[Novel] I Was Here—The Cat Says Nothing, But Sasebo Knows the Town Scenery (Episode 2: "The Letter Shop at the Bottom of the Hill" / "The Flower Shop of Words")

Side A: "The Letter Shop at the Bottom of the Hill"—From Bun-chan's Delivery Journal

I am a cat. My name is "Bun-chan."
It seems that after I once successfully delivered a letter at the top of the hill, I have become something of a "legendary cat" now.

Well, I haven't really done anything special.
Humans like to call it a "miracle" when they encounter something they hadn't noticed themselves, so I'm grateful for that.

So, today I am heading down the hill.
What caught my nose was the scent of a small flower shop. And the sound of someone's sigh.

—A young girl.
White apron, slightly heavy eyelids.
Even while wrapping flowers, her eyes are looking far away. As if her heart is somewhere other than where she is now.

Her name is Ayumi-chan.
She is actually a girl who wants to draw. But she tucked her dream away halfway, and now she wraps flowers.

I sat down in front of the shop. Our eyes met.

"…Oh? You came again?"

It seems I have gained enough presence to be called "again" on the second visit.

While stroking my head, Ayumi-chan muttered softly.

"You know, I used to want to make a 'picture book of flower language.' …I thought I had forgotten about it, but yesterday a customer asked me, 'What is the meaning of this flower?' and I somehow remembered it."

—I see.
Then, it is my turn.

The next morning, I was holding a dried flower in my mouth.
A page from a picture book that someone had forgotten, which I found behind a warehouse at the port a few days ago, was tucked between the flowers.

I placed it gently in front of Ayumi-chan's flower shop.

The moment she opened it, her eyes went wide.

"Forget-me-not—a promise of forget-me-nots. “Even if you forget your dreams, I will always remember them.”"

Gentle, hand-drawn lines. Tiny letters.
There is no mistake. This is what Ayumi-chan used to draw.

"Eh, this... why..."

I let out a single "meow."
Come on, come on, notice it. What you left behind.
Even if you thought you lost it, someone picked it up properly.

A few weeks later.
A small space was created in a corner of the flower shop.
"The Flower Shop of Words." A service that gifts a set of flowers and word cards. Includes hand-drawn cards by Ayumi-chan.

Ayumi-chan sometimes murmurs to me as I sit in front of the shop.

"You know, I feel like I've become a little more 'myself' than before."

—Yeah.
That's good. I'm the delivery person, after all.

Both above the hill and below the hill, there are still "unremembered dreams" lying around.
I just search for them by the scent of the wind and deliver them.

Ah, I sense the next mission coming.
—This time, there's the sound of an old guitar coming from the station.

Well then, it's someone else's turn to notice something, isn't it?

Purr, purr. Today is a good day for deliveries, too.

[End]

Side B: "The Flower Shop of Words"—Ayumi's Gaze

The morning air was slightly chilly.
However, when I opened the flower shop shutter, the usual gentle fragrance soaked deep into my chest.

Ranunculus, freesias, tulips.
Spring is overflowing with all sorts of colors.

—And yet, inside me, it had remained gray all along.

It's been almost a year since I started working at this shop.
At first, I thought, "Flowers are cute and healing," but gradually, it became just work and routine.
Before I knew it, my heart couldn't keep up anymore.

Even so, I couldn't tell anyone.
Because I was afraid to admit that I had "given up on my dream."

That day was just such a morning.

A brown and white cat came trotting up from the bottom of the hill and sat down neatly in front of the shop.
I laughed and said, "You came again?" but honestly, I was a little happy.

That cat had a strange sense of "timing."
It was as if it could read people's presence and snuggle up to them.
As if it would somehow accept what I said when I talked to it.

"I wanted to make a picture book of flower meanings. ...A long time ago."

That muttered sentence was a feeling I had almost forgotten myself.

The next day.
In front of the shop, a small bundle of dried flowers and a single piece of paper had been dropped.

I picked it up and gasped.
That paper was, without a doubt—a page from the picture book I used to draw.

"Forget-me-not—The promise of the forget-me-not.
'Even if you forget your dream, I will always remember it.'"

I traced the letters with trembling fingertips.
The shape of the petals and the pale watercolor hues were exactly as they were back then.

—Why? Why here, and why now?

But before such questions could form, a wave of nostalgia welled up from deep within my chest.

"Ah, I... I really did want to keep drawing, didn't I?"

The cat quietly rubbed against my feet and purred.

I felt as if that sound was telling me, "It's okay to feel that way."

After that, I talked to the manager and was given a small space in the corner of the flower shop.
I named it "The Flower Shop of Words." It was a tiny corner where I would deliver flowers along with hand-drawn "word cards."

I was anxious at first, but customers would tell me, "This really stays with you."
Every time they asked, "How did you choose these words?" I felt a little embarrassed.

—If it weren't for that cat, I surely wouldn't have been able to take this step.

Even now, it sometimes sits in front of the shop.
Bun-chan.
That's what I've decided to call it.

One day, when I mentioned that name casually, a neighbor told me, "Oh, the delivery person up the hill calls it by that name, too."

Could it be that that cat...
—knows the "destination" for someone's feelings?

Today, as I wrap the flowers, I glance softly at Bun-chan.
Amidst the flowers swaying in the breeze, only that little one's tail gave a gentle flick.

I want to gently make someone's heart bloom with my own words now.
Even if it's just the size of a small card.

I can't help but feel that Bunchan will carry those feelings somewhere else again.

[End]

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List of series titles: (To be posted sequentially)

• Episode 1: "The Cat at the Top of the Hill" / "The Delivery Person's Mission"

• Episode 2: "The Letter Shop at the Bottom of the Hill" / "The Word Florist"

• Episode 3: "The Tail's Map" / "The Tail's Arrow"

• Episode 4: "I'm Waiting for You" / "The Scent of the Wind, the Sound of Curry"

• Episode 5: "The Tail's Guide" / "A Cat in Sasebo"

• Episode 6: "The Sound That Unties Me" / "The Sound of Trying Too Hard"

• Episode 7: "The Day I Let Go of That Hand" / "Me, Still Not Understanding"

• Episode 8: "The Reason I Cried That Time" / "A Mother's Heart, the Warmth of a Child's Hand"

• Episode 9: "The Night I Can't Say 'I'm Home'" / "Will I Be Able to Properly Become a 'Father'?"

• Episode 10: "The Voice of Fish, My Father's Back, Cat Footprints" / "Standing in My Father's Shop."

• Episode 11: "The Day I Returned to Land" / "A Heart Returning to Port"

• Episode 12: "Beside a Warm Tail" / "The Presence of Distant Mountains Behind the Scent"

• Episode 13: "Waiting at the Exit of the Night" / "The Few Minutes I Return to Myself"

• Episode 14: "Before the Sound That Hasn't Finished Ringing" / "I'm Sorry. But, Thank You." / "Is Staying Behind the Same as Running Away?"

• Episode 15: "Beside the One Who Prays in Silence" / "The Prayer of the One Who Prays"

• Episode 16: "Before the Silence Turns Into Sweat" / "You're Here Again Today, Bun-chan"

• Episode 17: "The Reason for Raising the Noren" / "Bun-chan, It's Not Over Here Yet"

• Episode 18: "I didn’t say it out loud, but you heard me." / "I Can Hear Your Voiceless Voice Just Fine"

• Episode 19: "The Winner Who Doesn't Cry Out and the Clown Who Doesn't Laugh" / "The Distance Seen from Above, the Scent Reaching from Below"

• Episode 20: "A Light Is Lit Between the Two" / "I Thought You'd Come. Even Though There Was No Basis for It" / "I Didn't Exactly Go to See You—Though You Probably Won't Believe Me If I Say That"

• Episode 21: "The One at the Boundary" / "I Can Tell Both Departure and Arrival by the Scent"

• Episode 22: "Even If You Fall, Your Eyes Are Still Looking Forward" / "I Wanted to Say That I Did It"

• Episode 23: "Even on Days Without Sound, There Is Someone Who Can Hear" / "Beyond the Sound, There Is a Heart"

• Episode 24: "The Sound That Unravels Is Not in the Voice, But Deep in the Eyes" / "Mother, the Cat, and the Stranger"

• Episode 25: "Today, There Was No Sound of a Broom" / "When He Was Silent, I Felt the Garden Got a Little Bigger"

• Episode 26: "Even If You Can't Hear the Sound of the Bell, the Wind Is Still Blowing" / "Even If the Bell Doesn't Ring, the Scent of Affection Remains Here"

• Episode 27: "Because Someone Was Certainly Here" / "Because They Were Here"

• Episode 28: "Because Those Hands Were Kind"

• Episode 29: "The Scent of Dried Nets and Silent Kindness" / "Even Without Saying Anything, There Are Things That Are Understood"

• Episode 30: "I'm Glad You Were a Policeman" / "There Was a Kind Presence in the Shadow of Your Hat"

Afterword

Thank you for picking up this book.
And I offer my heartfelt gratitude for walking this far with Bun-chan and the town of Sasebo.

I was born and raised in Sasebo.
However, I left the town for university and started my career outside the prefecture.
But after several turning points in my life, I am now living in this town again.

This short story collection began with my desire to depict the scenery of Sasebo—which feels nostalgic yet has certainly changed—and the lives of the people within it, as seen through my eyes now that I have "returned to live in this town," using the quiet lens of a cat's perspective.

The protagonist, Bun-chan, is a white and brown calico cat.
He does not speak human language, but by simply being there, he gently accepts the small fluctuations in people's hearts and the expressions they show to no one else.

A cat in a corner of the town.
While that is all he is, he is a presence that is surely remembered as having "been here."
The title of this collection was chosen to symbolize both Bun-chan's way of being and Sasebo itself as a "place where memories remain" for the people who have spent time in this town.

Furthermore, for the creation of this book, I have utilized OpenAI's ChatGPT as a creative partner.
At first, I consulted it about the plot with a light heart, wondering, "What kind of stories would emerge with a cat and the town as the stage?" but before I knew it, my days became a process of carefully exploring the rhythm of the story and the lingering resonance of words through dialogue with AI.

"A cat that doesn't speak," "people who don't want to talk," and "memories of the town that fade away without being told"—
I feel that shaping these themes through collaboration with ChatGPT, sometimes like poetry and sometimes as a story, was an essential process for this work.

Sasebo is a town of slopes and a harbor.
Both the scenery that has changed and the atmosphere that remains the same continue to nurture the memories of the people and the town.

I would be happy if Bun-chan's story could gently nestle into your heart as one of those memories.

Spring 2025
From the town of Sasebo
The Author

Profile | Kazuomi Matsunaga

Biography:Graduated from a national university in Kyushu (Materials Engineering) => Engineer at a metal materials manufacturer in the Chukyo region (Production Technology) => Advertising sales for a local free paper in Nagasaki Prefecture => Staff at an educational institution (← Now here). A person in their 50s living in Nagasaki Prefecture.

I am a writer who lets my thoughts play daily at the intersection of "questions" and "curiosity." Recently, I have been writing about my unique perspectives on themes such as education, stories, psychology, AI, and design, centered on the serial column series "The Science of Thought." I am exploring "free knowledge design" that transcends existing frameworks. My motto is "Imagination opens up the world."

In my professional life, while working in university and education-related fields, I value carefully observing the moments when "people come to like something" or "when questions begin to sprout."

🧭 I would be happy if I could deliver articles that leave you with a "new perspective" after reading them.

📮 Impressions and messages of support are always welcome!