[July 32nd] | Kazemakase Literature Club

Under a sun that feels like it's scorching my skin, the sound of cicadas rings out like madness.

"Hey, do you think tomorrow will really come?"

On a weathered park bench, my childhood friend Takashi muttered, looking down while gripping a can of cola.

The smartphones in our hands are displaying an impossible date.

[July 32nd]

It was like this yesterday, too. And the day before. I wonder how many days have passed since the world where the calendar pages no longer turn began. From the moment every clock and calendar in the world hit 11:59 PM on "July 31st," they refused to move forward, creating a strange, blank period called "July 32nd," and we have been looping through that same day ever since.

At first, everyone was happy that summer vacation wouldn't end. Students stopped doing their homework, adults took time off work, and we all surrendered ourselves to a lukewarm summer that felt like it would last forever.

However, even if we went to the pool or played games, the fact that the date wouldn't change meant that our time wasn't moving forward even a single step.

No matter how many new memories we made, they all just piled up within the strange day of "July 32nd." The next season, the new school term—they would never come. Ever since we realized that endless stagnation, our summer has been wrapped in a strange sense of emptiness.

"I'm sick of it, you know."

Takashi sighs.

"The farewell party everyone held for me on the 31st feels like it happened a long time ago. I've finished packing and cleaning my room, and all that's left is to wait for the moving truck... It's so exhausting just waiting for the same 'July 32nd' to start all over again."

I gently placed my hand on my chest pocket. Inside, there is a small scrap of paper. Actually, I had an idea about the cause of this "Eternal July."

On the night of July 31st, I was at my desk, praying desperately.

"Please, don't let tomorrow come. August 1st doesn't ever have to come."

The reason was that on August 1st, Takashi's family was supposed to move to a city far away. I couldn't bear the thought of losing my best friend, so I scribbled my wish onto a piece of paper found inside a strange "old charm with missing characters" I'd picked up at a local shrine, using a black permanent marker to fill in the letters as if to seal the deal.

I never imagined the world would actually stop.

Beside me on the bench, Takashi said quietly.

"When August 1st comes, the truck will arrive and I'll leave this town. It's sad, but I want to move forward properly. If things stay like this, I'll just be left behind in a room full of cardboard boxes, stuck in a frozen summer."

Takashi looked at my face and smiled a little sadly.

"I'm happy I can hang out with you forever, but I feel like if we stay like this, we'll never be able to grow up."

Takashi's words pierced my heart. I had stopped the world out of a desperate desire to keep him here. But that was the same as stealing the "future" from Takashi, and from myself.

"…You're right."

I took the scrap of paper out of my pocket and tore it into tiny pieces, as if to wipe away the traces of my selfish wish. The sound of the paper ripping echoed, mixing with the sound of the cicadas.

Then, I took the empty cola can from Takashi and stuffed every last piece of the paper inside it. So that it could never be taken out again. As if to trap our frozen summer inside this can.

I tossed the empty can roughly into the trash bin, and it made a terribly dry clatter.

"Let's go, Takashi."

The moment I stood up, a breeze brushed against the back of my neck. It was a chilly sensation, as if the wind that had been still for so long had finally begun to move.

When I looked up, the sky was slowly beginning to dye itself a deep madder red, a color I had never seen before.

That night. I sat in my room, staring intently at my smartphone screen. Takashi, surrounded by cardboard boxes in his own room, must surely be holding his breath and watching his screen just the same. 11:59 PM. In the silence, we awaited the moment the date would change.

The screen glowed faintly, and the display changed. What appeared there was not the "July 32nd" that had been repeated so many times.

[August 1st]

Night broke, and dazzling morning light poured into the room.
When I opened the window, a cool breeze, different from yesterday's, blew in.
August, which I had resisted so much, had arrived. I could hear the engine sound of a large truck approaching from the street in the distance.

The time for farewell was drawing near, yet my heart was strangely clear. We had finally awakened from the dream of an endless summer and could now walk toward our own respective tomorrows.

◇

Ding-dong, the doorbell rang.

"It's Takashi."

He must have come to say goodbye one last time during a break from his moving preparations.
My heart pounding, I opened the front door.

But standing there were Takashi's parents.

"...Takashi's father, mother? What's wrong? Where is Takashi...?"

At my question, the two of them choked on their words, merely shaking their heads.

They said Takashi was nowhere to be found. They couldn't find him anywhere—not in the house, not in the neighborhood park, nowhere.

Confused, I returned to my room and my eyes fell upon that permanent marker I had left on my desk.

Suddenly, cold sweat broke out over me.

What had I written on that paper charm?

"I hope tomorrow never comes."

That is what I prayed for.
But the words I scribbled onto that charm were different.

Painful, sad, and written while repeatedly blacking them out with a permanent marker, my true wish was—

"I hope Takashi never leaves this town."

The world's time began to move toward "August 1st."

But—Takashi remains left behind in "July 32nd" forever.

Theme: "July 32nd"
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