Backstory.

But how did we get to this predicament?

Well it all started a little longer than a year ago, when I finally became a Middle School student. After all the ceremonies and protocols followed by schools, in which you have to meet your classmates, classrooms and whatever else they consider you need to know, I was finally free to do what I really wanted to do. Back in Elementary School I spent a lot of time in the public library, so much so that they even ask for my help from time to time, so I wanted to spend some more time in an environment like that, and I knew exactly where I should go: the school's library. Not only I could enjoy myself in an environment I know and love, but also I would be able to cover the extracurricular activities that the school demands. It was the perfect scenario.

However when I got to the library and searched for the librarian, she was busy attending someone who had arrived before.

“I understand your point. However, it is too much work for just you to take care of.” She said to this person when I arrived.

“I appreciate your concern, but I work better on my own, and I can assure you that I will be able to handle anything if you grant my request.” Answer the person who got there before me.

The person in question was a girl, almost the same height as me, her hair was long and dark, almost reached her hips, it was loose and even at first glance anyone could tell that it was well cared for. Her voice, by what I could hear from it, lacked any kind of emotions, it was monotonous and serious. She could feel me approach them and quickly turned her head to look at me, her face was also serious, her eyes, shielded by a pair of glasses, quickly analyzed me to find out who I was, and, once she could tell I wasn’t of any relevance for her, she faced forward once again. Nothing catched my attention from that small glance I took at her face, basically, this girl had no special feature that I could tell you about. She was bland and empty, a complete ‘regular girl’ some might say.

The librarian also noticed my arrival and decided to wrap up their conversation, which from what I could tell, wasn’t really making any progress.

“Okay, then how about this, I will submit your request to the principal, and if he approves, then all will go as you said, but I can’t guarantee you that he will.”

She didn’t answer anything, it was clear that she wasn’t conformed at all by the outcome. So she just bowed her head and hurried out of the library, leaving the librarian and I alone.

Before she could listen to me, she sighed and gently massaged her own temples.

“How can I help you?”

“Good afternoon, my name is Masuda Masato, my class is 1-B and I would like to be your assistant to help you in all matters concerning the school’s library.”

She kept silent for a second, then she laughed for a moment. Which I considered to be somehow weird, and also a bit rude.

“I’m sorry…” She answered while still laughing. Then she recovered her composure and continued. “It’s just that it’s weird for someone your age to ask to be a library assistant. Regularly is something that we sort out as part of the duty weeks, or a punishment for those who misbehave. But right now it’s just kind of funny because it happened twice.”

“Excuse me?” I asked since I was not completely following what she was saying.

“The girl that just left asked me the same thing you did.” She said pointing at the way she went with a pen she had in her hands. “But she did ask me to leave it all to her, she said that she didn't need someone else to help, but that is something that is almost impossible to happen, but since you are also volunteering for the task then I guess it is highly possible to make it happen.”

“If possible…” I interrupted. “I would also like to be on my own.”

“I’m sorry kid, but as I just said, that is almost impossible to happen. Besides, I’m sure that you two will get along, you seem to have many things in common.” She said smiling.

I remember that when she said that it made me feel angry, because I never met anyone before with whom I had something in common with. Besides, adults are always trying to let you get along with others by saying that sort of stuff. Take for example my parents, they always tried to make me befriends with the neighbors kids by saying the exact same thing, but all their plans have failed thus far.

About three days later the librarian gave us the news, we were to work together if we wanted to be named assistants, meaning that if we refused to do so, we could spent time in the library and help if we pleased, but in order for it to actually count as an extracurricular activity we were to work as a team. Of course neither of us accepted these terms with open arms, but I wasn’t going to let go of the opportunity, besides, I thought that if I was just about my own business and didn’t care much about her at all, then maybe she would eventually just drop off and then I could be alone.

However, it seemed that both of us had the same idea, because even if we agreed to those terms, our behavior demonstrated that it was but words that we spited in order to get a similar individual plan in motion. I never got to know what her name was, since we deemed presentations to be unnecessary. When it was time to organize the books back to their original shelves, the plan the librarian set for us was for both of us to do it at the same time, however it turned out to be a competition of whoever got to the books first got to organize them. When someone wanted to borrow a book from the library it was the task of whoever that person approached first to let them know all the terms of it. We both tried to tire out the other person, to get into each other's nerves, but we did that by doing the other’s work instead of piling it all up into just the other person. We never spoke to each other, neither in the library nor in the school halls when we rarely crossed paths, not a single ‘good morning’, ‘good afternoon’, ‘see you tomorrow’ or ‘later’ was ever exchanged between the two of us. Neither we looked into each other's eyes, if possible we never looked into each other's direction; if we had any doubt about something, we would rather ask the librarian than to each other.

For three months that was how we worked, how we lived, and it seemed like a never ending conflict, because neither of us looked tired of doing so. Until one day I heard a couple of words that turned everything that I knew so far on its head.

“Good morning.” She said to me.

And just like that, in a matter of a few days afterwards, all the plans I had until then changed drastically.