The Library Incident

After classes, Hayashi Sakura and Mori Ken have decided to finish the reporting early enough so that they won't have to deal with this during the club outing since neither of them has anything to do during club hours anyway.

Sakura was the first one to arrive at the library, which is literally her favorite place in the entire school. It's so huge inside you might possibly think it's like three classrooms combined.

All the books that you could possibly need for your college life are already displayed here. It's actually her first time setting foot in here since she is too busy nowadays with club activities and with her work to make time to come in here.

But seeing now how beautiful it is inside, Sakura already made up her mind of going here as frequently as she could during her vacant periods.

Upon entering and seeing that Mori Ken is not here yet, the first thing Sakura did was to find the necessary books that they will need for their reporting next Tuesday, which will be in a powerpoint presentation. Seeing that the books are arranged in the classic Dewey Decimal Classification System, it was already easy for Sakura to know what bookshelf to go to.

Her feet led her to the sixth large bookshelf that is literally towering above her now. She craned her neck to look for where the algebra books were placed and when she saw that it was excruciatingly placed on the second highest row of books, Sakura couldn't help but puffed some air in frustration.

This is way too much for someone whose height is only 5'2! Darn it!

In the end, Sakura had no choice but to opt for the detachable wooden stairs casually placed on a corner for those people that weren't so blessed with height like her.

Once she was able to drag the stairs to the position where she can grab hold of the algebra books she will be needing, Sakura started climbing to the ten-flight stairs and stopped on the ninth and began reaching out for the books her gaze were fixed on getting.

Sakura plans to get three books and she managed to get the two of them. Since the third book is a bit farther away, she needs to double her effort of extending her arms and her body so that she can finish dealing with this book once and for all.

For some reason, however, Sakura miscalculated the outcome and tripped out of the stairs even though she really tried to balance her body, which caused her to lose her balance with her books flying out of her hands.

Oh no, I'm gonna fall on the hard, tiled floor!

Realizing that there was nothing she could do about it, Sakura closed her eyes tight and waited for her body to make contact with the ground. She couldn't watch herself fall to the floor like that!

However, a few seconds had already passed and Sakura was still unable to feel anything from the fall that she was anticipating to happen. When she opened her eyes once more, she was stunned when she realized the reason behind it

"M-Mori Ken?" Sakura's eyes went into full circles once she came face-to-face with Mori Ken up close. Realizing that her voice was a little louder than what is necessarily, she pressed her lips and made an apologetic face.

That's right. It wasn't long ago that Mori Ken arrived at the same shelf as her and saw the girl struggling to get her desired books. He was already on his way to help her when the incident happened.

Good thing, Mori Ken was already behind her when she fell out of the stairs and was just in time to catch her a while ago, now carrying her in a bridal style.

As both of their eyes fluttered open, they looked at each other, as if time itself had slowed down for a brief moment, before Ken decided to break this awkward silence that was starting to overwhelm both of them.

"What do you think you're doing earlier?" Mori Ken whispered and looked at the girl in her arms nonchalantly while trying to give her a good scolding.

Students passing by in the alley also stared at them, only for Ken to glare at them and order them to leave as quietly as he could.

Sakura only rolled her eyes at him and replied, "What do you think? Of course I am trying to reach out for the books that we'll need for our reporting, duh. And could you please bring me down already? This is really embarrassing on my part."

Ken must have realized now that he was still holding her in his arms, so he hurriedly helped the girl to her feet as fast as he could.

"Thank you very much," Sakura says with a hint of sarcasm as she tried her best to pull herself together while picking up the algebra books that fell on the floor.

Once done, she nervously arranged them on her arms before mustering the courage to look at Mori Ken once again.

"Actually, there is still one more that I need. Can you please get it for me?"

Mori Ken scratched the back of his neck in an awkward manner as he avoided eye contact with Sakura.

"Sure. Where is it placed?"

"There, on your right."

"Oh, got it."

Sakura watched Ken with envy as the guy effortlessly stretched his arms and immediately caught the book in his hands. Her lips parted in astonishment.

Wow, I wish I was as tall as him! Why is the universe so unfair to some people sometimes?

Mori Ken flashed her triumphant grin and showed the book to the girl, "Got it."

Sakura made another roll of her eyes before turning her back towards him and started walking to the nearest table to get this over with as soon as possible.

But deep down, Sakura can still hear her heart thumping loudly from what happened a while ago, making the corners of her lips secretly twitch upward.