On Monday, I reached school earlier than usual. Unfortunately, she wasn't here yet. She arrived a minute before class started and I only had time to greet her. She responded with a smile. I could feel she had been anxious during the weekend, wondering if I would start ignoring her. Her mood immediately improved as I took the initiative to talk to her once again.

During the first recess, I went to her seat to chat.

"I did as you said and I read this novel called Ten Saviors. Did you read it too?"

"Ah, no, I didn't read that one."

"You should! It's funny and full of suspense at the same time. It's a masterpiece!"

She grinned at me with a look full of understanding.

("I remember I was like this when I started reading too. He's cute.")

Her thoughts took me by surprise. To think there would be someone who could consider me cute.

"If you recommend it that much then I'll read it too. Ten Saviors, right?"

"Yep. You'll love it for sure."

("It'll be a good change of pace for me too. I've been masturbating too much recently.")

"Ah, speaking of which. Can we exchange numbers?"

"Huh? W-well, sure."

("I never thought I'd get a boy's number. Life sure is weird.")

I took my phone out and she did the same. I stored her number, my third one along with my parents' numbers. I wished I could delete those but I was still forced to rely on them for the moment.

("His phone is quite old. Isn't that a model from ten years ago, at least?")

Sapik grinned happily when I called her so she could have my number too. Once this was done, we immediately started a chat group with just the two of us.

Classes resumed and when lunchtime came, we ate together once more. We continued to talk about novels but we also expanded on different topics. It was nice to have a normal conversation with someone my age. My mind-reading power became quite handy since it prevented me from touching on the topics she was reluctant to talk about. She was slightly sensitive about her school life so far and her friends, or lack of any to be precise. From my point of view, there was nothing to be worried about. I was as friendless as she was, after all. Still, there was no need to force anything for now because it hadn't been that long since we first talked.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

After school, I felt she wanted to spend some more time with me. I preventively told her I would be busy every day in the afternoons for some time and she nodded with understanding even though she couldn't hide her disappointment.

It was also a shame for me but there was no helping it. It seemed we both had been hungry for a positive human relationship. Even though I was a violent bastard and she was as soft as a chinchilla, we had more in common than one could expect.

Roaming around town this evening was spent in vain once more. I went back home frustrated and immediately continued to read the story where I had left it. Whenever there was a good part, I felt like chatting about it with Sapik. Once this repeated a few times, I couldn't help sending a message to her.

["Hey Sapik. Just curious, did you start reading Ten Saviors yet?"]

She almost instantaneously answered me.

["Yes, I'm reading it now. It's been great so far."]

["Told you so. Which chapter are you at?"]

["20."]

["I'm at chapter 130. It would be great to be at the same point in the story so we could talk about it."]

["Is that you putting pressure on me to read faster? ^^."]

["Not at all ^^."]

["You can also start reading another story in parallel. That way I catch up with you."]

["I want to hurry up and continue reading Ten Saviors. Isn't it weird to read two stories at the same time?"]

["Most people read many stories at the same time. Ten Saviors is a finished novel but if the story you like isn't finished yet, you have no choice but to read something else in the meantime. There are people reading tens or even hundreds of stories at the same time."]

["Hundreds of stories?? How can they remember what happens in each story?"]

["It's a matter of habit."]

["Are you doing that too?"]

["Pretty much."]

["Wow… Alright, I'll try reading something else. Do you have any recommendations?"]

["Not really but it's quite safe to go with the most popular ones on each platform."]

["Okay. I'll do that."]

I stopped writing to her and went to search for another novel to read. Since I didn't know any better, I chose the second one from the list of the most popular novels. It was pretty good too. With this experience, I understood how it was possible to follow multiple stories at the same time. It wasn't that different from watching many TV series. I felt it would be fine if I limited myself to a few novels and not hundreds like Sapik and those other readers did.

After that, the rest of the week was a repetition of the same. I would spend most of the time at school with Sapik. We ate together every day and chatted about books but also about a bit of everything else. Once she caught up with me on the story of Ten Saviors, we shared our thoughts and imagination about what would happen next. As someone much more experienced than I was, she was able to guess some future developments which took me completely by surprise. When I asked her if it was still fun to read when she wasn't that surprised by what happened, she answered positively, saying that there were still some parts that were original to her. She also liked the characters, just like I did, and she said she had laughed quite a few times too.