Alistein scratched his head, looking at the last books that needed to be shelved. He finished the children’s books, and the fantasy novels. He finished the historical section, and the biographies. This-… He was hoping there weren’t going to be such books he had to touch. Yet, here they are.

“’Real Bad May Day’?” Alistein spoke. “’Touchy Robutt’?”

On the cart that was given to him were…certain books he needed to shelf. These books-… Well, there’s no beating around the bush. These books were definitely for adults.

“’Don’t Touch Me Dere-…’” Alistein looked from side to side, checking for anyone. He then looked back at the book. “’Don’t Touch Me Dere’?” Looking around himself one more time, Alistein gulped. He had to shelf these, true. But-… He wouldn’t get another chance at knowing just what these books were about.

On the cover of ‘Don’t Touch Me Dere’ was what looked to be a man and a woman in bed. The bed had dark purple sheets, and overly fluffy pillows. The man, so big and bulky, was kissing the stomach area of a small woman. Though, Alistein had to wonder. This woman wasn’t wearing a bra or anything on the cover. Was this really allowed? Was having flat chested breasts allowed to be uncensored? What if a kid walks by and says-…? Wait, hold on. Alistein stared at the face of the woman. No…it was probably just his imagination. Or was it? He could have sworn that-… Alistein turned the cover of the book to read the synopsis.

“Two lovers intertwined,” was all it said.

The young man turned to look at the cover again. He shrugged, deciding he already came this far. Opening it to the middle, his eyes widened when he saw pictures. So this wasn’t a novel, but rather some sort of manga. He was okay with this. He read panel to panel, watching the bulky man and slender woman build up to the scene the cover was based on. There was the purple bed, and there goes his shirt. The woman’s shirt was taken off, but again, there was no bra. Alistein shook his head, thinking nothing of it. Then, the pants were taken off. At first, Alistein thought there was a drawing error in some places. But…no, this was no mistake. It was true that the woman’s facial structure triggered a thought to enter his mind. But seeing this, and reading what the bulky man was saying to this ‘woman’, it-… Alistein read on.

He didn’t notice, but his face was starting to turn red. The ‘woman’ spoke about how they met. Apparently, the bigger man was on a motorcycle and almost hit ‘her’. ‘She’ was offered a ride to ‘her’ house, which she accepted. Then the ‘woman’ offered the man a cup of tea. Apparently, at that moment, ‘she’ knew that they would be together. Alistein thought that was the most rushed start to a romance ever, but…he shrugged it off, more shocked at this discovery. This woman was actually another man, who was very slender and feminine. Again, the facial structure did alert him of such a possibility, but-… Alistein turned the page again.

There was no more dialogue. Just a lot of sound effects drawn in such a way that demonstrates high intensity. Lines that Alistein thought were stray and meaningless actually provided a sense of speed and force. And oddly enough, the more he analyzed the art style, the more he was getting kind of…flustered. Before he knew it, the two characters were putting their clothes on. Apparently, the feminine man looked…upset about something. The bulky man was asking what was wrong, the other man looked with tears in his eyes. Apparently, there was another person the large man was seeing, and the smaller male learned of it. This moment they shared was to see which he’d like better. Which did he like more? Well, Alistein would have known, but the manga ended.

“W-what?! N-no, not here!” he shouted, turning past blank pages and the ‘special thanks’ section. “Oh, don’t you give me that-…!”

At the very end, he saw the couple holding each other with a smile, pointing towards the reader. Above them, it said ‘See you again!’, with a date below the text. The date…was far away.

“No waaaay!” he shouted, falling onto his back.

Alistein stared at the ceiling of the library, his eyes widening in surprise. He…didn’t really like romance and drama stories. Yet, here we was, getting a bit too excited over the fifth installment of this random series. He sat up, checking around himself one more time before resuming his shelfing job. Then, he saw on top of the pile of books he had to shelf…the rest of the books in the series.

Once more, head turning to the left and right, he stared back at the books. It-… It probably wouldn’t hurt to buy them, right?

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[Exit]

I must be higher than a kite...