This Girl Will be a Writer

Tears began welling up in the corners of her eyes and papers in her hand shook. It only took a second longer before the stack of papers flew up into the air.

“It can’t be over! Right! Right!?”

“Ahh—” I have no clue what to say.

“He really cheated on me… Seriously!? After I did so much to get with him? The love triangle? The late nights? Walking home with him! I can’t believe it…”

“Akimoto-san.”

“I won’t be able to see his dad anymore… his cooking… or his dad…”

Hey-hey-hey, I heard you say his dad twice! That’s not what matters… I need to get her mind off of this, and preferably focused on writing.

“Akimoto-san.”

“What…” She said while wiping away her last tears.

“You said you haven’t written yet, but you’re interested. Right?”

“Mm.”

“W-why don’t you take your feelings from whatever this is and put them into a novel?”

Akimoto seemed to calm down quite a bit after hearing my suggestion. Wait, did I actually just successfully comfort a girl? That’s gotta count for something.

“You think that’d help?”

“Yes! Definitely! That's the greatest part about the writing process. You really get to explore your feelings, it’s like an art! The page is like your canvas and the words are the way you express yourself!”

She gave me a wry look. “You make it sound really corny…”

“Ah— but uh, you get what I mean, no?”

“I do…”

Wait… hold on a second. Just one moment, give me a bit… If what I’m thinking is right… I get the creative heart, and she… begrudgingly… knows how to write decently. If we were one person we’d be pretty good at writing.

That’s an interesting thought to have. Anyways…

No! Wait! It just came to me! What if we… worked together? Combing our skills to create something great!

Preferably under my name of course. But she’d be in like the subtitle. Because isn’t it the creative heart that matters the most? We’ll work hard out the details later.

“Akimoto-san.”

“Hm?”

I clenched my fist. I have the idea, I just need to pitch it… But this way harder than I thought! Is this like confessing!? Kinda!? No. Not at all. It’s easy, especially for a guy like me.

“Ahem— Akimoto-san… I get the process behind writing. The heart. You— you actually understand how to write, I think.” That was tough to admit.

She raised an eyebrow—does she not get where I’m going with this?

“I propose we… team up.”

“A team up?”

“Yes. We work together to create one novel—a novel so great everyone in the industry will know who we are!”

“…”

“We’ll have so many volumes, an anime, a staff of writers, our own publishing house!”

“Kiyotaka-kun, I think you’re getting a head of yourself a little.”

I felt reality rush into my brain. I didn’t realize it but I had one foot on the chair and I was doing some weird victory pose.

To say the least, it was unbearably embarrassing.

I quickly sat back down and composed myself.

“Sooo, what do you say?”

Akimoto sighed. Oh no, please no, this is never a good start.

“I don’t know, Kiyotaka-kun… I… may not seem like it, but I’m a mess of emotions right now—“

…

“—and I don’t know if I’d be able to commit to something like writing a full novel… let alone a series.”

“B-but what else are you gonna do? Didn’t you say you wanted to explore writing and take a break from constantly having friends?” My glasses slipped down my face, I was getting far too excited.

“I— I did. But I might’ve more so meant that I wanted to read light novels in the clubroom… heh…”

Akimoto, you seriously are hopeless.

“Alright, but imagine having your own light novel you can read! Your own illustrations, scenes, moments, you choose which heroine wins!”

“Mmm~ that does sound nice.”