(Not Quite) A Eulogy

Four days! Four days I lived like a zombified hermit to finish the typesets Stiletto mercilessly left behind for Kiyoku Yawaku. If that’s how much work it took to type the 80+ pages, then I can’t imagine how much energy Swirly must have used up to clean these atrocious raws. By the way, thank you, Swirly, for donating the tankos! Starting from Volume 3, we will be using HQ raws.

With that squared away, I should be able to say, “Tonight I sleep like a baby.” Because I seriously need sleep. Three hours a day for four days is going to kill me. Seriously. And it’s been hard for me to sleep while working on Mayama’s arc. The moment my head hits the pillow, my brain cogs start wheeling in motion. Because I’ve lost a friend too.

I called up my ex-boyfriend yesterday, but hung up before he could answer. We went to the same high school. He was a senior, I a freshman. He was there at the breakfast table when my dad said he had received a call from my mom, who was vacationing in Thailand.

“Oh, by the way,” he said. “Your mom called and said your friend…what was her name? The one who used to come over all the time?”

“Who, [ ]?” I said.

“Yes, [ ]. She’s dead. Hung herself from the ceiling. Her aunt called your mother and told her they were going to hold a funeral.”

At the time we weren’t friends anymore. We got into an argument the summer before high school started and never spoke to each other again. She died without ever telling me why she was so angry with me. The last we interacted was in English class when she passed out papers to everyone in her row but me…

Anyway, I hung up on my ex because he’s been seeing someone new, and so have I. He won’t be able to move on if he keeps feeling sorry for me. Guys are suckers for damsels in distress. It’s depressing stuff, I know. And I’m sorry. Hopefully a full night’s rest will do me some good.

For those of you who suffer from bad memory, let me refresh it for you. Mayama is the punk who tried to steal his friend’s girl Haruta’s high school friend. Last place we left off in Volume 2, Haruta died after smashing his bike into a truck while texting Kanna.

haruta

Fast forward a few years, and we find Mayama, now a college student in Tokyo, trying to help his Sempai score. It is there that he meets our country bumpkin heroine, Ai Nagatomo, and admits to a fetish for long hair?

maya-maya

(Only kidding.)

Even though it’s a chapter with a simple theme, Ryou’s amazing ability to realistically portray inner turmoil and suffering deserves applaud. What absolutely slays me is how good Mayama’s arc is. So good that it’s unsettling.

Yesterday, I was stalled at a stop light and noticed a teenage boy talking on his phone while biking across the street. Any other day, I would have shrugged it off. But you see, now things have changed. That is what a truly good story can do to you.

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