Summer Embers | I Want to Solve Factorizations Beside You

Introduction | The Magic of Summer Vacation

It might be the effect of the magic of summer vacation that has been cast on me repeatedly since I was a child.

Those days, now so far away, when summer always brought a long break.

Places I had never been.
Scenery I had never seen.
Words I heard for the first time.

A long, long story I had never written.
A big, big painting I had never drawn.

Summer vacation felt like a time to try doing things differently than usual.

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Aki FujiieIt was many days ago that I became helplessly drawn to the word "embers" and the moist tanka poem composed by you. I read many, many yearning works in the "Summer Embers Anthology." And so, because summer is ending soon, I decided to try doing something different than usual.

I will be participating in this project🌻
Thank you for having me✨

Before you read this clumsy story, if you could, please close your eyes for just a moment.
I hope that, if only in spirit, you can time-slip back to the summer you were fifteen.

Ding-dong, ding-dong...

The sound of the chime, and,

Buzz, buzz...

The murmur of the classroom.

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I Want to Solve Factorizations Next to You

I've gotten hold of some incredible information.

According to a friend in the tennis club, the reason you were studying with that girl in the library was just that you were teaching her math.
It wasn't a date at all, justby chanceyou ended up alone together.
Wait, no, you were alone together, right?
That was definitely that girl'sstrategyright?

Yourtrue feelingsare a harder problem than factorization.

The summer of fifteen is almost over.
I'm studying properly for my entrance exams.
I want to wear the same uniform as you in high school, too.
Do your best,me.

My heart waspoundingso hard I was practically oxygen-deprived, but becausethis summer is coming to an endI poured everything I had into telling you.

“U-um, hey!
　Factorization, I want you to teach me.
　If possible, um, j-just the two of us!”

I wondered if I had misheard.
You said, “Sure, why not,” so easily it caught me off guard, and while desperately holding back my open mouth from smiling on its own, I hid it with my right hand as I pretended to wipe away sweat.

The promise is for the afternoon of the first Wednesday of September.
I want to go to that cafe again on the way back from the library.
This time, not a soda, but maybe I'll order a cafe latte or something.
If I could wish for it, I'd say I don't want to sit across from you, butI want to sit next to you—I'd like to try saying that.
Ah, my hearthurtsagain.

Even so, my mood was bright.
Holding onto a spark that felt like it might vanish but couldn't be extinguished, Iran throughthe remaining days of this summer with all my might.

Afterword

I wrote this unfamiliar story just as it came to mind.
Actually, this is a sequel-style piece to a work I submitted for Aki Fujiie's project, "Carbonated Embroidery | Midsummer Edition"✨

This is the cafe the two of them might go to on their way home from the library.

I suddenly wondered if there are those who prefer sitting next to each other because the distance is closer, and those who prefer sitting across from each other to look directly at each other's faces.
It's quite nice to time-slip just in your heart every once in a while.

Thank you for staying with me until the end🌻