I Dare You [Rin&aominecchi]

[♠[Rin]♠]

Rin's character:

 

 

Name: Samuel Larisson.

Age: 24.

Height: 1,76 M.

Nationality: English.

Occupation: Librarian.

 

 

 

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Nowadays, many people saw finding their dream job as a huge issue. It was important to make much money, live in a lovely apartment, start a family and then sponsor the children’s future. That was the circle of life; studying, working, becoming old. Numerous adolescences were insecure about their life choices regarding their work places and career paths and to top it all off, there were several dream jobs. At one point in a person’s life they might want to become an author and later on they might find something else interesting instead, and maybe someday they’d find themselves doing something completely different than they had thought they would be doing at the start.

Samuel was one of them. He had graduated high school at the age of seventeen and instantly started studying music. It sounded kind of basic, and it was indeed basic, but at a younger age he hadn’t put much thought into it. All he had wanted to do was sing, play the guitar and the piano and compose. However, as one might expect in 2014, his career hadn’t lasted for long. Some of his songs had barely been on YouTube, though that was it, and his parents were worried because the music industry was merciless, “full of false personalities” and toxic. His own university had made it clear that the world didn’t actually need another 500 music artists, singers, bands or songwriters. And thus, Samuel had one day ended up at the local library. He had found out that books had the magical power to stop time and offer distraction. Besides, literature was fairly interesting. The owner of the library died two years after that and his son wasn’t so fond of the heritage for he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life working here. To Samuel’s surprise, after asking what it would take to work here, he was offered a job interview and an apprenticeship. The new owner hardly paid the library a visit despite it being the most popular and biggest one in town. Samuel worked here with two other, slightly older men. It turned out that being a librarian didn’t involve a lot of stressful work, but the paper work ate up most of the time of the day. The payment he received at the end of every month was an amount he could live off in a way he considered enjoyable. All in all, it was a decent job and he liked it.

 

In the past few months, Samuel had noticed a student coming to the library often, sometimes three or four times a week. He mostly borrowed books about physics, maths or chemistry and he was reliable in returning them. The ginger didn’t mean to stalk his costumer, but if he wasn’t mistaken, the student paid the library a visit on Monday afternoons, Thursday mornings and Friday evenings. They opened at 8 in the morning and closed at 8 PM.

The building of the library was very old. Its yellow fa?ade had lost most of its colour intensity and the new pastel colour was sometimes hard to distinguish from the white, vertical stripes starting at the bottom and reach up to the old-fashioned red roof when the sun rose or set. The entrance was a double-door made of mahogany wood and harmonized with the windows of the same material. Inside, the library was a great hall with a high ceiling. Steps easily echoed on the faint, grey walls. Black, reflective tiles covered the ground, giving the scenery a mild, gloomy touch. Bright white light came from the flat lamps on the ceiling. Modern, white doors led to the toilets and to private rooms for the personnel on the left side next to a simple coffee and snacks wending machine. Countless rows of tall, wooden shelves stretched all the way behind to the end of the hall in the middle and 90% of them was filled with books. Signs that were labelled with themes hung from the ceiling, helping customers to find the right area for a desired book. On the right side there was the counter. It looked out of place because it had been bought just two years ago. The feet were solid metal, the counter surface was made of blurry glass. Two printers were located at one end of it, a pile of books and boxes were stacked up in the middle and on the other end there was always a person sitting at the same computer, registering, accepting and lending books. This was, most of the time, Samuel. He usually helped re-ordering the books on Tuesdays and Saturday mornings, for the rest of the week he was taking care of the technological work. Compared to his elder colleagues, he appeared to get along better with the newest programs.

 

It was silent in the library now. The only noise cutting the quiet was Samuel’s typing on the keyboard. His faint green eyes skipped from the screen over to the giant clock fastened on the wall right above the entrance. It was six PM and it was Friday, the perfect day and time for most people to be at home and have dinner with their family. He leaned back in the chair and rolled up the sleeves of his blue cardie. There was no dress code for the employees, thus he mostly wore shirts, jeans and a sweatjacket or cardigan. His nerdy clothing style didn’t fit his personality, but it harmonized with his glasses and slender figure. Samuel glanced over his shoulder to the pile of books he was supposed to add back into the system before his shift ended. “Surprising how people return the most books at the end of the week,” he mumbled to himself, reaching out for the cup of coffee next to his keyboard. He lifted it up to his lips and carefully took a few sips out of it only to realize that it had become cold in the meantime. “Ah, shit. Again.” Samuel was thorough and dextrous, but the bitter taste of cold tea or coffee never ceased to remind him that he liked to forget certain things. Whenever he came home, he would find a lost cup somewhere in the apartment. And whenever his cat was extra annoying, he knew that he had forgotten to give her a piece of fish in the morning. The only reason he was drinking coffee at work and tea at home was because his coffee machine had been broken for months now and he kept forgetting to fix it.

[aominecchi]

 

 

 

Name: Ethan Clarke

Age: 23

Nationality: Half American - Japanese from his mother's side.

Height: 184cm

Occupation: Chemistry student.

 

 

---

 

In this world, reality is often disappointing. The world rather admire the superficial than the natural. The lie from the truth. There must always be a motive underneath somebody's actions. Ethan believes so. As if it is a universal fact. He has learned this way, ever since his father's fatal accident.

 

Unlike his present self, Ethan was supposed to be a very intelligent child. His parents would always praise him for bringing straight A's home and in return, he would have anything he ever wished for. It would be a lie to not admit he didn't grew up spoiled, however, only as spoiled as a gentle and kind child from a middle class family could get. At least, that was the case until his father got involved in a traffic accident which resulted in him passing away a few days later.

 

First, it was his mother who had gone mad. Then, little by little, it was Ethan himself. Ever since he was 16, for seven years, he was being tormented by his mother. What slowly started as denial, got developed to hallucinations and then finally into physical and verbal abuse. And Ethan, well, he was the recipient of them all. Soon, bankruptcy followed. With his mother having spent almost their entire fortune in order to bring her husband back. Of course, such thing is impossible.

 

Alas, the years passed and Ethan got accepted into a university, majoring in chemistry. There is no special reason as to why he chose this particular career, but if there is to be an answer, he loves combining elements. What is surprising however, is that in contrast to his menacing appearance, Ethan prefers to stay in the shadows and avoid being the center of attention. And luckily for him, the scar on his left eye is enough to scare any possible friendships away. Guess he has to thank his mother for that one. But see, Ethan's reasoning is that he cannot afford to get engaged with other people, only for them to possibly end up like his mother. Or worse, him. There are trust issues underlying that are added to his ready conflicted self.

 

Now in his fifth year of attending university, and a year fallen behind his classes, Ethan has discovered a very peculiar person that he cannot shy away from. The first encounter was triggered by his almost forced attendance to the library. The second, was to return the book he had borrowed. Ah, do not yet mistaken. There was nothing special about that person. Well, apart from being a guy that is. Yet in spite of this, Ethan's interest had been caught by that normal - if not boring, looking man. Unfortunately, he couldn't place his finger on it, but he would take his chances to find out.

 

Today as well, he is lurking in the library. When everyone is supposed to head home and have a warm meal, he remained, since his own home was anything but a safe haven. His glance would sneakingly shift towards the librarian, under the guise of reading a book. Today, Ethan decided to speak to the other for the first time, outside of work. The only problem was how.

 

As the clock stroke six o'clock, Ethan's eyes glanced up and then let out a sigh, realising he had been there for six hours already doing nothing. Today, he was going to strike up a conversation. He really would! As he had decided so, and with another inaudible sigh, he stood up from the desk and caught a random mathematics book before heading towards the counter.

 

Only that his hesitation showed, evidently, by his slight tremble of hands as he pretended to caught in order to catch the librarians attention off the computer and towards himself. "E-Excuse me..." He stuttered and awaited for a response.

[♠[Rin]♠]

Samuel gently pushed the cup to the side and mentally noted to get a new one later on after finishing the pile of books he was working at in the moment. As he turned back to his computer screen, he completely failed to pay attention to a figure moving in between the rows of book shelves. All in all, he didn’t seem to care for his surroundings much; either he didn’t feel the slightest bit of paranoia naturally or he was the type to sit still in peace and quiet for hours. However, it didn’t take long for the last costumer to make himself noticeable. If it weren’t for the cough, Samuel probably wouldn’t have reacted this quickly to the person standing in front of his counter.

The ginger smiled up towards the tall man. He now noticed that he really hadn’t taken note of this specific person being here. How long had he been studying here for? Samuel tried to remember seeing him enter, but in this moment he couldn’t. It wasn’t his business, really, and he wasn’t a nosy person to begin with, thus he quickly put the topic aside.

 

“Yes?” Samuel’s eyes dropped down to the book in the man’s trembling hands. There were several reasons why he had caught the ginger’s eyes. His behaviour stood in harsh contrast to his looks; from far away he seemed like a tough, trained man who didn’t take anything for gospel truth. The scar on his eye definitely added to that image. Though, in person, he suddenly came off as soft and kind, almost nervous. Samuel couldn’t guess what it was that made the other so uncomfortable, he didn’t seem like the paranoid type. Maybe it was the social interaction. A library was often a place for people who liked to avoid their acquaintances for a few hours for their own good. Samuel liked to see it as a strategy of health-care; if isolating helped those people to keep sane and comfortable, it was alright. He wasn’t in the position to judge anyone or interfere in their business.

 

The ginger automatically pulled down the sleeves of his cardie because, despite the warmth in the room, he felt a goose flesh racking his spine right now. He wasn’t sure why or how that could happen all of the sudden, but he didn’t have the time to question his body’s reaction towards temperature. It was probably because he was getting tired. He liked his job, but his couch was more comfortable than sitting here.

“Would you like to borrow this, Sir?” Samuel asked, gently pointing towards the book. It was the first time this guy had spoken to him and his voice sounded oddly comfortable to listen to. There were endless possibilities as to what this student wanted; he could be looking for a prior version of the book or for other works by the same author. Maybe he wanted to order a book as well or was looking or a specific book that was similar to the one he was holding in his hand.

[aominecchi]

In Ethan's mind, the plan was solid if not extremely simple. Step one, grab a book and get off the seat. Step two, walk up the clerk and inquire about the book, feigning interest. Step three, success. So, straightforward that literally anyone could do it. However, with as much confidence the blond stood up his desk, ended being as much awkward in front of the librarian.

 

His glance fell to the cold cup of coffee, wanting to avoid contact as much as possible. Probably in between of hating himself and wondering how to appear less awkward. Though, for the moment, silence lingered. As the other asked whether he would like to borrow the book, Ethan instantly returned to reality with a trembling voice. "Ahh, yes please!" He replied with a nod and the brightest smile possible, embarrassingly caressing down his left arm as his eyes again travelled to the cardie, particularly the raised sleeves, finding the librarian's movements a slight turn on.

 

Though, in his mannerisms, something felt odd. Was it how mismatched his appearance and personality were? Or how he slightly smirked under that nod, so talentful that only a few could see through.

 

Well, for what his words lacked, his appearance surely made up for. Ethan had charisma and he knew it too well, often using it for his advantage. Whether it was girls, grades or just personal interest, he did not cared a bit for playing with the feelings of other people, often manipulating them.

 

However, back to the conversation at hand, Ethan had actually picked up a math book, full of formulas and what not. Not really interesting at first, and totally boring on second thought. In fact, he had the same text boom at home since it was written by one of his class professors. Though, it ought to suffice for his plan. "Actually, do you also have more related books to this one?" He spoke up a bit more confidently, but still shyly enough to appear awkward.

[♠[Rin]♠]

“Gladly,” Samuel answered when the student nodded to his question. He took the book out of the other’s hand, put it on the glass table top next to him and flipped to the first page where the ISBN number and the related information were printed on. Compared to a school library, they had to keep a list of borrowers in the computer in case the book would get lost and so that no other names appeared in the book for strangers to see. Samuel noticed how the customer’s glance moved around, indicating a hint of nervousness, but he decided to ignore it in order not to make him more awkward than he already was. In an unexpected moment, the student once more spoke up, he asked for books related to the math book he was borrowing. “Of course, one second.” Samuel typed in the ISBN and the date of the day into the list of the book in question. “Please show me an ID card,” he then said, looking up to the blonde with a friendly smile. After putting the name into the system, Samuel rose from his seat. “Follow me, Sir.” He led the blonde back into the seemingly endless rows of books. The science books were on the far left and took up a lot of space, but surprisingly there was more about philosophy just one row behind. Comedy and crime on the other hand were limited.

 

Samuel rose his index finger, silently going through the authors and books, mouthing the titles as he looked for related works. The light reflected on the side of his glasses and in his emerald eyes. Now that they were standing next to each other, the height difference was visible, which was impressing, because Samuel knew that he was average height and to see another man being taller was always an amusing surprise. He remembered his little sisters, who always had to look up at him.

“There it is.” Samuel gathered three books from a row and turned around to present them to the blonde male. “These are also formula books, but they go deeper into detail. The first one relates to mathematics, the other to physics and this one refers to atomics. They are very well-written and contain a lot of information about the constructions of the formulas and how to use them. We can’t lend them out for too long however, because other people might need them urgently and we only have limited versions because they are expensive.”