"Jun, where are you taking me? You are keeping me in surprise for too long now," she said in an aggrieved voice.
After the small birthday celebration was over, Jun quickly snatched her away, especially from Liu Hai and Jing, before they would have hogged her for the entire evening.
"You have patiently waited all this time. Just some few minutes more," he chuckled.
"Even for those few minutes, you have tied a cloth around my eyes."
"Because the place is just as special."
His playful voice made her harrumph. "I will take my revenge someday," making him roll his eyes.
The car stopped and Ai bobbed her head left and right in confusion. "Have we reached?" There was an edge of excitement in her voice.
Jun opened the passenger seat and held her hand. "Will you do me the honor of celebrating your special evening with me, Miss. Zhou?"
Ai couldn't see him but she imagined him slightly bowing before her as he asked for her hand with a sly smile on his lips. She played along as she straightened up with elegance. "If you insist, Mr. Liu."
She placed her hand in his and walked with the aura of a queen escorted by her bodyguard. Her cute expressions made him laugh.
Ai felt as if she entered the place and then was climbing steps towards her destination. Somehow the path felt familiar to her, but she couldn't point out where.
As they stopped, Ai could feel her breath stop too in her chest. There was a calming silence in the atmosphere that soothed the butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
Jun slowly untied the knot and removed the black cloth around her eyes. As she gently opened them, she was enthralled to see herself standing on the third floor of the library.
The book shelves at the center part of the library were shifted to make space to create a cozy dinner atmosphere with a small table and two chairs being perfectly aligned. From afar, she could see that the menu didn't look like a regular menu. Instead, the font and paper style reminded her of the vintage typewriters that writers used in the past.
The entire room was lit with paper lanterns made from book pages as they hung in the air and gently swayed with wind. The soft golden glow the lanterns emitted cast a pleasant and entrancing light, making Ai feel as if they had stepped into a whole another fantasy world altogether.
Jun stood before her, gazing at her transfixed light brown eyes. Those beautiful irises that made her take his breath away. In a deep but soft voice, he pressed her hands and said, "Happy Birthday, Ai."
She broke from her stupor and met his gaze, mesmerized. "Y-You did this all for me…?"
Not in a million years did she imagine that Jun would plan her surprise in a library.
"Do you like it?"
Her jaw slightly dropped with the question. "Like it? I-I don't know how to describe my feelings even though I am supposed to be a writer. So yes, Mr. Liu, I love it," the warm lights from the adorable lanterns made her eyes misty. "It's really beautiful…"
"This is just the part 1," he chuckled and walked up to his desk where he worked as an assistant librarian.
Ai blinked and curiously watched him taking out an empty book cover. It didn't have any pages inside it. He gave her the book cover and smiled. "This is part 2 of your surprise."
"But it's empty," she said, opening the empty book cover, which actually didn't turn out to be completely empty. There was a single page hooked on inside the cover.
She brought the cover closer to her and read the writing on the page.
'Happy Birthday Ai.
I thought a lot of how to surprise you. I wanted it to be super special and super close to your heart. I racked my brains over it and then felt stupid that the answer was always before me. An answer that connected us in this life and made us meet. An answer that was the beginning of us moving on from the past and embracing our new life together. It is the most beautiful and special journey for me and I know it is for you too. How about we relive that journey together?
PS - Where do you think you will find the next page~?'
Next page…
It then struck Ai what Jun was trying to do. Just like he added this single page as a starting point in this book, she was supposed to find the next pages and keep adding on to it as if she was creating a book. The realization made her sparkle her eyes with glitter and pure bliss.
"Y-You really created a book for me…?" She asked, holding her breath.
Jun shrugged hai shoulders with a tease. "Up to you to figure out."
Ai jumped like a little girl in joy. She couldn't wait to fill this book with its pages and complete his surprise.
Next page right? I know where that is!
She hurriedly ran towards her destination, but she immediately felt a pressure at the back of her dress. Jun was tugging it slightly to stop her marathon. "How about we relive the journey TOGETHER, Miss. Zhou?" He accusingly squinted his eyes.
"..."
Ai coughed and guiltily looked away. "It's all your fault anyway that I got so excited. You planned a very creative surprise after all."
He snorted. "Shameless to blame me."
She urgently scolded him. "Will you keep standing there and pulling my dress or come with me already! I have to find the next page!"
Which side of my girlfriend have I awakened with this treasure hunt?
Ai hopped towards a particular bookshelf and looked up at a certain book.
"Any problem?"
She turned and found Jun behind her, asking her with an amusing glint in his eyes.
Ai smiled in return. She looked up and pointed at the book. "I cannot reach it."
Jun pulled a ladder towards him. "This is here just for that. You can adjust its height depending on how far the book is."
"Naturally, I saw the ladder."
"So may I point out why you haven't naturally used it yet?"
She smiled. "I am scared of heights...Or I used to. But now I have someone beside me who won't let me fall no matter what. He won't just let me fall. That's it."
And she held the ladder and slowly took her first step on it.
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