10:30 PM

The boy stood there with a pout on his face. He kept on reading the note again and again, questioning himself 'Is this really what it means?'

"Son?!" And he heard the familiar voice again, he knew for what the voice came for,"Just a minute, Miss. Tanaka."

He ran towards the aisle where he had stepped a few days ago, he knew that in the last row of the wooden shelf there was a book named 'Love yourself', he pulled it out and came back to the corner tagged as "book recommendation".

A pink sticky note--on which he scribbled something with his fountain pen, then placed just beneath the title of "Love Yourself".

A novel in his hand was about to replace another novel that was lying on the table before.

As he replaced it,"I just want to die"  was the novel he was holding now, as if he felt bad just by looking at the cover of the book, he felt even worse when he read the note by the stranger above it.

He quickly detached the note and kept the book back to the shelf where it belonged.

"Namu!" He heard again and nodded as he kept his pen in his pocket, picked his leather sling bag, bidding a goodnight to the woman as he adjusted his muffler and shutted the door behind him.

He looked up at the moon as he sat on his bike,"My love, you look so gloomy today." like a lunatic, he told the glowing ball that was hung high in the dark.

His warm hands, warming the metal that they were wrapped on. The dry yet cold wind, caused the redness on his knuckles, nose and ears and slightly on his cheeks too.

He kept paddling in the dark path that was only lit with dim lamp posts, thinking about the note he faced today, 'Do people really hate themselves up to the point that they would prefer death over life?'

Li'l did he know, it was the start of a new love story.

>>•••<<