“Does Takamori read any books?” Torigoe asked me after Ryou had left to go to the bathroom.

“Y’know… I wonder…” I didn’t have many memories of seeing him reading. I had a hard time imagining it. “Why do you ask?”

“He’s really dense, don’t you think? Like, dangerously so.”

“He really is.”

“So I was thinking maybe he should read something to better understand a girl’s heart.”

“Oh, that sounds good!”

Were there any about childhood friends? I was searching all through my mind, when Torigoe named a suggestion.

“That one is really good at showing how a girl feels when her affections aren’t returned. It’d be a great reference.”

“Mmm…but that one…” I shot her a glare of suspicion.

“What?”

She probably didn’t mean anything by recommending that one, since she only tilted her head at my reaction.

“That’s the one where the protagonist starts dating his plain classmate and gets her pregnant, isn’t it?”

It was a work of Literature, with a capital L. The way it depicted the characters of that age and different forms of love was fantastic—I was well aware of how good it was as a story.

But…it had some very intense scenes…particularly the one that took place in bed.

“…” Torigoe immediately looked away.

Oh, you did totally mean it, I see. She’s trying to put weird ideas into his head through his reading!

“Is it?”

And now she’s playing dumb?!

I loudly cleared my throat. “I think it’s a great idea to use books for teaching him, but I don’t appreciate the roundabout way of trying to get some ideas into his subconscious.”

“What do you mean?”

Stop fooling around!

“Besides, I can’t picture him reading a novel.”

“Hey, maybe he’ll get really into them. I’ll give him a little present to whet his interest.”

“No! Stop trying to get Ryou to read that pornographic novel!”

“Oh my. You think that masterpiece is pornographic?”

I know… I understand. I know it’s a masterpiece. When you take out the sex scene.

She shot me a snobbish stare, as if I was some uncultured swine unable to appreciate true art.

What got me about it, besides that one scene, was the part about the protagonist having an encounter with the class’s plain girl and getting her pregnant.

“There’s too much overlap!”

“Fushimi, you’re not Takamori’s mom. I should be able to recommend whatever I want to him.”

“You’re right, but…”

She was totally choosing a story that could reflect her and Ryou’s relationship. The worst part was that it would technically help him understand girls, so objecting was hard.

“I doubt he’d read it even if you asked him to anyway.” I gave up.

A few days later, the topic came up during our morning walk to school.

“Oh, that. Yeah, Torigoe told me it was good, so I borrowed it.”

“You did?”

It really was good, so I couldn’t say anything against it.

Ryou took out the thin book from his bag and leafed through the 150-page-long paperback.

“Did you read it?”

“Yup. All of it.”

Really…?

“But it had so many complicated words that I understood none of it.”

“Really?! I see, I see!”

“…Why are you happy about that?”

“Oh, nothing. I guess it was too soon for you!”

“Hey, what do you mean by that?” he grumpily objected.

I’ll get him a manga with a super cute and devoted childhood friend instead.