Felix paused for a moment. It was because he did not understand Adrian’s question well.
I am trying to copy you? What do you mean?
He shook his head and pondered.
Adrian, who was looking at his older brother with a serious face, suddenly burst into laughter. Felix looked at him with puzzled eyes at the sudden change of attitude.
“I’m joking, Felix.”
Adrian quickly returned to his usual calm face.
“We are twins. I said this because people can’t tell the difference between us, and lately it seems we are getting more and more the same. We got the same score in the exam and got first place at the same time. If you even join the book club, we might really look like one person.”
“No way.”
Felix smirked. He can’t believe that his younger brother, who was always scolding him whenever he said something useless, would make such a foolish joke.
“Even if I act like you, I am me. you are you No matter how similar we are, we can’t be exactly the same.”
Felix gave a serious answer without realizing it.
“…… is it.”
Adrian turned his eyes into the air and mumbled back.
“Well, if we were really the same on the inside, we wouldn’t be twins. We would be born as a perfect one in the first place.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing.”
Adrian answered quietly, picking up the teacup on the table. Felix tried to examine Adrian’s face, as he felt his voice was somehow strange, but his expression hidden behind the teacup could not be seen.
* * *
Adrian, who he had been together in his mother’s womb, was the closest to Felix.
But, Felix sometimes couldn’t fully understand him.
For the first time, Felix thought he didn’t know Adrian in all aspects.
After much thought, he decided not to join the book club. He’ll just have to find another way to meet Lucy.
The biggest reason was because of Adrian. Although he said it was a joke, his face, which looked somewhat bitter, kept bothering him.
Instead, Felix decided to attend the book club meeting one last time. He thought Lucy would be puzzled if he didn’t show up suddenly after the riot. And he was worried that Alan Gross might disagree with her again.
But that was a bit of his concern. This is because, in this meeting, Mr. Peter, who is in charge of literature, will also attend.
After Alan’s disagreement about paying for the manuscript, Lucy seemed to have come up with a different method.
It was to give literary points only to students whose writings were published in the literary collection.
“Good idea!”
Peter actively accepted the proposal and set out to consider it. He even went so far as to argue that a Xenomium Literary Award should be created.
“I don’t know why Xenomium doesn’t have the on-campus literary award that all other academies have! There are singing and dance competitions!”
He was genuinely upset and saddened. He even secretly asked the book club staff if they would like to host a literary award altogether, Adrian struggled to change his mind.
In a situation where there is still a lot of work to be done, the book club staff may get hit and die if they take on such things.
After persuading Peter, who could hardly let go of his obsession with literary awards, it was concluded that he would pick the best manuscript for him. And he decided to give the student double literary points, as well as the privilege of writing on the first page of the book.
Giving extra points seemed like a good idea. Academy students, who are usually concerned about grades, might sneer at the manuscript fee, but the literary points could not be overlooked.
Thankfully, the meeting ended earlier than expected. All the members sitting around the table seemed to have a good expression on their faces. Lucy, who was sitting opposite Felix, had a good expression as well.
Felix reached out and tapped her foot slightly. He secretly wanted to send a glance to say that he did well. But Lucy didn’t even look at him, perhaps because he didn’t notice his signal.
Felix touched Lucy’s foot once. Still, she didn’t respond.
“sunbae.”
At that moment, Noel, who was sitting next to Lucy, raised an eyebrow and called out to him.
“That’s my foot.”
The other members, who did not know what he meant, looked at Noel to see. At the same time, Felix’s face, looking at Noel, began to contort unpleasantly.
Goosebumps sprang up all over his body.
It seemed to be the same with Noel. He made the same creepy expression as Felix and frowned. Felix groaned.
“Why are you stretching your feet all the way here?”
“Ah, it’s you who keeps getting close to me, sunbae!”
Their grumbling conversation alternated on the table. Their quarrel continued until Adrian noticed.
* * *
A few days later, Felix heard from Lucy that there had been enough manuscripts to fill an entire anthology. And he also found out who the owner of the manuscript that Mr. Peter thought it was the best. It was Colin Connor.
It wasn’t surprising. After the Literary Night, Colin’s recitation of his own poem became very famous, it was widely known that many people were moved by it.
Lucy seemed very happy when his best friend’s poem appeared on the front page of the book of literature. Felix felt good too. If Lucy feels good, he feels good too.
That evening, close to closing time, Felix headed to the library. Now that the book-making was slowly coming to an end, it seemed that Lucy wouldn’t be too busy either.
Students who had finished their studies were leaving the library. By now, the students of the library must have finished their work by organizing the remaining returned books.
However, when he reached the entrance to the library, an unusually loud noise was heard coming from inside.
It was Alan Gross’s irritating voice.
“But Adrian! It goes without saying that the first page of a literary book begins with a poem by a third-year book club manager. That was a rule that our book club has followed for a long time!”
“Yeah, but that’s just a custom. Now I think we need to break it down.”
Adrian’s calm voice followed Alan’s words. He was calmly persuading the excited Alan with a polite but cool tone.
Felix stood in front of the door and looked inside. Besides Alan and Adrian, other book club members were standing together.
Turns out, Alan Gross was complaining.
The original order of the poems is said to be third year, Second year, then first year. However, in this collection of literature, Colin’s poems, chosen by Mr. Peter, come to the fore.
Alan seemed very dissatisfied with this. His pride must have been hurt by the fact that Colin’s poems, who was not even a member of the book club, took up more pages than those of the members.
He continued to argue that the poem of Adrian, the third year book manager, should be on the front page as before.
Then he turned to Lucy and Colin, who were watching silently.
“Honestly, it’s strange!”
He said looking at them both.
“It was Keenan who suggested giving extra points on literature for their manuscript, but the person who was chosen for the best manuscript was also her best friend?”
Alan was just trying to prove his point, this time by attacking Lucy and Colin.
“Didn’t Lucy Keenan expect this to happen, so she brought up the literary points? To be honest, anyone could have expected Colin Conner to be the best writer!”
Lucy responded to him with an absurd face.
“Sunbae! It wasn’t me who picked Colin’s poem as the best piece of writing, it was Mr. Peter!”
Lucy’s friend Jemima also stepped forward with an indignant expression.
“You’re being unreasonable! Is the order of the poem really such a big deal?”
Following Jemima’s words, this time, the other members of the book club also added a word. They all looked at Alan with tired eyes.
The library became noisy. Alan didn’t listen to anyone and was busy pouring out his grievances.
“stop!”
Adrian’s voice was heard trying to stop them. But the library was full of loud voices of quarreling with each other, his words didn’t reach them at all.
“I didn’t like it from the start! You’ve been ignoring your sunbae’s opinions and acting solely on your own!”
“That’s not what sunbae should say! Who is it that picks only on his juniors and bullies them every time?”
That time when the commotion showed no sign of subside.
Clang!
A vase from nowhere hit the wall and shattered. The students shrieked at the fragments of the vase scattered all over the place.
Everyone turned their heads in the direction the vase flew in. Adrian stood there with a cold face.
There was a deathly silence in the library. No one dared to speak up.
“I told you to stop.”
A cold voice that had never been heard came out of Adrian’s mouth.