"You're late," Chanmi announced as soon as Eric walked into the library, which had become a secret meeting spot for them. 

"Blame the guard outside my door who took forever to fall asleep," Eric grumbled back, joining to sit with her on the floor. She already had a pile of books on the floor next to her. 

"How is he always sleeping?" she wondered aloud. "Do you give him sleeping pills or something?" 

Eric shrugged, putting his head on her shoulder. "I don't know. All I know is that I've missed you. Terribly," he said dramatically, placing a hand on his chest. "I hardly get to see you nowadays," he complained. 

"Well, if you hadn't gone all protective boyfriend on me in the gardens, maybe we wouldn't be in this situation now," she pointed out cheekily. 

Eric sat up, glaring at her. "Are you blaming me right now?" he asked, trying to act mad and keep the laughter out of his voice. He didn't think it was working very well. 

"It's your fault," she responded simply, her eyes sparkling in amusement. "Who else would I blame?" 

"I should leave," he huffed, getting up and pretending to leave. 

She grabbed his wrist and pulled him back down. He hadn't been prepared for that and ended up falling into her lap awkwardly. 

Chanmi looked at him for a moment, none of them moving a muscle. "What is this, a kdrama?" she finally said, her lips quirking into a smile. 

"Sorry," he mumbled, blushing and moving to crawl out of her lap, but she wrapped her arms around his waist, stopping him as she moved her lips to meet his. He couldn't help smiling as he leaned into the kiss. They parted and he moved to sit on the floor beside her, but when she opened up one of the books to read he took her hand, drawing her attention to him again. When she looked at him, he pressed another kiss against her lips. 

She laughed, moving closer to him so that she could lean her head on his shoulder this time. "I've missed you," she breathed out. "A lot. And I'm scared too. Eric... I'm so scared," she whispered. "Right now, this feels perfect, and I want to stay here in this moment forever. But we can't, you know that too. Tomorrow morning we'll have to wake up and face reality, and this will all feel like a dream." 

He placed his hand over hers. "Let's live in this dream," he said softly. "Just for tonight, let's live in this dream." 

"What if our love turns out to be a nightmare?" she whispered, voicing one of his greatest fears. "What if we end up destroying each other?" 

"I'll protect you," he said firmly, squeezing her hand. "I'll do my best to protect you." 

Chanmi lifted her head from his shoulder and went to sit in front of him. Her eyes were filled with a new intensity as she stared at him. 

"I'm not worried about that anymore," she said after a moment. "I don't care what happens to me anymore. I'm worried about you now. I don't want you to go through hardships because of me." 

Eric smiled, taking both of her hands in his. "Chanmi, trust me, any hardships I go through aren't because of you. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me."