Don’t You Dare Call Me a Glutton Again

After the literature club activities ended, Imaizumi Keita and Yanami Anna left the school together as expected.

Imaizumi Keita carried his schoolbag in one hand and walked at an unhurried pace, his mind still occupied with the next developments of his novel.

“Imaizumi-kun.
Can you come with me to the bookstore?”

“Hm?
Why the bookstore?
Are you planning to buy a book?”

Imaizumi Keita was pulled out of his thoughts and turned his head in confusion.

“Not to buy books, it’s research!”

Yanami Anna’s eyes sparkled, her face filled with seriousness.

“Since Tsukinoki-senpai said this club activity is about creating our own original work, of course I have to prepare properly!”

“Huh?”

Seeing how fired up she was, Imaizumi Keita found it a little unbelievable.

“Yanami, you’re actually taking this seriously?”

“Of course I am!”

Yanami Anna puffed out her chest confidently, hands on her hips, striking a pose that screamed, You’re underestimating me.

“I’ve decided to take this club activity seriously!
Besides—”

She paused, a radiant smile full of inexplicable confidence spreading across her face as she pointed her thumb at herself.

“Who knows, maybe I’m actually an undiscovered, once-in-a-century light novel genius!”

Looking at her smug expression, Imaizumi Keita finally couldn’t help but laugh.

“Pfft… you?
A light novel genius?”

He shook his head mercilessly and teased her.

“I think instead of wasting time at the bookstore, you’d be better off going home and sleeping more.
Who knows, maybe everything will come to you in a dream.”

“You jerk!
Can’t you have a little faith in me?”

“I do have faith in you,” Imaizumi Keita replied seriously.

“I’m very confident that if the literature club held an eating contest, Yanami, you’d definitely win the big eater award.”

“Imaizumi!
Don’t call me a glutton again!”

Yanami Anna knocked lightly on Imaizumi’s arm, clearly dissatisfied.

Imaizumi Keita looked at her angry yet adorable expression.

Even the way she vented her frustration looked like she was begging for mercy.

Honestly… this woman.

Sometimes, she really makes it impossible to stay mad at her.

Of course, Yanami Anna didn’t actually believe she was some once-in-a-century genius.

She just… needed an excuse.

An excuse to more deeply understand what “romance novels” were really about.

Ever since that kiss, she’d realized her feelings toward Imaizumi had completely gone beyond the scope of “pretending to be a couple.”

She wanted to understand him more, and she also wanted him to understand her better.

But how was she supposed to do that?

As a complete novice in matters of love—someone whose even her first crush had ended in crushing defeat—she had no idea how to move a heart-pounding romantic relationship forward.

So the only option left was to learn from books.

While justifying her little secret thoughts in her heart, she grabbed Imaizumi Keita by the wrist and dragged him toward the shopping street in front of the station without giving him a chance to object.

“Come on, stop complaining and hurry up!
Even geniuses need to study to find inspiration!”

“Hey, slow down…”

Being pulled along, Imaizumi Keita staggered slightly, but a tolerant smile lingered on his face.

Watching the lively silhouette of the girl ahead of him, and her hair bouncing up and down with each step, he finally couldn’t resist reaching out and ruffling her soft hair lightly.

“Hey!
What are you doing, Imaizumi!”

Yanami Anna immediately stopped and turned around, puffing out her cheeks angrily as she glared at him and lightly punched his arm.

“You messed up my hair that I carefully fixed!”

“Sorry, sorry,”

Imaizumi Keita apologized without a shred of sincerity.

Looking at her bristling 모습, his mood inexplicably improved.

“Who told you to pull me so hard earlier.”

“Hmph!”

Yanami Anna wrinkled her nose.

Though she was still complaining verbally, she subconsciously slowed her pace and walked alongside him.

The two of them bickered and joked all the way to the largest chain bookstore near the station.

The moment Yanami Anna stepped inside, she let go of Imaizumi Keita’s wrist and dashed straight toward the light novel section that occupied three entire rows of shelves, leaving Imaizumi helplessly following behind.

He leaned against a bookshelf with his arms crossed, calmly watching Yanami weave back and forth among the colorful covers.

Sometimes she stood on tiptoe, sometimes she squatted down, searching through different genres of books.

“Hey, Imaizumi-kun, look at this!”

Yanami Anna came running over excitedly, holding two books and showing him their covers.

“This one says ‘A Loser Like Me Living Together with a Perfect Lady,’ and this one says ‘A Contract Romance Between a Cold Assassin and an Airheaded Girl’…
They both sound super interesting!”

Imaizumi Keita glanced at the titles and blurbs, which were overflowing with déjà vu, and commented disinterestedly,

“Aren’t these just the most standard template plots?
What’s so interesting about them?”

“Those clichés are popular for a reason, idiot!”

Yanami Anna shot back unhappily, then suddenly pointed at the obi strip on one of the books like she’d discovered a new continent.

“Look, look!
This one even says ‘the ultimate stomach-wrenching development’!
Doesn’t that sound amazing?”

“Sure, sure, very amazing.”

Imaizumi Keita replied perfunctorily, his eyes subtly scanning the surroundings.

At that moment, a familiar figure flashed past the other end of the bookshelf.

Smooth reddish-brown short hair, and a slightly oversized school uniform that looked a bit ill-fitting.

Komari Chika also seemed to notice something and quickly shrank back behind the tall bookshelf, disappearing from sight.

The whole thing happened so fast it felt like an illusion.

And Yanami Anna, fully immersed in her “research,” didn’t notice this little incident at all.

She continued enthusiastically browsing between the shelves, and before long, she was holding a whole stack of light novels with different covers.

Watching her, Imaizumi Keita found it a bit amusing.

This woman… she’s not actually planning to buy all of those, is she?

Just as that thought crossed his mind, he noticed Yanami Anna wasn’t heading toward the checkout counter at all.

Instead, she was struggling to look around the bookstore while holding the pile of books, as if searching for something.

Eventually, her gaze locked onto the reading area in the corner of the bookstore where customers could rest.

“Alright!
Today’s research location is decided—right here!”