung sighed and took a place beside Irene on the floor before reaching for the book Irene had been hiding behind her when she wasn't aware. "H-hey!"

It was embarrassing enough for Sooyoung to call her a hopeless romantic, and now she had the more reason to call her that. "Don't even bother to hide this from me. I've seen you reading worse romantic novels than Romeo and Juliet." Sooyoung rolled her eyes, trying to suppress her laugh when she saw Irene's eyes as if it was bulging out of its sockets.

"How did you--"

"First, this is a public place. It's not as if you're invincible. Second, as creepy as you think I am, I have been keeping my eyes on you."

Irene looked away, avoiding any eye-contact with her. She was pissed. She was pissed to Sooyoung for being so carefree when the fact she had been avoiding her at her lowest point for a few weeks. But she was more pissed to herself for being so sensitive. Why should I care? We're not even friends.

Sooyoung looked at the girl in front of her, ready to receive any curses or mocks from Irene. She knew she deserve it. Where was she when everyone turned their backs to the girl?

"H-here." She handed Irene the book she had been holding.

"What's this?" Trying to shove the irritating feelings away, she carefully reached her hands to the slightly-old-and-rusty book, scanning its plain cover. As old as it looks, the book was not too thick and not too big compared to the usual 'modern' books. The book gave off a rusty smell as Irene flipped through its pages that was starting to turn brown, eyeing the illustrations on the papers.

"Quite fascinating, isn't it?" Sooyoung commented, ignoring Irene's question as if she had not heard her loud enough.

It was, as Sooyoung said, fascinating. The drawings on some pages seemed like the book was directed for younger audiences, but the story, not so much. "The drawings are cute, but it gives off eerie vibes." Irene finally said, breaking her own silence. "But why are you giving it to me? I don't understand."

Irene was confused with Sooyoung's sudden generosity. It was not like it was weird for Sooyoung to be kind to her, but this was all to sudden, at least to her.

As Irene looked up to meet Sooyoung's eyes, all she could see was sadness... and a hint of guilty. She stood up and patted her jeans, trying to get rid of the dust on her jeans as she looked down to Irene, "I'm making up to you."

"I'm sorry." Sooyoung bit her lower lips once she uttered those few words.

Rather than surprised, Irene felt all her sorrow being washed away once those words reached her. It was as if Sooyoung represented everyone who had been talking bad about her, asking for forgiveness of their selfish acts.

It was silent momentarily, before Sooyoung decided to break it off. "And that wasn't mine to begin with. I just found it here in my first year and read it. You still need to borrow it from the library though." She turned around and was about to walk away but stopped and hesitated for a moment before looking back to Irene. "Let's go to the dining hall. It's almost dinner."

Irene rolled her eyes as she went up to her feet, putting back the Romeo and Juliet novel back to the bookshelf and hugged the nameless book Sooyoung gave to her chest. "I'm still not forgiving you, okay? This is merely a fanservice for someone who had been stalking me."

"You might want to inform the librarian about you borrowing the book or you may not be able to read more romance novels in the future." She said jokingly to Irene, making the girl to giggle. Before they both strode to the dining hall, Irene made sure to stop by her dorm and drop off the weird book onto her bed.

Taking in a last glance to the book, she shut the door behind her and joined Sooyoung.