“Hiiragi. Hey. Want to make a movie together?”
“Out of nowhere?”
I stopped halfway through cutting my rib steak. That was how unexpected Yukimura’s suggestion was.
Make a movie.
I analyzed Yukimura’s intent.
Why had she made that kind of offer to me?
The reason itself came to me quickly.
And sure enough, Yukimura said exactly what I had guessed out loud.
“Hiiragi, you’re an aspiring writer too, right? Don’t you think it might work if we made a movie together?”
Yukimura thought I was an aspiring writer.
My perspective had felt too strange to be that of a pure viewer. It was a natural guess.
However.
“An aspiring writer?”
“Huh? You’re not? You seemed like someone who writes, Hiiragi.”
I was someone who wrote.
I just was not aspiring.
The standard separating a professional writer from an aspiring writer was extremely simple. Whether you made money or not.
If you made money, you were a professional. If you did not, you were an amateur. It was a truth that applied to every field.
So, separate from the fact that I was in a slump lately, I was definitely a professional writer. Royalties were still being deposited into my account on schedule.
In that sense, Yukimura’s guess was only half right, but honestly, wasn’t it weirder for a high school student to already be a professional writer?
Thinking like Yukimura was normal.
Anyway.
First, I asked Yukimura a question.
“What part of me are you trusting when you make that kind of suggestion? We haven’t known each other very long.”
“Then why do you keep helping me, Hiiragi? We haven’t known each other very long.”
“You want to help people who work hard. Now answer my question.”
“Because I feel like I can talk to you. We had similar points when we watched movies, right? Isn’t that enough?”
That was enough.
After accurately grasping Yukimura’s feelings, I sank briefly into thought.
Yukimura had misunderstood me as an aspiring writer.
What should I do about this?
Hmm.
All right.
I said, “I’m not aspiring. I’m a professional writer. My pen name is Sen Kyoya, and my representative work is .”
“……?”
Yukimura opened her mouth blankly. She had fallen into confusion.
Still, the fact that she urgently pulled out her smartphone meant she had enough presence of mind left to search.
As a writer, one had to be able to read that when a gun appeared in Act One, it would be fired in Act Three.
Therefore, I had read in advance what would happen if I hid my identity from Yukimura. I had gone and seen the future.
The future Yukimura said,
Is it fun hiding that you’re a professional and hanging around an amateur? It must have been so entertaining for a successful professional to secretly watch an amateur struggle. I was serious, but all of this was a joke to you, wasn’t it?
Enough farce.
In the strict court of writers, it is forbidden to hurt the other person through meaningless deception.
“Uh……”
“Go ahead.”
“Is it true?”
Apparently done searching, Yukimura asked cautiously.
When I nodded to affirm it, Yukimura’s lips moved faintly.
She seemed to have a lot she wanted to say, and even though I did not possess lip-reading skills, I could read what Yukimura wanted to say.
So I just asked a professional to make a movie with me?
Sorry, Hiiragi. Forget what I just suggested.
This is so embarrassing.
The last one was more an inner feeling than something she wanted to say.
Anyway.
Before Yukimura could mutter, “I want to die,” I spoke first.
“I’m currently in a slump, so there’s a high chance I won’t be able to make anything decent, but if you’re fine with that, I do want to do it.”
“……Really?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
It was a “why” packed with many meanings. So many that I almost missed a few of them.
Instead of answering every implied question, I gave her the simplest answer.
“We had similar points when we watched movies, right? Isn’t that enough?”
“That is enough.”
Yukimura, neatly convinced, leaned back in her chair. She looked slightly languid, as if all the tension had drained from her.
Whew.
The conversation had finally settled for now.
I placed my knife on the still-warm rib steak. It was to soothe my stomach, which was always screaming because I was growing.
Then Riku, who had been quietly listening to the conversation for a while, spoke.
“Sounds like Yukimura has similar movie tastes to Touji too? What a coincidence. I have similar movie tastes to Touji too. Oh. Then does Yukimura like <Ring of King 2> too?”
Alert. Extreme emergency.
I subtly checked Yukimura. I wanted to see her reaction.
“Huh?”
As expected, Yukimura let out a disbelieving laugh, as if she had heard something impossible.
Yukimura’s head turned. Its destination was me.
If gazes had mass, my heart, the chair, the restaurant floor, and Earth’s inner core would have been pierced just now.
After murdering me with eye beams, Yukimura growled roughly.
“You liked that kind of thing?”
At Yukimura’s remark, the table sank into momentary silence.
Riku lost his words in confusion, wondering if he had made a mistake, and I lost my words because I was hungry.
I cut a piece of rib steak and put it in my mouth. It melted tenderly.
Delicious.
At the same time, Riku scratched his cheek.
“Did I mess up?”
“No. You didn’t.”
“Answer me. Hiiragi. What are you?”
“Are you sure I didn’t mess up? It feels like I did.”
“I said you didn’t.”
First, I corrected Riku’s possible misunderstanding.
“It’s true that I enjoyed <Ring of King 2>.”
Yukimura’s gaze became even more murderous.
I had already known this, but as expected, Yukimura did not like movies in the vein of <Ring of King 2>.
And yet? The guy who had supposedly bonded with her over having similar movie tastes? He was saying <Ring of King 2> was fun?
It was reasonable for her to feel betrayed.
Why?
Because.
“Hiiragi, was it a lie when you said was your life-defining movie?”
Because she would think that.
To defend Yukimura for a moment, I perfectly understood why she was acting that way. I was originally good at understanding people.
Why was Yukimura acting that way?
It was simple.
Because she thought I was saying contradictory things.
A person who named as his life-defining movie was also saying <Ring of King 2> was fun, so she thought one of the two had to be a lie.
The former was an art film acclaimed by critics, and the latter was a blockbuster superhero film with hundreds of millions of dollars in box-office revenue.
Honestly, it was structurally impossible to like both at the same time.
At least for someone whose life-defining movie was , the highest praise <Ring of King 2> could earn was, “It was decent.”
The elements they liked were different, so it could not be helped.
“No.”
But in a world where even time could bend, where did true impossibility exist?
Exceptions existed everywhere.
“No?”
“Yes.”
To state the conclusion first, I had not lied.
Including my former life, another movie was my life-defining movie, but among the movies I had seen in this world, was indeed my life-defining movie.
And I had also enjoyed <Ring of King 2>.
Was that a contradiction?
I know it is.
But what am I supposed to do when it is true?
“Does that make sense? Hiiragi, do you just not know what fun is?”
“I do have my own theory of fun.”
“I get it. You don’t know exactly what your own tastes are, do you?”
“That phase passed a long time ago.”
To add a supplementary explanation, of course I could also distinguish which of the two I had enjoyed more. It was .
However, it was also true that my heart had boiled while watching <Ring of King 2>.
In other words.
I sincerely liked both works.
Yukimura’s expression turned strange. I could clearly read what was going on inside her head.
Is he mistaking himself into thinking he likes ? Wait. His impression of the movie was from someone who properly understood it. Did he just repeat something he heard somewhere? Considering how he usually talks, that doesn’t seem right either……
I stabbed my spoon into the Italian gelato.
When someone entered that state, the cleanest option was to leave them alone.
This was hard to make someone understand anyway.
Was understanding another person usually an easy thing?
No matter how finely you explained, misunderstandings arose somewhere. That was what understanding another person meant.
So I focused only on my meal. While hoping Yukimura would not misunderstand.
Riku, however, did not.
Apparently thinking the mood had relaxed, he smiled and spoke.
“If <Ring of King 2> isn’t your taste, does that mean you don’t like action movies, Yukimura?”
“Huh?”
Oh dear.
While silently offering my condolences, I stabbed the remaining rib steak with my fork.
So you don’t like action movies?
He had hit the point so perfectly it was as if he had aimed to provoke her.
If that was unconscious, then he had talent, so he should join the film production staff that would soon be launching.
With that, farewell.
***
Even after high school acceptance was decided, I still had to keep going to middle school.
As even the peak novel of the apocalyptic romance genre says, just because summer break ends does not mean summer ends.
Graduation still had to happen.
Thud. At the sudden vibration, I stopped solving problems in my workbook and shifted my gaze.
Riku had slammed his head onto his desk.
Riku said, “Touji. I think I’ve been watching movies carelessly all this time……”
“You’re not exactly the type to watch them with focus.”
Maybe it was because Yukimura had dragged him into a hundred-minute movie debate yesterday. Riku’s condition was not great.
At my words, Riku, who had had his forehead pressed to the desk, lifted his head and asked,
“Is that so?”
“But the people who watch movies in a focused state are originally the minority. This is an area that requires training. Usually, people don’t feel the need to go that far, right?”
Film was a medium that could show many things. That was the characteristic of visual media.
Because of that, when you focused on a well-made movie, various metaphors using mise-en-scène naturally became visible.
Well, of course, that was not why one should focus.
When you sincerely focus on the content of a movie, those things naturally become readable.
That was more accurate.
So in fact, this was not limited to movies but applied to creative works as a whole.
Even in my case, habits I had formed while reading novels had extended to movies. It was not that I had made a separate effort to watch movies properly.
In terms of density alone, novels were overwhelmingly higher.
Riku declared in a firm voice,
“Good. From next time, I’ll focus when I watch too.”
“You don’t have to force yourself.”
“No. I want to see the same thing you guys are seeing.”
Apparently, Riku was the type who could not stand it when he became curious about something.
I understand your resolve well.
I will definitely help you.
To grant Riku’s wish, I put together various plans.
Then Riku leaned forward and whispered.
“Right. Touji. About that.”
“Yes.”
“When I searched it, it was from nine years ago, so were you that since elementary school?”
What is this, World War II? Why are you talking in code?
Interpreting Riku’s words…… was it, “You were a professional writer from nine years ago?”
I nodded.
“That’s right.”
“Wow. Is this what talent is? Touji, your deviation score is high too.”
One thing was certain for now.
Riku was bad at browsing the internet.
If he had been good at it, when he searched my pen name, he would have seen the hate too, so that much was certain.
“I should be careful if I don’t want to die early.”
I answered appropriately and sank into thought.
In the end, everything I did was for the sake of writing more entertainingly.
Movie production was the same.
My desire to help Yukimura was not false, but my desire to overcome my slump through a new experience also occupied a large proportion.
I only wanted to write more entertainingly, and to do that, I used every method available.
That was how I had lived.
Touji.
Therefore.
Touji.
I should work hard this time too.
Touji.
It was all to put food on the table.
“Touji!”
“You startled me. What is it?”
“Someone over there is calling you.”
“The only person in this school who would call me is Riku. Aren’t you mistaken—”
I stopped speaking.
The back door of the classroom.
There, a familiar face was waving.
The girl who met my eyes mouthed,
Touji. You look like you’re having fun.
It was at that moment.
Bzz.
My smartphone vibrated.
[Asano Riku]
Touji. If you need to make excuses about Yukimura, should I help?
“No. Kano is not my girlfriend. So she has no reason to come find me over the sort of things you’re imagining.”
More importantly, why did Riku keep dragging everything in that direction?
What are you, Ryota?
Huh?
After correcting the incorrect information, I stood up from my seat and headed to the back door.
Tachibana Kano.
Apparently, she had business with me.
Tachibana Kano