The library has been rather... interesting lately. Hanayo had been taking note of one particular girl that has been showing up everyday. It seems like she loves to read, but her mood differentiates every time she visits.
This girl named Hoshizora Rin usually appears in the library either extremely antsy or extremely mellow which was very strange to Hanayo. Today she was more on the relaxed side and sitting on a couch with a book on cats.
Hanayo decided to finally talk to the girl, "Hello..."
Rin looked up slowly, "Oh, hey there ."
Hanayo took a seat next to her, "What're you reading?"
Rin lifted up the book to show Hanayo the cover, "A book on cats, I like cats a lot."
Hanayo noticed how slowly Rin spoke, she seemed to look sort of in a daze and her eyes were a little red, "Are you okay ?"
"I'm all fine and dandy , all fine and dandy, dandy indeed," Rin replied.
"You seem to be a little... strange, ," Hanayo leaned in closer to faintly smell an odor from Rin's breath. It smelled a lot like marijuana, " ... are you high?"
"Ahhhhh I got caught," Rin flailed her hands up half heartedly before spiraling into a giggling fit, "Yeah, I smoked some weed before coming in here..."
"Isn't that illegal?" Hanayo started to show concern.
Rin raised a finger to counter Hanayo's question, "It's only illegal if you get caught."
"Okay...? But if marijuana calms you down, what about those other days when you come in all different than now?" Hanayo asked.
"Oh, sometimes I snort cocaine but that's rare. LSD is where it's at," Rin boasted.
Hanayo grabbed her shoulders and yelled, " ! That stuff is dangerous!"
"It's alright if I'm not hurting anybody, right?" Rin asked back.
"But you're hurting yourself!" Hanayo gripped Rin's shoulders tighter.
"Why do you care? I'm just another reader in your library," Rin replied.
Hanayo sent a look into Rin's eyes, "It is my duty as a librarian to make sure the readers in the library are safe."
"If so, what's going to stop me from getting high outside of the library?" Rin questioned back.
"I can't, but I will not let you into this library if you're high," Hanayo replied.
Rin sat up, "What? But this is the only library in town!"
"You can only come in if you aren't high," Hanayo remained firm.
"But... but I pay my library card! Isn't this like illegal?" Rin tried to fight back.
"Denying your library card vs drugs, who will the police arrest?" Hanayo replied.
Rin flinched and finally realized her defeat, "F-Fine..."
"If I see you high in this library again, I'll cancel your library card," Hanayo threatened.
"Wha?! I said fine already, sheesh..." Rin hung her head and buried her face into the cat book she was holding.
"I have my eyes on you, ," Hanayo narrowed her eyes and glared at Rin.
"I get already, sheesh..." she kept her face hidden behind the book.
Hanayo nodded and pat the girl's knee, "I'll see you tomorrow then."
Rin returned the next day and entered the library cautiously in search of Hanayo. To her misfortune, Hanayo saw her and rushed over, " , I'm afraid I'm going to have to inspect you."
"I'm not on drugs right now, I promise!" Rin avoided touching Hanayo even if it made her look silly.
"Hold still would you!" Hanayo hugged onto Rin.
"L-Let go of me!" Rin tried to slither out but she couldn't.
"Aha!" Hanayo reached into Rin's pocket to pull out a small bag of white powder, "Caught red handed!"
"W-wait! I swear I didn't know that was in my pocket!" Rin quickly turned around and bowed.
"Mhmm... And this makes it how many times you 'forgot'?" Hanayo held the small bag tightly.
"I swear on my cat's nine lives that I didn't know that was in my pants !" Rin frantically flailed her arms, "I woke up late and I had to put on pants and those were the only ones, I didn't know they were packing drugs, please you have to believe me!" She got down on her knees and begged.
"Please, reading is one of the only things I like to do during my free time, don't take it away from me," she bowed to Hanayo's feet repeatedly.
Hanayo sighed, "Fine, but I'm throwing away these drugs."
"What?! I paid so much for that though! Do you know how much that costs?" Rin stood up but Hanayo kept the bag away from her.
"You will learn from your mistakes, ," Hanayo walked off to her desk.
"B-But... At least let me sell it to get SOME money back," Rin followed and kept begging.
"Nope, you commit a crime and you pay for it. It's either this or jail, ," Hanayo tossed the small bag into a waste bin near her feet, "Now let me make one thing clear here , if you ever walk in here with drugs again, I will dispose of them accordingly."
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry..." Rin hung her head and left the counter to go find a book to read. Hanayo watched as she dragged her feet and slumped onto a couch after finding a book.
The next few weeks went without a hitch and the two of them were starting to develop on good terms, "Hey , any new cat books come in yet?"
"Let me check... Ah, there's a new one, follow me," Hanayo stepped out from behind the counter and led Rin towards the book, "So how have you been these past few weeks?"
"Pretty good actually," Rin replied.
"Are you still taking drugs?" Hanayo asked.
"I've been cutting down, I actually liked to get high to read and since you became the drug terminator, I haven't been doing it as much," she explained.
"That's good, do you think you're going to stop completely?" Hanayo asked on.
"Hmm... I can definitely try? Getting high without reading is actually really boring... and scary," Rin answered.
"I think you should... Ah here we are!" Hanayo came to a stop and pulled a book out of the shelf. It had a picture of a large fat cat on it's cover and Rin grabbed it from Hanayo's hands.
"Thanks! Um... I'm sorry, I never got your name ," Rin rubbed the back of her head and smiled.
"Koizumi Hanayo," she replied.
"Can I call you Kayochin?" Rin asked.
"Ehhh? Where did you get that from?" Hanayo asked back.
Rin pointed to Hanayo's name tag, "Because that's how it's spelled!"
"N-No it's spelled Hanayo," she looked at her nametag to check it again and saw no connection as to why Rin wanted to call her that.
"It's cute either way, you're Kayochin from now on!" Rin jogged off with the book clutched to her chest.
"Ehhh...?" Hanayo let out a sigh and returned to her spot behind the counter.
A few months passed on and Rin came prancing into the library, "Kayochin, Kayochin, Kayochin!"
"What is it, Rin?" Hanayo responded.
"Ta-da!" Rin pulled out a card that looked similar to Hanayo's, "I'm going to be a librarian here with you!"
"That's great!" Hanayo grabbed Rin's hands and jumped in celebration.
Rin smiled, "I passed the drug test and it's all thanks to you and your stubbornness to get me to stop."
Hanayo felt a vein pop, "My what?"
"Ehh! Kayochin, you look scary!" Rin whimpered in fear under the aura that Hanayo was omitting.
Her eye started twitching,
"Oh really? I guess I'm too stubborn to notice!"
