#Shirokuma Literature Club: Once More to the Lips of Those Days - A Short Story

Participating in the project that starts with Kosuke Komaki's prompt Washroom.

The deadline is Wednesday, August 5th, 23:59, apparently. Thank you for your support.

*This story is a work of fiction.

While I was organizing the shelves in the washroom, a small box appeared from the back.

When I opened the lid, there was a single lipstick inside.

It is a little faded.
But there was no way I could have mistaken it.

It was a lipstick I had bought nearly twenty years ago.

"It was still here..."

I couldn't help but smile.

Now that I am in my 40s, I hardly ever wear lipstick.

On work days, I wear an inconspicuous color.
On days I meet people, I wear a color that makes me look a little more put-together.

That was enough.

But this lipstick was different.

A color with a slightly stronger red tint, one I thought didn't suit me.

Why did I choose a color like this?

I open the lid.

There was the faintest scent of the past.

It was in that moment.

Something I had forgotten suddenly floated up from the depths of my heart.

The me of those days had a dream.

Someday, I want to make what I love my job.

Not a path decided by someone else, but
a path I chose myself, I want to walk it.

I used to think things like that.

However, I never said it out loud.

"That's impossible."

"What are you saying at this late stage?"

"You should look at reality more."

Every time I heard words like those, I would laugh and brush them off.

Before I knew it,

"Dreams are things for young people to have."

I had come to think that way.

I place the lipstick in my palm.

I looked in the mirror.

The person there is me in my forties.

A tired face.
A few more wrinkles at the corners of my eyes.

But, while looking at that face,
my younger self overlapped in my view.

The me from those days stood in front of the mirror wearing this lipstick.

I checked over and over if it suited me,
and straightened my back just a little.

And then, I said to the me in the mirror,

"Someday, let's give it a try."

I had forgotten how I felt back then for a long time.

Perhaps I had been pretending to forget.

"......Do you still want to do it?"

I tried saying it out loud.

The washroom was empty.

There was no way there would be an answer.

Even so, I asked once more.

"Do you really still want to do it?"

A slight ache bloomed deep in my chest.

And then, I realized.

The answer had been decided long ago.

I want to do it.

I want to chase my dream once more.

It might not be the same dream I had when I was young.

The shape is different.
The way to do it is different.

Perhaps I might quit halfway through.

Even so.

"I want to try."

The version of me that can think that way is still here.

I tried applying lipstick to my lips.

The me in the mirror has a slightly surprised look on her face.

It's not as bad as I thought.

In fact—

I looked a little bit good.

"Is it still not too late?"

I murmur.

This time, I answered myself properly.

"It's not too late."

I put away the lipstick.

I put the old lipstick I had intended to throw away back into its box once more.

This time, I placed it in the most accessible spot in the washroom.

I had thought that dreams were things I had left behind in the past.

But I was wrong.

It had been inside me all along, and was just waiting for me to remember it once more.

I smile at myself in the mirror again.

My forties.

I am still in the middle of my life.

If that's the case.

It's okay to chase my own dream one more time.

I turned off the washroom light.

And then, taking one lipstick,
I walked out into a new day.

~ End ~

#ShirokumaLiteratureClub
#ShortStory
#CreativeWriting
#OriginalFiction
#LivingAuthentically
#SelfAcceptance
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#LifeRestart
#WayOfLife
#AdultWayOfLife
#OnceMore