Full Circle

A few days later, the heat wave had broken up and its stranglehold over Miyazawa loosened. Scorching ninety-five degree days gave way to a much more calming eighty-five degree days, but their turn soon came as well - by late August, the sun began to set noticeably earlier, and the days only reached the high seventies. At night, for the first time in memory - at least in the memory of the past few months - you could feel just the tiniest hint of chilliness, the occasional autumn breeze mixed in with summer gusts.

You could feel it in the mornings too - the sun was losing its strength and needed a few hours to shake off the rust before baking the city in its heat. On this morning, standing at the bottom of Natsuki's apartment complex stairs, Mrs. Kondo and Yumiko introduced themselves to each other. Yumiko then bounded up the stairs, yelling up to Natsuki and Masako who waved down to her from the apartment walkway.

Mrs. Yoshioka watched her daughter disappear up the apartment complex staircase. She stood calmly, her hands folded behind her back. She turned her firm gaze to Mrs. Kondo.

“This is a study session, correct?” Mrs. Yoshioka asked again, probably for the fifth time that morning. “No goofing off, right? They’re here to do homework, right?”

Mrs. Kondo nodded with a knowing smile. Through some phone calls, she was the one who finally got Mrs. Yoshioka onboard with letting Yumiko out for a day - purely to study at a friend’s house.

“And you’ll keep an eye on them to make sure they’re studying, right?”

Mrs. Kondo nodded again. “I want Natsuki to succeed in school, too.”

Mrs. Yoshioka looked up at the apartment walkway, watching Yumiko reunite with her friends before they all rushed inside.

“I told Yumiko and her friends that the biggest regret of adult life is goofing off too much in your youth,” Mrs. Yoshioka said. “But maybe the second biggest regret of adult life is not goofing off enough in your youth.”

Mrs. Kondo stepped next to her and joined her in looking up at the apartment complex. “They say youth is wasted on the young. I don’t know how much I believe that. They go hand-in-hand.”

Birds flew freely over the roof of the apartment complex, white clouds and blue skies providing a scenic background to them.

“I’ve been stuck working in a cubicle since graduating,” Mrs. Yoshioka said with a sigh, speaking towards the sky. “And I'll be stuck in one for a long time. Maybe I just took some of my bitterness out on Yumiko. I’ve always been hard on her. Perhaps even too hard. Maybe I’m just stuck in my old ways.”

Mrs. Kondo smiled. “It’s never too late for somebody to change.”

Mrs. Yoshioka gave the briefest hint of a smile, a knowing smile suggesting that she knew Yumiko’s entire outing wouldn’t be dedicated to studying.

“Who knows?”

….......

To be fair, a good part of the outing would be dedicated to studying. Even though they weren’t in the club room, it still very much felt like a normal day at club - Masako spent a lot of time directing Natsuki and Yumiko, keeping them on-course. At least this time around, Natsuki and Yumiko could do a much better job of keeping themselves on track without any outside direction. Sometimes, they even had to keep Masako focused. As it turns out, in addition to summer homework, she had to make-up a lot of missing work from the past semester, too. There were a lot of items she simply didn’t do.

But once that was out of the way - and after Yumiko lost rock-paper-scissors and had to go to the vending machine to get them all drinks - that day’s study session came to an end. They were onto phase two now: finally getting started on the web novel contest.

“My time in prison wasn’t so bad,” Yumiko began, laying casually on Natsuki’s bed. Natsuki sat in her computer chair while Masako sat at the edge of her bed, play-fighting against Yumiko’s attempts to kick her while she spoke. “It did give me some time to think of ideas for the contest. I think I’m going to use rom-com as the genre.”

She motioned with her hands. “A guy moves into this house and thanks to finding an old journal, he’s able to communicate with the girl who lived there decades prior by writing in it. And she writes back to him from her time through the journal as well. There’s some antagonism at first - he finds other precious things she apparently left behind, for example - but both of them agree to help each other get with their crushes.”

She suddenly sat up and spoke with fire in her eyes. “But! What happens when...they fall in love with each other?”

Natsuki and Masako clapped for her. Yumiko nodded proudly, then rolled over to extend an arm down the side of the bed and into her bag, grabbing her laptop. When she fished it out, she rolled over again and gazed expectantly at Masako.

Masako scooted away from her a little, only to run into Natsuki’s equally expectant gaze.

Masako crossed her arms. “Hey, I only said I would think about entering the contest.”

“I smell a liar!” Yumiko declared. “Liar liar-”

This time, the sound of Masako bonking her on the head seemed equivalent to an old cartoon character running into a wall.

“She’s not wrong,” Natsuki reminded her, a grin on her face.

Masako rubbed the back of her head. “Well, alright…I do have a story, but I’m not sure if it’s any good…” She sighed and revealed her story to her two highly interested friends. “Remember my aunt’s painting, Natsuki? Two students walk hand-in-hand on the riverbank, but the girl is looking up at the cherry blossoms and the guy is looking down towards the river. I wanted to write their story.”

“Oh yeah,” Natsuki remembered. “Did you figure out what it means?”

Masako chuckled. “I don’t think there’s one definite answer. But for me, I like to think that the cherry blossoms mean that the girl’s time is short, and the river means motion or movement for the guy. I still have a lot to think about, but that’s the basis for it.”

This time, Natsuki and Yumiko clapped for her. “Just don’t get too caught up in thinking,” Natsuki reminded her with a grin.

“Look at you go,” Masako laughed. “Making jokes like that. You used to be a lot more skittish.”

Natsuki smiled proudly. “I evolved from muskrat to bear this year.”

When the two other girls looked at her with tilted heads, Natsuki went red and looked down at her shoes. “Um…well, you know…it makes more sense with context…or maybe not.”

“Some things never change,” Masako supposed.

Yumiko nodded in agreement. “Alright, let’s hear your story, Natsuki!”

Natsuki thought back to the first time she met Masako and Yumiko. “Back at the club fair, Masako asked me what I wanted to write and why I wanted to write. I think those questions are actually intertwined.”

She looked at her friends with confidence. “What I want to write stems from why I want to write. I want to write something from the heart, something that turns intangible experiences into tangible, something that can be shared with others, something that feels good to finally write down and create. For the why of writing - part of me does want to see success with it. But there’s another part of me, one that I’ve been overlooking, that finds writing fulfilling. I write because the whole process is the one thing I like to do each day to find meaning.”

Masako and Yumiko clapped for her, then Yumiko gasped. “Hey…you didn’t say that whole spiel just because you’re too embarrassed to reveal your story to us, did you?”

Natsuki went scarlet again and shifted in her chair. “Well, you’re not totally off the mark…I do have a story in mind, but…”

Natsuki found her confidence. “Would you guys mind if I incorporated some of my experiences with you this past year into the story?”

Masako and Yumiko looked at each other, then shrugged.

“They say to write what you know,” Masako supposed.

“And you promised me and your friend characters in your story, too!” Yumiko added. “I’m still waiting!”

Natsuki laughed for reasons only she knew. “I’ll think you’ll like your character, Yumiko.”

She spun around in her chair and pulled up a word doc on her computer. “Here, I’ll give you guys a sneak peek of the story.”

Masako and Yumiko got off the bed and peered over Natsuki’s shoulder. For once, Natsuki didn’t feel embarrassed about writing with eyes on her. She typed smoothly, her fingers finding the right keys, helping the words that could be previously only found in her head become tangible on the screen.

THE WEB NOVEL CLUB

Chapter One: Spring-Time Step-Up

“It’s a beautiful morning here in Miyazawa,” the radio on Natsuki’s nightstand proclaimed. “High fifties, the perfect temperature to go out and seize the day! The cherry blossoms are out and about, the sun hangs high in the sky, and the local students have begun their return to school. This next song goes out to everyone of the next generation waking up and starting their high school journey today…”