Shy

Chapter 23

*Thunk!*

Tsukiko jumped and squeaked a little at the sudden slam of books onto her desk. "Y-Yachi-ch-chan...W-What is a-all this?" She timidly asked, having to poke her head over the side of the tower of books in order to see her friend.

In order to have an easier time talking with each other, Yachi took half of the stack and placed it next to the other. Now they could at least look at each other over the tower of books. "Study material! For your feelings for Tanaka-senpai!" She exclaimed with a fire in her eyes.

"Y-Yachi-chan!!" Tsukiko called to try and quiet the other girl, not wanting to bear the embarrassment of others hearing and possibly passing on this information to the boy himself.

"I said I would help you figure out your 'maybe' feelings with Tanaka-senpai but like I said, I don't actually have much experience..." The blonde laughed sheepishly. "So, I brought some of my shoujo manga from home, and you can read up on them to see if they match what you're experiencing!"

Tsukiko nodded, thanking the girl and cautiously picking up one of the comics sitting at the top. The shy girl flipped through the pages of different books, skimming bits of the material. Not the type to have found interest in such things before, she quickly flipped through many of them. She grew slightly disheartened, not wanting to disappoint Yachi by not finding any usefulness in the books.

After reaching the third one, however, she took more time flipping through it. She found the art style to be quite cute, but not over the top.

Yachi noticed the girl's interest and began explaining, "That one's about this girl who starts high school and wants to try really hard at becoming attractive, so she finds a guy to coach her. I think it's really cute! If you want to go with that, I have the first three volumes here. Feel free to borrow them!"

"O-Okay, I'll g-go with th-this, th-then. Thank y-you." She picked up the volumes and stuffed them into her bag.

When she returned home, Tsukiko immediately set out to begin reading them. She switched on her desk light and pulled out the first volume of the manga. She grabbed a notebook and a pencil as well, intent on taking notes on parts she thought would be helpful to her. She flipped to the first page, and began reading.

Throughout the whole process, Tsukiko felt a multitude of emotions. Laughing, crying, smiling. She easily breezed through the volumes, sympathizing with the main heroine the entire way.

Closing the last volume available, Tsukiko let out a breath in awe. Yachi was almost completely accurate with this "study material." Just like the heroine, Tsukiko didn't really know what it meant to be attractive. In her case, her "coach" was her mother. Anytime they went out or she had to go to an event, her mother would help with clothing and accessories. Of course, it wasn't like Tsukiko would go out looking like a slob, but she just didn't really know what would be considered attractive to guys.

Just like the heroine, Tsukiko was completely inexperienced with love. She had considered the possibility of liking Tanaka since others around her had brought it up, but she could never be too sure because she had never fallen in love before. She figured that her feelings were closer to those of admiration than of love. He was just so outspoken - something she wished she had the confidence to be.

Speaking of which, that was the biggest difference between her and the heroine in the manga. No matter what it was, be it club or becoming attractive, the main character always gave it her all. She had such a positive outlook on everything and faced everything head on. She was straightforward with her problems, her feelings, everything.

Tsukiko flipped to a page where the heroine was feeling down about having her first love end. It was so soon too! She flipped to the next few pages.