CH 2 (1/2)

Bungaku Shoujo: Volume1 Chapter2

Chapter 2 – The Most Delicious Story In This World

◇ ◇ ◇

The first time I noticed my deviancy was when my grandmother, who treasured me very

much, pa.s.sed away from this world.

I remember after my grandmother had the heart attack, she had to stay on her bed all the

time. Whenever I came near her bed to visit her, she would always gently stroke my head

and say, “You are such a good child.” She would look pleased. Her eyes would squeeze into

two tiny lines as she smiled.

But I was not what my grandmother thought I was- an obedient and empathic child. Her

scrawny hands, her shriveled up face, her muddle white hair, and the disgusting medicine

stench emitted from her body, all these revolted and horrified me to no end.

“You are such a good child.”

Every time she used that coa.r.s.e voice to whisper to my ears, I would feel like she had laid a

jinx on me. My neck would become stiff, my body would shudder.

If grandmother found out I was not a good child; if she found out that I loathed her- no

doubt she would stand straight up from her bed. Her white hair would stand on their ends

like a yashya , red flames would come out of her hazes, and that would swallow me alive. I

was really frightened by these thoughts, so dreaded that I would lie in bed at night, eyes

wide open, cold sweat coming off my back.

So, I became even more careful. Careful so that she could not see my true face. I tried even

harder to be a good child. I would deliver her three meals every day. I would wipe her

sweat. I did all I could to comfort her. I even placed my face onto her chest, and sweetly

said “I love you, grandma,” or I would kiss her cheek.

The skin of the senile grandmother was as dry as arid leaves, and reeked of those repulsive

medicines. I was really scared that her disease would infect me as well. Every time I was

done I would dash to the washroom. I would rinse and brush my mouth as hard as I could.

I brushed so hard sometimes my gum starts to bleed, and blood would seeps all over my

cavity. At this point, I often felt I was a very bad child who only knew how to lie well. My

throat would start to ache, and my face would become red hot.

One day, grandmother‟s body became cold. She would not move anymore.

“You really are a kind and sweet good child.”

As grandmother muttered this as if to herself, her hand, which was patting my head,

dropped down suddenly. Her face became as pale as a wax candle. I did not feel sad. I just

left the just deceased grandmother‟s body on the bed, and ran to the city park to play. I

went back to my home near sunset. As I entered the door, my mom immediately ran to me

and hugged me. She said, “Grandma died.” At that time, however, my heart was strangely

as calm as a desolate forest.

After a few days, the funeral service for grandmother started. During the service, I did not

shed a single tear. All the adults in the event noticed this and talked amongst themselves:

“It is probably because he is so young. He doesn‟t understand that his favorite

grandmother has pa.s.sed away. What a tragedy!”

When I heard the adults say that, a great sense of shame swelled inside of me. My ears

became very hot. I could not lift my face up and stare ahead. But that wasn‟t because I was

sad for my grandmother‟s death; No, I was ashamed of my deceitful acts.

And that, since I was small, is how I lived my life.

◇ ◇ ◇

(What a ha.s.sle! How could I write a love letter?!)

The time was the following day‟s morning cla.s.s.

As the cla.s.s started, I too had started a laborious war against my first love letter in life. I half

covered the rough drafts on my desk with my school notebooks, and strenuously tried to decide

on the letter‟s style.

“To Kataoka Shuuji-senpai,

I deeply apologize for abruptly writing this letter to you.

I think you must be shocked to receive this.

My name is Takeda Chia. The p.r.o.nunciation of the word 千愛 is „chi-a‟. I have just entered the

Cla.s.s 1-2 of Seikudari High School this spring.

Once when I got off from school, I saw Shuuji-senpai practicing in the Archery Club range. I

think you looked wonderful. From then on I had fallen in love with you.”

(Yikes, this won‟t work. The wording is too stern.)

“To Kataoka Shuuji-senpai,

h.e.l.lo! This is my first time writing to you~~~~~~

I am Takeda Chia, but all my friends call me Chia or Chi-Chan.

I am in Cla.s.s 1-2. My seat number is eleven, my Zodiac sign is Cancer, and my blood type is B.

This may sound a bit out of the blue, but I must tell you this, I have fallen in love with you

Senpai!

Kyaaa, this is so embra.s.sing!”

(I think just by writing this letter, I am even more embarra.s.sed. This makes me feel like a

moron.)

Just like this, with my face blus.h.i.+ng, I rewrite the letter countless times.

What on earth am I doing?

Tooko-senpai, with her know-it-all tone, said this to me-

“Your compositions do not have enough pa.s.sion in them. This is a good chance for you to

practice, so don‟t slack! Try and imagine Chia‟s heart, and write a love letter that resembles what

a love stricken girl would write- something sweet and sour. Something that will make the readers

feel as if this world is sparkling, so happy that no one can stand it. This is the mood you should

imitate. If you accomplish this, whoever receives this letter will think „Chia is such a cute girl!‟

Then he will realize that he is loved by such a pure and innately beautiful girl, he will be

touched.”

I can‟t stand this. If that‟s the case, then I will stand aside and let Tooko-senpai be the writer.

“I only eat.” She answered shamelessly and snickered.

On the blackboard there was a drawing of the DNA helix structure. The white haired biology

teacher monotonically explained how chromosomes and genetic worked.

Seikudari High School is a well known school for getting into universities, thus most people who

study here are taking down notes seriously. Right now there is only the voice of the teacher, and

the sc.r.a.ping noise of pens agilely grazing on papers. Then again, there are a few who are not

listening to the teacher. They are mostly playing with their cell phones under the desks.

(But none of them are probably listening to the cla.s.s and writing a love letter at the same time,

right? Writing love letters is not fas.h.i.+onable anymore. Haven‟t most people switched to text

messaging already?)

I suddenly realized that I'm writing a love letter during cla.s.s time, and my face got even hotter.

(No, that‟s not it. This is not a love letter from me. This is Chia-san‟s love letter. Chia is the

person who likes Shuuji-senpai, not me…eh, why am I vindicating myself.)

I suppose I will listen to Tooko-senpai‟s suggestion and try imitating Chia‟s thoughts and

emotions as I write the letter. So, the first thing I tried to imagine was the face of the love

stricken Chia-

“The student Chia secretly likes is Kataoka Shuuji-senpai. He is an Archery Club 3rd year

student. When I first entered this school, I toured most of the clubs here. When I went to Archery

Club, however, I saw the handsome Shuuji-senpai practicing archery. Shuuji-senpai‟s steadily

pulled~~~~~ the grip and the string apart, and stared at the center of the target intensely. In that

moment, my eyes and the air around me froze; I couldn‟t move my eyes away from him. I

stopped my walk, and with bated breath I watched.

You know, before I saw him, something very bad happened to me, and I was very depressed

around that time.

But by seeing Shuuji-senpai‟s profile, all my distress became a puff of smoke, and floated away.

When Shuuji-senpai‟s arrow shot into the center of the red target, it felt as if his arrow had also

shot into my heart.

Then Shuuji-senpai, bright and kind as a little kid, smiled sweetly. Oh my gosh, that was the

most fantastic smile I had ever seen! Just like that I fell in love with Shuuji-senpai.

I am an athletic idiot, so I can‟t join the Archery Club; but I always go to the range to spy on

Shuuji-senpai. I heard other club members called him Kataoka, Juu, or Juu-chan, that‟s how I

found his name. When Shuuji-senpai is not practicing, he seems to possess a great sense of

humor, quite unlike his sober outer appearance. He always crack jokes and stuff and makes

everyone laugh.

But when he is practicing archery, his serious and imperturbable expression appears. On one

hand, when he is not practicing he seems good natured; on the other hand, when he is practicing,

he looks so focused it's a bit scary. However, if he misses the center, he would let out “ah~~”,

and chuckle goatishly. If he did hit the center, he would be as happy as a child, jumping and

cheering at the same time- “I hit it!”

When Shuuji-senpai is practicing his archery, what is he thinking? I keep on wondering this

question. From that, my whole heart became filled with anything that has to do with Shuujisenpai.

I want to know more about Shuuji-senpai; I also want to let Shuuji-senpai know someone

like me exists.”

Whenever Senpai talked about books, she would start talking incessantly, in much of the same

way as whenever Chia-san talked about Shuuji-senpai.

Her puffy blus.h.i.+ng face, with glittering eyes, the happiness and bliss that came from her heart,

just talks and talks about anything that has to do with Shuuji-senpai.

I think I got pretty close to the real thing…Chia-san likes Shuuji-senpai so much- I must at least

try and express that feeling for her in the letter. If Chia-san's confession failed because of my

letter, I would get nightmares every night…

I flipped to a new page of the rough draft paper, and I tried to record down Chia-san's inner

emotions into words bit by bit.

“I want Shuuji-senpai to know me.

I want to know more about Shuuji-senpai.

So I gathered my courage and wrote this letter.”

……

……

“The letter is done. Here you go.”

After school, I folded my papers into four rectangles, and gave them to Chia-san.

“I didn‟t write any rough drafts. I only used my lunch break to write them. They were written

quite sloppily, so I can‟t guarantee their quality…”

“Wahh, thank you so much!”

Chia-san started jumping up and down happily. With an expression of delight, she accepted the

letters.

“Wahh, there are three letters! You wrote so much during the short lunch break? No wonder you

are the ace of the Literature Club.”

“You…you are too kind.”

“Hehe, can I read them out loud?”

Chia-san attempted to open the folded papers, but I hurriedly stopped her.

“Wah, don‟t! Don‟t read them here!”

“Why does it matter, I want to know what‟s written inside as well. Konoha put everything he got

into these love letters!”

As Tooko-senpai smiled mischievously, she slowly walked to Chia San‟s side to peek at the

content of the letters.

I immediately moved in between them.

“No! Absolutely not!”

“Okay, I know. I'll be going home then. I need to get home fast and write down Senpai‟s letters

onto proper papers. I already brought the envelopes- they're light pink, with pictures of sakura

petals printed all over them. They're so cute!”

“Hm, very good! Now go home!”

I hectically tried to sway Chia-san to go home.

“Bye, do you best!”

“Okay, thank you for your help.”

“Don‟t forget to write the reports~~~~~~~”

“I know~~~~~~~”

Chia-san waved her hand holding the letter, and answered happily.

As she left, she fell onto the floor again, but she stood back up right away. She giggled

embarra.s.sedly and went away. All I did was nervously watch her leave.

“Ahh~~~~”, I want to read what‟s written inside. Those are the result of Konoha‟s three days of

non-stop grinding!” When I saw Tooko-senpai, with her arms hugging her bent legs on her chair,

squinting at me, my ears started to burn. This is bad, she saw through me again.

“I can‟t do that. If I let Tooko-senpai have a look, you would want to see what they taste like. All

the letters would then proceed into your stomach.”

I intentionally said that in a mocking tone, so Tooko-senpai became annoyed and raised her

lower lip/chin.

“Hey! I am not that fixated on eating!”

Then she buried her cheeks into her knees, and stared straight with a dazed expression.

Her cat-tail like, long, French braids slid down slowly from her slender shoulders.

“But, so good, love letters. They're so sweet, so tempting to all who see them. Hey, what do you

think the most delicious story in the world is, Konoha-kun?”

“I don‟t know……”

Tooko-senpai gently smiled.

“I think that would be a love letter that my lover, with his most sincere effort, put all his feelings

for me into. In this world, that letter is uniquely for me, and only for me. That would be the thing

I hold most dearly.”

After she said that, an embarra.s.sed yet blissful smile appeared on Senpai‟s face.

“But if that‟s the case, I might treasure the letter so much that I don‟t dare to eat it. Hmmm, this

is quite bothersome. I have the world‟s most delicious food right in front of me, yet I can‟t eat it.

How agonizing!”

Senpai was probably very bothered by the prospect. She pressed on her forehead with her fingers

showing a painful expression on her face. I couldn‟t help but laughed out loud.

“Those kinds of things won't happen, Senpai. On the night you get the love letter, you would

give in to the temptation and eat all there was to eat. I'm willing to bet a Complete Set of

Natsume Souseki‟s Work on this.”

“Ah~~~~”, so mean! You're so mean. You're so not caring about my feelings!”

Senpai sulkily sat down on a chair, and turned her back towards me. She kept herself in that state

until I wrote some composition snacks for her. Only then did her mood improve.

“Fuuu[TL note: ふーんだ, a sfx made while mad]. Next time I will write your name down a

thousand times into a notebook, and then I will tear the pages apart, and eat all the pieces into my

stomach. That should jinx you.”

“That‟s not very mature behavior, Tooko-senpai.”

On the following day‟s lunch break, Takeda-san, with her airily footsteps, came to my cla.s.sroom.

“Is Konoha-senpai here?”

Upon saying this, a commotion started in the cla.s.sroom.

I hurriedly stood up.

“Ah, Konoha-senpai!”

Takeda-san waved her hand at me. Everyone‟s attention now turned towards me.

“Takeda-san, follow me.”

I quickly walked down the corridor and turned to the deserted staircase. After she arrived, I

asked her what was up, and she answered me very cheerfully-

“Today when I was going to school, I waited on the road for Shuuji-senpai. I handed the love

letter you wrote for me to him.”

“Oh, that quickly?”

She sure has put her thoughts into actions swiftly. I, on the other hand, cannot be said the same; I

was very impressed at her way of taking immediate actions.

“It was as if my heart was about to leap out. I said to Shuuji-senpai “Please read this.” I gave him

the letter, and then I ran away. After that my mind was hazy- During my morning cla.s.ses I didn‟t

hear what my friends or my teachers said. All I could think of was 'Shuuji-senpai should have

read the letter by now, what does he think of the letter?'”

“Then what?” I couldn‟t help but clutched my sweating palms together.

“By lunch time my chest felt stiff, and I couldn‟t eat my lunch, so I went to the archery range.

Shuuji-senpai was there and...”

“And?”

Takeda became so happy her face got even redder. She did a victory sign to me.

“He happily thanked me for the letter! He said that while he couldn‟t immediately accept my

confession, we could try starting as senpai-kohai [TL note: think starting as friends].”

“That was pretty good, wasn‟t it?”

I was in a similar state as Takeda; my heart was about to leap out of my chest as well.

“Yes! Shuuji-senpai said he's never received a love letter as cute as this. This is all thanks to

Konoha-senpai. With your skills, no wonder you won the xyz Romance Literature Writing

Contest!”

“Hahaha, those letters were just drafts I scribbled during lunch break.”

“No. After Shuuji-senpai read the letter, he seemed much livelier. So I promised him that I'd

write a love letter to him every day.”

“What?!”

I shouted.

Write a love letter everyday…?

“Konoha-senpai, I will really have to depend on you on this. You could write such fantastic

letters during mere lunch breaks, this won‟t trouble you at all.”

She, with her utmost sincere and trustful tone, held my hand up with both her hands.

On the following day, after the end of the first period, Takeda came to my cla.s.sroom again.

“Konoha-senpai, good morning! Shuuji-senpai loved yesterday‟s letter as well. Konoha-senpai is

so amazing; you're a genius! You'll definitely become a bestselling author one day.”

“Ha…haha…thanks. Here is today‟s letter.”

“Wah, thank you. I have math next cla.s.s. I'll try to find time to review the letter. I hope Shuujisenpai

will like this as well.”

“Yeah…”

My smile became a bit strained.

Tooko-senpai snickered and said that I had brought this onto myself.

“So, you'll stick with Takeda to the end, right? You literary giant?”

With her legs resting sideways on her chair, Tooko-senpai held a paperback book with one of her

hands. Her clear black pupils were staring sideways at me.

In her hand was American writer Scott Fitzgerald‟s “The Great Gatsby.”

“You know, wasn‟t it you who forcefully dumped Takeda on me? Furthermore, wasn‟t it you

who set up that strange mailbox in the school backyard?”

“I didn‟t forcefully dump Takeda on you; I only recommended you to her. What I said was „If

the writer is Konoha, your letters will be amazing. He'll discuss the details with you.‟ Also...”

Tooko‟s skinny body leaned forward. As her chest moved forward her chair started to creak. Her

bright red lips gave way of a smile. “Who said that the letters were written offhandedly during

lunch breaks? I never said anything like that. Was it you?”

“Huh!”

I couldn‟t countered what she said. Tooko-senpai affectionately closed her eyes.

“Ah, Takeda‟s love should be going well! What kinds of reports will she write? Will it be a

strawberry cake covered with fresh cream, or will it be an orange wine slightly added, a bit sour

yet sweet chocolate cake? The layered taste of a fluffy sponge cake that has custard sauce spread

all over it doesn‟t sound bad as well.”

Her head has again filled with the idea of desserts. Perhaps she got hungry as she thought, Senpai

started to gently tear the pages of „The Great Gatsby‟ apart; she put the piece into her mouth one

by one.

“Hm! So good. Firzgerald‟s literature has such an extravagant taste. Pretense, pride, the feverish

waltz, I can just taste the s.h.i.+ny caviar and champagne in a party. I put it into my mouth, a soft

bite is that‟s all that‟s needed to diffuse the delicate layer of film; the rich scent of liquor swirls

around my tongue. I really want to give the main character Gatsby my most sincere wishes.”

That Gatsby‟s former lover Daisy is married to another man. Didn‟t Gatsby get dumped by Daisy

many times, and he finally became disillusion towards love? How could that have an

“extravagant taste?” Shouldn‟t the taste be sour….forget it, each person has his own subjective

sense towards literature…

“Ah!”

Tooko-senpai suddenly shouted. She sounded as if the end of the world were here.

Then her eyebrows became downcast, and she looked dejected.

“What should I do, this book belongs to the school library, and I ate it~~~~”

At the end, I accompanied Tooko-senpai to the library to apologize for the damaged book. We

told the librarian that “we accidentally dropped the book.” (I went with Tooko-senpai because

she said she felt embarra.s.sed apologizing alone, so she forced me to go as well.)

The following day, Takeda, as usual, ran to my cla.s.sroom.

“How are things between you and Shuuji-senpai? Have you guys talked about starting a new

relations.h.i.+p yet?”

We left the cla.s.sroom together, and started to converse in the hallway.

“Wah, I never thought you would worry about me, thank you so much. Konoha-senpai is so

caring!” [TL note: sincerely, not sarcastic]

I blushed. No, it‟s not like that…I asked because I don‟t want to write any more letters. If you

two hurry up and become a pair, then I won‟t have to write anymore…

“Actually, thanks to the letters Konoha-senpai writes, the distance between Shuuji-senpai and I

are closer than ever before. There is only just a tiny bit more to go, my feeling tells me that‟s all

that‟s needed for this love to succeed.”

“Really? Then you'll have to take charge and pull him towards you!”

I encouraged her. Takeda seemed to deeply agree with me, and rapidly nodded her head.

“Yes, I will pull him even harder. I'm also upholding my part of the deal- I have started writing

the report, look!”

As she said it, she happily showed me the notebook she was holding to her chest. The dimension

of the notebook was only about half the size of a regular textbook. A yellow duck is printed on

its cover. Even though she said she was bad at writing, she seemed motivated enough.

“It's a bit embarra.s.sing, but I find recording things that happened to the person I love so cheering.

But, if I just give this to Senpai to read, you will definitely think that I only record insignificant

events. So I need to go over the whole thing again.”

“Well, since you seem all fired up, maybe you can write the love letters yourself?”

Takeda covered her face with her notebook, and shook her head.

“No, that‟s too embarra.s.sing. But, you're right. I really do want to write my own letters. But

before then, I'll still have to depend on you, Konoha-senpai.”

Sigh, do I still remain as the writer of others‟ love letters?

At this moment, Takeda suddenly looked at me uncomfortably.

The top part of her face that‟s not hidden by the notebook seemed to have lost all its confidence.

“Hmm…Are you finding my requests troublesome?”

I secretly gasped.

“Why would I! That‟s nonsense! I am very glad to be at your service to write love letters, ha ha

ha.”

Again I hid what was on my mind.

Upon hearing what I said, a blissful smile appeared on Takeda‟s face once again.

“That‟s fantastic! Then, I'll ask for your help tomorrow!”

She became energetic again. As she waved her hands, ready to trip at the same time, she happily

took her leave.

Sigh, I really am a fake do-gooder.

As I returned to my cla.s.sroom dejectedly, the male cla.s.smates all taunted me with lines like

“your girlfriend comes to visit you every day” “you've already gotten yourself a freshman, I

never knew you were that good.”

“What, things are not like what you all are imagining.”

As I chuckled, I tried to steer them away from this topic.

I don‟t want to standout too much, as that would irritate others. For me, the extra risk of being

too noticeable is not worth the trouble. Even if the sky drops me a present, I still won‟t just take

it as if I deserved it. I'm just a normal person.

When I returned to my seat, I felt someone staring at me. I looked around, and there really was a

student staring intensely at me.

She is Kotobuki Nanase.

Her hair, dyed brown, stands out from other cla.s.smates. Her facial features are all very well

defined; she looks like a modern girl one would find in the rowdier part of a major city. She

possesses a very straightforward way of talking. All these features make her quite a popular

person in my cla.s.s.

I often hear my fellow male cla.s.smates describe her as such- “Kotobuki-san‟s temper is not the

best in the world, but she is quite hot.”

I don‟t think she likes me. I came to this conclusion because since the start of the school term in

April, she always stares at me coldly.

I don‟t remember doing anything to her that could cause her to stare intensely at me. Ah, right,

yesterday…

As I absentmindedly mused over the thought, Kotobuki-san sternly walked to my desk. She put

out her right hand, and said to me crudely:

“Give me 460 yen.”

“What?”

“It‟s the replacement price for the book that was „accidentally dropped.‟ It‟s written in the school

code, right? Those who damage or lose library books need to pay the replacement fee.”

“But you said it was okay yesterday?”

Yesterday when I went with Tooko-senpai to apologize, the librarian that was manning the

library‟s help desk was, quite unexpectedly, Kotobuki-san.

At that time I secretly swore at my luck. Why did the work schedule have to choose Kotobuki?

Things won‟t be settled that easily then.

Even though Kotobuki had a stern face at that time, and her att.i.tude could hardly be describe as

friendly, she said-

“You didn‟t intentionally damage the book. This can‟t be help. Please be careful next time.”

And just like that she let Tooko-senpai go.

But now she wants someone to pay for that 460yen? And that someone has to be me? The person

who damaged (no, or should I say „ate‟) the book was Tooko-senpai!

The moment I pointed out the fallacy in her reasoning to Kotobuki san, she raised her eyebrows,

and crudely said-

“I can‟t just go and ask that Tooko Amano-senpai for the replacement fee. She's a very important

supporter for the library. She knows better than anyone else where each book is placed at. In

addition many student librarians have received her help one way or the other. When I was in first

year, I was unfamiliar with the location of various books; however, thanks to Amano-senpai‟s

help, I completed my tasks successfully. So, Inoue, pay up for Senpai.”

“Hm, Kotobuki-san, don‟t you find your reasoning a bit illogical?”

“Absolutely not.” (She replied with absolute certainty)

Wah, she replied without any hesitation. I don‟t like to get involved in arguments with other

people, so I took out my wallet, put a 500 yen coin onto Kotobuki‟s outstretched palm, and then

bowed down to her apologetically.

“My club president has troubled you. I apologize for her.”

Kotobuki-san tightly clenched the coin, and held her lips high.

“I'll give you the change later on. If you tell Tooko-senpai any of this, I will beat you.”

What is the world coming to? Why should I help clean up the mess Tooko-senpai leave behind?

I thought those were all the things Kotobuki-san wanted to say, but she continued to stand at the

same place and glare at me.

“…hey, recently there's this first year girl who keeps on coming to see you. Are you in a

relations.h.i.+p with her?”

“You mean Takeda? There's nothing between us.”

“Really? That girl is also a student librarian, so I know her. She looks like an impressionable girl,

the kind that pedophiles would probably go for. You two are really not in a relations.h.i.+p?”

„The kind that pedophiles would go for‟…isn‟t that a bit harsh? But then again, if I talked back

to her, she would get even madder.

So I just smiled and said-

“I was entrusted by Tooko-senpai to be Takeda‟s consultant.”

And then, Kotobuki-san‟s eyebrows rose even higher. Now she looks furious.

Ah, d.a.m.n. Did I say anything wrong again?

Kotobuki took a deep breath, and looked at me coldly-

“Forget it…what you do with your love life is none of my business. But, if you two are truly not

together, then there is no need to intentionally lead her to the hallway or other deserted places to

talk. Doing so would only make other people suspicious of your intentions.”

After she said this jarring warning, she left my desk without looking back once.

Next cla.s.s was j.a.panese History. I tried to copy down what the teacher wrote on the board onto

my notebook, but my mind was elsewhere- I must hurry and bring Takeda and Shuuji-senpai

together…

The th.o.r.n.y tone of Kotobuki, along with what she said, left a straining feeling in my mind.

Ahhh, what should I do? Should I just give in and write a supremely flirty love letter for Takeda?

As the cla.s.s went on, grey thick clouds started to displace the clear blue sky. Raindrops started to

land on the windows panels.

(It‟s starting to rain…I think I put my umbrella in a drawer in the Literary Club room…)

◇ ◇ ◇

As I grew older, I became more and more aware that the difference and the gap between