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

Akutagawa should be Omiya?”
    “No, I can’t play the lead,” I answered immediately. I was under enough pressure just appearing in a play; there was no way I could do
that.
    “Hmm. I think that’s the obvious way to go, too.”
    “Yeah. You and Akutagawa are the only boys we have, so don’t grumble and just do it.”
    “You want me to be Nojima?” Akutagawa offered.
    “You can’t do that! Omiya has that tall, handsome image. If Nojima is the cool one, it’s not convincing for Sugiko to fall for Omiya instead,” Takeda said sensibly. But wait—she was insulting me, wasn’t she?
    Then Tohko spoke up in a bright voice.
    “All right! As the president of the book club, I will take on the role of Nojima!”
    “What? You?!”
    “Oh wow, a beautiful woman dressed like a boy? Like a Takarazuka?”
    Kotobuki’s and Takeda’s eyes were wide.
    Akutagawa looked surprised, too, and my mind was reeling. Sure, with her impoverished chest, Tohko could dress like a man even without using binding, but…
    “Trust me. The book girl will give a masterful rendition of Nojima. So you’ll be Omiya, right, Akutagawa?”
    “Yes, if you want.”
    He nodded.
    “Great! Thanks! I wanted you to be in the play no matter what, so when you came, I thought I’d hit the jackpot.”
    I couldn’t believe she’d said that to him. She had a dreamy smile on her face. Tohko was pretty assertive about it, but had she really wanted to secure the female audience at the culture fair that badly? Akutagawa gave her an uncomfortable, awkward, ambiguous smile.
    “Okay, next is the heroine Sugiko.”
    “Oh, oh! I nominate Nanase!!”
    “Hey! Don’t say that, Takeda!”
    Kotobuki was thrown off guard.
    “I think you’d be perfect! I mean, Sugiko has to be someone that Nojima would fall in love with instantly!”
    “B-but… I mean, I can’t act and…”
    “Chia is right, Nanase. You would make an excellent Sugiko. You will do it, won’t you? Please?”
    Tohko rested a hand on Kotobuki’s shoulder, and she choked, her face bright red. After stealing two or three quick glances at me, she answered in an embarrassed whisper, “O-okay…”
    “You can do it, Kotobuki,” I said.
    I was trying to be encouraging, but her reticence sharpened instantaneously. She turned away and emphatically declared, “The fact that I accepted the role has nothing to do with
you,
Inoue.”
    “O-okay.”
    After that, it was decided that Takeda would be Takeko, Sugiko’s friend and Omiya’s cousin, and that I would be Hayakawa, Nojima’s rival for Sugiko’s love. At first I was relieved, thinking I wouldn’t have a whole lot to do that way, but then Tohko sternly informed me that I would be writing the script.
    “We need it by next Monday. I expect good things from you, Konoha.”
    Monday is only five days away! She’s so rough on her underclassmen.
    School was over.
    I checked
Friendship
out of the library and went outside, where the walls of the school and the cherry trees on the campus were dyed by the brilliance of the setting sun. I felt the cold air of autumn on my cheek as I passed through the school gate, the gold and scarlet light flowing in like waves.
    I saw Akutagawa a little ways ahead of me.
    He’d stopped his bike next to a red mailbox and was standing ramrod straight on the verge of mailing a letter. His face was dyed in the rich evening light with a touch of tension and angst in it that brought me to a stop.
    Akutagawa looked down at a long white envelope with melancholy eyes, frowning slightly.
    He stood that way for a few moments, then dropped his letter into the mailbox and got on his bike.
    “Akutagawa?” I called out and ran up to him. He turned to look at me with a hint of embarrassment on his face. “You’re heading home now, right?”
    “Yeah. I just stopped by the team.”
    Akutagawa got off his bike, and the two of us walked together down the sunset street.
    There was something on my mind, and I decided to ask him about