When Ren entered the room, he found a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties, wearing black-rimmed glasses.
She had an oval face, eyebrows as thin as willow leaves, a straight nose, delicate features, and long hair that fell over her shoulders. She was undeniably beautiful.
This was Miyuki Hime, the editor from the Red Violet Literary Agency assigned to review the new manuscripts submitted that day. At the moment, a slight weariness stood out in her expression.
It was understandable. Every day, from thirty to over a hundred people came to Red Violet hoping to submit manuscripts. Reviewing debut works non-stop would exhaust anyone. Ren entered with curiosity on his face. While discreetly observing Miyuki, she also assessed him.
A student, she thought with an inward sigh.
After all, he had a delicate appearance; he was only sixteen years old. Not even the blindest person would mistake him for an adult.
It's not that there aren't children's literature students in the Chinese light novel industry, but they often have to balance their studies with a lack of experience. Ninety-nine percent of their work is, to say the least, poorly written; frankly, it's practically self-centered fiction. They completely ignore the market, lacking coherence in writing style and plot structure, writing only what comes to mind. Ninety-nine percent of the novels written by students... well, to say the least, they were crude.
To be honest, they were works without structure or depth, written wherever inspiration struck, without concern for the market, pacing, or narrative cohesion.
Most published authors were experienced professionals, adults who lived and breathed the art of storytelling, people with the time and discipline to cultivate ideas. Of course, the industry had its occasional geniuses... but these were exceptions, not the rule.
"Hello, Ren Yamamoto, right? I'm Miyuki, the editor responsible for today's review for Red Violet," she said with a polite smile, glancing at the application form he had filled out.
"Nice to meet you, Ms. Miyuki," he replied, sitting down.
Although he was just a student, his father had taken him to many gatherings with his uncles and friends before he passed away, so he wasn't as socially awkward around adults as most boys his age.
"You're a second-year high school student, Minami, correct?" she asked.
"That's right."
Miyuki nodded. Name, age, school, all confirmed. Nothing else was needed. If the manuscript was rejected, all this extra information would be useless anyway.
"According to your form, the title of your work is 'Ao Haru Ride'. The genre…"
Her voice became almost imperceptibly tense. "…a shōjo romance?"
Typically, a high school boy's romance featured battles, superpowers, maybe a romance with a male protagonist. But a shōjo romance? Meaning the main character is a girl?
Could a sixteen-year-old boy accurately portray the emotional world of a teenage girl? The inner subtlety, the emotional texture, the things girls feel but rarely express?
The mental difference between boys and girls was enormous.
In her two years as an editor, she had seen female authors create successful romances for teenagers, but she had never seen a male author create a successful romance about teenage romance.
"Yes. It's a shōjo romance. And I'm confident," Ren said, forcing a bold smile as he handed her the folder with the manuscript, his aura already established.
Not that he wasn't nervous; he was apprehensive too. A work that is successful in one parallel world doesn't guarantee success in that one.
But, as the creator, he couldn't show any fear at that moment. If the creator doesn't have confidence in his work, surely others will also have difficulty trusting it.
Miyuki didn't waste any time. He opened the folder and began to read.
["I lived through a time I can never forget."]
The opening was simple:
The beginning of this coming-of-age story is quite simple. The female protagonist, Futaba, and the male protagonist, Kou, snuggled together under the eaves during a rainstorm in elementary school. After this brief encounter, they developed feelings for each other.
However, later, for various reasons, Kou was about to transfer to another school. Before leaving, Kou wanted to ask Futaba to say goodbye at a festival near a temple.
But because Futaba and Kou were getting too close, their classmates teased them about their impure relationship.
In an act of desperation, Futaba exclaimed to everyone:
"I hate all boys!"
These words deeply wounded Kou's heart, who heard them nearby. So, that night, at seven o'clock, at the agreed meeting place at the temple fair, Kou, despite having invited them, didn't show up and changed schools the next day.
Arrogance has always been a curse, Miyuki thought.
The opening dedicates considerable space to portraying Futaba's clumsy, arrogant, and dishonest nature during her elementary school years. The plot easily captivated her attention while reading.
"That boy… wrote like someone who had truly been a teenager nurturing her first secret crush."
["That feeling was surprisingly awkward and confusing. Although it felt like I was always groping in the dark, I really liked him back then."]
["Even now, he still lingers somewhere in my heart. I wish… I could go back to that time."]
The female protagonist's inner monologue vividly portrays her feelings about her unrequited love.
As a teen romance, this opening scene had already captured Miyuki's attention.
The story then focuses on the protagonist, Futaba, three years later, during high school.
To avoid being isolated by the girls because of her cute and gentle image from elementary school, Futaba deliberately acts extroverted and carefree in front of her classmates, hiding her adorable side.
She deliberately eats large mouthfuls of food, speaks loudly, and is intentionally unkind and inconsiderate, causing the boys to consider her unfeminine. This is how she gains the trust of the girls in her class.
The beginning dedicates almost a third of its length to exploring her inner conflict: the fear of isolation, the longing for acceptance, the remnants of a first love she never resolved.
This was the defining characteristic of shōjo romances: it describes the inner world and represents a significant change from typical shoujo (for girls) romances.
This is a major difference between shoujo and shonen (for boys) romances.
Most shonen romances, especially harem romances, focus on the various female characters. The male protagonist? He is merely a character with whom the reader can identify. Often, you will find that if you changed the male protagonist's personality, replaced him with someone else, or even with the reader, the story wouldn't seem out of place or make much sense.
But young girl novels are different. The protagonist is the main female character, and she is irreplaceable in the story.
The appeal lies in the emotional journey of the female protagonist, from naiveté to affection, to lost love, and then to a series of events—some painful, some tender, some initially distressing, but ultimately sweet.
Most male authors simply couldn't write this convincingly. But the boy in front of her…
Miyuki looked up and looked at him again.
"His writing is more delicate than that of many women I've edited," she admitted silently. "How is that possible…?"
Futaba's character was intriguing—imperfect, real, vulnerable.
Will there be a sequel between her and Kou, the boy she secretly fell in love with three years ago?
Of course there will. The main plot of the novel begins on this day, when she meets Kou again at school.
Drawn to him, she unconsciously searches for him around the school, approaches him, and talks to him again under the eaves where they sheltered from the rain three years ago.
["Although his height and voice have changed, the boy in front of me is the first boy I ever fell in love with."]
Her heart raced.
Miyuki continued reading:
"You always seemed to dislike boys." Three years later, in the place where they sheltered from the rain together, Kou chuckled softly, speaking casually.
"Yeah… I always hated them," she replied, clutching her bag tightly to hide the trembling in her hands.
"But you… are the exception."
Kou covered his eyes with one hand, hiding his expression.
"I understand. So that's how it is."
"…I liked you too," Kou said gently and calmly.
["Just like in those happier times, let time turn back, just this once."]
Futaba prayed silently.
But Kou only smiled, his voice weak.
"Now it's too late for both of us, too late to start over." Kou smiled indifferently and turned to leave.
Futaba's eyes burned as tears welled up.
"He was telling me to forget, but as he uttered those cold words, a touch of loneliness lingered on his face. Three years ago, on that night at the temple fair, I waited for him all night, but he didn't come. I thought that, as soon as the summer holidays were over, I would explain the misunderstanding to him."
"I thought there would be many other opportunities."
"We can't go back to that time anymore."
The first chapter ended there.
Miyuki's fingers trembled.
Normally, the plot description, with over ten thousand words, from the beginning of the story to the protagonists' reunion, would only take two or three minutes. She could skim through a debut chapter in two or three minutes without compromising her judgment. Editors were trained for that.
But this time...
She looked at the clock on the wall. Eleven minutes.
She hadn't skimmed. She had read.
With her heart and all.
She had read attentively for eleven minutes, completely immersing herself in Futaba's inner world, sharing her love for Kou, her romance, and the regret of having uttered those insincere words three years ago.
But life rarely gives second chances, Miyuki thought. Once lost, they're gone forever.
Ren Yamamoto had only sent the first three chapters, the standard length for an initial evaluation, considering that most series had one or two chapters per cycle. publication.
And now he waited, silently in the room, watching an editor who hadn't said a single word for ten minutes.
Was it good?
Bad?
He couldn't tell.
End of Chapter 4
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