Just Keep Moving (a Beastars Fanfic)

Ch14. Friendship Lesson

"Hello Tim," Juno said when she saw me. "It's nice to see that you're on time."

The day before, Juno had called me to tell me that she would be teaching me how to make friends. All I had been told was where and when I would meet her: the school library at half past four. That was all she said before hanging up. Naturally, I had agreed. I still hadn't asked the rabbit girl to be my friend, and I had decided that some extra tips would be useful.

As I looked at Juno, I noticed the large bag at her side. It seemed to be near bursting with books, though I couldn't see what exactly they were. "Is there any chance that the bag is related to the lesson?" I asked.

"Of course it is," Juno replied. "Now come on, no point standing around in the entrance."

She looked me into the library, where we quickly found a vacant table and sat down. It was then that Juno opened her bag and I realized that it had been full of manga. I was expecting there to be instructional manuals or textbooks on the topic, and I hadn't even thought that Juno would be the kind of girl to read manga.

"Sorry Juno, but what does..." I paused, picking up one of the volumes. "Adventures of Rapu Gitaika relate to learning to make friends? It says here that it's a romance themed book. You said you'd teach me how to make friends, not a girlfriend!"

"It's perfectly suitable material for the lesson, thank you very much," Juno huffed. "We can start by teaching you what not to do by observing the actions of the characters."

"This looks like it's written from a girl's perspective," I muttered, flipping to the first page. "You'd better have some male lead stories in that bag if I'm learning from comics."

"Not the best start, but I'll get you to appreciate good literature eventually," Juno sighed. "Now get reading."

***

"What the heck!" I hissed. "That's so dumb!" I was only halfway through the book, but I'd already used that exact phrase several times already.

Juno leaned over, looking at the page I was reading. "Ah yes, that part," she said. "Can you tell me what you believe is wrong with what happened?"

"This guy approached it wrong," I said, pointing at one of the panels. "You can see what he's thinking, but what he says something completely different! Then it shows on the next panel that this led to a misinterpretation! It's like the author was trying to artificially inflate the word count!"

"Ah yes, that part," Juno said. "Now, can you tell me if you've ever done that?"

"Artificially inflate the word count?" I asked. "No, I don't think I have. Might need to check the script for that though."

"Script? What are you talking about?" Juno asked.

"Just a side project," I quickly said, "but yeah, I don't think I've done that."

"I was taking about what the characters did," Juno said, turning her mind back to the original topic. "You ever done what the guy did? I can think of at least one time."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I don't think I've done that. Plus, you weren't there when I asked Leg-oh. Oh dang, this is about how I asked you isn't it?"

"About time you figured it out," Juno said. "Honestly, how's a girl supposed to feel when a guy just goes up to her and say he's been thinking about her? Keep reading."

"Ok, I get it," I muttered. "Still, why do I have to keep reading? I got what you were trying to convey already."

"Because you clearly don't appreciate good literature yet," Juno said. "That was another one of my goals, of you haven't forgotten."