[AFTER] Chapter 227 – Sometimes, pleading doesn’t work

Time Stamp: College Era

Takei Tanaka had just finished with his last class for the day. He only had one class in the morning for today, so he was free to do as he wished for the rest of the day.

"What should I do for today?"

At this point in time, Takei was working part-time at a local coffee shop near the campus of his university. He was off today from work as well, so Takei truly had unlimited possibilities to explore what he wanted to do.

"How about we go buy some manga?" Akari asked him with an excited expression.

Akari only had one class today as well, since she planned out her schedule with Takei. They had designated today as their typical free day for the semester.

"Didn't the new volume of Devil Killer just come out?"

"Yep! It's the final volume!"

Since Akari wanted to go to a bookstore to buy some new volumes of manga, Takei decided to go with her and buy some new volumes himself.

"Let's go buy some manga then~"

"Woohoo!"

The two started walking to the bookstore from their campus, but they saw someone familiar on the way there.

Leaning against a stone pillar nearby, there was a lone girl texting on her phone. She was someone that the two knew very well, so they went over to greet her first.

"Hello, President."

"Pres pres! It's your favorite couple here to bless your day~!"

The literature club president, Haruno Nishino, waved in their direction with a gentle smile. Takei and Akari just so happened to be in the literature club with her, which was why everyone knew each other.

Haruno was a black-haired beauty that had soft red eyes. She was the embodiment of a perfect mature woman that could do anything.

With an amazing amount of wealth, beauty that can't be rivaled, and a heart of gold; this was the person known as Haruno Nishino.

Many might think of Haruno as a noble lady that can do no wrong, but that couldn't be further from the truth

"Hello, you two. How have you been?" Haruno asked.

On the outside, Haruno was a lady of noble character, but on the inside...

"Are you two heading to the bookstore?" Haruno whispered quietly.

Takei nodded. "We were about to go..."

"Take me with you. Please, I'm out of stuff to read. I haven't touched a manga in two weeks. Ah ah, the withdrawal symptoms are kicking in..."

Haruno was a hardcore otaku on the inside.

Due to the last two weeks being midterms, she hadn't touched any manga or otaku stuff in a while. Since she went completely cold turkey to focus on studying, Haruno was now suffering from the effects.

Takei was a bit exasperated to see an older person pleading to him, but he just chuckled and turned towards Akari. "Should we bring her along?"

"Might as well," Akari sighed, "She'll pout and sulk for the next week in the club room if we don't."

"Yahoo! That's why you two are my favorite club members!" Haruno clapped her hands in delight.

Takei just facepalmed and looked at her with dead fish eyes. "We're your only two club members."

Unsurprisingly, the literature club was in a serious need for members. No one was especially excited to join a club about books, so Takei and Akari were the only members besides the president.

They had only decided on joining after the president begged them for several days on end.

Despite that, the three of them got pretty close to each other and had a lot of fun in their small clubroom that was located within the library itself.

"I'm not carrying your bags."

"Aww boohoo..."

Takei clearly stated he wasn't going to carry the bags of the extra that tagged along with them, which caused Haruno to sulk on the way there.

About twenty minutes of walking later, the trio arrived at the bookstore.

Takei and Akari were taking their time to go through the new releases they had missed, while Haruno rushed to the romance section and bought everything in sight. Yuri, BL, and many other forbidden genres were in the stack of books that she decided to buy.

I need to make sure Akari never gets her hand on a BL manga.

Silently in his heart, Takei swore to himself to never let Akari touch a BL manga.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Takei pretended to not know anything and continued scanning through the light novels on the shelves. There were a couple of novels that he wanted to read, but his busy schedule wouldn't let him read all of them.

"Oh, looks like they're right here. Hey, Akari! The Devil Killer final volume is over here!"

He picked up the final volume of a favorite series of his and looked warily at the volume itself. There were many opinions online from heated fans who didn't like the ending of the series, so Takei was scared that the ending would ruin a good series.

"L-Let's hope it's good..." Akari nervously said as she also picked up a volume herself.

Neither of them wanted the ending to be bad, so they prayed with all of their heart.

"Heeeeeeey, cute junior of mine~ Can you please carry my bags?" Haruno returned with two bags full of manga and light novels.

Takei shook his head with an annoyed expression. "Nope."

"Pleaseeee! You won't make a fair maiden like me carry such heavy books, will you?" Haruno batted her eyes.

"It's a good workout for you~"

"Nooooooooooo!"

Takei and Akari went to the checkout area to pay for their books while Haruno sadly dragged her legs behind them. She was quite dejected due to Takei refusing her, but she wouldn't quite give up yet.

Once the three of them left the store, Haruno decided to target Takei's weak spot.

"Akariiii~ Takei is being so mean to me today! Waaaaaaah!" Haruno wailed and sobbed on Akari's shoulder.

Akari let out a light sigh and patted her head. "There there, you'll be okay. Maybe one day you'll be able to find a significant other to carry your bags for you."

"That doesn't make me feel any better!"

In the 21 years that Haruno Nishino lived on this planet, she had yet to have a single boyfriend.

"No one wants an old lady like me!" Haruno wailed as the other two dragged her off to stop her from creating a scene in the middle of town.

—

It's okay to be alone!

Serious-san: That's something a loner would say

Sugar-chan: Good luck, Author-san!