High Speed! Volume 2

Chapter 5: Forward

On the first day after Golden Week was over, he was on duty as the library representative. Haruka and Satomi, who had their club activities taken into consideration, were put in charge during the lunch break, so they went to the library room after finishing their lunch in ten minutes.

"Your work is to put the returned books back onto the shelves, do you remember how to look at the classification number?"

Nao, the library committee president asked with a soft smile. He thinks that the library room does suit his fair skin better than the pool.

"I remember."

Haruka answers. Satomi was just looking at Haruka, looking like she has no self-confidence.

"Then, you may use the cart there."

After saying only that much, Nao went back to the counter. In the acrylic box, there were about thirty books that have gone through the return procedures. Though the consecutive holidays did just end, it's a considerable amount. When he looks at the classification numbers, most of them were Japanese literature, so putting the whole box on the cart, Haruka decided to head towards the Japanese literature shelf first.

"Nanase-kun, what did you read?"

Satomi asked while putting a book back on the shelf. She's talking about the book report. Once a month, the library assistants have to submit a book report to be published in the 'News from the Library Room'.

"'The Old Man and the Sea'."

"Uwah, Hemingway? That's amazing."

He doesn't know if it's amazing or not. He doesn't know who Hemingway is, either. He just randomly read something that was on his father's bookshelf.

"What did you write in the book report?"

"I wrote that it was wasted effort."

"Wasted effort?"

"It took him days and he caught a huge fish, but it ended up getting eaten. Of course it's wasted effort."

"Aah...... Na-Nanase-kun, what else do you read?"

"Stuff like 'Moby Dick' and 'The Crab Cannery Ship'."

"Th-that's amazing. What was it like to read them?"

"In 'Moby Dick', his foot got eaten, and the harpoon seemed painful, too. 'The Crab Cannery Ship' seemed smelly."

"Aah... I-I, I like reading books, I read a lot like 'Anne' [of Green Gables] and 'Pippi' [Longstocking], but I'm in middle school now, so I tried challenging myself with 'The Makioka Sisters'. By Tanizaki Junichirou. It was difficult at first, and I didn't really understand it, but when I thought that it was somewhat like 'Little Women'––"

"I've read Tanizaki, too."

It seemed like she'd keep chattering on and on, so he'll break her off for now. She doesn't talk much in the classroom, yet she talks a lot here. She must really like books. But you have to be quiet in the library room.

"Ohh, what did you read?"

"'A portrait of Shunkin'."

"Uwah, that's the ultimate pure love, huh. I thought of reading it."

"But, it seems painful."

"......"

After that, Haruka and Satomi kept working in silence. Thanks to Satomi having become quiet, they made good progress, by the time they finished putting away the Japanese literature, the acrylic box's contents had decreased to half.