Monday after school, the library is bathed in late-afternoon light—warm, the kind that makes everything feel softer around the edges. The rain has stayed away all day, leaving the air clean and still. Chloe arrives first, backpack over one shoulder, heart loud enough she wonders if anyone can hear it. She doesn't go to the classics aisle. She goes straight to the window table—the one with the chair turned toward the light, the one that's felt like theirs for days now.
She sits, opens her notebook to a blank page, but doesn't write. Her fingers find the pencil in her pocket instead, rolling it between them like a worry stone. Alex. His name has been looping in her mind since Saturday. Seeing it written felt like the last fold of paper being opened.
Minutes pass. Then the door opens quietly. Alex steps in, pauses at the entrance like always, but this time his eyes go directly to the window table. To her. He exhales—small, almost invisible—and walks over.
No hesitation to the shelf.
He stops beside the empty chair, backpack still on, hands loose at his sides. Up close, she notices things she couldn't from across the room: the faint freckles across his nose, the way his dark hair curls slightly at the tip, a tiny mole on the upper side of his cheeks
"Hi," he says. Voice low and cool
Chloe looks up. Their eyes meet—no distance, no books between them. "Hi," she echoes, softer and cute
He pulls out the chair and sits slowly, like he's afraid the moment might fade away They're close enough now that she can see a better version of his facials now
For a long second, neither speaks. The library humming around them—the librarian's quiet footsteps—
"I didn't know your name until Saturday," Chloe says finally, voice barely above a whisper.
Alex smiles—small and real. "I didn't know yours either. I kept waiting for the right note to ask."
She laughs under her breath, surprised at how easy it sounds. "I almost wrote it once. Then I thought… maybe it's better this way"
He nods. "The notes were safer. I could say things without seeing your face and forgetting every word." He chuckled with a curvy smiley expression on his lips revealing his dimple
Chloe's cheeks warm. "I reread them so many times. The one about the light… I kept thinking about how you noticed that."
"I noticed a lot," he admits, eyes dropping to the table for a second, then back to her. "The way you trace lines when you read. How you always choose the quietest table. How you smile at books like they are old buddies"
She ducks her head, smiling now. "You leave your pencil behind on purpose. You turn chairs toward the window. You read slowly, like every page deserves time."
Alex's smile grows. "Guilty."
Another quiet beat. The sun shifts, sending a stripe of gold across their hands on the table—close but not touching.
"I'm Chloe," she says, even though he already knows from the note he left.
"Alex," he replies, as if it's new information for both of them.
They sit like that a little longer, letting the names settle. No rush. No need for more words yet. The library clock ticks softly. Outside, Lagos hums with evening traffic, but here it's just them and the light.
Finally, Alex reaches into his bag and pulls out The Little Prince—the one he used as a placeholder. He opens it to the note he left her, the one with his name.
"I kept this," he says. "In case the other books came back and we lost the thread."
Chloe reaches over—hesitant at first—and touches the edge of the page. Their fingers brush, just barely. A spark, warm and quick.
"I kept all of them," she confesses. "In my drawer. Like proof it was real."
Alex looks at her then—really looks. "It is real."
She nods, throat tight with something happy and scary at once. "Yeah."
They don't say much more. They don't need to. They sit together as the light fades, sharing the quiet like they've shared the shelf for weeks. When the librarian announces closing in ten minutes, Alex stands first.
"Tomorrow?" he asks.
Chloe stands too. "Tomorrow."
They walk to the door together—side by side, not quite touching, but close enough that their shadows overlap on the carpet. Outside, the evening air is cool and relaxing.