As of today, it is another day and I decided to head straight to the library in the morning.
Luckily enough, it was opened and as usual, Akari was already present in the room just behind the reception counter.
But her presence was doing no effect to me today.
Like hell would I care about her.
And of course, I completely ignored her as I went to take a seat at the second year's section just beside the window for the reason that the spot is well hidden from others by the book shelves, making it a perfect cover from other people.
I found this place by coincidence when I was looking for books yesterday.
By now, idiot would be an overstatement to my IQ if I go to the class now. There's always trouble in the morning every time I try to do something in there no matter what.
Why shouldn't I avert problematic situations when I have the ability to?
And this is also the perfect spot to do it when you want to be incognito.
For today, I made sure to start with my favorite subject, math.
Math is always fun especially when it's the first thing in the morning and that's an only IF you understand the hell you are doing.
Luckily for me, I am pretty proficient in mathematics so it wouldn't be difficult for me to recover to where my current class is.
At least its better than memorizing some dumb history about who-knows-who.
I heard the door opening and closing a couple of times and footsteps meaning that there were more people entering and exiting the room at certain intervals.
Therefore, I continued with my personal study.
After a while, a very unexpected guest arrived before me.
Well, since this is a library they probably came to study too.
"Ummm… that's my seat."
Why can't I seem to do anything properly these days without interruptions?
It was at this moment that I finally decided to look who the voice belonged to and it was…
Momo.
Haha, Momo.
Who in the entire school in their right mind doesn't know Momo?
Something is not right.
Why do I feel like I've said this before too?
Did she just initiate a conversation with me?
Is this like, for real?
I must be having hallucinations.
"Are you talking to me by any chance?"
"O-Of course."
I know she's shy but…
She wasn't even looking at me.
Its either down to her chest or down to her....
"Its fine. I'll seat somewhere else."
Then I just moved to the next seat which was beside me, moved my books to the other location then continued with the equations like I was doing before without giving a f- about anything right now.
I felt like I was actually close to breaking the mysterious complex puzzle of the equation.
Distractions were the last thing I needed right now.
I needed complete focus.
She paused for a bit and appeared like she didn't know what to do but since it was her privileged seat, she had no choice but to take the seat which was beside me.
The atmosphere was tense.
It was awkward.
With the only noticeable changes in the environment being the turning pages of books, some scribblings and…
Nothing else.
Like nothing.
Yes.
Enlightenment.
I finally solved the broken puzzle of the equation.
I knew I could do it.
It was tough but… I was tougher.
I was just arithmetically superior.
Mwahahahahaha!
I couldn't help but even feel the grin of supremacy etching on my face and I could not suppress it.
"That's… not the correct answer."
Hmm?
It was the girl beside me who gave that correction, Momo.
"Oh sorry."
She apologized meekly and returned to doing her business.
I turned my gaze to look at her and looked back to my CORRECT answer again.
This is absolutely correct. What is she talking about?
"Momo, what's the correct answer?"
She fidgeted when looked up from her books through her geek like glasses and gave me the answer in a rushed frantic manner.
"Tw…twice."
"Is that so?"
I looked at it again.
Hmm?
Twice? What kind of answer is twice in math?
Maybe she meant two.
"Are you trying to say two?"
"No, it's twice."
"How come its twice, I can't get your logic?"
"Twice is the correct answer."
"Could you please show me how you got the answer? I'm confused." I said as I leaned over to hand over my book which made her to suddenly back away.
Oh.
"My bad."
"No, it's not your fault. I'm the one who should be apologizing."
"It's okay. You don't need to do anything. Just help me see how you got an unrealistic answer different from mine."
I'm not dumb at math. At least I know that much.
There is no answer called twice.
Never I the history of math.
Momo took a deep breath as she inhaled audibly then exhaled afterwards slowly putting her palm over her huge overexaggerated chest.
She repeated the action…
Twice???
What's going on here?
"Okay. Fuuuu." She turned to look at me again albeit avoiding eye contact but a bit more resolute this time.
"Could you please stop looking at me like that. I'm not very good with people when they look at me like that."
"Sure."
Time is ticking.
"Can I please have your book for a moment if you want?"
I simply nodded and I gave her the book in silence. Without wasting time, I heard her scribbling something over where I just did my short-lived victorious equation which was being fixed and returned it back to me.
When I received the book back from her, we mistakenly made skin contact just barely with our fingers which is no big issue since as these things happen but this had a different effect on her as she reacted coyly again, immediately retracting her hand from mine and since I had not fully grasped the book in hand, it fell from my hand to the floor as the pages sprawled in all directions.
Good grief.
"Sorry I'll pick it up for you." She bent downwards in an attempt to pick up the book.
The bad news is, I too, two? too had already began to pick up my book and we both simultaneously touched it at the same time at raising it upwards a bit, creating a certain level of tension between the pages on the book.
"Ah."
"!"
Nothing needed to be said when we both lifted the book and placed it on the desk but she took her hand away again in an instant.
"If you feel uncomfortable around me you should just say so and I'll find somewhere else to sit. I won't hold it against you." I said at the same time standing up and packing my books to study elsewhere.
"Sorry for the inconvenience."
Then I went away.
Or at least I think I did.
"Wait. Sorry about that but… You don't have to go."
"But aren't I disturbing you? You don't have to force yourself to be nice. Really."
"I'm not forcing myself it's just… I don't know how to interact with people that much especially boys which... sometimes might give people wrong interpretations about what I am trying to convey to them."
"So in other words, you are okay with me seating here?"
"Yeah. I think… maybe I'm fine with it."
If she says so.
Then I went back to the seat and resumed my equational studies.
Now! Pertaining to where I went wrong. I opened the book again to find where my errors were corrected only to find one word had been scribbled there.
Twice.
The word was written just beside my answer.
You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me!
"Hey Momo pardon me, Mieko, what's the meaning of this?" I pointed exactly to where the disrespect she just showed me.
"Momo is still fine. I don't mind that much."
"Okay Momo~. Tell me how this is an answer in math. I mean twice? Seriously? I would understand if you are trying to say two."
"The answer is twice and you can even check it in the textbooks."
"…"
I can't start flipping pages when I can just ask to save time.
"We were never taught that in class."
"We were."
We were?
"When?"
"I don't remember but all I do is that we were taught that in class a couple of days ago."
Must be that time with limerence.
"Then can you please show me how you got 'twice' as an answer. It still doesn't make any sense."
"Okay, just let me work it out for a moment."
"I can't see anything. You are a bit too far away for me to see the process."
"Well…"
"As I said before. You don't have to force yourself. I'll try seeing it from here."
"Thank you."
She started to work on the math but as for me, I began to etch every process of the method to solve in my brain.
Not to sound like a pervert… even though I am but wow.
This was just unavoidable and even if people judge me for it, there is a rhetoric conclusive reason for this.
While she was working on the equation, the paper was so close to her and her arms looked as if it was hugging her chest both sides, even if they weren't, squeezing her school shirt and making tight stretches on it, further accentuating the size of her ridiculous breasts.
Better for worse, she didn't even notice as she deftly worked on the math, paying no attention to anything else.
I wanted to appreciate the blessed sight even more, but I have to respect the person in question. We got off to a good start and I don't want her to feel insecure and even more uncomfortable around me.
Even if the sight of her boobs slightly jiggles due to the movement of her arms sending small euphoric waves to blast me away…
Even if the sight of her jiggles by bouncing everywhere even when she is just sitting down…
Even if the sight is spectacularly plausible a billion times…
.
.
.
I'll try.
"Here. I'm finished."
She handed me her book.
I checked everything and perhaps I might be going blind so I made sure to recheck the page again.
"That's exactly what I did."
"Umm well…"
Everything was the same to the last dot except for the twice.
"How is this different from what I did?"
"It's not different. You just left out important details to your answer. During our lessons, we were taught that if we were to ever solve quadratic equations and they bring out the same answer for both, you should write twice in the brackets like this." She explained making the bracket gesture with her arms.
What gives?
Math teachers are just…
Besides, that's insane.
And I could not help but appreciate her effort and the wonderful view.
She is too overexaggerated. Her buttons almost tore apart just with that.
"I know this may sound rude but would you mind if I were to call you twice from now on?"
"Please don't. I'm just trying to help you."
"I was joking. You don't have to take everything I say at face value."
"You were joking?"
"Please tell me you know what a joke is?"
"Yeah, I do. I'm not that stupid. Its just that…I'm not good with jokes and I can't interact with people normally like others to the point they crack jokes with me so its difficult for me to decipher whether it's a joke or not."
"But you are interacting normally with me."
She paused.
"I think maybe that's because you are not a complete stranger to me."
"Then I'm honored."
"…"
"…"
Awkward.
"By the way, Takemoto…"
"Yes."
"Thank you for yesterday."
"Yesterday?"
"Don't you remember? That time I was about to fall off on the entrance of the library."
It had slipped my mind.
"So what are you going to give me as compensation?"
"W-What?"
Sigh.
"That was a joke too."
"Was it?"
"Yeah, it was. You really need to shake off your anxiety."
"That's what I have always been trying to do but for some reason, it never works."
"Want me to teach you? I can if you don't mind."
"I don't know…"
Then the first bell rang signaling for all prospective students to get ready for lessons because at this time, students would be scattered everywhere around the whole school at this time.
"Let's head to class."
"Are you fine with walking with someone like me?"
She is nuts.
Just contrast between her and me.
"I'm the one who should be asking you that."
"If you are okay with me then-"
"No, if YOU are okay with me then let's go."
She tried to look at me so as to gauge if I had gone crazy or not and her gaze backed away from me immediately.
If only she wasn't too shy.
"Before we are late."