Short Story 1 : Shiina Hiyori SS – I wish we can become friends

That day, I went towards the library when the lunch break started.

I had been going to the library several days in a row in order to look for Raymond Chandler's "Farewell, My Lovely". Recently, due to its popularity, it had been hard to borrow that book.

I didn't have anyone I could consider as friend and I had always been alone. Of course, it's not like I didn't want to make friends, but I had never been good at dealing with people.

"...It's not here."

As soon as I arrived at the mystery novels section, I immediately dropped my shoulders in disappointment.

I'll come back after the classes are finished to check for it, I need to come here before going to the Tea ceremony club.

Although I was quite happy being alone, I also felt loneliness once in a while. Ryuuen-kun couldn't stand to see me like that so he talked to me, but since there were always a lot of people around him, that made me feel very nervous so I wasn't able to stay together with him.

"Eh?"

There was a book placed in a high place.

Suddenly, I realized that the book didn't match with the classification of the section. Was the staff member who made a mistake?

"En..."

I extended my hand in order to get it down, but I couldn't reach it. Incredibly, even though I knew I couldn't reach it, I still tried to do it several times.

"I still can't reach it."

Then, when I was about to arrive at the conclusion that I couldn't reach it.

"I might be doing some unnecessary things..."

A boy said that and helped me draw the book that was classified wrongly.

"I recall you are class C's..."

He said that to me and after that, I also remembered him.

"I recall... you are Ayanokouji-kun, right?"

Thinking back, I saw him previously during Ryuuen's introduction.

I remember at that moment they were looking for the person who defeated Ryuuen-kun... that sort of stuff. Although, as a result, they performed a thorough investigation to Class D, but that has nothing to do with the present situation. I have never been interested in those things.

"Yeah. For now, I'll give you this."

"Thank you."

I took the book and just in case I confirmed the library card. As expected, this book should be placed in another section.

"Do you like Bronte's books?"

I opened the book and closed it again.

He looked at me as if it was strange. It looks like he misunderstood me and thought I liked Bronte's books.

"Personally, I neither like nor dislike anything. But the book was in the wrong section, so I just wanted to return it to the right place."

"So it was like that..."

At that moment, I noticed a certain thing.

That was the book Ayanokouji-kun was holding in his hand.

"By the way, the book you have in your hands is... "Farewell, My Lovely" right? It's a masterpiece."

I didn't know why but I thought I'd found a comrade, so I couldn't help but to inquire him.

"I managed to borrow it from a friend today."

"You're very luck then, for some unknown reason, Raymond Chandler is very popular amongst the 2nd-year students and the battle over this book has been continuing for a while. I've also been wanting to read it for a while now, but today I haven't been able to find it here either."

"I'm sorry, I seem to have done something bad. Monopolizing it."

"I don't mind. I've read this book before. And besides, while looking for that book, I was blessed to run into other books. It seems this school's library has a large collection of books. If I were to immerse myself into reading them, I might have graduated before I realized."

"...I see, that might be so."

After that, I unconsciously talked passionately about books with Ayanokouji-kun.

Although I also realized in the middle of the speech that he remained silent, but that was because extremely happy and I did it involuntarily.

Time passed in the blink of an eye.

I felt lonely because the chat was ending and I unknowingly said the words that didn't match my usual self.

"You have probably not eaten lunch yet, right? If it's okay, would you like to have lunch together with me?"

"...Eh."

It was normal to be confused. After all, not even I expected that I would proactively say those kinds of words.

In addition, there seemed to be a lot of dispute between Class C and Class D. Even if I also believed I would be rejected, I still continued talking.

"There's no one in Class C who likes reading novels, so I have no one I can talk to."

Therefore, I frankly told him my feelings.

"Wouldn't this cause a lot of problems? Right now Class C is in an uproar by actively looking for someone from Class D, right? I think I'm being counted as one of the many suspects."

"Please don't worry. Last time, I was only helping Ryuuen-kun as a formality. From the start, I was never interested in things like conflicts. Or is it a problem for you to talk to me?"

"No. If there's no problem on your end, I have nothing to say either."

"That's a relief. Because creating cracks between classes over such trivial things makes me unhappy. After all, the best thing is for everybody to live in harmony."

Ayanokouji-kun didn't reveal a disgusted expression, so that made me feel very happy.

"Shall we leave then? Time is flying."

Maybe I can make a friend with similar interests. A part of me thought these actions were not like me, while the other part was extremely excited towards this development.

I hoped that, in the future, the dispute between classes wouldn't create a crack between us.

I thought this deep in my heart.