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Chapter 3 â First Year High School\nVolume 2\n<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide">\n\nOn our day off, Fujisaki and I were at a bookstore.\n \n
The place where we gathered was a little more urban than the area around our school. There was a famous chain of bookstores there that stocked a wide range of books, from technical books to mundane magazines.\n
Fujisaki and I were walking around, looking around in awe.\n
âItâs quite a challenge to check out all the corners again. There are so many books, itâs hard to find the right one. I donât even know where to start looking.â\n
It looks like itâs a few dozen meters from one end to the other.\n
âYouâre right⌠Hey, have you ever been here before?â\n
âIâve been here a few times. I use it to buy reference books and cookbooks. They have a better selection than other stores, so I can choose carefully.â\n
âI see. You cook, huh, Ookusu-kun.â\n
âIn this day and age, itâs probably the fastest way to lookup information on the Internet, but we donât have a tablet or a printer, so books are the most convenient.â\n \n
We walked through the bookshelves, talking about these things.\n
I pretended like it was nothing, but I was nervous.\n
I met with a girl alone on her day off. It was a super hard mode for me, as I had been mostly alone in junior high school. Even so, I didnât feel weird about it, thanks to the many conversations we had when I was on the library committee.\n
Fujisaki looked cute in her casual clothes. Sheâs wearing a semi-long bustier-ish one-piece dress. The contrast of light blue and white suited Fujisaki well.\n
I was too embarrassed to say such a thing.\n \n
âOh, yes. There was something I wanted to ask you while I was there.â\n
Fujisaki spotted something and took off at a quick trot.\n
When I caught up with her, she was in the reference book and problem book section. The selection of reference books alone seemed to be about a hundred different kinds.\n
âHey, what do you recommend, Ookusu-kun?â\n
âMy recommendation?ăWhy?â\n
âYou said you always get perfect scores on quizzes, right?ăI want to know what you usually choose to study. For example, math.â\n
âAre you bad at math?â\n
âItâs not that Iâm bad at it, but Iâm not confident.â\n
âI seeâŚâ\n \n
There are only two kinds of books I use. And I use them only for supplementary purposes because the textbooks and problem books specified by the school are generally sufficient.\n
But if I had to choose one, it would be this one.\n \n
â âComprehensive Mathematics: A Practical Guideâ?ăThat sounds a little difficult.â\n
âThis book covers all the patterns you need to know for each unit, so once you try it, youâll be surprised how much you can solve.â\n
âItâs important to memorize the patterns of how to solve math problems right⌠Then, I think Iâll buy this one then.â\n
âOn the other hand, do you have any recommendations for me?ăEspecially English.â\n
âEnglish, huh? Itâs a famous one, but I think itâs âAfforestâ. Oh, thatâs it.â\n
âActually, I havenât bought one yet. Iâll get one as well.â\n
âItâs famous and very easy to understand. I recommend it.â\n \n
Thatâs how we both bought our own reference books. After we put them in our bags, we talked about what to do.\n \n
âMaybe we can put the ones we bought in the library. Itâs not very exciting, though.â\n
âThere might not be many people who come to the library to borrow reference books.â\n
âIâd like to put something up that looks interesting though.â\n
âSomething that our school doesnât have, that we could get permission for, that would be interestingâŚâ\n \n
If it were easy to come up with, there would be no hardship. First, I decided to look around from one end to the other.\n
It was really huge. As far as the eye could see, books, books, books. There were a lot of people standing around, reading books here and there. The clerks themselves seemed to be enthusiastic, and there were many corners with pops.\n \n
âHey, for example, how about this one?â\n
What Fujisaki pointed to was a quiz book. It was not a riddle book, but a trivia book. It seemed to be interesting even at a glance.\n
âItâs good, isnât it?ăIf we say itâs educational, itâll work for approval.â\n
âAll the stuff in here seems to be similar.â\n
âRecently, thereâs a TV show where they do a real quiz game, so maybe thatâs the influence. There are so many kinds. Iâll write down all the publishers and titles so that we can make suggestions.â\n
I donât remember the quiz book being in the library. Iâll check later to see if itâs there. But itâs probably okay.\n
âDid our school have any kind of quiz club?â\n
âI donât think so. At least Iâve never heard of it.â\n
If that was the case, it would be even less likely to happen.\n \n
At that moment, Fujisaki grinned, as if she had thought of something.\n
âHey, since weâre here, can I ask you a question?â\n
âOh, sure.â\n
Fujisaki picked up a nearby book and flipped through the pages, stopping halfway through.\n
âQuestion: What color is the sweat of a hippopotamus?ăOne, yellow; two, black; three, transparent; four, red.â\n
âRed. I know this one.â\n
âOh, thatâs not fair! Thatâs the correct answerâŚâ\n
I picked up another quiz book, thinking that I should be the one to ask the question next.\n
âOkay, hereâs my question. In which year did pandas first come to Japan: 1, 1964, 2, 1972, 3, 1974, 4, 1980?â\n
âI donât know about that because it was before I was born⌠But considering it was during the Tokyo Olympics, one!â\n
âToo bad, it was 1972. Thatâs when diplomatic relations between Japan and China were restored.â\n
âAh, I see⌠I might have figured it out if I thought about it.â\n
âI guess thatâs one win for me.â\n
âGeez!ăDonât make it a contest. Youâre making me wanna win.â\n \n
I hated to lose, and so did Fujisaki. We got heated as we quizzed each other, and before we knew it, more than an hour had passed.\n \n
But it was fun. I thought this kind of thing wasnât so bad once in a while.\n\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide">\nTN: Casual flirting⌠and this was during their first yearâŚ\n\n