Love Hay Fever @ The Thick-Blooded Kofun

When this season arrives, both my father and mother shed tears and lament. Is it over their child's poor performance? Of course, I wouldn't say that's not part of it. It became painful to see the two of them covering their faces with handkerchiefs, so I decided to convince myself it was just hay fever. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to hold my head up, and I realized early on that thinking that way would make things easier—I was quite something for that. But wait, it was actually true. Both my parents were prone to hay fever. My brother and sister had inherited it, too. Then, a different concern arose. Since I had never shed a single tear, nor even had a runny nose in my life, was I truly the biological child of those parents? It is a staple of juvenile novels to be stunned to find the word "adopted" on one's family register when checking it for the first time for school or job application procedures. And was that brother I secretly harbored feelings for actually a member of the opposite sex with whom I shared no blood ties? One evening, my brother pointed at me and declared to our father:
"I shall take her as my sister."
"You are an eccentric one. To think you'd want something like a haniwa."
The pollen had permeated even into the ancient burial mound.

410 characters