Watching the sky darken outside the window, Tsushima Kagami and the other three concluded their joyous club activities just as they always did.
After leaving school, the four of them went to the WANI office together. Once they had handed over the previously completed color cover pages, the organized storyboard manuscripts, and the character design drafts to Editor Watanabe, the four parted ways at the subway station.
Tsushima Kagami waited for Yukinoshita Shizuku to finish work as usual, and they returned home together.
In the days that followed, after Tsushima Kagami finished the storyboards for the next manga, he and Sayuri's group in the Manga Research Club became busy once again.
...
Meanwhile, the final selection for the Shinchosha Newcomer Award was proceeding in an orderly fashion.
This was taking place at a resort hot spring hotel far away from the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Shinchosha had booked the entire venue three days ago. A large bus had then transported a jury panel consisting of over thirty professors from the literature departments of various universities, as well as established writers with significant standing in the literary world, to this location.
Just after finishing lunch at noon and enjoying the hotel's private hot springs, the judges returned one after another to a spacious and bright Japanese-style hall prepared specifically for them.
Among the numerous judges were Professor Kosaka, Professor Takeuchi, and Professor Matsushita, all of whom had been involved previously.
Once everyone was seated, the Shinchosha employee responsible for hospitality bowed deeply to them all.
"Thank you for your hard work over these past few days, esteemed judges. We are counting on you for the next steps as well!"
The judges then picked up the five shortlisted novels placed on their tables and began reading them carefully, one by one.
Seeing that the judges had entered work mode, the Shinchosha staff quietly withdrew from the hall.
In truth, these five novels had already been reviewed during the first two rounds of screening, and each judge had a rough evaluation in mind.
However, since this concerned the final decision of the Newcomer Award winner, they had to be extremely cautious.
After all, having persisted through the high-intensity screening work of the past few days, being too casual at this final step would be irresponsible toward their own labor, the dignity of their professional status, and the readership.
For reviews of this nature, judges are typically transported by bus to a closed-off hotel, where they spend the next three days reviewing the fifty shortlisted novels.
These types of Newcomer Award selections generally adopt a "cross-review scoring system."
Typically, on the first day, thirty works are preliminarily selected from the fifty novels. For every eliminated work, a short critique explaining the elimination must be written.
On the second day, the remaining thirty works are scored in turn, and the five with the highest scores enter the final round.
Tsushima Kagami's The Setting Sun had, unsurprisingly and smoothly, entered the final five currently undergoing final assessment.
...
At noon, most of the students in the class went to the school cafeteria to dine, while small groups of twos and threes remained in the classroom, gathering to share their bentos.
Leaning against the window, Tsushima Kagami watched a couple who had successfully confessed their feelings outside. Amidst the cheers and jeers of their friends nearby, they held hands and ran shyly back to the school building. Touched by the scene, Tsushima Kagami lamented that spring had truly come and couldn't help humming Haru yo, Koi.
Then, he took out the bento prepared by Yukinoshita Shizuku from his desk.
"Is it not rice today, but onigiri?"
Seeing that the space under the side dishes, which usually held rice, was instead filled with round, chubby rice balls rather than the common triangular ones, Tsushima Kagami couldn't help but smile.
He picked up one of the rice balls, admiring the super-large sheet of nori wrapping it and the specifically sprinkled white sesame seeds, before taking a bite.
Then, he used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of tonkatsu and took a bite of that as well.
I feel like Shizuku-chan's cooking skills have improved rapidly lately.
Thinking this, Tsushima Kagami picked up a piece of tamagoyaki and placed it in his mouth.
After tasting Yukinoshita Shizuku's specifically made cloyingly sweet tamagoyaki once before, Tsushima Kagami had tactfully suggested that he preferred a salty flavor.
Consequently, the next day, the cloyingly sweet tamagoyaki turned into cloyingly salty tamagoyaki.
But today's tamagoyaki was not only seasoned perfectly, but it also contained diced ham and chopped green onions.
It forced Tsushima Kagami, who didn't usually care for tamagoyaki, to give Yukinoshita Shizuku a thumbs up in his heart and praise, "Oishii!"
Just as Tsushima Kagami felt that today's dishes suited his taste perfectly and was about to eat wildly, ferociously, and vigorously, a sound—Gurgle, gurgle—drifted into his ears.
Tsushima Kagami put down his chopsticks and touched his own stomach.
I'm right in the middle of eating, what are you growling for!
But when Tsushima Kagami picked up his chopsticks again, the sound came once more.
Eh? It doesn't seem to be my stomach growling.
Tsushima Kagami looked back and saw Shimizu-san sitting there with that same empty look in her eyes, a wooden expression on her face, sitting blankly in her seat.
The usual dark circles under her eyes seemed even heavier than before.
When she saw Tsushima Kagami turn to look at her, she simply lowered her head slowly.
Only then did Tsushima Kagami notice that Shimizu-san's school uniform seemed slightly too large for her.
No, compared to Shimizu-san at the start of the school term, does she seem to have gotten even thinner?
With her head lowered, Shimizu Nayotake vaguely sensed that Tsushima Kagami had been attracted by the sound of her stomach growling from hunger. Not only did he not turn back around, but he was also observing her. This made Shimizu Nayotake want to bury her entire head inside her desk.
Watching Shimizu Nayotake's ostrich-like behavior, Tsushima Kagami smiled and poked her.
"Shimizu-san."
Feeling Tsushima Kagami poking her while calling her name, Shimizu Nayotake had no choice but to lift her head and look at him again.
She watched as Tsushima Kagami placed his bento onto her desk, then turned his chair to face her.
"This is a bento made by Shizuku-chan, you know. If Shizuku-chan knew that Shimizu-san also liked the bento she made, she would definitely be very happy."
"Do you want to taste it?"
Shimizu Nayotake was stunned after hearing this. She looked at the bento with those empty and innocent eyes, then at Tsushima Kagami, and finally back at the bento.
Then, her stomach let out another wail.
Tsushima Kagami placed a rice ball on the bento lid and pushed it in front of Shimizu Nayotake, smiling as he spoke.
"You there."
"Taste it, that is your job."
"It is oishii-desu ne!"
Although it was already a cold meal, the delicious aroma still wafted into Shimizu Nayotake's nose.
Her brain constantly warned her not to do something so rude.
But her body—especially her hands—had already hesitantly reached out toward the rice ball before she noticed.
Shimizu Nayotake ultimately looked at Tsushima Kagami with hesitation.
Tsushima Kagami simply picked up the rice ball he had eaten half of earlier and took another bite, revealing an expression of immense deliciousness.
"Do you really, really not want to taste the rice balls Shizuku-chan made?"
Seeing Tsushima Kagami's expression of enjoyment and hearing the continuous wailing of her stomach, which had lost all dignity, Shimizu Nayotake finally picked up the rice ball from the lid with both hands, looking both expectant and pitiful, and took a bite.
Then, she began to wolf it down out of control.
Seeing the rice ball being swallowed instantly, Tsushima Kagami handed another one to Shimizu Nayotake.
Shimizu Nayotake took it again and stuffed it into her mouth in one go.
Looking at Shimizu Nayotake in front of him, her cheeks bulging like a hamster.
"You were hungry, right?" Tsushima Kagami asked suddenly.
While eating, Shimizu Nayotake nodded, tears faintly visible in the corners of her eyes.
This made Tsushima Kagami feel too embarrassed to ask anything else. If she completely broke down and started crying, he would end up looking like the culprit.
So, Tsushima Kagami simply quietly took charge of feeding the rice balls to Shimizu Nayotake one by one.
Shimizu Nayotake refused to touch the other side dishes no matter what, and in the end, she only finished off all the rice balls.
...
After school, as always, Tsushima Kagami said goodbye to Sayuri and the others, then went to the ramen shop first to settle dinner.
However, he didn't see Shimizu-san from noon there today.
After eating, when Tsushima Kagami went to the convenience store to pick up Yukinoshita Shizuku, Shizuku's work shift partner today wasn't Shimizu-san either.
It seems she might have gone somewhere else to work part-time.
Thus, after Yukinoshita Shizuku got off work, Tsushima Kagami took the subway back to the apartment in Bunkyo Ward with her as usual.
Right downstairs at the apartment, they saw Kobayashi Tomoaki already standing in front of the entrance, looking as if he had been waiting for a long time.
"Kobayashi-san, why are you here?" Yukinoshita Shizuku asked curiously first.
Upon seeing the two of them, Kobayashi Tomoaki excitedly ran over to them immediately.
"Kagami-kun, congratulations! Your The Setting Sun has been selected as the winning work for this Shinchosha Newcomer Literary Award!"
____
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