Shiina Is Very Happy

"Ah—"

The voice belonged to the person she'd just been thinking about, and Shiina let out a startled little cry.

Her violet eyes widened slightly, her lips parting in surprise. Aoyama captured the adorable expression in an instant.

"Were you saying bad things about me in your head? Is that why I startled you?" Aoyama teased. He felt like he'd just found another little treasure.

"I was wondering why you still hadn't invited me, Aoyama. I thought maybe you'd forgotten what you promised."

After calming down, Shiina offered a small countertease.

Several days had passed since they'd agreed to read together at the library.

"How could I forget? I was planning to invite you during the break, so we'd have more time to spend there."

Since joining the Student Council, Aoyama had had less free time after school.

And training required consistency, so he was busy with something or other until six.

"During a rare break, shouldn't you be spending time with your girlfriend first?"

"And I don't see Horikita. Weren't you having lunch with her today, Aoyama?"

After putting their trays in the return area, they walked back toward their classrooms together.

"Rumors spread that quickly?" Aoyama smiled. "Horikita and I are just in a transactional relationship. I'm not even on her radar—not at the moment, anyway."

Horikita Suzune had only just become Student Council President yesterday, and the rumor was already going around today. Kouiku really was a small world.

Kushida might have been the one to spread the word, but it was no big deal.

"Is Horikita Suzune related to Horikita President?" Having resolved one of her questions, Shiina thought of the president she'd seen in the Student Council, who was usually as expressionless as Horikita Suzune.

Horikita wasn't an especially common surname, and the two did look a little alike. They were both handsome and beautiful, in their own ways.

"They're brother and sister. And, by the way, the little sister is a brocon."

"A brocon? Horikita?"

"A super one."

As they passed the back entrance of Class 1-D, Aoyama glanced into the classroom.

There was an ordinary bento box on the desk. The brocon he'd mentioned had finished eating and was studying.

With students chatting happily in little groups around the classroom, Horikita studying all alone seemed a little forlorn.

"See you this afternoon, Aoyama."

"See you."

After parting with Shiina outside Class C, Aoyama walked into Class A.

Whenever students made eye contact with him, they would look away, treating him like he wasn't there.

The exception was Kamuro, who always held her head high and gave off the impression of a mature older woman.

"Where's Yamamura?" Aoyama went over to Kamuro.

Since he'd been drawing attention lately, students from other classes had started watching him more closely. He'd been eating lunch alone recently.

The trio he'd usually eaten with had become just Kamuro and Yamamura.

"She said she needed to clear her head by the vending machines. Hearing so many rumors about some bastard while she was eating made her feel sick."

"You made up that last part. Yamamura wouldn't say that."

"The last part was about me." Kamuro looked at him with disgust. "I heard your name more than ten times during one meal. You sure know how to make a scene."

"I'm not enough to make you sick, am I? I'm just giving you a little extra training."

Aoyama had been Student Council Vice President for more than half a month now. The novelty of the work had worn off, so he claimed he was helping Kamuro build her skills and pushed most of his workload onto her.

He believed that as long as she had enough work, Kamuro wouldn't have time to chase thrills and become Kouiku's greatest thief.

He was helping her. He was doing it for her own good.

"Yamamura's the only one who'd believe that."

Yamamura, huh.

Aoyama suddenly remembered that he could bring her along to the library with Shiina tomorrow.

Kamuro's personality was a little too forceful for Yamamura, and the two weren't a great match, even if Kamuro sometimes made a point of taking Yamamura's feelings into account.

"Then I'll go find Yamamura."

"Go ahead. It'll be easier on my eyes." Kamuro propped her cheek on her left hand and waved her free hand, making no attempt to stop him.

What a heartless woman.

After a little teasing thought about Kamuro, Aoyama headed for the familiar vending machines and found Yamamura on the familiar bench, clearly lost in thought.

Every so often, she touched the back of her hand, as if something was weighing on her mind.

"What's wrong? Is something bothering you?"

Aoyama dropped onto the bench beside Yamamura, leaving only a fist's worth of space between them—much closer than last time.

All he had to do was take a slight sniff to catch her pleasant scent.

"Ah—Aoyama!"

"You're the second girl I've startled today."

He placed a hand on the flustered Yamamura's head and gently rubbed her blue-gray hair.

After touching it once before, he'd felt like he was getting addicted.

And Yamamura's shy expression was incredibly cute, too.

"I'm fine..." Yamamura looked away, her fingers touching the back of her left hand more frequently.

"You can tell me whenever you want."

Aoyama could tell something was on Yamamura's mind, but since she didn't want to talk about it, he wouldn't force her.

Then he invited her to go to the library with him tomorrow.

Chapter 33: Shiina Was Very Happy

"There are even more people here than I expected. The library's busy on Saturdays."

As he followed Shiina and Yamamura into the library, Aoyama saw that plenty of students were already inside. All the long tables, each with room for eight, were full.

Most of the students seemed to be first-years, with the fewest from the third year.

There was Katsuragi from his class, Ichinose from Class B, Kaneda Satoru from Class C, and Hirata and Wang Meiyu from Class D. Every one of them had excellent quiz scores.

"Aoyama, you can be a little absentminded sometimes. Midterms are less than half a month away, so of course lots of students are holding study sessions."

"There weren't this many people here on Saturdays before."

Shiina wore a pale teal, high-necked dress beneath a light-colored jacket, making her even cuter than usual. She gave him a serene smile.

"I'd forgotten until you mentioned it, Shiina." Aoyama turned his gaze away from Ichinose and the others.

He'd come second in his class on the quiz at the end of April. Sakayanagi Arisu, that little kid, had taken first.

Yamamura's grades were pretty good, too, just not quite good enough to place in the top five in the class.

Kamuro, meanwhile, had just missed the top thirty.

"I'll leave it to you, Miss Shiina, since you know the library best."

"The librarian knows it best."

Gently correcting Aoyama, Shiina headed toward the rows of bookshelves.

Following her graceful figure, Aoyama and Yamamura arrived at a quiet corner. There wasn't another student in sight, and not even the faintest background noise could be heard.

There was a small round table with three chairs around it.

One chair was clearly different from the other two. Its color didn't match the table at all.

"I got the librarian's permission to bring that chair here," Shiina explained when she noticed Aoyama looking at the unusual armchair.

When Aoyama had asked if he could bring someone else, she'd agreed right away and come to the library to add a chair to the quiet spot she'd discovered by chance.

They couldn't very well make one of them sit on the floor.

"Is there a book you'd like to read, Yamamura? Just tell me the title, and I'll find it in no time."

Thinking of a way to strike up a conversation with Yamamura, Shiina quickly shifted her gaze away from Aoyama.

After they'd met downstairs in the dorm and introduced themselves, most of their conversations had ended after a single line, with nowhere to go from there.

She felt a sudden sense of defeat.

If she hadn't realized Yamamura was only acting that way because she was nervous, she might have wondered if Yamamura disliked her.

"She asked you, Yamamura. Don't look at me." Aoyama sat down at the round table, looking a little amused.

When Shiina asked her a question, Yamamura didn't know how to answer, so she simply looked at him.

"Then I'll do the same as him. I'll leave it up to you, Shiina."

As soon as Yamamura's face showed her uncertainty, Aoyama made the decision for her.

Shiina, who now had to recommend books to both of them, soon flitted away to find some, light on her feet like a butterfly.

"I was afraid I'd like a kind of book that Shiina doesn't."

"You really do overthink things."

Hearing Yamamura's reason, Aoyama gently tapped the smooth, delicate forehead beneath her wispy bangs.

"Shiina wouldn't get upset over something like that."

"And if someone did get upset over it, there'd be no point in being friends with them."

"Shiina's a good friend. I hope you two can become friends."

From talking with Shiina, Aoyama had realized that while she was quite popular in Class C, she didn't have any friends she was close to. She always went to the library alone, too.

In the past, Yamamura had also relied on books to pass the time when she had no friends.

If Yamamura let down her guard, the way Shiina communicated—with her enthusiasm for fellow book lovers to bolster her—would make it easy for the two of them to become friends.

"Am I useless, Aoyama?"

"Do you want the truth or a lie?"

"Let's hear the lie first..." Yamamura's hands fidgeted nervously on her pleated skirt.

"The lie is that you're useful. The truth is—you're extremely useful. Very, very useful. So useful that I'd have to hide you away and keep the potential enemies in other classes from finding out about you."

Not wanting Yamamura to feel bad for even a second, Aoyama pinched her cheeks between both hands and told her just how useful she was to him.

"Don't be afraid of failure."

"If it doesn't work out this time, there'll be another chance. As long as you're willing to come back, Shiina will welcome you with open arms. And I'll be there with you."

"Okay?"

Aoyama pressed his palm against Yamamura's cheek.

"Okay."

"Got it?"

"Got it."

"Yes?"

"Yes."

Enjoying the warmth of her soft, flushed cheek, Aoyama asked her three questions in a row.

Yamamura's energy visibly lifted a little.

"Excellent."

Aoyama's praise was for both her personally and her adorable face.

Just then, Shiina came hurrying over with books in her arms, her expression full of anticipation and happiness.

Her shining silver hair bobbed as she walked. Her expression was a little less serene than usual, but her lively violet eyes and upturned lips made Aoyama stare for a moment.

"Rear Window. It's one of the best-known works by Cornell Woolrich, one of my favorite authors. Quite a few of his works have been adapted into movies."