NHK General TV.
"Close-up Gendai" Special Program—"A New Star of the Literary World: The Seventeen-Year-Old 'Buraiha' Writer"
The host.
"Tonight we've invited two guests."
"The literary critic Mr. Sato, and the psychologist Ms. Tanaka."
"First, let's take a look at a clip."
The screen cut to footage from the press conference.
Tsushima Kagami sat there, answering questions in a calm tone.
Sato the critic.
"This young man is no ordinary boy."
The host.
"What exactly do you mean by that?"
Sato.
"Look at his eyes, his tone, his body language."
"It's nothing at all like a seventeen-year-old."
"He's controlling the entire situation."
Tanaka the psychologist nodded.
"I agree."
"From a psychological standpoint, his emotional stability is astonishing."
"In that kind of high-pressure environment, an ordinary person would have been too nervous to speak."
Sato.
"And every single thing he said was so measured."
"That sense of restraint—you can't cultivate it without decades of social experience."
Tanaka.
"So there's good reason he's called a genius."
"Not just a genius of writing, but a genius of human nature."
These experts really know how to blow smoke.
You aren't blushing, but I'm cringing hard enough to blush for you!
Tsushima Kagami silently snarked as he listened to the broadcast on the living-room TV.
This wasn't the first time.
The days after returning from Kyoto hadn't gone back to peace the way Tsushima Kagami had imagined.
The reporters were like sharks that had caught the scent of blood—every morning and afternoon at the start and end of the school day, a dense crowd of them clogged the school gate, drawing endless complaints from the other students and parents.
Finally, on the third day, Tsushima Kagami was informed by Tsukuyomi Komoe.
The school had decided to give him some time off.
There was a note of helplessness in her voice.
He was to wait until this wave of attention blew over before coming back to class.
Otherwise the other teachers couldn't conduct lessons normally.
He'd already been resting for a week, and by the look of it the hype had pretty much died down.
The reporters near the school had mostly disappeared too.
Tsushima Kagami had been thinking he could go back to school and resume his happy education.
But who would have guessed that the first academic research paper—jointly published earlier by Professor Kosaka, Professor Takeuchi, and Professor Matsushita on his very own brand-new literary movement, the "Buraiha"—would once again whip Tsushima Kagami's popularity back into a frenzy.
As a result, this break of his ended up stretching to nearly the end of the month.
Every day, lying around at home—apart from writing novels and drawing manga—he still had a huge amount of free time.
In the end he was just like a danchi housewife.
Every day he saw Yukinoshita Shizuku off to school.
And every evening he welcomed her home.
During the daytime he was so bored he could only chat about household trivia with Hayase Kinue to pass the time.
He'd even started learning to knit from Hayase Kinue.
Tsushima Kagami was sitting in a chair on the balcony, a deep-blue cloth draped over his shoulders.
The sunlight fell on the nape of his neck, warm enough to make him a little drowsy.
Yukinoshita Shizuku stood behind him, a pair of haircutting scissors and a comb in hand, her expression intent as she stared at the back of Tsushima Kagami's head.
"Don't move."
"I'm not moving."
"You moved."
"That was breathing."
Yukinoshita Shizuku couldn't help letting out a small laugh, but quickly straightened her face again.
"Don't breathe too hard, either."
Tsushima Kagami.
"..."
He sat there obediently, gazing out beyond the balcony.
On the street below, a few children were riding tricycles, their laughter drifting faintly up to him.
Farther off, he could see the high-rises over in Shinjuku.
Behind him came the snip-snip of the scissors, one cut after another.
"Are you really sure this is okay?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku asked.
"It's fine, really."
"Really?"
"Really."
Tsushima Kagami said with his back to Yukinoshita Shizuku.
"Besides, even if you botch it, it's free."
A soft hum came from behind him.
"Then I'll try botching it."
"No, no, no, I was joking."
"If you ruin it, how am I supposed to go out and face people?"
"Anyway, by the look of it, neither you nor I will be sent to school next week."
Yukinoshita Shizuku said, glancing at the news still playing on the living-room TV.
"And didn't you say before that if it got botched, worst case you'd just shave it into a buzz cut?"
"Worst case, you can just stay home and let it slowly grow back."
As Yukinoshita Shizuku said this, there was a faint trace of anticipation in her voice.
"Ahh, I was joking."
"You absolutely must not ruin my hairstyle!"
In the living room, Tsukuyomi Komoe, Douraku Utage, and Hayase Kinue were sitting on the sofa, teasing Yukino.
In front of them sat an open haircutting toolbox, with scissors, a comb, clippers, and a barber's cloth all neatly arranged inside.
Everything was there.
"I really didn't expect Kinue-neesan could cut hair too."
Yukinoshita Shizuku also glanced over at Hayase Kinue and the others.
"Back in the day I used to cut Komoe's and Utage's hair all the time when I had nothing to do."
Hayase Kinue said, looking over at Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage beside her.
Douraku Utage said with a smile.
"Ahaha, back then we'd just entered the workforce and had no money, after all."
"Getting a haircut was outrageously expensive."
"Exactly."
Tsukuyomi Komoe chimed in as well.
"It was a good thing I complained to Kinue about it back then."
"And then Kinue said she'd always wanted to cut people's hair too."
"She even went out of her way to buy a whole set."
"But she could never find a suitable person to practice on."
"So Utage and I became Kinue's very first test subjects."
"Those were really nostalgic times."
Hayase Kinue rested her cheek in her hand, watching the backs of the two on the balcony, a smile at the corner of her mouth.
On the balcony, Yukinoshita Shizuku was carefully trimming Tsushima Kagami's sideburns.
Her fingers pressed lightly against the side of his head, tilting it slightly, and then the scissors moved close against his skin, snipping along with a snip-snip.
"Don't tremble."
"I'm not trembling."
"You trembled."
"That's because a hair fell into my eye."
"Where?"
"Let me help wipe it out."
Hayase Kinue picked up a hot towel she'd prepared earlier and hopped down from the sofa, walking over in front of Tsushima Kagami.
"Here, here."
"No moving!"
The moment Tsushima Kagami went to reach out a hand to point at the spot, he was stopped again by Yukinoshita Shizuku.
"Oh my, let me take a look."
Hayase Kinue stood on tiptoe, holding the towel and peering in front of Tsushima Kagami's eyes.
"I see it!"
Then she suddenly blew a puff of air at his eye.
After that she slowly began wiping his eyelid with the hot towel.
"Got it out!"
Hayase Kinue happily showed off the single stray hair on the towel in front of Tsushima Kagami.
"By the way, what made Kagami decide to cut his own hair today?"
Tsukuyomi Komoe on the sofa suddenly asked.
"It's all because Shizuku said my hair was too long and told me to go get it cut."
Tsushima Kagami said as he sat there.
"You don't call this long?"
"You look almost like a kappa!"
Yukinoshita Shizuku said.
"A kappa's bald in the middle—I'm not bald!"
When Tsushima Kagami finished, Douraku Utage beside them said with a laugh.
"It seems like boys all love keeping their hair long."
"In my class too there are several boys whose hair is so long I doubt they can even see the road in front of their feet."
"Even though the school doesn't forbid boys from keeping long hair."
"I've urged them a few times to trim it shorter, but they refuse."
"It's not that Kagami actually likes keeping his hair long."
At this point Yukinoshita Shizuku came to Tsushima Kagami's defense again.
"The truth is he was unhappy with how the stylists at the salons he tried a few times cut it, and it was expensive too."
"So he kept putting it off and didn't want to go get it cut."
"That's right—it always feels like a rip-off to pay so much for a cut that doesn't even look good."
"What a waste!"
"No wonder everyone would rather let it grow that long than go get a haircut."
Tsushima Kagami said with a smile as well.
"So I figured, since I'm going to be dissatisfied no matter what, I might as well just cut it myself."
"And mine's free, too!"
After saying this, Yukinoshita paused the scissors in her hand, then picked up the clippers and looked over at Hayase Kinue.
"Is it like this?"
"That's right, just like that."
"Oh, oh."
Yukinoshita Shizuku started running the clippers over Tsushima Kagami's head following Hayase Kinue's instructions.
Then she continued.
"It just so happened that Kinue-neesan, Komoe-sensei, and Utage-sensei came over to visit."
"So I thought I'd ask if any of you had haircutting scissors."
"I never expected that Kinue-neesan not only had them but often trims the two teachers' hair as well."
"Um, could we save the chatting for after the haircut?"
"I feel like my hair is in serious danger!"
Right now Tsushima Kagami was really worried that, if the group got too caught up in their chat, Yukinoshita Shizuku would just run the clippers straight down the middle of his head.
Seeing Tsushima Kagami's look of regret, everyone burst out laughing.
After about twenty minutes, Yukinoshita Shizuku set down the scissors, stepped back, and carefully examined the back of Tsushima Kagami's head.
"All done."
Tsushima Kagami stood up and walked over to the full-length mirror in the living room.
The self in the mirror had hair cut a good bit shorter and much neater.
The sideburns were trimmed clean and crisp, and the curve at the back of his head looked very natural.
____
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