Library Date – 1

Early bird rising! I opened my eyes with a start. My body feels light and refreshed. It’s a peaceful morning with birds chirping outside the window. When I pulled back the curtains, the sun was already completely up, suggesting I had woken up a bit later than usual. I stretched and checked the clock.

‘I’ll have to skip breakfast.’

It’s 8 o’clock. Considering it’s a weekend morning, I woke up quite early, but it’s still more than 2 hours later than my usual wake-up time. Yesterday’s hiking seems to have tired me more than expected. The student dining hall serves breakfast until 8:30. If I hurried to get ready now, I could barely make it in time, but I’m not that hungry. I decided to skip breakfast.

“A date?”

“Yes, is there anywhere you’d like to go?”

Yesterday, while coming down from the mountain with Hestia, we made a date. Since it’s the weekend and most entertainment facilities are in the shopping district near the Academy anyway, I asked her where she wanted to go, full of anticipation.

“The library.”

“The library?”

“I’ve always wanted to try it, a library date.”

I felt somewhat deflated. And for good reason—we had gone to the library together just last weekend. All my deliberations about which café would be good or which play we should see had been in vain.

“We went to the library together just last weekend.”

“Ah… is that not good?”

“No, that’s not what I meant! How about somewhere else?”

“I prefer the library.”

Hestia looked up at me with desperate eyes.

“Alright, then let’s meet at the library.”

In the end, I succumbed to Hestia’s gaze and agreed to have a library date. Seria gave me a look as if I were lacking something, but I decided not to pay attention to it.

I started getting ready to leave after washing up. The meeting time is 9 o’clock, so there isn’t much time to spare. I took a thorough shower using the versatile magical tool of convenience and styled my hair a bit. Thanks to that magical tool, I don’t experience any inconveniences in daily life.

After drying off, I dressed appropriately for the warm weather. Perhaps because the original body was good-looking, anything I wear suits me. As a finishing touch, I sprayed a bit of perfume and left the dormitory.

Like yesterday, the weather today was quite nice. Though the morning breeze in March was chilly, I could feel warm sunshine in spots directly exposed to the sun. The campus was peaceful except for a few diligent people exercising. I enjoyed the scenery on my way to the library.

“You’re here.”

“Did you wait long?”

“No, I just arrived.”

Hestia was already waiting for me in front of the library. She waved her hands saying she had just arrived, but her nose and ears were red as if she had been waiting for quite some time. I’m someone who’s known for keeping appointments well, but whenever I make plans with Hestia or Seol-ah, I always feel like I’m the one who’s late.

“You look pretty today.”

I complimented Hestia. She grinned. I heard advice somewhere that you never lose by complimenting someone as pretty, and it seems that’s not wrong.

And she was indeed truly pretty. Last weekend she wore very comfortable clothes when we met, but today she seems to have dressed up a bit for our date. Her neat blouse and fluttering skirt look lovely. She’s also carrying a rather hefty crossbody bag with something inside. The strap crosses between her chest, emphasizing her already generous maternal figure. Her hair is tied in the half-up style that I praised so much yesterday.

“I was pretty even before.”

She replied with her usual expression, corners of her mouth turned down. I’ve been constantly saying “pretty, pretty” so much that she seems to have adapted and now handles such compliments nonchalantly.

“Who did your hair?”

“I did it myself with what I learned yesterday. It doesn’t look strange, does it?”

She ran her hand through her hair a few times.

“It suits you extremely well.”

“This one is actually quite easy. Though I still can’t do other hairstyles.”

“You can learn slowly.”

I should learn how to tie hair soon too. I need to set a goal of tying her hair with my own hands at least once before she learns all the hairstyling methods from Seria and graduates.

A cold wind blew through. Hestia shivered and pulled me into the library. It must have been quite cold.

“Let’s go inside quickly.”

Since it was a weekend morning, there were hardly any people in the library. Thanks to this, I could still hold her hand tightly even after entering. Hestia was a bit embarrassed but didn’t push my hand away. Her hand was like ice, suggesting she had been standing and waiting for quite some time.

“If you were cold, you should have waited inside.”

“What if we missed each other?”

“You could have checked outside briefly in the middle.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t wait that long anyway.”

Not waiting long? With hands this cold? Hestia told an obviously visible lie. If she does this next time too, I’ll really have to come 30 minutes early and wait.

“Let’s find seats first.”

“Huh?”

I found a spot that was somewhat secluded and had good sunlight. Hestia seemed stunned seeing me sit down, not knowing what to do.

“…What are you doing?”

“Um, I was wondering where I should sit.”

She seems to be contemplating whether to sit across from me or right next to me.

“Just sit here.”

Only after I pulled out the chair next to me, tapped it a few times, and invited her to sit beside me did she finally take a seat.

“Why not just sit wherever you’re comfortable? Is that such a difficult decision?”

“It’s a date, so I thought we should do things differently.”

“What’s so special about a date? It’s just a man and a woman having fun together. By that definition, what we did last week was a date too.”

Just last week, we ate together, went for a walk, and studied in the library. If you stopped a passerby and asked, a hundred out of a hundred would acknowledge it as a date.

But Hestia didn’t seem to see it that way, as she glared at me.

“It’s a matter of mindset!”

“Okay, okay. So this is our first date then?”

“You could say that.”

She nodded, making a humming sound.

“Then what did you want to do at the library for this first date?”

“Study for exams.”

“What?”

She said proudly, chest out.

“It’s too late if you get complacent just because it’s not exam period yet. Studying hard usually makes things easier later.”

It’s a model student-like answer. I was about to refute but decided to go along with her words just for today. She seemed to think I was moved by her words, as her eyes sparkled.

I was foolish to expect things like reading a book together in the middle and teasing each other. I should have noticed from how heavy her crossbody bag looked.

I reluctantly took out textbooks from the bag I had brought just in case. I had hoped I wouldn’t need to take these out.

-Scratch scratch

No sooner had Hestia taken out her textbooks than she concentrated on studying. The library is quiet. The only sound in my ears is the sound of her pen. I was about to disturb her but lowered my hand when I saw her focused profile. I guess I should study too.

So I also studied hard for a while. After about an hour, I stretched because my neck and shoulders were getting stiff. That’s when my nose caught a strange smell. Rather than strange, it was fragrant.

It’s a fruit scent. I can’t pinpoint exactly what fruit it is, but it’s some kind of refreshing fragrance. It seems to be mixed with a bit of floral scent too. Just as I wanted to take a short break, I decided to find the source of the fragrance. Like how you might torment an eraser or disassemble a mechanical pencil when your concentration drops while studying.

I sniffed in the direction where the fragrance was getting stronger. My high-performance nose instantly found where this sweet fragrance was coming from.

“…What are you doing?”

“I smell something nice.”

Hestia looked at me with an incredulous expression. I brought my nose close to Hestia’s forearm, almost pressing against it. Sniff sniff. Yes, the smell was indeed coming from here.

“Are you crazy? Why are you smelling me?!”

She jumped up in surprise and raised her voice.

“Shh, this is a library.”

She seemed to accept my point even in this situation and lowered her voice again.

“What are you doing?”

“There was a nice smell, so I was trying to find where it was coming from.”

She opened her eyes wide and slapped my forearm repeatedly.

“Are you bored? Why on earth are you doing this?”

“I just did it during a short break. By the way, did you put on perfume?”

Hestia usually smells good. But that’s more like a sweet scent similar to formula milk from a baby. It’s different from this refreshing fruit fragrance.

“Yes, I put on a little.”

“It smells good.”

“Thank you. I was worried I put on too much.”

“No, it’s just right.”

“Hmm. Should I wear it every time from now on?”

“Well, your usual scent is good too.”

Her shoulders had been rising with the continued compliments, but she suddenly stopped moving.

“Mikhail, do I usually smell?”

“Huh? Of course. Everyone has their own body scent.”

Hestia trembled with a shocked face. I tried to clarify belatedly, but it seems my words weren’t getting through to her anymore.

“Hestia? I think there’s some misunderstanding, but it’s not sweat or any strange smell, it’s like a baby smell…”

“Sweat smell!”

Despite trembling so much, she somehow caught the word “sweat smell.” Flustered, she sniffed various parts of her body. In the end, I had to spend a long time consoling her to convince her that the smell she usually had was also a good smell.

“In the end, we didn’t study at all.”

Hestia grumbled with her arms crossed. As she said, we couldn’t concentrate at all after that smell conversation. She seemed quite displeased about it.

“Originally, a library date isn’t about actually studying, but just feeling like you’re studying. In reality, you play around the whole time and then feel satisfied later thinking, ‘We studied hard today.'”

Of course, I’ve never had a library date either. It’s something I heard from a friend back on Earth.

“That can’t be true!”

Hestia still seemed displeased about what had happened in the library all morning, puffing her cheeks and sulking. In the end, my focused time was only the first hour, and after that, I just kept teasing Hestia. Hestia too, after the first hour, kept responding to my teasing or sniffing her forearm, probably bothered by the smell conversation.

“You kept poking me, doodling in my notebook, and everything.”

“It wasn’t doodling, it was passing notes.”

She seems quite angry because I kept poking her while she was studying hard, or tore a page from my notebook, wrote that I was bored, and passed it to her.

“That’s the same thing. Are you going to be like this in the afternoon too?”

Hestia asked with her hand on her waist.

“Alright, I’ll really focus hard in the afternoon, so stop being angry.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

I answered without a moment’s hesitation. The afternoon’s study will be taken care of by the afternoon’s me. It’s an irresponsible thought, but since I’m the one who will bear the responsibility anyway, it doesn’t matter.

“So what should we eat for lunch?”

I asked Hestia with a very confident attitude. Today’s me has something to rely on. The reply to the letter I sent to the Duchess has finally arrived. She seemed very excited about my question regarding good places in the shopping district near the Academy and sent me something akin to a guidebook.

Now I don’t need to walk into just any store. Additionally, I’ve inherited the Duchess’s small hidden gems with few customers. She even cross-checked with the maids to ensure no stores had closed down. It seemed like she put in effort for something unnecessary, but I’m grateful.

“Hmm, I’m a bit tired of what we usually eat. Something special?”

Hestia cautiously expressed her opinion. Not what we usually eat. Something special? The pages of the Duchess’s guidebook flipped through my mind.

“Hestia, can you handle spicy food?”