Chapter 1.3

“I’m sure everyone needs time to prepare for the upcoming exams, so there won’t be any club meetings starting from next week. Good luck on your tests, everyone!”

“Thanks, you too.”

Flora saw me out as I left the classroom hugging the thick book against my chest.

I closed the door behind me and turned to take a look inside the classroom again.

Noah had a rare smile on his face as he looked at Flora. It was hard for me to watch.

I wondered what they could be talking about.

“They’re a good match.”

I caught myself thinking aloud. I didn’t know why I said that.

I knew my place. I never once expected to feel like this. Yet, I couldn’t help but be jealous of her.

“It might be better if I were out of the picture entirely.”

Should I just quit the club?

I grumbled miserably as I turned and walked off.

For some reason, Noah seemed to be on my mind a lot more than usual today.

I trudged along, gradually losing strength the more I kept walking.

All of a sudden, I was feeling very depressed.

***

“I’m returning this.”

“Write down the title of the book and put it back in its proper place,” the librarian said in a cold voice as she wiped the dust off of some random book.

My already depressed mood hit rock bottom upon hearing her shrill tone.

“Yes ma’am…” I said with a resigned sigh. I was doing that a lot today – sighing. I probably lost several years of my life with each one.

No, I need to pull it together. There are two weeks remaining before the exams begin. I need to focus on studying. It’ll be okay as long as I get a grip on myself. I just have to stop thinking about Noah and only concentrate on preparing for my exams instead.

I clenched my hands into fists and made a promise with myself to execute that plan. As I was on my way out of the library, a certain book caught my attention.

“That’s strange… There’s no title.”

I narrowed my eyes in curiosity and walked up to the bookshelf.

What could such a gaudy-looking book be about?

The books in the library at the academy are generally all scholarly and literary works.

Very rarely are there popular novels available as they are almost always checked out. Is this one new?

“Excuse me, is this…”

I opened my mouth as I grabbed the red-covered book, but the librarian seemed too distracted wiping off the dust that had settled on a large encyclopedia that she didn’t even hear me.

I gave up on trying to get her attention and just took a seat at a nearby desk.

I flipped open the book to a page and skimmed through it, softly murmuring the words to myself.

“Oh.”

It’s a bit erotic.

Why on earth would the school have a book like this available to students?

I whistled as I leafed through the pages. No matter where I turned to in the book, there were scenes of kissing. In fact, I’d say that was the case for every scene.

I got to wondering just what led up to the two characters doing something like that in the classroom, so I flipped to the beginning of the novel.

I skimmed through a little more until my eyes came to an abrupt stop.

My face gradually became petrified at what I was looking at.

***

It was very clear that the book was a romance novel taking place at a school.

There was an angelic female lead character who was both smart and beautiful. The other main character was the guy she loved, a cool and handsome young man. Their love was to be interrupted by the antagonists in the story, but they would reaffirm their feelings for each other in the end and so on and so forth.

That’s as far as I needed to read to know that this was probably going to be a painfully unoriginal love story. However, if it were merely that, I wouldn’t be so intrigued by it like I was.

If there was one thing strange about this book, it was that the two main characters from the story really existed at this academy.

The lead character from this untitled book sounded unmistakably like Flora.

This went without saying since Flora Ivy had always been a perfect human being.

Her love interest, the handsome young male character, was obviously none other than the man of my dreams, Noah.

Needless to say, this was obviously a cruel joke being played on me by somebody who had far too much time on their hands. This wasn’t funny at all to me. Imagining the person you like involved with another girl in such a way was not something that evoked laughter.

However, what really got me down was the fact that I played a part in this story too.

Katelin Blair, the lackluster antagonist who, despite being expelled from the academy by harassing the flawless and beautiful Flora out of jealousy, maintained a fruitless infatuation with the stunningly handsome Noah.

On top of that, the main antagonist seemed detached and didn’t even really play a big part in the story. She appeared in what, maybe a couple of dozen pages. In fact, the role was comparable to that of an annoying fly who wouldn’t get out of the faces of the other two, much more important, characters.

I was in a foul mood.

From my secret feelings that I felt for Noah to the background and personalities of the two main characters that are strikingly similar to that of Flora and Noah, this whole story seemed to be too much of an accurate portrayal of my current situation. It actually creeped me out a bit. I didn’t know why; I mean, this did seem to be a pretty standard and cliché romance novel.

“… I’m not crazy.” I scowled and crumpled up the page.

Just what kind of sick sexually perverse pervert would write such a book? No doubt it was the work of some twisted student who had way too much time on their hands. To top it off, they made me the lowly and expendable bad guy.