Book Girl and the Captive Fool Read Online Free PDF Page A

like she was about to snap.
    “Grrr… How long are you gonna keep your arm around her, Inoue?!”
    “Uh, s-sorry!” I stammered.
    Kotobuki unleashed her attack on me, and I quickly freed my arm from Takeda’s. Takeda whined sadly.
    “We’re not elementary school kids in some pageant, so stop clinging to each other.”
    Kotobuki’s face was scarlet, and she turned away sharply.
    Akutagawa watched the whole exchange with a mature attitude.
    And then there was Tohko, the cause of all this…



“So! Everyone gets along already! My vision was impeccable when I picked out this group.”
    She nodded, completely self-satisfied. I wanted to go home.
    After we somehow crammed five chairs around the table and each of us sat down, we finally started discussing the play. Tohko proudly offered up an old hardcover book.
    “And so, after much deliberation within the club, we have decided that the play will be Saneatsu Mushanokōji’s
Friendship!
”
    “Oh wow! That sounds sooo prestigious!” Takeda clapped wildly.
    “After much deliberation”? All Tohko did was settle for the safe choice of Mushanokōji’s most famous work after she couldn’t pull off a handstand.
    Tohko went on, unconcerned.
    “
Friendship
was written as a serialized novel for the
Osaka Daily
newspaper in 1919. Have any of you read it?”
    “No.” “I sure haven’t!” “Me, either.”
    Akutagawa, Takeda, and Kotobuki replied simultaneously.
    “Then I’ll give you a brief rundown of the story. The characters are the playwright Nojima; his friend Omiya, an author; Sugiko, the student that Nojima loves; Takeko, Sugiko’s friend and Omiya’s cousin; then there’s Nakata, who’s Sugiko’s older brother and Nojima’s friend; and Hayakawa, Nojima’s rival for Sugiko’s love. I suppose that’s everyone.
    “The story starts with the main character, Nojima, falling for Sugiko the first time he meets her. Nojima becomes convinced that Sugiko will be his wife, and he goes to his friend Nakata’s house in order to see her and becomes blinded with love for her.
    “Nojima only reveals these feelings to his best friend Omiya. Omiya is a virile, honorable man, and he listens to Nojima earnestly and offers him his support.
    “But Sugiko prefers Omiya.
    “Trapped between love and friendship, Omiya leaves to study abroad in order to fulfill the duty of friendship, but Sugiko writes him letter after letter. And so, finally unable to restrain his feelings for her, Omiya asks her to come away with him.”
    Takeda’s eyes were wide.
    “Woooow. So Nojima loses his girlfriend, and then his best friend deserts him, too? That’s awful!”
    “Yes. The last scene is poignant but extremely moving and powerful. Besides, it’s so stirring the way Nojima swings between joy and despair in his love for Sugiko. Look, look—isn’t this scene wonderful? Nojima writes Sugiko’s name in the sand, and he prays that if the letters don’t disappear until the waves wash over it ten times, she’ll return his feelings. It’s
so
romantic!”
    Tohko flipped open to a page as she described the scene.
    Takeda and Kotobuki leaned in on either side of her to look.
    The three of them pressed together so closely their heads were almost touching, and they leafed through the book, skimming it and saying things like, “Oh! This part is the best!” or “But what about
this
scene?”
    At first Tohko was unchallenged as she argued heatedly for Nojima. “See? See? Isn’t Nojima adorable? You can totally understand how he feels, like the world completely changes when you like somebody.” But soon Kotobuki and Takeda started to argue with her.
    “Whaaaat? But Tohko, Nojima gets way too carried away.”
    “I agree! If a boy loved me that passionately, I might back off. Nojima acts like a total girlie schoolgirl.”
    “You, you think? Isn’t this normal if you’re in love?”
    “But in her letters to Omiya, even Sugiko is like, ‘I’d rather die than marry Nojima,’ or