"Got time after school?"
Haruto was tidying his desk and casually slipping his pencil case into his backpack when he heard Yoshii's voice nearby.
"Yuji and I are going to the ramen shop together. Yuji's treating!"
"Hey! I never said that!" Yuji hand landed on Yoshii's shoulder as he leaned in with a 'smile' that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Forget it for today. Lately, I feel my hair's grown out. After school, I gotta hit the barber for a trim."
"Oh, I see. Changing your hairstyle?"
"Not really a change, just trimming it a bit shorter."
"So it's just Yuji and me going to the ramen shop, huh? Next time, you should come with us."
"Sure."
"Just the two of us—any complaints about that?"
Seeing the slightly disappointed look on Yoshii's face, Yuji sighed in silent frustration at his friend's social awkwardness. Covering his face with one hand, he thought ruefully that his life might be quite different had he never met Akihisa.
"No, no complaints…"
"I'm heading out."
Without giving Yoshii a chance to explain or argue, Haruto said his goodbyes and left the classroom ahead of them.
Watching Haruto leave alone, Yoshii sighed quietly, shifting his gaze to Yuji.
"It feels like he always goes home early after school. Maybe he's got a girlfriend?"
"Isn't that normal? He's got a good personality and looks that fit what girls like. I haven't heard he's dating anyone though, which makes me wonder if he's interested in… No, that wouldn't be possible for you."
Yuji fixed his eyes on Yoshii, staring for a moment, then averted his gaze toward Ichika Nakano's direction. The girl had already left with her sisters. Yuji gently pinched his chin.
"If he's dating some other girl outside school, maybe that's not a bad thing."
"Aren't you jealous or anything?"
"Why would I be?"
Yuji's calm reaction surprised Yoshii, who didn't expect his friend to be so unfazed by the news.
"N-No? Could it be…"
"Let's go. Now's not crowded, so we better head to the ramen shop before all the office workers show up and there's no seats left."
"Oh…"
Leaving the classroom and stepping out of the school building, Haruto glanced back toward the astronomy club room, wondering if Koharu was around. He pulled out his phone from his pocket and sent her a quick message, then left the school.
After walking a while from Toyosaki, he reached a nearby street and stopped in front of a barber shop. Haruto went inside and explained to the staff that he wanted a simple trim to shorten his hair a bit. After about half an hour, he emerged from the shop.
Running a hand through his hair, he felt refreshed and cleaner. Not knowing what to do next, he headed toward a convenience store nearby.
"Just gonna buy some drinks and head home."
At the store, he bought a bunch of coffee and tea, then carried the heavy shopping bags back to his apartment.
He left one bottle of tea on the table and put the rest into the fridge. Sitting down at his desk, he pondered what to write next.
Since his book was published, Sekai rarely visited anymore. Setsuna only came by for dinner, and compared to the earlier close period, things had suddenly grown quiet and distant.
Starting up his computer, he opened his document and glanced at the content he'd set up earlier. Then he closed his eyes and deleted everything he had written.
"A soulless work won't bring any feeling. Such mechanical writing… it'd be painful to create."
Rejecting all his previous plans, Haruto sank once more into confusion about what to write. Sitting quietly in his room, he played some old favorite music and closed his eyes, hoping to find inspiration.
"Happy stories don't suit me. Pain and suffering, and finding joy within that pain—that fits me better. My past works were all 'dark' style, with twisted settings: a brother torturing his sister, a 24-year-old university student imprisoned by neighbors. That kind of content flows well for me. But happy stories…"
He murmured thoughtfully.
"If comedy is just tragedy in disguise, then maybe all my pain and suffering stories are actually comedies at their core?"
Normally, people would refute this—"That's not comedy!"—but quite a few fans liked his style.
"Hm… Popular works… Yes, I've got it!"
He suddenly found a burst of inspiration.
"A normal guy gets confessed to by a girl at the start, but he rejects her. Then he returns home, sinking into deep pain as if hurt by the girl. He rejects other girls too, until a prank leads to the accidental death of his first love!"
The whole story would focus on the protagonist's bittersweet memories with the deceased girl, his regrets and pain, until the final reveal where he stands by the sea, wearing a dark smile as the ending.
The cold smile he pictured on the protagonist's face gave Haruto chills.
"Alright, that's the basic story. Next, I need to design the characters…"
Maybe because he'd also experienced losing a lover, and because much of it was drawn from himself, Haruto modified his own name and personality for the protagonist. For the heroine, he adapted Sayuri's template with some tweaks.
"What should I name the story?"
Though the content was mostly settled, he sat quietly at his desk, staring at the document, deep in thought.
"Hm… Sakura… Crying Under the Sakura Stone?"
Sakura Stone was a specialty of Okinawa—clear as water, colored like cherry blossoms. Using it as a couple's token and the story's title seemed fitting, though he didn't know much about it.
After saving the title and closing the document, Haruto opened his browser and began searching for information about Sakura Stone.
In the evening, when Setsuna came by to call him, she noticed his freshly trimmed hair. She looked closely for a moment and asked if he had his haircut today.
"It doesn't look very obvious."
"It's a bit shorter, but not much different from before. So not very noticeable."
She reached out and gently pinched the short hair on his forehead. After a quick pinch, she let go and stared at him from side to side for a while before losing interest. Haruto felt a little odd, thinking his haircut would be more obvious, but it seemed not much had changed after all.
When they arrived at the Kiyoura household, Mai immediately noticed the change in his hair volume, surprising him.
"Yeah, I'd been thinking your hair was getting long and wanted to ask, but other things distracted me and I forgot. Now that it's trimmed, you look much fresher."
"Was my hair really long before?"
"Not really, but with your occasional silence, it gave off a bit of a dark vibe."
"Dark…"
"A little."
Mai lightly opened and closed her fingers to show roughly how much, making Haruto think deeply about what impression he had given her before.
Back at his apartment, he didn't rush to sleep but sat at his desk and opened his document again. Riding the wave of inspiration, he wrote the opening passage, working until about 10 p.m. before washing up and going to bed.
"Sales have picked up a lot recently. Seems the 10,000 copies are almost sold out, and a new print run is underway."
Mari gave Haruto the good news, lifting his spirits a little despite his lack of enthusiasm. He closed his eyes briefly, then looked up at the blue sky above.
"How many copies will they print?"
"After your interview aired, they plan to print 30,000 copies."
"30,000?"
Compared to the initial 6,000 copies, Haruto couldn't help but feel emotional. He hadn't expected his work to grow from 6,000 to 16,000, and now soon to 30,000.
"Because the program hasn't aired yet, once it does, the sales might increase more."
"But it's a late-night show, so not many viewers, right?"
"Exactly because it's late-night, more young people watch. If it sparks discussion among youth, it'll attract even more young readers. 30,000 copies are enough for Tokyo, but for a nationwide broadcast, it's not much."
"So it all depends on the program airing?"
"Don't overthink it. Haruto, your work is undoubtedly good, just lacking a bit of… buzz. The show will fill that gap. Just focus on creating your new work."
"I'm not thinking too much. I'm already happy to go from 6,000 to this."
"That's great to hear. Have you got ideas for the new book?"
"Just starting. Now that I have a computer, it should go faster than before—maybe one or two months."
Mari was silent for a moment, glanced at her phone to confirm the call was still connected, then resumed.
"One or two months?"
"If fast, one month, but that's pushing it. Realistically, two months, considering summer holidays when I'll be away in Itomori and probably won't write. So likely after summer."
"…Understood. Alright then let's leave it at that for now."
"Work? You're busy, huh?"
Haruto didn't know what was going on with Mari. After hearing his answers, Mari seemed to suddenly fall silent and didn't continue the conversation. Then she hung up.
Sitting at her desk, Mari leaned back, recalling Haruto's words from the call. She furrowed her brow tightly and rubbed her temples, letting out a long sigh.
"Two months, huh… I guess that's the difference between people."
Normally, creating a new book takes about four to five months. Publishing one book per year is standard. But someone like Haruto, who could finish a novel in two months, was operating on a whole different level.
"The energy of youth?"
Her feelings were a bit mixed. Mari sighed again, deciding not to dwell on Haruto's new work for now. That was something to think about after the novel was finished. The important thing was to deal with the matters at hand first.
"A TV program during prime time… those kinds of variety shows are basically impossible. Invitations only come once the buzz around the book has grown after airing. Other shows…"
Sakura Publishing's influence in the industry was mediocre at best. Getting a spot on a show always came with a price. But given Haruto's current situation, the publisher wasn't willing to invest too much. The company president wasn't very supportive either and Mari felt powerless about it.