Wonderful Woman, Invincible Woman ④

On the way back from Nacchan's house, my small shoulder bag felt heavy, unlike when I had arrived.
As I walked, the weight of 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' pressed firmly against my left shoulder.

I still couldn't believe I had borrowed a book from Nacchan, who had been someone far away until just an hour ago.

When I got home, I received a LINE message from Nacchan.

(Omitted)
Let me know when you come back this way.
R said, 'Mukumi-chan is incredibly stylish,' with a heart emoji. Also, I feel like I've met a fellow person I can talk to about my love for Hasegawa Shoten.
I want to go to Hasegawa Shoten with you and get something to eat!
Let's talk about books, too.'

I was over the moon that a beautiful college girl called me stylish.
And I couldn't wait for the day I could go out to eat with Nacchan, visit Hasegawa Shoten, and talk about books.

'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' was, just as Nacchan had said, close to his earlier works.

After finishing it, I sent the review I wrote on Booklog to Nacchan via LINE.

In February, I decided to return to my parents' home to see Nacchan during the long weekend.
I could meet her without worrying about the time on the day Nacchan's mother went to short-stay care.

Nacchan reserved a stylish pizza place in the neighborhood.

When my friends and I decide to meet up, they say,
'Okay, I'll book a place.'
And they book it quickly.
I like eating delicious food, but I don't usually research things like wanting to eat this specific thing here or wanting to go there next time.

I'm the type who only uses places I've been to once and liked.
That's why I'm bad at searching gourmet sites to decide which restaurant to go to, checking business hours, and making reservations.
In the past, I felt bad that they were always making reservations for me, so I thought I would make the reservation next time, but recently I've started to think that I should leave things I'm not good at to people who are.
My friends might be thinking,
Mukumi never makes restaurant reservations!
though.

I had a mountain of questions about what kind of life Nacchan had led and what kind of work she was doing now.
We met in front of the pizza place, and once we were seated, I interrogated her with various questions.

'When I went over there, it was really tough. I didn't know the language, and I couldn't fit in at all. So I think I was quite a shut-in.'
I had an image of her being active in elementary school, so this was surprising.

'There was a rule that Japanese people had to go to a Japanese school once a week, but in my second year of junior high, I got tired of it and quit on my own without telling my parents (laughs).'
'What?!'
'Mom was really angry (laughs).'
I didn't know Nacchan was that wild.

The image of Nacchan I had held was crumbling one after another, and a new creation I had never seen before was being built.

'I ended up returning to Japan around the time of college entrance exams, and this time, I didn't understand Japanese, so the exams were tough.'

'I managed to get into college, but I couldn't fit into Japan, so I stayed home and just played with my Mac.'

I love Macs too. I bought one as soon as I started working, and this is about my fifth one. I can't really do much with it, though.

Even though there must have been many hardships like language barriers and cultural differences, for some reason, it didn't sound difficult when Nacchan talked about it.
Is it because Nacchan is so radiant?
Nacchan had a power that blew everything away.
It's amazing to not make hardships feel like hardships.

Thanks to staying home and playing with her Mac every day and mastering graphic design, Nacchan ended up working at a certain famous company.

'Mukumi-chan, do you know H (a certain author)?'
'Yeah, I know him. I haven't read his work, though.'
'Actually, I worked under H-san at my first company.'
'Wait, really?!'
'He was such a wild person that some people spoke ill of him, but he was so out there that I had a blast.'

That was definitely only something Nacchan could enjoy.
I'm sure only Nacchan could have enjoyed it.

Nacchan, who had lived in Tokyo for college and work, returned to Osaka when she had her child. After giving birth, she got a job at a company that produced catalogs for overseas art exhibitions.
She was showing off her graphic design skills there.

However,
'I read Matayoshi's essays and thought, who is this guy, he's amazing. So I applied to the publisher thinking I wanted to make books for him and be his editor.'

Nacchan was captivated by Matayoshi and suddenly applied for a job opening at a certain publisher. And she was successfully hired.
However, when I asked, she said she had never seen Matayoshi on TV or seen his comedy routines. So she doesn't seem to recognize him as a comedian at all.
(Nacchan is a bookworm. She hardly ever watches TV.)

'Wait? You joined a publisher because you wanted to meet Matayoshi?'
'Yeah. A lot of people told me it was crazy to apply to a publisher when my Japanese wasn't perfect.'

Nacchan is a returnee. Even if she has no trouble with daily conversation, she quit Japanese school on her own, so understanding the subtle nuances and phrasing of Japanese is a difficult task.
Even though there are people who have lived in Japan their whole lives and only used Japanese who can't do that.
I can only take my hat off to Nacchan's drive.

I became obsessed with Matayoshi after seeing him on TV. When he first started appearing, people said he was creepy, but

Why did the world call such a stylish and atmospheric handsome guy creepy??

It was nothing but a mystery to me. For some people, he had struck a chord right from the start.

When I was obsessed with Matayoshi, I would go to Kichijoji and Koenji, where he often went, and wander around for hours even though I didn't know when I might meet him, and I would fantasize almost every day about the scene where I would bump into Matayoshi and say, 'I'm a fan, please marry me.'
But I never went to Tokyo, and it just ended in fantasy.

Nacchan actually changed jobs to make that happen.

Nacchan is too funny. She's the best.

'Excuse me, your time is almost up.'
The staff member approached and said that with an expressionless face.

Nacchan and I hadn't even touched our dessert yet.

Even when we were stuffing our faces with pizza,
'Your time will be up in 30 minutes,' we were urged, and then they brought the dessert.

We were both so absorbed in talking that we had no time to eat at all.

We barely touched our desserts and left the shop.