An Ex-popular Guy Can’t Get Love Down His Throat - CH 20

The club “boasts” few activities, namely the occasional outdoor adventure on holidays, so I figured we’d be active during Golden Week. Due to the deadlines for newcomers, though, we were closed all holiday. That’s why, on April’s last day of school, something happened as I walked through another unchanging evening.

“Yuu~, do you have any plans for Golden Week?”

Disaster struck.

I don’t have any plans for this big holiday. I’ll just stay at home for five whole days of pure, unblemished lazing around. Since exams just ended, it might even be a good idea to catch up on some anime or manga I couldn’t watch ever since I first aimed for this school. For that, I’ll stop by a bookstore on my way home as soon as possible.

“You listening?” She called.

“Sorry. I was just thinking about the holiday.”

“So, do you have any plans?”

Sh*t.

I could say, “I’m hanging out with my family!” but her house is just across from mine. She’ll know… What should I do, what should I do?

“Well, I’m going to study a lot. On the days I’m not, I might spend some time with my family.”

“So, you’re basically free, right?”

What do you mean by “basically?” Are you crazy or something?

“No, I’m studying…”

“Aw, I get you’re really hard-working now, but I really wanted to hang out with you sometime. Well, if you insist so much, can’t I just hang out at your house? I won’t bother you.”

Sh*t me twice, I just had an idea. I could’ve said my schedule was full and that I had to go to the library. Good thoughts come only when it’s too late, huh?

“Don’t you have club activities?” I grasped at straws.

“Nope! Golden week is one of our few long vay-cays, and the teacher was pretty darn excited. Said they want to live! Something like that.”

Do I have no way out?

“If you do come to my house, I’ll probably have my hands full and leave you hanging.”

“That’s fine. I’d like to see your room after all this time.”

“…Got it, I guess. So, when?”

“Hmm, I’ll drop by at a reasonable time, ‘kay? I’ll give you a call.”

And she tied it all up with the worst possible answer. I don’t think people should schedule something with abstract words. That’ll just mess up someone’s schedule! Though, I don’t have much of one to be honest.

Can I just not go home?

“Okay.”

“Then, I’m going to my last club activity!”

Momiji said while skipping off to her practice, the opposite I felt. My feet were like anchors pulling me back to the ground. I couldn’t breach the surface.

I went to the bookstore after school.

Since I hadn’t been to sections other than the reference books for over a year, I perused all the other shelves. My main goal was to buy some manga, but I didn’t have a lot of money on me then.

I’m a slow reader, so if each volume takes me about half an hour to read, I’ll only get 10 hours’ worth of fun with what I have right now. Putting it into numbers, you’d be hesitant to buy some too.

Guess I’ll have to save up a bit more—coming to that conclusion, I went to another corner.

My next stop was the light novel section. The first time I’d ever seen one, I mistook it for a manga volume and was readily disappointed when I saw a bunch of letters inside, instead of cool drawings. That’s why I haven’t read much of the things.

However, the price difference between a novel volume and a manga volume is basically nil, and one obviously has more content than the other. Light novels are more cost-efficient in terms of killing time, I guess.

Besides, since I broke the barrier with tons of studying, I no longer feel my body reject the idea of reading thousands of words. Y’know what, a trial won’t hurt.

Which one should I get, though? They all look the same. Ah, that one anime was based on a light novel, right? I was curious about the rest of the story, so maybe I’ll go with that one.

I checked where in the story I was and bought two volumes, heading home soon after.

With my meal in my tummy, I lay down on my bed and opened the first page of the novel I’d bought. A few minutes passed, and I was so absorbed by each word that I forgot about my own body, my own breathing.

It’s as good as manga. No, maybe even better if you ask me. I can kill just a bit less than four hours with one single volume.

This… this is it. Let’s spend my Golden Week reading light novels until I can’t anymore. Studying is fun, but there’s no need to rush it. Should I visit the bookstore ASAP tomorrow? If I recall correctly, there are about ten more volumes to this series. I’ll get as much as my money allows.

Having discovered a new hobby, I was finally excited about the upcoming week-long holiday. At that time, while immersed in the incredible worlds of light novels, Momiji’s coming to my house completely slipped my mind.

Bro turned into one of us, lmao.