#mainichiseiten — Public Fediverse posts

Mayumi apologizes for being tactless, but then admits the reason he asked is that he has a relationship question. Yasumi tells him he's welcome to ask, since while he may not have a girlfriend now he has dated in the past. Mayumi is then like, do you remember the summer festival in my neighborhood that you came to last year? (Yasumi does.) Remember those floats that the different neighborhoods pitted against one another? (Yasumi does, and further remembers that Mayumi didn't join in on pulling them.) Well, let's hypothetically say that I was pulling them, and that my girlfriend also wanted to pull them, but that I didn't want her to. Why do you think I would feel that way?

To clarify, you're asking me to explain your own thought process? Yasumi asks.

Okay yeah that's kind of convoluted, Mayumi acknowledges.

But no, it makes sense, Yasumi continues. If I was the boyfriend in that situation, I wouldn't want my girlfriend pulling the float either.

You wouldn't? Mayumi asks, surprised.

Of course not! Yasumi replies. As her boyfriend, I would want her to wear a cute yukata and watch adorably from the sidelines, not sweat and holler with the guys!

Hearing this surprisingly simple reason, Mayumi suddenly can't unsee Yasumi's resemblance to his own brother Taiga. Just like Taiga, Yasumi is kind and dependable. And just like Taiga, he's super gender essentialist. No wonder Mayumi trusts him. No wonder he can't get a girlfriend. All is explained.

(Though it does make Mayumi appreciate what a miracle it is that Taiga ended up with anyone at all. Mayumi silently thanks Shuu for being such a weirdo as to fall in love with him. He also silently casts a wish for a cute, demure, improbably understanding girl to materialize before Yasumi someday.)

Was my advice helpful? Yasumi asks. Mayumi's thoughts snap back to the matter at hand, and he realizes that Yasumi's advice has if anything made his own situation more confusing, because it's impossible to imagine that Yuuta's hangup about him pulling the floats has anything to do with Yuuta wanting him to act more feminine. But he doesn't say that to Yasumi.

Then Yasumi remembers that he keeps meaning to apologize to Mayumi for an incident last year, in which the rest of the club tried to peer-pressure Mayumi into crossdressing and Yasumi told them to stop embarrassing him. He has since realized that it was maybe insensitive of him to assume that crossdressing was automatically something Mayumi should find embarrassing (particularly given that Mayumi himself wore girls' clothes and didn't think anything of it for the first several years of his life).

Mayumi was indeed bothered by that incident, but he didn't expect Yasumi to ever apologize for it so he's surprised and touched to get an apology now. He thinks again about what a good sempai Yasumi is, and what a shame it is that his view of romance is so hopelessly outdated.

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SCENE 5 (pp 40-54)

It's now mid-June! Mayumi's softball team has just won a match and is currently celebrating at a nearby yakitori joint. As manager, Mayumi is too busy running around to eat (though I'm not sure exactly why – is he fetching people's drinks? The book just says he's 立ち働いている), until his now-graduated softball club sempai, Yasumi, saves the day by inviting him to take a break and furnishing a plate of freshly-grilled yakitori skewers, which Mayumi devours with joy.

(Refresher on Yasumi: last year, when Mayumi was a freshman in university, Yasumi was the friendly fourth-year vice-captain of the softball club and his good friend Ookoshi was the kind of scary captain. Yasumi recruited Mayumi to be the club's manager and was a great source of emotional support to him, even helping him work through his lingering trauma from the assault he suffered as a young child. Then Yasumi made things awkward by having a late-in-life sexuality awakening and confessing his love to Mayumi. Mayumi let him down gently by saying he was already dating someone, and since then, he and Yasumi have just been good friends.)

The two of them chat about how the club is going. Mayumi also thinks back to how just recently, Yasumi gave him an unexpected insight into the ongoing Taiga-Shuu conflict at home. (That conversation is covered in more detail in book fifteen, which unfolds concurrently with this one.) Then Mayumi asks whether Yasumi has a girlfriend yet. Yasumi gets miffed and says Mayumi knows very well that he doesn't, and also, that someone like Mayumi who already has a girlfriend should be more tactful about asking single people about sensitive topics such as their relationship status.

(Sidebar: in an author's note in the second short story collection, Sugano-sensei reveals that she actually headcanons that Yasumi has actually secretly been dating Ookoshi ever since Yasumi got turned down by Mayumi. She imagines that Ookoshi heard about the failed confession, was like, 'Wait, you like guys? I've held off on pursuing you because I assumed you were straight, but if you're not, this changes everything,' and that they've been together since then. But if they are together, Mayumi doesn't know about it, so it never comes up in these chapters. Also during this whole conversation, Ookoshi is also at this nomikai, on the other side of the room grilling the current softball club captain.)

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SCENE 4 (pp 32-40)

It's now June, and on a rainy Sunday when his softball club practice has been rained out, Mayumi decides to go visit the warehouse near the local shrine where the festival floats are stored, and where the festival committee members "hold planning meetings" AKA hang out and chat.

Mayumi hasn't hung around here since he stopped being a nyokan in his second year of junior high school. It just felt awkward to transition straight from the very feminine role of the nyokan to the very masculine role of float-pulling, but not doing either means being relegated to sitting on the sidelines with nothing to do on festival night itself, and some subconscious part of Mayumi knew that if he were to spend too much time with his friends and neighbors at this warehouse as they excitedly looked forward to the float battles, he would start to feel resentful. But today he decided to come by and see if pulling the floats might be for him after all.

He's greeted by his friend and neighbor Tatsuya and his old classmates + members of the erstwhile Mayumi Protection Squad Kouji and Katsuo, who Mayumi is surprised to find look much more grown-up than he remembers. All three of them started work after graduating high school, making Mayumi the only one currently a student. They chat a little about their jobs and Mayumi's softball club managing, which makes Mayumi feel a little melancholy about how much all their lives have diverged since high school. Then, one of the others mentions offhand that if Mayumi's looking for Yuuta, he's not here yet.

The fact that Yuuta comes to festival planning meetings at all is news to Mayumi; Yuuta has never once mentioned spending time here, despite the fact that he's otherwise pretty open about telling Mayumi the particulars of his day during their nightly catch-up talks. Is Yuuta keeping it a secret? Why would he want to keep it a secret?

Just then, Yuuta himself comes in. Mayumi is surprised to see that not only Tatsuya (who hangs around quite a lot at the Obinata-Asuou household), but Kouji and Katsuo all greet him with obvious familiarity. Yuuta is familiar right back, at least until he sees Mayumi there, at which point he freezes up.

Mayumi's heart sinks, because the taken-aback look on Yuuta's face makes it clear that Mayumi didn't just imagine his bad reaction the other day. For some reason, Yuuta doesn't want Mayumi to be here.

In the next moment, Yuuta relaxes and greets Mayumi like normal. But Mayumi is shaken, and lies that he's tired and heads out. #MainichiSeiten #Caesliveblogging #BL

Ryuu is like, This is Jou, your pro boxer brother who is well into his twenties?, just to check. Akinobu is like 'I know, I know, but this really is a big deal for him! He never helps out in the kitchen, ever!' And Ryuu is like, are you sure your mental image of him isn't frozen in elementary school? And Akinobu, deeply unconvincingly, says that's not true and that he totally sees Jou as an adult.

Ryuu regards the brocon he's in love with with weary fondness. He also reflects that for all that Jou makes a big deal of glowering at Ryuu whenever he sees him, whereas Akinobu is gentle, kind, and abhors violence, Akinobu is actually secretly the more strong-willed of the two, at least when it comes to things he feels strongly about (like not wanting to watch his beloved brother Jou get punched in the face and thus refusing to go watch his boxing matches even though nothing would make Jou happier than to see his beloved brother Akinobu in the stands). This iron will of Akinobu's is actually a huge comfort to Ryuu, who used to worry that he might have just pressured Akinobu into a relationship with him. Ryuu figures that it also means that whatever it was about the flute that got Akinobu feeling so down a few minutes ago, it must not have been that important, because if it had been important then Akinobu wouldn't have hesitated to tell Ryuu about it.

Then Ryuu concedes that it sounds like the miso thing was a pretty big deal for Jou after all, and certainly one that his future wife will appreciate whenever he gets married.

'Married …' Akinobu repeats. His suddenly conflicted expression suggests that either he's never before considered the possibility that Jou might someday get married, or that he doubts Jou ever /can/ get married, and either way Ryuu feels a pang of sympathy for Jou. #MainichiSeiten #Caesliveblogging #BL

SCENE 3: pp 24-32

Scene: the Kimura flower shop, where Ryuu (the owner) and Akinobu (the part-time employee who's also the owner's boyfriend) are taking their break. As he waters the carnations left over from Mother's Day, Ryuu offhandedly mentions Shuu's big book-signing event that happened the other day.

"How did you know about the book signing?" asks Akinobu, and Ryuu tells him that the bookseller across the street had brought it up (or rather, had marveled that the same Asuou Shuu who struggled to operate a cash register could competently host a big book signing in a ritzy Ginza bookstore).

Ah yes, says Akinobu, as he thinks back to the time Shuu decided he was going to quit his job as a novelist and work instead at the bookstore, only to be bested by the owner's old-fashioned cash register. (I think this was book nine? He also tried and failed to find employment at the fried foods shop and assorted other small businesses in the shopping arcade.)

Ryuu is like, are you stressed? You seem stressed. He worries Akinobu's studies might be tiring him out, but Akinobu reassures him that that isn't so. Then he pulls out the flute he brought with him in order to practice Ryuu is impressed with his diligence in starting to rehearse for the summer festival three months early, but Akinobu says that he doesn't have a musical bone in his body and that he needs to start practicing around this time of year or he won't be able to re-learn how to play the pieces in time for the festival.

Ryuu privately wonders why someone without a musical bone in his body would offer to play in the hayashi ensemble at the festival in the first place, but before he can ask Akinobu about it, Akinobu starts to play, and the nostalgic sound of the flute gets Ryuu's blood all fired up as his soul is transported back to the rowdy festivals of his youth.

Then he notices that Akinobu's expression has grown clouded, but before he can ask about /that/ Akinobu is suddenly reminded of something else entirely, and interrupts his own practice to tell Ryuu that Jou made a breakthrough recently!

Oh? Ryuu asks, remembering how Jou still harbors a one-sided grudge against him for dating Akinobu.

Yes! Akinobu explains that lately Shuu has started acting strangely again, and it hasn't yet gotten to the point where it's affecting his cooking, but everyone in the family remembers the Great Miso Soup Crisis of the year before, and knowing that that grim fate might befall the household again Jou has learned to put miso in his own soup all by himself. #MainichiSeiten #Caesliveblogging #BL

Yuuta says that's a stupid thing to worry about, and Mayumi admits he's not really worried. But then he asks why Yuuta doesn't want him to pull the float with him at the summer festival.

Yuuta denies not wanting Mayumi to pull the float. Mayumi is like, you liar, you totally don't want me to pull it! He's determined to ferret out the reason for Yuuta's displeasure because he knows that Yuuta is unusually good at reading people's emotions (which Mayumi imagines is partly because he couldn't afford not to, growing up with his abusive birth dad), and that because of this Yuuta sometimes decides to resign himself to things without even giving others the opportunity to change their behavior. But Yuuta insists that he really doesn't mind if Mayumi wants to do it, and that Mayumi should do whatever he feels like doing. He then gives Mayumi a quick kiss, and falls asleep still holding him.

Despite Yuuta's words, Mayumi is now more worried than ever, because he knows Yuuta is still lying to him and he also has no idea what could be such a big deal that it would keep Yuuta from telling him the real reason he's opposed to something as seemingly inconsequential as whether or not Mayumi pulls a float at the summer festival.

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SCENE 2: pp 17-24

We are now in Mayumi and Yuuta's bedroom on the second floor, the 4.5 jou bedroom whose outer wall is adjacent to the neighboring tofu shop, the bedroom that Taiga unthinkingly decided Mayumi and Yuuta should share before he ever dreamed that the two of them would become a couple (a decision he came to regret when they did become a couple only a few months after beginning to share it), and the bedroom which has been both a blessing and a curse to Mayumi and Yuuta themselves because on the one hand it means they get to spend every night together but it also means having to constantly restrain themselves from fooling around on account of their family members, and also I suppose the tofu shop, being on the other side of the wall.

Anyway, Mayumi has just come up from the bath. Because it takes a while for everyone in a six-person household to take their turn bathing, it is now ten PM, and Yuuta (who took his bath earlier because he was tired from work) is now asleep, but he wakes up when Mayumi comes in. Instead of climbing up to his own bunk, Mayumi climbs into bed with Yuuta. Yuuta complains that Mayumi's hair is wet but allows him to snuggle. They then chat for a bit, as has become their custom in the year and change since they graduated high school and began their separate journeys as carpenter and university student, respectively.

Yuuta asks how Mayumi's classes were, and Mayumi complains that he can't keep up with them because the teachers use too many confusing English loan words for which there are perfectly good Japanese equivalents (examples: fact, agenda, evidence, consensus …). Yuuta is like, is the teacher foreign? And Mayumi is like, no! Yuuta is mystified by the workings of academia.

Mayumi then asks how Yuuta's day was. Yuuta says he got scolded at work for moving around too much, just like always. But then he adds that today he finally realized that what his master actually meant by that was that Yuuta was making too many unnecessary movements when doing his carpentry work.

Hearing this, Mayumi is impressed by how much Yuuta is learning and growing in his real adult job while Mayumi feels like he's stuck in perpetual adolescence. He wonders out loud whether Yuuta will eventually find him too immature to want to be with as their lives continue to diverge.

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Everyone else is like ????? at this conversational segue, but it succeeds in getting the table to talk about the history of Japanese festivals and the approach of their own summer festival this August. We are reminded of everyone's traditional roles at this festival: Akinobu has been playing the flute in the hayashi since he was a first year in elementary school; Jou and Yuuta help pull the parade floats (山車) that engage in raucous battle with the floats from the other neighborhoods; Taiga also used to pull the floats until he started working full-time, and now just stops by the festival briefly on his way home from work; and Mayumi used to ride the parade float dressed as a beautiful nyokan/court maiden from ages six to fourteen, but they only let you do that until the end of junior high and so for the past five years he's just been watching on the sidelines.

Jou imagines that sitting on the sidelines might be getting dull, so he invites Mayumi to come help them pull the floats if he wants this year. Taiga offers to let Mayumi use his old koikuchi shirt for this purpose; Mayumi contemplates just how much sweat and blood and tears such a garment might have accumulated over the years of Taiga wearing it, and is like, that's very generous but I forgot I actually have a koikuchi shirt of my own so I'm good.

And then Mayumi looks at Yuuta, and gets an unexpected shock, because in that moment he can see on Yuuta's face that he REALLY DOESN'T WANT Mayumi to join them in pulling the floats. But instead of sharing the reason for his disapproval, Yuuta makes a lukewarm noise of agreement and the conversation moves on.

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SCENE 1 (pp 7-17)

THE TIME: a morning in early May, shortly after Shuu and Taiga have their big wisteria fight at the beginning of novel #15.

(The backstory here: last autumn, Taiga and Shuu were split up at work so that Taiga got a new assigned novelist and Shuu got a new assigned editor. For six straight months, Shuu protested this change with all his might while Taiga pretended he was okay with it. Then in April, Shuu finally made peace with the new arrangement and proposed to Taiga that the two of them go on a trip to Ashikaga to see their famous wisteria; Taiga, however, was secretly still very much bothered both by the work switch and by Shuu's seeming acceptance of the work switch, and spitefully said Shuu should go on his own. Since then they have been sniping at each other about various trivial topics for weeks.)

THE PLACE: the dining table of the Obinata home in Ryuuzucho district three, where Taiga, Shuu, Akinobu (still a grad student), Jou (still a pro boxer), Mayumi (now a second year university student) and Yuuta (now in his second year of apprenticeship at the Yamashita altar makers) are all gathered for breakfast.

Akinobu and Jou are just happy that Shuu is recovered enough from the emotional turmoil of the author-editor switch that he's back to remembering to put the miso in their miso soup again. Yuuta thinks their standard for happiness is too low, because this low-sodium miso that Shuu has been using since last summer is clearly inferior to the full-sodium version he used to use. Mayumi is with Yuuta in feeling discontent, because even though Shuu is supposedly over his work-related discontent he and Taiga are clearly still fighting.

(Mayumi is also wearing the black tracksuit again, Yuuta observes. It's so comfy! Mayumi insists. It wasn't until he became the manager of his university's baseball club in spring of last year that he realized just how convenient it is to just be able to wear a tracksuit anywhere, all the time, even when your live-in boyfriend is starting to wish you would pick out sexier clothes.)

As they talk, Shuu scolds Taiga for reading the newspaper while eating. Jou glances over at said newspaper and sees that it contains an announcement about an upcoming book-signing event for Shuu's latest best-seller. Everyone else senses that bringing this topic up will result in their guardians having yet another fight about work, so to forestall it Yuuta hurriedly stuffs a piece of tamagoyaki in Jou's mouth and Akinobu is like BY THE WAY, did you all know that summer festivals were originally held in the Edo Period to ward off plague?

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