The Road to Tokyo Literature Flea Market 39, Part 3: In Limbo, But Time Marches On

I realized it as I was writing the title: "The Road to Tokyo Literature Flea Market 39." That is incredibly specific. It’s not "The Road to the Literature Flea Market," nor even "The Road to the Tokyo Literature Flea Market."
Tokyo Literature Flea Market 39—it conveys a real sense of enthusiasm about participating in that very event, which will be held on December 1st of this year, and that it has to be that specific event.

And yet, our participation hasn't been decided yet. The gap between the enthusiasm and the reality makes me want to ask, "What are you even talking about?"
Tokyo Literature Flea Market 39 is calling for exhibitors for 2,400 booths. Of those, the first 1,500 to apply can participate without a lottery.
Back during the last Literature Flea Market in May, we had loosely decided to create an anthology. By June, we had decided on things like the word count for the novels each of us would write... But I think we had this anxiety, wondering, "Can we really make an anthology?" We talked it over and decided to wait until our path was clearer before applying, even if it meant risking a lottery.
I want to tell our past selves: "Even if the anthology doesn't get finished, the only thing you'll lose is the 7,300 yen participation fee." If it came down to it, we could even bail out by the August 27th payment deadline. It’s not exactly something to be proud of, but if we don't pay, it just means one person on the waiting list moves up, so it wouldn't be much of a burden on anyone.

But it is too late now.
Even though the novels for the anthology are finished, we are in a state of limbo where our participation in the Flea Market is still undecided.

By a rough calculation, the probability of being selected is about 60%. Whether you see that as "well, it should be fine" or "it's going to be tough" is up to you.

Even in this state of limbo, the schedule moves forward. The Literature Flea Market office's website states that after the application deadline of August 27th, "exhibitor name, category, members, URL, X account, Instagram account, and introduction text cannot be changed."

We discovered this text on August 26th, the day before. Our group name hadn't been finalized yet, but after an emergency meeting, we decided on "Aoneiro" (Blue Tone Color), which had been a strong candidate (I'll write about the origin of the name another time).

As for the members' names... Mirai Yoshiho and Yu Watanabe are fine with their own names, but my name, "Kaito," doesn't have a surname and sounds like a dog's name, so it just didn't feel right. I suddenly decided to go with "Ryo Makita" (I'll write about this name another time as well).

After that, I set up an X account under the name "Aoneiro." It is a joint account for the three of us. We plan to tweet mainly about the Flea Market and the anthology, as well as some random idle chatter (it's a joint account, but please assume that any pointless idle chatter or lame jokes are coming from me).
Some of you may have already looked at the X profile and wondered, "I know Yoshiho-san and Watanabe-san, but who is this Makita person?" That would be me. Nice to meet you. I might change my note name eventually, but that is still undecided.

I think we'll know the results of the lottery next week, so I'll write again then. If there are any eccentric people out there who would like to support Aoneiro, I would be happy if you followed our X account.