Chapter 3: "The Girl Behind the Shelf

The library was quiet.

Dust danced in the beams of light cutting through the shutters. Somewhere, a fan creaked. And behind the third shelf in the psychology section... she stood.

Minami Agatsuma.

Second-year honor student. Vice-president of the literature club. Top of her class.

And deeply, obsessively, in love with her teacher.

Her glasses slid slightly down her nose as she peered between book spines, watching her prey through a sliver in the shelf. There he was. Takeshi Zakaki.

He was slouched on a couch in the faculty corner, flipping lazily through a book with one hand while sipping black canned coffee with the other. A half-buttoned shirt revealed a teasing glimpse of collarbone, a scar she’d never seen before, and a tan line just below the neck.

She bit her lower lip.

Her heart thumped like a tribal drum.

She’d positioned herself here every Tuesday and Thursday — like clockwork — pretending to reorganize psychology books no one cared about. But she didn’t need books.

She needed to understand him.

Minami clutched her current reading choice — “Forbidden Desires: The Psychology of Attraction.” A little too on the nose, maybe, but who cared? Her eyes drifted down to the sticky note tucked inside.

She’d written a confession last night at 1:46 AM.

> “Do you ever dream about someone so much you forget what silence used to feel like?

Yours — someone watching.”

She’d debated signing it with her name. She didn’t. Not yet. That would ruin the mystery. Obsession, after all, was best served slow.

She slid the book gently into the gap in the faculty shelf. Right where he’d pick it up. Right where he always sat.

---

Later that day...

“...Alright, class, settle down. Before homeroom, someone left this in the faculty room.” Zakaki leaned against the teacher’s desk, holding up the exact book.

Minami’s blood froze.

Her fingers trembled under the desk.

He flipped open the sticky note and—

No. No, don’t read it out loud. You wouldn’t—!

> “Do you ever dream about someone so much…”

“...you forget what silence used to feel like?” Zakaki read out.

The class went dead silent.

Then—

“Ehhhhh?!”

“Sensei got a love letter?!”

“Who left that in a book like that!?”

“Creepy... but kinda hot.”

Zakaki blinked at the classroom. “Whoever wrote this... you’ve got guts,” he said, scratching his head. “But please use school email next time. That’s what it’s there for.”

The girls giggled. Boys rolled their eyes. Mitsumi in the back glared with suspicion. Chihiro smiled like she already knew.

Minami sat perfectly still. Her cheeks were flushed, her heart somewhere in her ears. But behind those glasses, she whispered to herself:

“It’s okay… you’ll love me soon.”

---

After School – Library Again

She traced her fingers along the book’s spine now back on the shelf. Sensei had held it. Opened it. Read it. She imagined his fingers brushing the page. His voice reading her words.

Her breaths grew shallow.

Minami pressed her forehead to the cold wood of the shelf and smiled. Just a little.

The game had begun.

She reached into her bag and pulled out another book:

"Ten Signs He’s Thinking About You"

A sticky note already waited inside.

> “I watch you even when you think no one does.”

“P.S. The girl behind the shelf thinks your voice is unfair.”