The
library game
Mr. Tanaka the postman called out, "Heavy duty stuff for Aki!" Aki ran out of the house. There was a parcel for her, inside was a Polaroid.
Aki hadn't been to Otaru High for ten years. Still, she haven't forgotten her bicycle route and reached it in fifteen minutes. The place looked almost the same, but the track had a new surface to it. She went into the building and tried to find her old classroom. She did and found the furniture to be much newer.
A lady walked towards her; she looked familiar. It was Mrs. Hito, her teacher! "Hello Mrs. Hito, do you remember me? I'm Fujii Itsuki from your class!" Mrs. Hito frowned. "What year?" "1986." Mrs. Hito closed her eyes. "Yamato, Ryujo, Katsu...Aki, you're number 24, aren't you?" she smiled when she finished. Aki was shocked. Her teacher could remember everyone in her class, right down to their registration numbers. "Yes I am! It's good to see you!" Aki explained to her why she was taking photographs. Mrs. Hito told her the changes that had taken place in school. They had a bigger library now. "Come, let's go and see the library." The library was enlarged and there were lots of new books. The old ones were still around, though. And the system of the cards in books was still used. It reminded Aki of her old job here. Mrs. Hito gathered her young librarians. "Girls, I would like you to meet your senior, Fujii Itsuki." At the mention of her name, the six young librarians started giggling among themselves. "Are you really Fujii Itsuki?" one of them asked. "Yes. Why do you ask?" "Well, we have this treasure hunt that we play in the library, and it is to find the library cards with the name Fujii Itsuki on it. There are so many older books with that name on the borrowing cards. We have found 82 books so far." Aki thought her counterpart would be proud of becoming the hero of the librarians' game. "Did you really borrow so many books?" "Uh...no..It was my classmate really, he had the same name as I." "Was he your boyfriend?" Aki became suddenly shy and tried to explain it away; the girls were all giggling. Before she left, Mrs. Hito said, "It's great that you could drop by. The girls are really happy that they have met you. It's sad that the other Fujii Itsuki died in a mountain climbing accident 2 years ago..."
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