Vol 1 Prologue (1/2)
Chapter Prologue
She's too young to be a woirl
Nishi+zono Yūko
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Every Wednesday and Friday
From the moment school ends till the bell at five-thirty That's when I'm on duty
There's notbehind the counter
When approached by students, I just need to tip the bar-code at the bottom of the book towards the scanner, then repeat the action for the library card It's a process which will autoether with the ID of the borrowed book into the co no more than ten seconds of my time
All that's left is to hand the book over to the student and inform him of the due date
”The book is due next Friday”
[th uh] [boo k] [iz] [dyoo] [nekst] [frahy-dey] All said in reflex without the need to be processed by e the ”frahy” to a ”wenz-” if it's a Wednesday
When finishi+ng that process, I'd revert to spacing out again
To be honest, I' my time away
However, that's the reason why I chose to be a library co
I suppressedpast the counter I then directednext to me
Typically speaking, the borrowing and returning counter will each be , while shi+nono We've more or less settled into our roles without any prior discussion, but so came to my mind recently
” Hey”
I whispered to shi+nono sure there was no one in the vicinity
shi+nono a paperback, replied without even looking at me
” Yes?”
”It's nothing much really I just happened to notice that er than yours”
”Is that so?”
shi+nonoaze remained fix onto her book She did not even bother to look at— it's like she's not the least bit interested in what I was saying However, there's no way I could quit the conversation halfway since I was the one who initiated it, so I continued on with my words
”I don't re much for the past month or so”
I watched shi+nono for her reply
Even so, her attention was glued to the book
I suppose her love for books is the reason she joined the library committee in the first place
I guess it's not wrong for anyone to say that I'm part of theany interest in reading However, shi+nonome's love for books is far from normal
That's because she's reading all the time
And that's not an exaggeration
She spends all of her ti except when so ho her class a book hidden beneath her desk while taking notes in class
With the way she is, it just f
eels like she's affected by some sort of disease where she'll die if she doesn't read, and is thus forced to burrow her nose in a book all the time
”How about ap then?”
I regained my senses due to shi+nonome's reply
”Huh? What do you mean by that?”
”Are you thinking about how unfair it is for you to be doingour jobs”
shi+nono that
”No, that's not what I had in mind”
I aardly rejected shi+nono offer
”Imore of the work, but it's not like I' I just find this to be a little intriguing”
shi+nonoes and shut the book with a loud thud — I had no idea if it was because she was finally interested in our conversation, or because she was done with a chapter of the book Either way, her eyes were finally looking in my direction
”Intriguing? What do you mean by that?”
”You'll have to return the books you've borrowed, isn't that so? It's not like everyone's returning the books past their due dates, so why are there ?”
Thinking that it ht be just an illusion onand returning the books It soon beca than returning There's a limit of three books per student, and they can only borrow the books for up to aof books, wouldn't that mean that the library will soon run out of books to offer?
But that is not the case
Based on my observation from the counter, there was no decrease in the nue nue of books available, so it's not like there are any problems caused by the lack of book returns
shi+nonome stared at me silently for quite a while She finally tilted her head a little, causing those soft strands of hair to jerk slightly
”You have never borrowed a book before, have you, Minami-kun?”
”Nope I don't really read”
”That is the reason you fail to understand”
I know that — there was a hint of irritation inThe fact that I don't read is true, so it can't be helped