Get Out There, Tadano! (A Komi Can't Communicate Swap Au Fanfiction)

Chapter 5: Help or Bother

To recap the day before, Komi had some confusing and slightly scary interactions with Tadano. But she slowly came to realize that he just doesn't know how to socialize. Komi became friends with Tadano and promised him that she'd help him with his goal to gain a social life.

It's now a new day. Tadano has arrived to school earlier than he usually did in middle school. Maybe it was because he was actually looking foward for it after the events of yesterday. Nevertheless, he felt more hopeful this time 'round.

He walked to his shoe locker and grabbed his school shoes. As he kneeld down to put them on, a bright light came from the entrance, feeling like the light is walking closer to him. It was so bright, it might as well be blinding him.

He covered his eyes to avoid it from getting in his eyes.. The light quickly faded to normal to reveal...

"Ah! Good morning Tadano-kun."

...Komi Shouko

(Note: The bright light was for comedic effect. There was no bright light. It was just in Tadano's head)

He quickly finished putting on his shoes and stood up. The two stood silent for a couple seconds. That was until Tadano decided to speak.

"G-go..."

Komi widened her eyes a bit, suprised that Tadano would try to speak. She's anticipating for Tadano's response.

"G-goo...good...go....goo."

But as expected, he struggled to say the words. Komi understood that and quickly reassured him that he didn't have to push himself to say it. After her reassurance, Tadano then remembered that he could just use his notebook. He felt dumb.

He grabbed his notebook and a pencil, quickly wrote on it, and nervously showed the paper to Komi.

"Good morning"

Komi looked at his writing and chuckled a bit to herself. Tadano got confused of what that meant.

"Heh sorry. I just found it funny that you used the same method to communicate that I used. Our conversation yesterday really gave you some ideas, huh?"

Tadano nodded awkwardly.

He then noticed something that Komi was holding. It was a plastic bag full of books. Wanting to know, Tadano asked.

"Why the bag of books?"

"Oh! Speaking of the times when I couldn't communicate, I had some books to instruct me on how to communicate. So I was thinking if I could led these to you, if you want to."

"Oh thank you. It's a nice gesture"

He put his pencil and notebook back in his school bag and grabbed the plastic bag from Komi.

After Komi finished putting her shoes on too, they went to the staircase to have a quiet conversation between the two of them.

"So I was thinking of helping you practice speaking. Probably doing some vocal exercises and stuff. If that's alright with you," said Komi. In which Tadano nodded to.

"Ok. Just remember that you shouldn't push yourself to speak when you're not comfortable to," she said. Once again, Tadano nodded as a response.

"Well let's try to practice saying a few sentences. If I'm correct, you wanna make more friends. So let's begin with asking 'Can to be my friend?'. Don't pay attention to how much you're stuttering. Just focus on saying the words in general. It would definitely be a helpful factor for you to communicate."