After a while, Aizono Momo and Shiroi Shiori walked into the Literature Club room together.
When Momo saw Kuroba Akira, she froze for a moment, then sneaked a glance at Shiori beside her to see her reaction.
She was a little afraid Shiori would blow up like yesterday, maybe even throw her shoe again. It was Momo's first time seeing Shiori that angry, and it had startled her.
As for herself, Momo didn't really have any bad feelings toward Akira. Yesterday, she'd been surprised when he grabbed her hand, but when he invited her to draw light novel illustrations, she'd felt a bit tempted. After all, having her art become part of an official work was something she'd always dreamed of.
She just hadn't expected Shiori to dislike him that much… Maybe Shiori thought Kuroba-kun was lying?
But Kuroba-kun was someone Hitomi-chan had brought in… so he should be trustworthy, right?
Momo honestly couldn't figure it out. But she had enough self-awareness to know she wasn't good at reading people, so she decided to stop guessing and just leave the judgment to Hitomi-chan and Shiori.
What surprised her, though, was that Shiroi Shiori didn't lash out this time. She simply wore her usual stone-faced expression, set down her bag, and asked as she glanced at the pile of books on the table—
"…Were you two organizing the books?"
Akira had only pulled the manga and novels he wanted to borrow from the shelf—he hadn't put them in his bag yet. He still intended to get the owner's permission first; just walking off with them would be way too rude.
But instead of answering Shiori's question, he turned to Momo, who was still standing by the door, and smiled warmly.
"Oh, Aizono-san, perfect timing. Can I take these manga home to read? I promise I won't damage or dirty them."
"Y-Yes! Please feel free to use me—"
Maybe she was too excited, but in her answer she accidentally left out the crucial noun, turning it into a terribly misleading line.
Akira almost couldn't stop himself from making a quip—but then he remembered the Class Rep's angry back as she'd walked away at lunch, and swallowed his words instead.
Momo also realized she'd said the wrong thing. Being as shy as she was, she couldn't just laugh it off. She waved her hands frantically, trying to explain.
"Ah, no, that's not—um, what I meant was… those manga, Kuroba-kun, you can use them however you like… uuh…"
Halfway through her explanation, her embarrassment passed its limit. She raised both hands in front of her face and made a muffled sound of shame.
If this were manga, her face would already be bright red like a tomato, with white steam puffing from the top of her head.
Akira wasn't great at dealing with girls this painfully shy—especially when he couldn't use his preferred "sarcasm–tease–mockery" combo. Being forced to speak like a normal, decent person was… suffocating.
"Haha… Anyway, thanks, Aizono-san."
In the end, all he could do was let out a couple of dry laughs, thank her politely, and quickly steer the topic toward the novels on the other side.
"And Shiroi-san, I can borrow these novels too, right?"
With Shiroi, Akira was far less polite—he didn't end with "ma?" but with "ba?"
It wasn't so much asking for her permission as announcing, I'm borrowing these today. You just say yes or no. The attitude was pure shamelessness.
Yet Shiroi still didn't explode. She simply glanced over the titles he'd picked and said coolly—
"…Whatever. If you want to take them, take them. I brought those books to the clubroom so everyone could read them. You count—barely—as a 'temporary' member of the Literature Club, so you're entitled to borrow them."
She'd emphasized temporary to make it clear that, even if everyone else had accepted him, she still hadn't. Her last bit of stubbornness.
Akira didn't react much—if anything, he found her surprisingly magnanimous.
He had half-intended to take the chance to rile her up, but it seemed she wasn't the petty, nitpicking type.
So her protectiveness toward books was just a personal quirk, like a mild cleanliness obsession—it didn't mean the books were especially valuable. If they really were, she wouldn't bring them to the clubroom at all.
A true book-loving literary girl like her probably bought three copies of everything: "display," "collection," and "evangelism" editions. The ones here would be the evangelism set.
If he actually wanted to make her angry, he'd have to destroy them right in front of her… but Akira wasn't about to do something that beastly.
He liked books himself. In his past life, he'd mostly read ebooks, but he'd still buy physical copies of his favorite works to fill out his shelves. For him, the value was more about collection than practicality—like buying figures.
Watching a bookshelf slowly fill up gave you this weird sense of accomplishment, didn't it?
"But make sure you return them when you're done. They're Literature Club property now—you can't keep them for yourself."
"Of course. It's not like I'd sell them."
"If you do sell them, I'll take you apart and sell you."
Shiroi glared at him, voice dripping with venom.
"Ha… Looks like even for the sake of my own body, I'd better handle these books with care… So, is there a return deadline?"
"…I'm just reminding you. You can keep them as long as you want—but if someone else wants to read them, return them quickly."
"No problem."
She disliked his dismissive attitude toward creating art—but one thing had nothing to do with the other. When it came to handling books, she trusted him more than most.
After all, he'd spent a whole semester reading in the library, always putting books back neatly—unlike certain students who just left them lying on the tables.
And he'd never borrowed books, so there was no worry about him forgetting to return them—unlike those students who checked out library books and didn't bring them back on time.
What infuriated her most was going to those students to ask for the books back, only to hear them shamelessly say, "Oh, sorry, I totally forgot I borrowed those… haha, can I get an extension? I still want to finish them…"
At times like that, she'd nearly slapped them on the spot.
What's wrong with your brain?
You can't even remember your own borrowed books?
And if you haven't read them all this time, what have you been doing?!
Those children—those books—are crying!
Shiroi knew not everyone treated books as precious objects. She wore gloves to read, but she couldn't expect others to. Still, there should be a basic respect, right?
If you borrow something, read it promptly. Return it on time. That's basic, basic common sense.
By that measure, Akira at least had the basics.
If he and Hitomi didn't have such a close relationship—if he'd just applied normally to join the Literature Club—she might even have accepted him.
But unfortunately, it seemed his main purpose was chasing girls… Hmph. Men were all the same—walking bundles of hormones!
If he'd joined the Literature Club for a woman… then he could dream on!
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