Special Bonus Short Story for the Ebook Release
[The Girl Who Can’t Say ‘I Love You’ Catalog #1 – Ayame Ayakoji]
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.PAGES.DEV
Ayame Ayakoji.
A second-year student at the academy.
Ever since her first year, she has been a member of the library committee, often spending her after-school hours doing committee duties in the library.
The reason Ayame continues being a library committee member…is simply because she loves books, of course.
Whenever her favorite author released a new book, she would request it for the library’s collection and read it after school – this was her daily routine.
An abuse of authority?
No, this was simply taking advantage of her position. It was by no means breaking any rules.
The truth is, books are expensive. A high school student’s allowance was not enough to satisfy her reading desires.
Around the time Ayame joined the library committee in her first year…a new literary club was formed at this academy.
This fact came as a shock to her.
(Whoa…I had given up on there being an otaku club here, but…)
The shy Ayame didn’t have any classmates she could call friends.
And then the literary club was born, right when she needed it most.
What’s more, their activity room was the preparation room right next to this library.
Could this be…the dawn of her youth!?
Let’s enjoy the otaku life!?
(……There was a time when I rejoiced at that thought)
Unfortunately, her enjoyable youth never came.
Because the literary club was all guys.
There seemed to be some second-year male students in it too, but still, all guys.
Ayame gave up on joining almost immediately. She could barely talk properly with people of the same gender, let alone a club full of guys from the opposite sex. Or rather, it seemed a bit scary.
The reason being…that one second-year male student was…
“Hello there, cute little kitten? You’re the very embodiment of a deeply secluded lady.”
This was him.
Izumi Sumie.
A rather famous playboyish guy in their grade who often spews such terrible pickup lines at the girls, only to get completely shut down.
That line was the first thing he said when they first met in this library.
When the playboy came to borrow books and opened with that awful pickup line, Ayame went into full panic mode. Specifically, she backed up too far and ended up falling over in her chair.
Since then, Izumi hasn’t tried talking to her again.
They’ve just been familiar faces occupying the after-school library.
Yet for some reason, her eyes would follow Izumi whenever he came to the literary club room.
Perhaps it was the sight of the obvious otaku third-years cheerfully chatting with the playboy that stood out.
Or maybe…it was because the books he borrowed were always the ones she had requested to have stocked.
And then one day—
“Hey Ayakoji, we’ve got some stuff to take care of after school today.”
“So just put the returned books back on the shelves for us, will ya? That’s part of the library committee’s job and you said you enjoyed it, right?”
Her senpais on the library committee foisted that duty onto Ayame before leaving that day.
……Even among fellow committee members, she was the only one who actually enjoyed the work.
She didn’t mind trivial chores like that normally, but that day there was an unusually large number of returns, overflowing from the book cart. Her senpais probably saw the mountain of work and decided it was too much trouble.
Ayame wasn’t usually a fast or efficient worker either.
The reshelving took a long time, gradually eating away at the time she cherished for relaxing with a book.
—As she worked alone in the gradually darkening library, the room felt unusually vast.
(If only I had a friend to help with this…)
For some reason, she felt lonelier than usual that day.
There was no particular trigger for it.
She simply had momentarily looser tear ducts when…
“You need to put all these back on the shelves?”
The voice came from the direction of the prep room.
It was Izumi.
“Ah, umm…”
Before Ayame could respond, Izumi had already started reshelving books.
He worked swiftly, the mountain of books diminishing rapidly as he cleared Ayame’s workload in no time at all.
“Ah, thank you…”
“Nah, the senpais from my club left early too, so I had some free time.”
“Why did you stay behind alone though?”
“Just killing time until my part-time job.”
Still, she never expected him to help with her duties.
“Oh, as thanks…”
But Izumi just laughed it off.
“It’s no problem, no problem at all. Actually, I’m the one who owes you thanks, Ayakoji san.”
“Me…?”
What could she have possibly done for him?
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t think of any reason.
Izumi then gave her a bright smile.
“All the books you request and have stocked are ones I’ve wanted to read. You’re always helping me out. Seriously, you’ve got great taste.”
“Oh, I…that’s…”
“So if a fellow book lover is in trouble, how can I not lend a hand?”
“……..”
Even Ayame could tell his words rang true.
From then on, whenever they crossed paths in the after-school library, Ayame and Izumi would exchange a few words.
Just within this library space.
The distance between Ayame and Izumi gradually shrank, if only a little bit.
This remained true even after they became second-years.
One after-school period, as Ayame was reading a book at the library counter as usual…
(……I thought the literary club would disband after the third-years graduated, but)
Apparently two first-year girls joined.
At first, Ayame considered joining too now that there were female members. But then…
(Those girls…or rather, that girl with the black hair seems kinda scary…)
She was referring to Haru Kasuga.
Apparently her foul mouth had earned her the nickname “Devil chan.” Being in the same space as someone like that was too much for the timid Ayame.
(I’m such a coward…)
As she sighed over these thoughts, the sound of an argument drifted out from the literary club prep room as usual today.
The door opened and Haru along with her best friend Inori came out.
“Senpai, please don’t get so touchy-feely with Inori. Excuse me.”
“Hey Haru, wait up!”
……With the changing members, the literary club’s atmosphere had become quite different.
And after incidents like that, Izumi would invariably emerge looking flustered.
“Geez, why does Haru always assume I’m hitting on Inori…?”
Izumi would apologize to Ayame with an embarrassed look.
“Sorry about the noise again…”
“Oh no, there aren’t any other students here right now so it’s fine.”
Ayame gave him a slight smile.
“Being a senpai must be tough, huh…”
“Yeah, no kidding. Haru has quite the temper. If this keeps up, I might end up snapping at her…”
“Um, Izumi kun, what do you…think of those girls?”
“Hm? Well…”
Izumi pondered it briefly.
“I have a younger sister in middle school. We live apart for personal reasons now, but if she was closer I imagine she might be like them.”
“I see…”
“So I want to get along well with Haru and the others, but…for some reason they seem to have it out for me. I really don’t get what’s going through Haru’s head.”
He then showed a gentle smile.
“Ah, sorry for venting like this. You’re the only one I can complain to, Ayame.”
“No problem, I’ll listen any time.”
These small gestures of sympathy brought their hearts a little closer together.
……After Izumi left for the day, Ayame would ponder the feelings lately tormenting her heart in the empty library.
(I wonder what Izumi thinks of me?)
Ayame had fallen for him long ago…or rather, ever since he helped her in this library, she was already lovestruck.
And from observing his usual behavior, she sensed he likely harbored similar feelings for her.
Because she was the only one Izumi could show his vulnerability to.
(……If I confessed to him, Izumi would probably…)
She cursed her own lack of courage more times than she could count.
If she failed, she risked losing both a trusted fellow book lover and her cherished person…as well as this library, her only haven.
(B-But it’ll be okay, right…?)
Surely there was no one who understood Izumi better than she did.
She still had time.
Izumi was sure to confess his feelings to her eventually. After all, when he made up his mind, he was a man of action. So it would be fine!
Ayame Ayakoji.
Duration of her crush: [One year].
If one were to title Ayame’s current situation like some form of entertainment, it might go something like this:
[The Bookish Shrinking Violet is an Adorably Shy Maiden in Love, Only in the Library’s Confines]
……Well, indeed.
Whether Ayame’s feelings found resolution in the week after this story is up to your imagination, dear readers.
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