She satisfies with her life, thus far. She has almost everything, wealth, beauty and cleverness, those things that have been in high demand from the population all over the world. She even has a loving family that always shows their care to her and friends that display their affection towards her. In one word, her life is ‘perfect’.
That is a life belonged to a girl named Sheryl.
Perhaps she is perfect, but in some way, she is lack of something. Love. Or should she say no? For she has love from family and friends? She doesn’t realise something; that she is lack of love from her soul mate, or a conceivably life partner, but she is too busy with her own ‘perfect’ life that she is unable to access to that kind of love. She doesn’t even care for a second about that.
But God is kind, fair and just; she will be able to access to that love on a day God has already promised her.
Being a clever girl she is, she goes to the public library every evening after her school hour ends. That has been her place, her heaven because the environment is so congenial to do her homework and study. However, that day, somebody already sat at her usual spot, thus she has to choose another spot to get on with her work. She chooses a place at the far end of the library, a corner that is quite dark and quiet. The solemn expression shown by the corner creates a mysterious yet amiable place for her to date her homework. She smiles to herself and walks towards the corner without wasting any more time.
As she sits on the chair and puts her belongings on the table, she notices newspapers rack beside her. Thinking that it might be a better idea to educate herself with the latest issue around the world before continue with her own homework, she takes one newspaper and starts to read one by one page. She reaches the middle of the newspaper after a while and she finds a box, no, several filled and unfilled boxes with number 1 to 9. She immediately knows the thing; Sudoku. She always plays Sudoku when she was in primary, but it has been quite a long time since the last time she finished one.
She is attracted to the Sudoku and immediately takes out her pencil and gives her brain some fun activities to work on instead of her heavy Chemistry and Maths homework. Well, at first, the boxes are quite interesting to her, but after she managed to fills in a few boxes with numbers, it becomes more difficult. She sighs and clutches her pencil and tries again and this time, harder. She believes she can solve the puzzle. But after 15 minutes, she only managed to get another three boxes filled with numbers. She sighs again but this time, defeated.
“I better do my homework!” she says to herself and opens up her Chemistry book. Sadly, she loses all her mood after fails to finish the Sudoku and that affects her homework so much. She goes home with some question left unanswered because everything is getting harder for her.
The next day, she comes again, with homework and assignment piles up in her arms. She greets the librarian cheerfully.
“Jinki-shi...evening!” she says.
“Owh Sheryl...evening! Something good happened today? You look so happy,” says Jinki with his always-sweet-and-enchanting smile.
“Well...I scored well in my class today. The teacher was happy with my quiz marks,” she says happily.
“That’s good! Your usual spot?” asks Jinki whether she would like sit at her usual spot.
“No, thanks. I start to fall in love with my new spot,” she says.
“Alright! Good luck with your...erm...assignments!” he says after seeing piles of homework in her hands. She nods and gives her smile again before she moves to the spot she sat yesterday.
As usual, the place is rather dark and quiet; create a very mysterious and serious expression in the calm library. However, she is very happy with such setting so that it will be more enjoyable for her to do her homework and assignments. She puts those heavy books on the table and spots other thing on the table. The newspaper she read yesterday is right there in front of her. Feeling challenged by yesterday’s Sudoku, she opens up the respective page to continue the unfinished one. However, she won’t get the chance.
The Sudoku is done...by unknown. Well, that’s perfectly normal. Perhaps after she used the place yesterday, somebody came and sat there and probably solved the puzzle she left undone. That’s a good thing anyway. But being a smart girl, she can’t help but to feel defied. She takes today’s newspaper and sits down for another long while doing the Sudoku.
First number, second number, third and so on and so forth, until the puzzle getting more challenging for her. Again, she faces difficulties, but it is not just yet for her to give up. She struggles again looking at every angle in the boxes, but fails to fill up the boxes. She sighs in defeat.
“I’ll continue this tomorrow,” she says while pushes the newspaper aside. She starts doing her homework and enjoys the moment she has.
She goes home that day with mixed emotions, as she remembers the Sudoku is calling to be solved. When she reaches home, then only she realises that she left her History assignment on the library’s table, untouched. She forgets to research on that and she puts all the blame to the Sudoku puzzle that makes herself too absorbed in it.
So, the next day, as usual she comes again to do her homework. She hopes that her assignment sheet is still there, untouched. She pushes the door with homework in her hands, this time, less than yesterday.
“Hey Sheryl!” this time Jinki greets her first.
“Hey Jinki!” she says.
“You left your homework assignment on the table yesterday. Together with all your research there. So, I put it at one corner of the table and make sure that nobody touch it,” says Jinki with his smile.
“Research?” she asks. From what she remembers, she didn’t do any research yesterday. She completely forgot that she have that History assignment.
“Yes, all the books that you took from the shelves, the books that you chose to use for your assignment?” he says all in questioning tone.
She thinks for a while before answering Jinki.
“Err...well...yeah...thanks anyway, for taking care of them,” she says while in her mind, there are lot of things being played again. She walks to her now usual spot and she sees some books and her assignment sheet in the table. She checks the sheet and the books, whether all of the books are available for her research.
“Well...Early civilisation...Mesopotamia...Ancient Egypt...Indus...Hwang Ho...Development of Civilisation...Rom...Athens...China...India...Wow!!! They are all here,” she exclaims. That is far from good, perhaps bombastic.
“Who did this for me?” she asks herself and she spots yesterday’s newspaper. Thinking about the unfinished Sudoku, she forgets her own question and opens up the newspaper to the respective page. Again, the Sudoku is solved.
“Whoa!!! Seems like everything is solved for me. Heaven!” exclaims her in a very bright mood. Thus, she sits down and takes another newspaper for the Sudoku.
“I’m going to finish this,” she says with spirit like a warrior in the battlefield. But, the same thing happens. She fails to finish the Sudoku and at last focuses back to her homework, leaving the Sudoku unsolved.
“Perhaps I need time to warm up with the Sudoku. It has been a long time since I finished one,” she says, comforting herself.
Thus, she goes on with her homework. She does one after another and finishes all her Chemistry questions and it is time for Maths. Unfortunately, the world wants to be a bit cruel to her. She feels the difficulties in solving some of the Complex Number questions and that is it. She closes her book and sighs.
“I thought everything is going to be good for me today. Somebody did my History research and even solved my Sudoku. But, now Maths...I’m already in hell. My cleverness seems to be a little bit down this while,” she says while scratching her head.
Thinking that it might be the best for her to go home, she packs all her things and dumps all of them in her bag. Then, she walks to the counter and shows her card member to Jinki, the librarian.
“I want to borrow these History books for my reference,” she tells him with weariness in her voice.
“Hey, what happened? You’re changing your mood very quickly,” says Jinki while scanning her member card. Then, his hands swiftly move the books for scanning, like a real expert.
“Nothing...just some usual homework that stress me out,” she says while forcing a smile. Jinki nods.
“Here...your books. It is due next two weeks. So, take your time, okay?” he says while giving his brightest smile to her, and that helps cheering her up.
“Oh...thanks Jinki. For the books, and for the smile too,” she says and this time giving her genuine smile. Then, she walks out from the library.
Again, she forgets another book, this time, Maths. There are several questions left unsolved in that book, and that just makes her mood unpredictable for the next day. Although she is not scolded by her teacher, she feels the guilt overwhelming inside her. She never failed to hand in her work on time.
“Jinki! I left my Maths book on the usual table today. Have you seen it?” she asks.
“Oh yes! It is on the table, untouched. Don’t worry too much, will you?” asks Jinki. She is not answering Jinki, but straight away runs towards the table. Luckily, the book is still there.
“Shoot!!! I still have some questions unanswered,” she says while roughly turning to the respective page.
The next thing she sees is the most shocking. Another paper is attached to that page with solution for the question that she didn’t manage to answer yesterday.
“Oh my God! This is absolutely miracle! Who is the angel that you sent to me for this?” she says only loud enough for herself to hear that.
She thinks about it all over again, there must be someone that had helped her with her homework including her History assignment yesterday. Then, she remembers the Sudoku. She quickly pulls yesterday’s newspaper from the rack and clumsily get to the middle page, where the Sudoku usually be.
“Oh God! Not again!” she says when she finds out all the boxes are filled with numbers. The Sudoku is solved.
“I really want to know who this angel is...” she says while making quite a perfect plan to investigate this person.
“I must stay a bit late today,” she says.
So, as she planned, she stays until late in the evening, but at different table. She purposely leaves her Maths homework undone and as usual, the half-done Sudoku on the table. After 15 minutes from her usual going-home time, she finds out a guy walking to her usual spot and sits down on the exact chair she used to sit.
The guy is incredibly handsome, with a perfect guy look. He has big eyes, with dark brown iris that is very soft and delicate. He also has dark brown hair as the crown on his head, which makes him look more adorable in her eyes. The sharp features of his face just add to his description of a perfect guy. The way he behaves, very cool and relax, augmenting the nervous feeling inside her.
At the moment, Sheryl knows that she already falls for him just for the first look. He suits her ideal type of guy.
“I thought the angel is a human, but God really sends me an angel. Maybe he is a fallen angel,” she whispers to herself.
The guy puts all his belongings on the table and quickly grabs the newspaper to read. He reads it and when he reaches the middle page, he takes a look at the Sudoku. Suddenly, he shakes his head and smiles adorably. That smiles, almost kills Sheryl who is melting of the best sight she had ever seen in her whole lifetime.
The guy fills up the box and it doesn’t require him five minutes to do that. Three minutes is more than enough for him. The skill makes her flattered to the maximum point if ever there is a parabolic graph drawn for her happiness. After that, she sees him doing his homework. He finished those very easily, although sometimes he holds his head perhaps because of the difficulty of doing the subject, he is still perfectly awesome.
When he is done with his homework, he takes the Maths book that she left on purpose and turns page by page. He notices the unsolved question she left, and again, he shakes his head and smiles widely. She almost melts again.
“What the...this guy...really...is he really exists?” she whispers again. She keeps looking at him until he packs his thing and disappears.
The usual things continue. She keeps leaving her unsolved Sudoku and undone homework for the guy to finish it. She keeps doing that on purpose until it becomes a habit. Sometimes, when she doesn’t even have homework, she let alone some random questions she picks from books around the library to be given to the guy. She realises that the guy is a genius one, and another thing she is really sure about; she is madly in love with him. The strange new habit of hers continues for one month until she decides to confess.
9x – 7i > 3 (3x – 7u)
That is the equation that she decides to leave for him that day. That is...some sort of confession. Perhaps, when he solves it, he will notice her message.
He comes again that day, looking a bit tired, maybe because of school. But still, he keeps on looking for the Sudoku. He takes it and fills up the box in a very short time. That is not something strange when it comes to him anyway. He possibly doesn’t have any homework that day, because he just takes out a book and reads it. If she is not wrong, it is not even five minutes when he suddenly falls asleep while reading. She chuckles in disappointment, happily seeing the guy’s calm face while inside, she is screaming for her question to be answered.
It could be he can hear her request, because he wakes up and does all the questions she left on the table, including the last and the most important one. She almost screams out of joy, but thinking of the silent and serious place as library, she stifles her screaming. She waits until he goes home, and she quickly runs to the table.
She picks up the book and turns to the respective page. Oh no! He does it, definitely. She is not yet blind and can confirm it but she is not even having any sight problems and she can confirm that the guy doesn’t say anything as reply to the answer of the last question. She sighs.
“Maybe...he doesn’t love me back. How can I be so stupid? That guy won’t love me until he knows me. He might even date other girls out there. How can I be waiting so hopelessly here?” she asks herself. She goes home and before she sleeps that night, she hopes that she will forget everything that happen.
However, she fails. The routine continues. She goes to the library as usual, except that the day is a sad one for her. She sits down, not even touching the Sudoku, but keeps staring at the solution he gave her yesterday.
9x – 7i > 3 (3x – 7u)
9x – 7i > 9x -21u
7i > 21u
i < 3u
“I love you...” someone says behind her. She is surprised and quickly closes the book, not letting anyone to see it. Perhaps the person who says it knows it already, but not other people. It is too embarrassing. Yet, she turns around only to receive another shock that almost pulls her heart string until it is almost broken.
“...”
“I love you,” he says it again, now clearer. She couldn’t move. The guy in front of her...is the same guy that did the question in her hands.
“W-what? Love? Me?” she asks while trembling like a leaf, pointing towards herself.
“Yes, Sheryl...I love you. I mean it. I’m sorry I didn’t reply anything yesterday. I just...want to say it first...and...wait for your reply...” he says while looking on the floor.
“Why?” she is absolutely happy, but she just wants to reconfirm, and reconfirm and another reconfirmation.
“I...don’t know. I just love you the moment I did the first Sudoku you left half unsolved,” he tends to speak very fast now that he is nervous.
She is totally falls into a state of shock after hearing answer from him. She stares at him in disbelief. She just wants to stare at him again and again.
“I know this is totally absurd...but I just love you the way you are...not because of your physical...not be-”
“May I know your name?” she asks. This time he looks at her right into her eyes. She almost faint, but she resists to stay in the state of conscious.
“Kim...Jonghyun...” he answers very slowly and now very timid, and behaving just like a kid that is being asked for name. She suddenly laughs at him for behaving adorably.
“Kim Jonghyun! I love you too!” she says as cheerful as she could be, avoiding the slight awkwardness between them.
“I...really?” he asks.
“Yes...thanks all this while. You helped me with my homework and thanks a lot for the Sudoku,” she says.
“Thanks for the...equation,” he says.
And that is how Maths bonded them together.
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