Komaru feels like a kid in a candy store right now, and honestly, who can blame her?
There's so much books all around her right now, in every corner she can lay her eyes on. From near the entrance door, to those stacked shelves from all over the sides, and there are even other floors above this too. It's a haven of literary works of all sorts!
She can already feel herself shaking in place from sheer excitement, because she doesn't even know where to begin here!
Of course, she can always take a look at the manga section first. Buuuut at the same time, she also wants to broaden her horizons a bit, especially since she's been reading some of Toko's books recently, and those got her hooked for more similar kinds of stories.
"Anything you'd want to look at?" Toko asks her.
"Hmmmm." Komaru scrunches her face up in thought. She really can't decide with this at all. "Thinking about it is making it harder for me to choose where to start."
Toko looks around them for a bit, and then turns back to her. There's a completely baffled look on her face as she says, "Do you really need to think about it that hard?"
"Oh yeah, you're right. Thinking about it too hard will just keep us here forever. And in that case…then I'll start there!" And just like that, Komaru suddenly heads off from there.
"H-Hey, Komaru, wait!" Toko calls after her as she also tries to catch up.
Komaru goes up to a certain corner with several bookshelves by random chance. She eagerly does ahead and starts digging in, scanning through each book, taking in their covers, titles, and summaries, and seeing whether if they'd pique her interest or not.
While continuing to rummage through one of the bookshelves, Komaru then finds a certain kind of book. She's about to put it away like the others, but there's something about it that makes it different somehow.
So for now, she decides to take it out of the bookshelf so that she can take a closer look at it. The more she looks at it, the more the book feels so much more familiar to her.
And then, it suddenly hits her.
A huge wave of nostalgia rushes through her as she looks through the book. She remembers reading this a lot back when she was in middle school! She didn't own a copy of it, but she often borrowed it from one of her classmates at the time.
"Toki, look at this!" Komaru excitedly presents the book to her.
Toko immediately steps back away from that, doing that as if on instinct. "W-Where did you get that from?!"
"Oh, I got it from one of the bookshelves there." Komaru points towards one of those bookshelves that are right behind her.
Komaru doesn't get why Toko's acting so nervous about this book she picked out just now. It's not like she picked something very scandalous. If anything, the book's story starts off rather sad and dark, but then it turns very cute, touching, and wholesome in the end, and she always felt bad for the protagonist while reading it—
A big realization hits her.
She then thinks back on what the book's protagonist is like. Someone who's very small and shy, someone who couldn't fit in with everyone else, and most importantly, someone who just wants nothing more than to be loved as who she is.
And now that she thinks about it, the author's pen name on that book suddenly sounds very familiar.
"Wait a minute," Komaru then holds the book in front of herself, and points a finger at the author's pen name. "Toki, did you write this?"
"A-As if I'd w-write something as sappy and corny as that!" Toko rapidly waves her hands around.
"Toko..." Komaru gives her The Look.
And just like that, all the defenses Toko has built up at that moment begins crumbling down to nothing. She sighs, finally admitting, "Y-Yeah, I wrote that y-years ago." And then she faces away from her. "But, I...I don't really like thinking back on that one."
That makes Komaru frown. "Why not? I thought it was pretty good and it's still one of my favorites up to now."
Toko tentatively looks at her. She tries to say something, only to close her mouth, like she's struggling to find exactly what she should say.
As seconds pass by between them, Komaru thinks about the book some more, to see if she can find any reason why Toko is acting really nervous about it right now. She remembers reading this book in middle school, and obviously Toko isn't that much older than her, maybe just by one or two years. So then, does that mean…?
"Toko, does it bring back bad memories?"
Her girlfriend looks alarmed for a moment or so, but then she shakes her head. "N-No, nothing like that. I-It's just that…"
Komaru gently shakes her head at her. "It's okay, I won't think of you less. And if you want, I'll leave this book here if it makes you feel better."
"N-No!" Toko immediately protests, suddenly putting her hands on the book to keep Komaru from returning it. "You d-don't have to do that. I-If it really makes you happy, t-then I can't stop you from buying it."
Komaru hesitates for a moment, wondering to herself if Toko is just saying that for her sake. But in the end, she decides to keep the book in her hands for now.
"I-It's just that…" Toko looks around, to check if there's anyone else around them. When she sees that no one will eavesdrop on them anytime soon, she then she takes several deep breathes. "I...I was just a s-stupid kid when I thought it'd be a good idea to write something that sappy. That if I c-can't have happiness here, t...then I'll have to find it s-somewhere else. Even if it wasn't somewhere real..."
"Oh, Toko…" Komaru reaches forward and hugs her. "So that's why..."
It suddenly explains so much about the book's story and characters, especially the protagonist herself.
And then, without any warning, Komaru gives Toko a peck on the cheek, making her squeak. She giggles at that. "It's okay. You've gotten your own happy ending here now, right?"
Toko's entire face is so red right now. But even so, there's no denying that she's got the brightest, most wonderful, most beautiful smile on her face right now too.
"Y-Yeah, I do. I-I have my own h-happy ending now."
After that, both Komaru and Toko leave the bookstore with that book in the bag, and with their hands closely clasped together.