I walked to school the next day only to be welcomed at the door by the boy from the book club.

"Hello! Have you made your decision yet?" He asked.

"Oh! Well, yes, I have. May I tell you my decision at lunch?"

"Yes! Meet me in the courtyard."

"Alright, I'll be there!" I said, smiling.

I wondered if he could tell that my smile was forced.

He walked into the school and headed up the stairs to the second floor, where the second year's classrooms were. I walked to class 1-C. When I got there, Yuki-chan was already there waiting for me.

Soon it's lunchtime. Yuki-chan insists on coming to the courtyard with me. By the time we get there, the boy is already there, waiting for me.

"Hi," he says.

"Hi." I say back.

"Have you made your decision?" He asks.

"Yes. Would it be okay if I had a two week trial? And then afterwards I can decide if I want to join or not." I said, trying to make my voice sound confident.

"Hmm... well... I suppose that would be okay... yes, that sounds good."

I stood there, a little surprised. "Don't you need to ask the president of the club if that's even allowed?"

The boy smiled. "I am the president. Of course it's okay."

"O-oh..."

"Anyways, I never got your name. I'm Hara Hiroshi. And you?"

"I'm Hikari Yui."

"Nice to meet you, Hikari-san. I'm glad to welcome you to my club - if only for a temporary basis." Hara-san says.

"Yes... thank you for allowing me to have a trial."

"Of course. Now, would you like to come see the club room? Your friend can come too if she'd like." Hara-san says.

"Actually... Yui-chan, is it okay if I go eat lunch in the classroom with the others? You'll be fine by yourself, right?" Yuki-chan says, a little hesitantly.

I give her a reassuring smile, even though inside, I wish she would come with me. "Yeah, I'll be fine! I'll see you after lunch, Yuki-chan!"

"Yes, see you, Yui-chan!" Yuki-chan says as she walks away.

"Well, are you ready to go?" Hara-san asks.

"Yes."

We walk in awkward silence to the club room.

"So uh... Hikari-san. You like to read? What's your favourite book?"

I shrug. "I like all books, but I guess if I had to pick one it would be Magus of the Library by Mitsu Izumi."

"Ah. So you like manga."

"Like I said, I like all books. Though yeah, my favourites are mangas."

"I love mangas, though I've never heard of Magus of the Library."

"It's not very popular yet. I'm hoping it will get more popular so that it will get an anime-" I slapped my hand over my mouth, my eyes wide.

I shouldn't have said that. I basically just confessed to being an otaku!

"But don't get the wrong idea! I'm not an otaku. I don't usually read manga, and I hate anime..."

Hara-san laughs. "Haha, don't worry. I won't judge you if you're an otaku. In fact, I'm kind of an otaku myself."

I let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."

Hara-san laughs again.

"So, you said you read manga too? What ones do you like?"

"Hmm... well, if I had to pick one, I would say Again by Mitsurou Kubo."

"Oh that's a good one! One of my favourites, too!"

Hara-san raises his eyebrows. "Not an otaku, huh?"

I felt my face grow hot. "I-I meant! What's that? Never heard of that manga hahahaha."

Hara-san laughs again. "It's okay. Almost everyone in the book club loves manga, and a handful of us are otakus, too. You'll fit right in."

Is that a good thing? I thought.

I followed Hara-san down the long hallway until we stopped in front of a door.

"You ready?" Hara-san asked me.

No.

"Yes."

He nodded and opened the door to reveal...

Is this heaven?!

Books everywhere. There was barely any space to walk! Even the beanbag chairs in the corners had books on them, and books completely covered the floor, table, and the shelves that lined all four walls. People sat in the beanbag chairs, reading. I spotted a few reading mangas, though most of them were reading light novels.

"May I have your attention, everyone?" Hara-san said.

No one looked up from their books, though they all gave him a thumbs-up to show they were listening.

"We have a trial member. She will be here on a two week trial, and then will decide whether she wants to join one hundred percent afterwards."

Everyone nodded. A few of them looked up from their books to smile and wave hello to me, then went back to reading. To some people, this may feel very awkward, but to me? This felt great. One of the things I was most afraid about was people trying to talk to me, since I'm not very social, but I guess I didn't need to worry about that. This club actually seemed perfect for me. But I wouldn't tell Hara-san that, at least, not yet.

"Hikari-san, allow me to explain how this club works. During our free time, like lunch, we can either come here to read or do whatever we want in other parts of the school. We meet everyday after school, and always have a book that we read together. Usually, we read a chapter or two, and then discuss the chapter if we feel like we need to. Mostly, what this club does, is allow you to interact with other people that love to read and get book recommendations from them. Towards the middle of the year, we will decide to either create a manga, anthology, or a novel. We'll vote on which we want to do, and then we'll do it. Last year we made an anthology. There's a copy of it on the shelves if you're interested. And yeah, that's basically everything our club does. Welcome!" Hara-san said.

I nodded, unable to hide my excited smile.

"I'm going to read now. Feel free to pick a book off the shelves and use the beanbags." Hara-san said, walking over to an empty beanbag in the corner.

I walked over to one of the shelves and looked through the books. There were so many! I ended up choosing a light novel called Lily Clairet. I chose a beanbag chair in one of the corners, sat down, and began reading. After about half an hour, an alarm goes off on Hara-san's phone.

"Alright everyone! We should start heading to class now! Hikari-san, that alarm will always go off five minutes before lunch ends, so that you know when you should start heading to your classroom. Sound good?" Hara-san explains.

"Sounds good! Is there a meeting after school today?" I ask.

"Yep! It's safe to assume there's a meeting after school everyday unless I tell you otherwise."

"Okay! I'll see you after school, then!" I say, waving goodbye to everyone. A few of them wave back.

I leave the club room. When I get back to class 1-C, Yuki-chan greets me at the door.

"Yui-chan! How'd it go? You didn't run back crying, so I assume it went well."

"It actually did go pretty well! Don't tell Hara-san, but chance are, I'm going to join."

"That's great! Now come on, we better get inside or we'll be late." Yuki-chan says, pulling me into the classroom.

Soon, school is over, and it's time for me to head to the club room. I'm so nervous that my legs are shaking as I walk there, and my the time I reach the door, my hands are sweaty. I hesitantly open the door.

"Welcome, Hikari-san! It's time to begin our first official meeting of the year!"