Laid-Back Life in Tokyo: I Really Didn't Want to Work Hard
Chapter 316 - 244: Before the May Festival

Chapter 316: Chapter 244: Before the May Festival

In the following days, Hanamaru Hanabi avoided me.

But she still agreed to the moving apartment thing.

...

"In the bustling world of red dust, the cherry blossoms bloom on their own."

"Why are you reciting Kobayashi Issa’s haiku?" Todaka Keichiro said with his mouth full of rice, speaking unclearly.

"Cherry blossoms mean spring, lamenting that another year is about to end, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, each year, cherry blossoms constantly change their beauty in our eyes."

Seisa Takeshun lowered his head, using chopsticks to pick up the soba in his bowl.

"When the cherry blossoms bloom again in the new year, will anyone remember the beauty of the past?"

"Seisa-kun, you’re wrong in saying that." A quiet, bespectacled girl sitting across from him said, "The past is a kind of beauty. When you pluck those beautiful fragments from the scattered pieces of time and cherish them, that unforgettable beauty is the most profound ’beauty of memory’."

"Memories fade, disappear, become blurred; reminiscing about past beauty only leads to sorrow and nostalgia." Seisa Takeshun said to Umezu Nana, the girl with glasses.

"That nostalgia is also valuable, and it is an emotional kind of beauty."

"Sadness isn’t beauty."

Umezu Nana put down her chopsticks and placed her hands across the table, "Then I’ll have to discuss it further with you."

"Gladly."

Hearing them start another literary debate in the cafeteria, Todaka Keichiro shook his head and said to Uesugi Sakura, who was quietly eating beside him:

"Uesugi, don’t you think they’re a good match?"

"Hmm," Uesugi Sakura picked up a piece of broccoli and put it in his mouth, "What makes you say that?"

"You see, they have in-depth exchanges every day." Todaka Keichiro sneakily glanced at the two sitting across from them.

"Just discussions." Uesugi Sakura said.

"Grigoris once said, lovers are often two different kinds of people. Their interactions bring conflicts and clashes, but also tolerance and complementarity. This gradually growing tacit understanding and respect lead to mutual affection between the two."

"Who’s Grigoris?" Uesugi Sakura thought he was making things up.

Todaka Keichiro immediately took out his phone, searched for "Grigoris" online, and then handed the result to Uesugi to see.

"A football player?"

Uesugi Sakura confirmed he was indeed just making it up. When he mentioned the name, he probably hadn’t even thought it actually belonged to someone.

At this moment, the two who were discussing their viewpoints also paused their topic.

All four people at this table were from the Literature Department.

Todaka Keichiro had finished the ramen in his bowl, "So, what’s the conclusion on ’Is sadness beauty’?"

Umezu Nana smiled and said, "This Saturday and Sunday is the Hongo May Festival. What do you think our Literature Department should feature for the science education exhibit?"

The Hongo May Festival.

Starting from the first campus festival at Tokyo University on May 5th, Taisho 12, every year on a Saturday and Sunday in mid to late May, the campus holds a festival at the Hongo Campus.

The departments participate with science education-related exhibits, with clubs responsible for various performances and programs.

During these two days, Tokyo University opens up entirely to the public, allowing visitors, citizens, passersby, and students from other schools to join in.

The May Festival, which has lasted nearly a hundred years, enjoys considerable popularity.

Todaka Keichiro tilted his head, supporting his chin with his right hand, looking thoughtful:

"Let’s sell taiyaki."

"Literary exhibition! Not food exhibition!" Umezu Nana emphasized, though practically every class sets up its own snack booth on the May Festival day.

"We could write haiku on each taiyaki."

"How do you write haiku on taiyaki? Also, why does it have to be taiyaki?"

In truth, the May Festival is more of an entertainment event, but each department needs to showcase their related features.

For example, the Engineering Department next door exhibited a small railway track last year at the festival, which people could ride around the entire venue.

Todaka Keichiro: "Come to think of it, isn’t the science education exhibit something the third-year seniors at Hongo should do? Isn’t it their job?"

Umezu Nana: "We need to do our part too."

Then, she gave a meaningful look to Uesugi Sakura, who was quietly eating, followed by Todaka Keichiro and Seisa Takeshun.

"..."

Uesugi Sakura understood their meaning, "Tell me, what do you want me to do?"

"Uesugi-kun, actually we don’t have to do a lot; just providing some articles for the literary journal will be fine."

"And the content?"

"Myths, legends, jokes, proverbs, riddles..."

Todaka Keichiro: "Wait, isn’t it a literary journal?"

Seisa Takeshun: "Things like that are generally referred to as ’folk literature’."

...

After lunch, in the afternoon, Uesugi Sakura went to the library to research folk mythology.

Submitting widely known myths compiled by predecessors would get rejected as a journal entry.

To be meticulous, such journal entries should be based on oral stories passed down from elders, and then sorted and summarized.

But folklore is merely fictional stories handed down, as long as the stories are bizarre enough, exaggerated enough, and dramatic enough, many people will believe them.

He planned to extract a few passage fragments and construct a coherent narrative by using plot twists, stitching together a story with a beginning and an end.

By exaggerating some elements, it completely becomes a legendary story no one has heard before.

The entire Literature Department should have many contributors, so his piece, which is not particularly highbrow, would more likely fail to be selected.

Closing the "Nihon Shoki" used as source material, he shut his notebook computer.

Uesugi Sakura sat by the window in the library, holding a steaming cup of coffee, and quietly observing the rustling ginkgo leaves in front of him.

All he could think about now was the apartment move and cohabiting with Hanabi.

Uesugi Sakura was missing her a bit.

"Two days have passed; she should have cooled off by now?"

As soon as this thought surfaced, Uesugi Sakura packed up the books and bag on the table, and walked out of the Western architectural style Central Library, planning to take a train to find her.

——————————

Tokyo Art University

Unlike Uesugi Sakura, at least Hanamaru Hanabi still had several classmates who came from high school together.

A few girls, who just finished class, were discussing where to go for afternoon tea desserts.

"Hanabi-chan, you smell so nice today, what body wash do you usually use?" Kitagawa Sakisa locked arms with Hanamaru Hanabi and stayed very close to her.

"Just an ordinary lily-scented body wash."

"So why does it smell so good?" Kitagawa Sakisa’s medium-length black hair hung down her back, her butterfly-edged black dress and over-knee black stockings exuded an elegant aura.

"Sakisa asking like this... honestly, I don’t really know either."

"We’re good friends, Hanabi-chan must have some secret fragrant recipe!"

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