I thought I had made some good progress with her. Her tone when talking to me had become warmer. Every first day of the week, I would borrow a short novel from her and return the previous one.

I had no intention of reading them at first, but after reading the first one out of curiosity, it was actually pretty interesting and I ended up reading all the novels I borrowed so far.

A month into our new routine, it dawned upon me that I was going nowhere. We only talked when I was borrowing her books. She didn’t even say anything when I returned the book and thanked her. She only nodded back once. ONCE.

There was one time when I accidentally spilled some drink on her book, and I had to buy a new one. I had to search all around town to find one. Thankfully, she didn’t notice it was brand new and just put it in her bag. Though, it’s only possible because she kept her books so well that you would think she bought them just the day before. Even she couldn’t differentiate them.

One day, during break, while I was trying to come up with a better plan, a senior walked in our class. He was looking around for something, or someone. I thought he was looking for the class president or something. But surprisingly, he walked up to Aoi.

I walked over to a student near them to spy on their conversation.

As it turned out, the book club Aoi was in, was going to be closed due to lack of members. All of the seniors were going to leave the club to focus on studying, and since she was the only junior that joined, the club will be closed. If she wanted the club to continue, she would need to recruit one more member.

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She nodded and the senior left. Aoi completely stopped reading her book, casting her gaze to the floor.

Even if her eyes were mostly hidden by her bangs, I could see how heartbroken she was from her movements alone. It was like part of her died with that revelation. The club must have been very dear to her, and she’s unable to save it because she didn’t have anyone else to ask to join the club as far as I knew.

And then, I saw a tear roll down her cheek.

That sight broke me.

My mind was filled with thoughts of rushing to her and comforting her. To cheer her up or even offer to join the club to help her. Anything that would help her.

I took a step toward her, but backed down immediately after. She would definitely know that I listened in her conversation. SoI just apologized to the student I used as cover up and walked back to my chair.

While I was sitting on my seat, my mind couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with me. These overwhelming feelings and desires aimed at Aoi were new to me, yet they didn’t feel off. Like I had naturally developed a crush on her even before I first saw the light.

After school, I walked up to her for our usual routine. As I gave the novel to her, I mustered the courage to ask her about the club and ask about joining.

“Eden?” she called me out of nowhere while pulling a new novel from her bag. It had a white cover with a huge heart on the cover.

“Y-Yeah?” I stuttered. My heartbeat went through the roof after noticing the book’s cover.

She offered me the novel, cast her gaze to the side and said: “I know it's sudden, but… do you want to join the book club?”