She hums a tiny little tune under her lips, similar to the music that he hummed under his breath when he thought she wasn't listening. It was a catchy song, if she were to be honest, the tune sneaking in right under her radar until she was suddenly humming it all the damn time.

As with most recent things, she blamed him for it. Not that everything he did was a bad thing, of course. Her recent coffee fixes were more than enough evidence to the contrary. A cup of coffee whenever she goes into the library, maybe a couple more while she lets the hours go by...

... She blinks, carefully putting away her earphones before glancing over her left shoulder. Her friend gives her a thin smile, sliding a piping hot of coffee on her desk. "Here you go, princess. One cup of coffee, since you seem keen on missing dinner by that much."

With a wan smile, she accepts the coffee, blowing into it for a few seconds before taking a sip. It doesn't take a second for her to taste the sugar, and her face to shift into a grimace. "... Shit. Shia, did you put sugar on this?"

"Just two spoons. Why?"

"I–" She sets the coffee aside for now, fully planning to just down it all in one gulp later. "I think I told you that I liked my coffee black. Did I?"

Her friend's brows furrow. "Uh, no. You didn't say anything about liking your coffee without any sugar on it. Or milk, for that matter. Is, everything fine with your taste there, princess?"

"My taste buds are perfectly fine, thank you very much." She drawls, taking one last look at her scrawl of notes before tabling it for the evening. "Though... hm. Guess that he's the only one that I told about it so far."

"That librarian?" Her friend replies, her expression flat, "The one that you asked to bunk with till exam week's over?"

"... Hey, give me a break." She whines, hands coming up to her face in embarrassment. Out of all the times to bring the matter up, it had to be here? "Neighbors were banging again, and there were classes, then I had to work for a little while–"

"By neighbors banging, you mean–"

"Yeah." She grumbles. "Maybe they're trying to make another child or something, but I don't really need to hear it while I'm trying to get some damn sleep, you know?"

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Her friend gives a smile and a shake of the head. "You know you could always just put on your earphones and sleep the rest of the night away, right?"

"What, this?" She held them up. "I just got this from my last paycheck. And I'm sure as hell not going to use them to sleep, since I doubt that I could buy another one without breaking out the bank, you know what I'm saying?"

Her friend stares.

"No." Her friend admits a few seconds later, shaking her head before giving her a cross look. "Even then, you could always take a few days off from work, you know. Just say that exams are coming up – I'm sure they'll be able to handle it."

"Uh, what if they fire me for that?" She asks with furrowed brows, "I'm pretty sure that they can fire me for that."

"When you're giving advanced notice? And paid leave exists?" Her friend shoots back with wide eyes, "You know if they're not doing that, you can take it to a local labor union or something."

"I..." She trails off, mulling over the thought for a bit before turning her gaze towards the cup of steaming coffee. With a sigh, she snatches the cup and begins gulping it down, stomaching the rush of sugar down her veins with a stoic mien. A second or two passes before she draws back with a sigh, "... Yeah, I guess I'll take it up to my co-workers tomorrow. Come with me?"

"You're going to that library right after, yeah?" She gives a slow nod in response to her friend's question, watching them huff right after. "Then sure, I'm going with you. Someone needs to stop you from accidentally coming onto that poor sod, after all."

"Oi!" She snaps, feeling the heat creep onto her cheeks, "That wasn't what I meant!"

"Sure, sure..." Her friend sniffs, "Ignore your perfectly-fine friend over here..."

She rolls her eyes, moving over towards the bed that her friend had set up a few hours ago. "Well, I'm off to sleep. You can continue your drama when I wake up tomorrow."

"Oh. Ah..." Her friend trails off, "Sorry about it, princess?"

She huffs, throwing herself on the bed and closing her eyes. It didn't take long before she was dozing off, her mind swept into the land of dreams...

... Along with the peculiar scent of musty books and coffee.