Chapter 30 - School Library

In the end, the walk to the library did not end quietly. Ichiba the cheerful little girl couldn't stand the silence between them and decided to engage Takaki in conversation. Ryousuke paid no attention to what they were saying. He just focused his mind on walking as fast as possible so that he could arrive soon.

"Ohhh, so the library is here huh~?", Takaki's voice came back.

They finally arrived in front of the library building. Located next to the old building was the library building which looked both large and well-maintained. It took ten minutes to walk to this place even after Ryousuke walked quickly. The school area was too big for its own good...

Feeling a little tired, not because of the long walk, but because of the man beside him, Ryousuke replied with a "yes".

"big" Una expressed her impression. Looking at the library building she saw for the first time. Well, not just her. Actually, everyone here had also just seen this library today. Ryousuke happened to remember its location while reading the school guide, but he too had not seen it in person.

"Indeed!, it looks like we can find the story we need here with many choices. I don't know how many books there are inside, but looking at a building this big, I guess it's a lot" Ichiba, with large round eyes looked on in amazement. Although the impression she gave sounded both stupid and innocent.

Ryousuke walked forward towards the entrance. He swiftly opened the door and let the others enter first. "Of course. It's also called a library. There must be a lot of books in it, let's go in quickly"

Inside, of course, there were rows and rows of bookshelves. So many that even the second floor was filled with them. All the bookshelves were filled to the brim with books, and if he had to think about what Ichiba had said earlier, there were probably more than 10,000 books here just from a glance.

Everything was eerily quiet. With no one in sight, somehow the atmosphere felt soothing...

"uhh... I'm scared. Is there no one here?" Ichiba asked. It seemed that for a cheerful girl like her, a quiet place like this even scared the girl.

"Maybe, how about we go to the bookkeeper's place?"

"Sounds good. Let's go."

Una suggested going to the bookkeeper. Someone whose job was to lend books, give recommendations and tell the location of the bookstore that students were looking for. They walked and saw that there was indeed someone sitting and reading a book. Oh, it turns out after looking again, there are two people. One was the girl reading the book, and the other was an old lady sleeping on a chair.

'Wait, isn't she...?'

Looking closer, it turned out that the librarian he saw seemed to be a familiar person. She was a beautiful girl with pink braided hair, aka Midori Kawajima.

"Ah, she's someone I know. Guys, come with me." he directed his three friends towards Kawajima's place.

Kawajima, unaware of their presence, seemed to be very focused on the book she was currently reading. Even when the four of them had arrived right in front of her, she still showed no sign of noticing their presence.

"uhum!"

Takaki coughed loudly, trying to wake her up. Which indeed proved successful.

"H-huaa?!! "

Kawajima was startled. She almost threw the book she was holding in her hand. She was reading this romantic novel, which had currently reached the part where the girl in the book was being held captive by the villain. She was so focused on reading the story that she was surprised when suddenly there were four people standing in front of her.

"wa-wa?!" she tried to say something, but her tongue was bitten off and she stopped speaking. Feeling embarrassed, showing it in front of them. 'ahh... Don't look at me like that. Eh?'

"Toru-san!" she startledly noticed someone she recognized among them.

"Hello, Kawajima-san. Sorry to interrupt your reading time, haha". Ryousuke awkwardly raised his hand, feeling sadly guilty for startling the girl. Although technically, it was not his fault, but Takaki's.

"ahh, un. It's alright. Toru-san, and his friends? U-umm... What are you guys doing here? Are you guys maybe looking for some book?"

Ryousuke, after looking at Kawajima who seemed to have seen the situation, introduced his group. "ah, yes. Introduce. They're my clubmates from the drama club, this little girl named Sakura Ichiba, the girl beside her Una Kazuki, and that guy over there Takaki. The four of us are here to look for novels that might be used as stories for our club drama later. Sorry to bother you, but can you help us look for it? "

"Hello! Greetings, Kawajima-san! I'm Sakura Ichiba! And by the way, I'm not a little girl!"

"Una Kazuki. Greetings, and yes. Don't mind this girl, she's an arrogant little girl"

"Takaki, hello!"

"Unaaaaa!"

"a-haha, I see... Okay. A story suitable for staging in a drama, huh? Just a moment"

"Okay."

Ichiba, Una and Takaki started walking towards the large reading room on the first floor. They sat down after Ryousuke told them to do whatever they liked while waiting for Kawajima's results.

It seems Ichiba was angry with what Una said earlier for calling her a little girl. So they were currently mocking each other as usual with Takaki also interfering. Well, never mind them.

"How is it, Kawajima-san. Found it? " he asked Kawajima, who was currently turning the pages of a fairly thick book. Maybe a book about book storage locations or something? Well, it seemed like it.

"Yes, I found it. Books like that are on the second floor of bookcase D-12 and the first floor of bookcase B-10 to B-13. I'll show you the place" Kawajima said. She closed the thick book.

'What? D-12? B-10? Surely this library has a complicated book coordination system, it seems'

"Fine, I'll leave it to you. Hey you guys! Come on, we'll go" After that, the five of them walked towards the right room on the first floor. And the labels B-10, B-11, and so on were visible in the bookshelves they saw.

"This is the place. There are four bookshelves that contain stories suitable for drama. So please choose as you please" Kawajima explained. Pointing at the four bookshelves lined up.

Kawajima continued, "Although, there are some more on the second floor. Do you guys want to see those over there too?"

"Ahh, I'm pass. I'll just look here" Una raised her hand.

"Me too" Ichiba followed suit.

"Then I'll look here too" Takaki also decided.

Seeing that his three friends decided to choose stories around this shelf, he felt it would be a waste if he didn't look at what was on the second floor. Maybe there were better books there.

So, at that moment he decided to look at the books on the second floor. Walking with Kawajima, he climbed the stairs and reached the second floor.

"This is the place, Toru-san. This bookshelf" Kawajima pointed at the bookshelf on the right.

"ah, okay. I guess I'll look for it, then" He replied.

Without further delay, he searched for books with stories that he thought might be good. He started from the top of the left side, continuing to the right in order until the bottom.

"I'll help you look for it, Toru-san. I think looking for it together will be faster than alone, right?" While he was searching, Kawajima suddenly said in her small voice. Offering her help. Ryousuke had no reason to refuse, so the two of them spent their time skimming through each book. Looking at the summaries.

----------

"Ah... They seem to be leaving."

Returning from the second floor, he saw that his three friends were no longer anywhere in the library. They had left... Damn.

"y-yes. It's already 6pm, so I guess they've gone home?"

"I see. Well, that's okay."

Ryousuke and Kawajima were so engrossed in their activities that they didn't notice the time passing. When they realized, it was suddenly six o'clock in the afternoon and the others seemed to have gone home.

In the end, they both got a lot of potentially good books and they had a hard time choosing which one was the best. So, they decided to end it with a random selection. They were all good anyway.

"That oba-chan, is she a library attendant? " Ryousuke pointed at a lady who was fast asleep.

They were currently about to pick up Kawajima's bag at the clerk's desk to go home together. But while Ryousuke was there, he suddenly remembered the lady who was still fast asleep in her chair. She's not dead, right?

"Ah! This is Inaka-san. Yes, she's the library attendant here. In a moment, I'll wake her up", Kawajima replied. While walking towards the old lady. She then patted her back a few times gently, until Inaka-san woke up.

"Good afternoon, Inaka-san. It's closing time for the library" Kawajima explained to Inaka-san.

"Ohhh, I see. As always, thank you, Midori-chan. I'll be closing in a bit, so you can go home first. Are you going home with your boyfriend?" Inaka-san kindly said. While also pointing at Ryousuke who was standing behind Kawajima, finally realizing his existence.

"Ah! N-no, he, anooo h-he is... "

"We're friends. Good afternoon, Inaka-san. I'm Ryousuke Toru, Kawajima-san's friend"

Ryousuke didn't want to build up unnecessary misunderstandings, even though he didn't hate it. So, he quickly explained the relationship between the two of them.

Inaka-san also seemed to understand. So she nodded, and after that the two of them said goodbye to her to go home.

...

"Thanks for the help today Kawajima-san, you were very helpful"

On the way home, Ryousuke emphatically thanked the girl beside him. Right now they could probably already be called close friends. After all, with them exchanging books with each other, as well as exchanging stories about that, it made them even closer.

"It's fine. I'm happy to do it too. " Kawajima replied.

'So, I guess Kawajima is the librarian huh? That's a bit surprising.'

"Oh yes. I was actually a little surprised by your presence in the library. Why are you in the library as a librarian?"

Being a library attendant, especially in her first year, this seemed strange to Ryousuke. Wasn't there still a second or third year who could do it?

"Un. Actually, this is a routine task performed by the book club. Today is our gathering day for the book club, and I'm... Assigned as the library guard" Kawajima said. I see, so this is a task for the book club huh. That's a new thing.

"...I see. Are you having fun? I mean, Um, by entering the book club. Did you have fun there?"

Ryousuke knew that Kawajima was from the book club, of course. But he had never seen her seen together with anyone else but her classmates. What was her name again, Mayu? ? If he's not mistaken. So, she was curious if Kawajima really enjoyed being in the book club.

Hearing his question, Kawajima paused for a moment and her face began to change. "O-of course! A-ahaha, I'm... Happy. Being in the book club"

Ryousuke clearly saw the change, but he didn't understand what was happening. So he just replied,

"I see, that's good"

Although, he felt that... There was something wrong with her.