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The library was always chaotic the first few weeks of the semester. It wasn’t quite finals levels of chaos, but it was still chaotic nonetheless. Suddenly, no one remembered the food and drink ban, even if they’d spent the better part of the previous semester holed up in this very same library with the very same rules. It was as if the summer break had wiped their memories clean. The professors were all returning their stacks of long overdue books (the ones they claimed to never have borrowed when Qiao Yifan and his team had sent them the fine notices at the end of the semester). And, of course, there were the new students and faculty who either walked around the huge library like little lost deer or like kids in a candy store.
The cute guy in Qiao Yifan’s line looked like he was doing a bit of both. Qiao Yifan had been watching him since he’d first entered the line nearly twenty minutes ago. Even if it was the first day of classes, the line wasn’t that long; but the young man kept letting anyone who seemed like they were in a hurry in front of him. He also kept trying to brush the curls out of his face with the back of his arm despite carrying a stack of books tall enough to possibly break his back. It was kind of adorable.
Qiao Yifan really hoped he was at least a grad student — not just because he felt creepy at the idea of checking out one of the undergrads, but also, the man was way over undergraduate student book limit. Qiao Yifan hated being the one to tell someone they needed to put some of their books back.
Qiao Yifan waved over the young woman next in line and started checking out her books, but his attention was still focused on the cute young man a few people behind her in line. He’d given up on brushing the curls out of his eyes with his hand and was now trying to blow them out of his face.
Oh what Qiao Yifan would give to reach out a hand and help him along with that…
“Ahem,” the young woman coughed, and Qiao Yifan startled back to attention. “Can I have my ID back, please?”
Qiao Yifan could feel his cheeks heating up. “Oh, um, sorry about that,” he said, handing the woman her ID.
The woman huffed, stuffed the ID back in her purse, picked up her stack of books and left.
Qiao Yifan could vaguely hear Su Mucheng and Tang Rou snickering behind him, but he pointedly ignored them and focused on helping the next few people in line.
He couldn’t keep his heart from thundering in his chest, though, when it was the cute man’s turn to check out his books.
Please don’t be an undergrad, please don’t be an undergrad, Qiao Yifan silently chanted as the man walked towards the circulation desk.
The man plopped his giant stack of books in front of Qiao Yifan and combed his hands through his hair. He had really nice hands.
“May I see your ID?” Qiao Yifan stuck out his hand, and the man unlooped the lanyard holding his ID off of his neck and handed it over. Qiao Yifan quickly inspected it.
Gao Yingjie
Faculty
Nice. Very nice.
“Did you find everything you needed?” Qiao Yifan asked automatically as he scanned the ID and started checking out the large stack of plant-themed books.
“Well, actually…” Gao Yingjie scratched the back of his head and looked behind him. “There was one book that showed up as available online, but I didn’t see it on the shelves. I’d really love to have it for my lecture today if possible, but I know you all are busy so I understand if it’s not.”
The book was most likely currently being read by someone in the library or had been accidentally misshelved after someone picked it up and tried to put it back. Looking for it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Normally, Qiao Yifan would just say that (and if he was feeling snarky he might even remark that if the faculty didn’t wait right until the last minute, they could always put a book on hold, and the staff would find it and set it aside for them). Right now, though, all Qiao Yifan wanted was to scour the entire library in search of this book and watch the smile that bloomed on Gao Yingjie’s face when he presented it to him.
“Our Yifan is the best at finding books, aren’t you Yifan?” A voice said, and Qiao Yifan looked over his shoulder to see the head librarian, Ye Xiu, standing behind him.
Qiao Yifan was definitely blushing now. Had he been that obvious?
“What book are you looking for if you don’t mind me asking?” Ye Xiu asked.
“The third edition of Lin Jie’s A Beginner’s Guide to Plant Identification. ”
Ye Xiu sucked air through his teeth with a grimace and said, “Oh yeah, that’s a little book, easy to miss.” Then turning to Qiao Yifan he said, “Should be in the biology section. It’s got a green cover.”
Gao Yingjie looked impressed.
Qiao Yifan was used to it by now, but anyone who wasn’t familiar with their head librarian always got a shock at how well he remembered all of the books in the library. Most librarians had a good sense of the books in their specialization, but Ye Xiu had a map of the entire library in his head. He’d long since been dubbed the ‘library encyclopedia’, and 99% of the time it was faster to just ask him where a certain book was rather than try to look it up in their online catalog.
“It’s my turn to sit at the circulation desk anyway,” Tang Rou said, gently tipping the back of Qiao Yifan’s chair so he was forced to stand up. It wasn’t Tang Rou’s turn to sit at the circulation desk until Qiao Yifan went on his lunch break in thirty minutes, and Qiao Yifan was both grateful and embarrassed at the lengths his coworkers were willing to go in order to help his sorry dating life.
“We can leave your books here for now,” Qiao Yifan said as he moved the giant stack of books back behind the desk.
***
“So, um, you teach here?” Qiao Yifan asked, somewhat stupidly, as they made their way to the elevators across the lobby. Gao Yingjie had just said he was borrowing the book for his lecture. Of course he taught here.
Gao Yingjie averted his gaze and fiddled with the lanyard around his neck. Qiao Yifan tried not to stare at his illegally beautiful fingers. “Yeah, it’s my first faculty position, and I’m beyond nervous if it isn’t painfully obvious.”
“I’d be more worried if you weren’t a little nervous,” Qiao Yifan said as he pressed the elevator up button. “I’m sure you’ll do great, Professor Gao.”
“Thank you. And, um, you can just call me Yingjie.”
Qiao Yifan’s heart fluttered when Gao Yingjie looked up at him with the world’s softest smile and extended a hand.
“I’m Qiao Yifan, but please just call me Yifan,” Qiao Yifan said as he moved to shake Gao Yingjie’s hand. Electricity zipped up his arm when their fingers touched, and he stood there holding Gao Yingjie’s hand in a mezmorized daze. After a few moments, Gao Yingjie cleared his throat and retracted his hand. He resumed playing with his lanyard as he studied the closed elevator door with pink cheeks.
Awkward. Qiao Yifan’s face burned, and wondered if he should apologize or if that would only make things worse. The air was heavy as they waited and waited for the notoriously slow elevator. Though the library was always kept relatively cool, Qiao Yifan was starting to sweat; and he wracked his brain for something to say that wasn’t, ‘wow, you’re cute,’ or ‘you’ve got beautiful hands.’
“You like plants?” He finally blurted out, remembering the stack of books Gao Yingjie had been carrying earlier.
Gao Yingjie’s eyes crinkled into crescents, and he let out a laugh. “Well, I’m a botany professor, so yes, I very, very much love plants. They’re the absolute best — so much easier to deal with than people.”
Years of working at a university had taught Qiao Yifan that every professor had their niche — the topic that, once you got them started talking, they wouldn’t be able to shut up about. Qiao Yifan was fairly certain that he’d just found Gao Yingjie’s.
“You must be one of those faculty with a ton of plants in their office then, right?” Qiao Yifan asked. He was already starting to form a picture in his head of what Gao Yingjie’s office must look like.
“You have no idea!” Gao Yingjie laughed again, sending a wave of warmth through Qiao Yifan’s belly. He had a really nice smile. “My office is practically a jungle. And don’t get me started on my apartment — I’m pretty sure I have more plants than furniture in there right now.”
The elevator dinged, and they both stepped inside. Gao Yingjie had dropped his lanyard and was now gesturing dramatically with his hands as he told Qiao Yifan how he couldn’t for the life of him remember his new colleague’s names, so he referred to them by the type of plant they had in their office in his head. Never before had Qiao Yifan wished the elevator would go even slower than it already did, but right now he wanted nothing more than to keep listening to Gao Yingjie chatter on forever.
“How about you? Do you have any plants?” Gao Yingjie asked in the same way others might have asked whether Qiao Yifan had any kids or pets.
Qiao Yifan scratched the back of his head. “I do, but I’m no good with plants. I can’t even keep the cacti my mom got me for my birthday last year alive. I keep having to replace them every time she comes to visit.”
“Don’t feel too bad. Succulents are actually a lot harder to keep alive than people think,” Gao Yingjie said, and Qiao Yifan’s heart jumped to his throat when the young professor gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Hey, I could come and take a look sometime. Maybe give you some tips?”
A look of horror flashed across Gao Yingjie’s face. He quickly retracted his hand and gripped his lanyard so tight that Qiao Yifan thought the fabric might snap.
“God, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. You were just trying to make polite conversation, and here I am inserting myself into your personal life when you’re on the clock.”
“No, no you’re totally fine,” Qiao Yifan said as he gently touched the back of Gao Yingjie’s hand— the one that had his lanyard in death grip. “I’m all ears for tips on how to keep those things alive.”
Gao Yingjie released his poor lanyard and shot Qiao Yifan the biggest smile. Qiao Yifan’s heart raced as he started thinking of things far more inappropriate than inviting Gao Yingjie over to his place to look at his plants.
They were so close, and the elevator was so damn slow. If Qiao Yifan just leaned in a little more…
The elevator dinged, startling Qiao Yifan out of his daze, and he mentally scolded himself. He was at work right now, what was he thinking?
The silence swept over them again when they stepped off the elevator, but it wasn’t the same oppressive silence from before. They glided past the shelves and shelves of books towards the biology section, their shoulders bumping together as they passed a particularly narrow part of the corridor. There was nothing particularly exciting about searching for a lost book, but Qiao Yifan couldn’t seem to stop himself from smiling.
Once they reached the biology section, they squatted on the floor together and started skimming the shelves. Qiao Yifan found where the book was supposed to be shelved and noticed an odd gap in its place. Though that probably meant someone had grabbed the book and was reading it, he peeked between the gap just in case.
There it was, a small, green book shoved to the very back of the shelf. Qiao Yifan reached his hand back and pulled it out.
“Is this what you were looking for?” Qiao Yifan whispered as he handed the book to Gao Yingjie.
Gao Yingjie’s eyes went wide, and he looked down at the book in shock. “Please don’t tell me the book was here this entire time. I feel like an idiot.”
“You don’t know, maybe someone just finished reading it and put it back.” Though, given the way the book was shoved to the very back of the shelf, it was an unlikely explanation.
“Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to help me,” Gao Yingjie said. He hugged the book close to his chest, grinning at Qiao Yifan like he’d just hung the moon.
Qiao Yifan’s heart stopped at the way Gao Yingjie was looking at him, and blood roared in his ears as an image of leaning over to peck Gao Yingjie’s cheek flashed through his mind. Qiao Yifan pushed away the inappropriate urge. Besides the fact that he was at work, they’d only just met. Seriously, what was wrong with him today?
Qiao Yifan got to his feet and extended a hand to help Gao Yingjie up. “Let me finish checking you out,” he said, feeling himself blushing visibly as he tried to backtrack and correct himself to, “Let me finish checking your book out.”
Gao Yingjie stifled a laugh and tucked the book under his arm. “Please do,” he said as he latched onto Qiao Yifan’s hand and pulled himself to his feet.
Wow, wow, wow, was the cute professor flirting with him? The quiet library atmosphere only made the thundering of Qiao Yifan’s heartbeat that much more apparent to his ears, and he shivered at the way Gao Yingjie’s gaze was lingering on him.
They made it to the elevator somehow, though Qiao Yifan was too wound up in his not-appropriate-for-the-workplace thoughts to really process any of it. Once they were in the elevator, he took a breath and grasped for the last ounce of his professionalism.
“I’m about to take my lunch in a few minutes if you want to, I don’t know, grab a coffee or something?” Qiao Yifan said with a surprising amount of calm. “I’d love to hear your tips on keeping my cacti alive.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Gao Yingjie said, but his face fell as he looked down at his watch. “Oh shoot, I didn’t realize what time it was! My lecture is in five minutes. I’m going to be late to my own class on the first day!”
“Hey, it’ll be okay, lots of professors are fashionably late to their own classes,” Qiao Yifan said.
Gao Yingjie’s face fell further.
“But don’t worry,” Qiao Yifan quickly added, “Tang Rou is working the circulation desk right now and she can get that book checked out in less than a few seconds.”
The elevator doors opened, and they rushed across the lobby towards the circulation desk. Qiao Yifan used his librarian advantage to help Gao Yingjie cut to the front of the line. While Tang Rou helped Gao Yingjie get that last book checked out, Qiao Yifan grabbed Gao Yingjie’s other books from behind the desk.
“You sure you got it?” Qiao Yifan asked as he piled the books into Gao Yingjie’s arms. “I could walk with you and help you carry some of this–”
“No, no you’ve done enough already. Go eat your lunch, I’ll be okay! The lecture hall is only a few buildings away.”
Gao Yingjie thanked Qiao Yifan again for helping him out and walked off, despite Qiao Yifan’s protests.
Su Mucheng caught up to Qiao Yifan on his way back to the circulation desk and gave him a playful jab in the ribs with her elbow.
“So, when’s the wedding?”
“I was just helping him find a book!” Qiao Yifan said, though he knew his blush and dorky smile were completely giving him away. Some of the undergrads that Su Mucheng had been helping out were eying him curiously, which only made him blush more.
“Mhmm, sure you were,” Su Mucheng said with a knowing smile before continuing on her way.
It was when Qiao Yifan was walking to the break room for lunch that he saw a small book lying in the middle of the lobby. He went over to pick it up, slightly annoyed that everyone was walking around it like it didn’t exist instead of taking two seconds to return it to the circulation desk.
He stopped his internal grumbling immediately, though, when he picked up the book and saw the title on the cover.
Plants and Us by Ai Zhiwu
That was definitely one of the books Gao Yingjie had checked out earlier, but the young professor was probably already in class by now. Besides the fact that Qiao Yifan didn’t have time in his day to play delivery man, he didn’t want to make Gao Yingjie frazzled by showing up at his door while he was in the middle of class.
Per their protocol, he should check the book in and re-shelve it, but Qiao Yifan decided to hold on to it. He’d send Gao Yingjie an email that he had it once he was finished with his break.
Qiao Yifan’s heart swooned as he thought about getting to see Gao Yingjie again. He took the book to the break room and skimmed through it after scarfing down his lunch. Before long, he was completely absorbed in the book, and he found himself reading faster and faster in an attempt to get to the end before his break was over.
The book was a kind of self-help book composed of humorous anecdotes from the author about herself and her plants. He wondered what type of class this could be for — it didn’t seem like a typical biology textbook. Maybe he could ask Ye Xiu if he could shift his hours next semester and audit the class…
Qiao Yifan’s alarm sounded, telling him that it was time to go back to work. He exited the break room and returned to the public part of the library.
Qiao Yifan had fully intended to send Gao Yingjie an email as soon as he got to his computer, but he got roped into helping a first-year seminar class navigate the library’s online databases before he could sit down. A flurry of last minute requests followed, and Qiao Yifan hardly had time to get any of his regular tasks done, much less to send Gao Yingjie an email.
It hit him five minutes before his shift was over that he hadn’t even told Gao Yingjie about the book. He hoped the profesor hadn’t needed it for any of his lectures today.
It wasn’t the most professional decision, but Qiao Yifan really didn’t want to send Gao Yingjie an email now only for the professor to come by the library after Qiao Yifan had already left for the day. Instead, Qiao Yifan decided to look Gao Yingjie’s office number up in the directory and take the book to him in person. If Gao Yingjie wasn’t there, Qiao Yifan would just send him an email first thing the next morning.
***
When Qiao Yifan arrived at the Natural Sciences building, he was relieved to see the door to Gao Yingjie’s office was still open. Good. Gao Yingjie hadn’t left for the day yet.
Gao Yingjie was so immersed in his work that he didn’t notice when Qiao Yifan walked up to his door. Not wanting to disturb him, Qiao Yifan stood there a moment watching Gao Yingjie type something furiously fast. He glanced around the room, eyeing the row of potted plants on Gao Yingjie’s windowsill and the indoor trees on either side of Gao Yingjie’s desk. Gao Yingjie wasn’t kidding, he really did have an entire garden’s worth of plants in here.
Qiao Yifan’s gaze drifted to the bulletin board on the wall behind Gao Yingjie, and his heart leapt when he saw the small bi pride flag pinned next to his calendar. Qiao Yifan’s gut had told him Gao Yingjie might be into dudes— or at the very least that Gao Yingjie wouldn’t care if Qiao Yifan was— but it was always good to have a bit of extra confirmation.
When it looked like Gao Yingjie was finishing up with what he was typing, Qiao Yifan knocked softly on the doorframe. Gao Yingjie tilted his head up from his laptop screen to look at him.
“Yifan?” Gao Yingjie blinked, and then his eyes widened as if he’d suddenly remembered something. “Oh Yifan, you’re going to hate me. I already lost one of the books I checked out this morning. I’ve been looking everywhere and I still can’t find it, but don’t worry I’ll buy the library a brand new one–”
“Does the book happen to be Plants and Us by Ai Zhiwu?” Qiao Yifan asked as he held up the book for Gao Yingjie to see.
“Yeah, how did you…?”
“You dropped it in the library on your way out. Sorry, I only noticed it after you were already in class. I meant to shoot you an email, but the day got away from me so I just decided to bring it here.”
“You came all this way just to bring me this book? That’s really sweet of you. You didn’t have to go to that trouble.” Gao Yingjie looked so touched at the gesture that Qiao Yifan felt like a superhero. “Do you want to sit down? I’ll be finished with this in just a few minutes, and then can I maybe…take you out to eat? To say thank you?”
“Sure, I’d really like that,” Qiao Yifan said as he took a seat across from Gao Yingjie and set the book on the professor’s desk. “Although, I should really be the one treating you. We need to celebrate your first day!”
Gao Yingjie shook his head but didn’t say anything, he just turned his gaze back to his computer and continued working on whatever he’d been doing before. They were almost certainly going to fight over the bill later, which Qiao Yifan was absolutely fine with, because it meant there was a good chance they’d have to go out a second time to even the tab.
There were even more plants visible now that Qiao Yifan was inside of the office. On the bookshelf in the corner, small plants in colorful pots were interspersed between books about plants and photographs of Gao Yingjie with…even more plants. Three degrees from Weicao University were framed and hung up above the bookshelf, and Qiao Yifan’s eyes narrowed when he saw that Gao Yingjie finished his bachelor’s in the same year as him.
Was this really their first time meeting, or was it simply that they’d never noticed each other before? Qiao Yifan had only gone to Weicao for one year before transferring schools, but he had been a biology major there. Maybe he and Gao Yingjie had been in some of the same lectures…
Though, even if they had been in the same classes, perhaps it was for the best that they were only really meeting now. Gao Yingjie was exactly the type of guy undergraduate Qiao Yifan would have obsessed over to the point of making terrible decisions. If he’d known of Gao Yingjie’s existence then, he probably would have forced himself to continue with a major that made him miserable in the hopes that they might get the chance to sit next to each other. He might have even done something really stupid, like attempting to take Professor Wang’s advanced biochemistry class even after he’d nearly flunked Biology 101.
It was easy to fantasize about the past and wonder how things could have been different if he’d just sat on the other side of the room in one of his lectures, but Qiao Yifan’s gut told him that getting to know Gao Yingjie now was the best outcome for both of them.
“And done!” Gao Yingjie shut his laptop and stretched his hands over his head. “Thanks for waiting; I was in the zone and I didn’t want to lose my train of thought. So, Yifan, what type of food are you in the mood for?”
Qiao Yifan was still kind and conscientious, but he wasn’t the same overly-cautious man from his early twenties. Today’s Qiao Yifan wasn’t afraid to take advantage of an opportunity if he saw one — even if it meant taking a bit of a risk.
“Actually, I was thinking…do you want to come over to my place?” Qiao Yifan’s heart pounded in his chest as he spoke, but he didn’t back down. Even if his brain told him this was taking things five steps too fast, it didn’t feel fast. It felt right, and the smile on Gao Yingjie’s face told him the other man was thinking the same thing. “I make a pretty mean tomato risotto, and maybe after you can take a look at my plants?”
“Oh wow, that sounds amazing!” Gao Yingjie exclaimed. “It’s kind of embarrassing, but I’ve only been eating takeout since I moved here. I don’t know the first thing about cooking, and the only pots I own are for plants.”
“It’s settled then, my place it is!”
“Ah, but only if it’s not too much trouble. Risotto sounds complicated,” Gao Yingjie said as he started packing up his things. “I’m plenty happy with takeout if it’s easier.”
“No trouble at all! I love cooking for people, and risotto isn’t that difficult to make once you get the hang of things. Hey– how about I teach you? We can do it together. Maybe by the end of the night you’ll be a risotto pro.”
“Well, I hope your smoke detector’s working. I kind of have a history when it comes to stoves…”
“Don’t sweat it, you’re going to do great,” Qiao Yifan said as he lifted the small stack of books out of Gao Yingjie’s arms so the professor could fish his keys out of his pocket and lock up his office. “You have me as your teacher, after all.”
Gao Yingjie grinned. “I’ll leave myself in your hands then, Qiao Laoshi.”
Campus was quiet as they walked side-by-side to the bus stop across the street. The chaos of the first day of the semester had come to a close, but Qiao Yifan knew the feeling burning within him now was only the first spark of something wonderful to come.