Double Planet Episode 2

Double Planet
Episode 2 : "While sipping a strawberry milkshake"
Ruka Tamaru (Furuta Jun & Kanda Yota / Radio Shonan personalities)

I was a child who loved to read books.
It might be more than just liking them.
It had reached the point of complete addiction. I was the kind of girl who would prioritize reading as many words as possible over having time to talk to someone. Worried about me, my sensible parents sent me to the Boy Scouts. A dramatic change of environment from indoors to outdoors. It was a dangerous gamble. Of course, at first I hated getting my shoes dirty with mud, but as I grappled with nature, I gradually stopped caring, and I became more human. Naturally, I stopped reading books as much. One day, I spent a night in the snowy mountains in winter, and the night sky was filled with beautiful stars I had never seen before. Looking up, I remembered a certain word.

"Double Planet"

I learned this word from a book about the mysteries of planets. I remembered it because I liked the sound of it.
A double planet apparently refers to two planets of similar size orbiting each other around a common center of mass. To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what that meant. But now I understand it a little better. I know about revolution and rotation, after all. I guess that's to be expected since I'm a high school student now.

"Luca, let's go to the club room."

After school, I go to the club room with my classmate Natsuki.
This has been my routine since I started high school in April.
I have a favorite actor (I won't say his name), and when I found out he was in the drama club in high school, I somehow thought I'd try acting myself. That's about the extent of my motivation.
We practiced vocal exercises, following the lead of our seniors. We were also made to memorize a kind of incantation-like text called "Uirōuri." Reading that, you might think it was pretty strict, but it wasn't like that at all. In fact, it was pretty laid-back. Some members would get huge laughs by perfecting impressions of the teacher, while others (like me and Natsuki) would chat while munching on snacks they brought to school. Our acting skills didn't improve, but our conversational skills grew rapidly.

Meanwhile, the third-year students retired from the school.

High school drama clubs have a competition that leads to the national championships. In September, they entered with a play mainly composed of third-year students, but were eliminated in the regional competition. It was surprisingly anticlimactic. To begin with, they didn't really understand the concept of competing for superiority in drama. After their elimination was confirmed, when they saw tears from Yamamoto-senpai, who has the nickname "King of Impressions," the club members murmured, "What are those tears... for?" Yamamoto-senpai hadn't practiced at all for the competition, and during the actual performance, he caused trouble by doing nothing but improvisational acting that wasn't in the script. There was no way he could have had any emotional attachment to the competition. Which meant they were fake tears. In fact, there was a rumor that he had a crush on Natsuki, so maybe it was some kind of attempt to impress her.

Well, since everything was like this, my enthusiasm for the drama club was pretty limited.

"There's a play I want to see... wanna go?"

Natsuki wanted to see a play, so we decided to go to KAAT to watch one. Since joining the drama club, I'd been to see plays put on by alumni, but this was my first time going to see a commercially produced play.

The play in question was apparently an ambitious work in which a Japanese director adapted a masterpiece from overseas, setting it in Japan. After the performance, Natsuki, who is usually very talkative, was completely silent. I wondered what was wrong, and then I noticed tears welling up in her eyes.

"I cried."

The way he said it, almost jokingly, only emphasized that those were genuine tears.
I thought it was an interesting play, and there were certainly some touching moments.
But...if you ask me if I was satisfied, I couldn't say so because there were so many things that bothered me.
The premise is good, but I can't help but think it could have been made even more interesting.
No, no, no, no.
This might be a side effect of reading too many books as a child.
In short, I'm very critical of all stories, and I have a strong tendency to analyze them.
Of course, there was no way I could say something like that to Natsuki, so I just went along with it and said, "That's great, isn't it?"

It all started that day.

Natsuki withdrew from the group of chatters and began silently repeating the Uirōuri (a traditional Japanese recitation of a Buddhist mantra). Not content with that, she grabbed a serious second-year student and began discussing emotional expression with her. I couldn't believe it. She was serious about pursuing theater.
Seeing the serious look in his eyes, a look I'd never seen before, a slight feeling of unease welled up inside me.

"What should I do...?"

Leaving the desperate Natsuki behind, I decided to go home alone. I didn't feel like going straight home, so I ran up to the second floor of the McDonald's at the north exit of Fujisawa Station. The window seat where Natsuki and I usually sit was empty.

I scrolled through my Twitter timeline, sipping my strawberry milkshake. To be honest, I've never found social media fun. I only do it because everyone else is. Maybe reading books like I used to be would be much more enjoyable. As I thought this and mindlessly looked at the meaningless tweets, a tweet that a friend had retweeted caught my eye.

[Calling all high school students who want to showcase their talents! 'Love & Music' supports high school students who want to express themselves!]

"...A high school student who wants to express themselves?"

Intrigued, I followed the tweets and ended up at a radio station called Radio Shonan.
Apparently, a program called "Love & Music" on that radio station had started a segment to support high school students. The hosts were two older men involved in music and theater. I decided to try listening to a recording of the program with my earphones.

"Um, we received an email from a high school student. Radio name: Satoru Blue."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Satoru Blue, a student at a high school in Fujisawa City."
I happened to pass by a radio station last month and learned about this program.
Kanda-san's story about guitars really resonated with me. Actually, that day I was thinking about whether or not to buy a guitar. Maybe that's why I felt like it was fate, and I've been listening to the show every week ever since.
I've decided to buy a beginner's set of electric guitar and amp, just like Kanda-san. It'll arrive soon. I'm looking forward to it. I'll email you again.

That was the first time I learned about the existence of a male high school student named Satoru Blue.

"to be continued"
*You can view back issues here .