"Ugh~ Writing a romantic comedy sure is hard~."
After I finished contacting Mamiko, my father said this while I was reading some random manga I picked out. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, and it seems that his drawing have not made much progress.
Well, until now my father has been drawing mainly action oriented mangas, it would be surprising if he could suddenly change gears and switch to drawing romantic comedies. It"s already been about 40 serializations now…
Honestly, I really wonder why he was told to write a romantic comedy.
"What part of it is difficult?"
"As I thought, it would have to be the shuraba [1]."
"Shuraba?"
"The editor in chief told me that if I need to include a shuraba no matter what. However, what is it exactly…?"
"Ahhh~"
Technically, having a shuraba could be considered necessary in a romantic comedy. Especially when it comes to a manga, the vivid pictures it would bring out can really shine. I don"t think it"s absolutely essential though…
Also, in order to have a shuraba, you would need to have two heroines. Should you really be talking about these things when you"re thinking of ending a series? I have a few doubts, but the editor in chief and my father are both professionals. I probably shouldn"t complain to him about this.
"Well, writing about a shuraba would be pretty hard."
"Ahh, you don"t really get to see these types of things happen in reality. After all, it doesn"t really happen in real life…"
"You think so too?"
"Yeah, if you don"t understand the situation, the writer won"t be able to truly put in the emotions."
That is something that drawing manga has in common with writing. Writing about things you have experience in will help as you move forward, and what is written would also be more interesting. However, shuraba is…
Shuraba is a pretty rare thing to experience. Wait a minute.
"In your relationship together, have you ever fought with Mom before?"
"No, I don"t think so. We are both pretty earnest, so there wasn"t anything like a shuraba."
My mother and my father dated when they were in high school, so I thought that if they"ve been together for that long something like a shuraba would"ve happened…
Now that I think about it, there was no way something like that could have occurred. Even as their son, I can see that they get along well with each other.
"Dammit~ If this was going to happen, I should have made something like a shuraba occur with Mom~"
"No, please don"t regret that."
As I held my head in amazement at my father, the intercom rang. It seems that Mamiko has arrived. That"s what I thought, but I just realized that I never told Mamiko that we were in this room. So, she shouldn"t know the room where my father"s workplace in.
Which means… who can it be? Is it a delivery man? As I was thinking that, the front door opened.
"Dad, I decided to come by! Brother!"
"Oh, little sister. What"s up?"
I responded normally, but my little sister had her eyes wide open in surprise.
"Why are you here!?"
"Something like a ideas session with Dad? More than that, why are you here?"
"I was only just heading back from cram school…"
"Oh yeah, your cram school is nearby right?"
"Yes."
"I see. Well, come inside for now."
"Y-yeah…"
My sister answered shyly, and came in. I close the front door and follow after my sister.
"Oh~ it"s Yui! Welcome!"
Seeing that my sister had entered, my father called out in a happy voice. His face was also smiling. By the way, my sister"s name is Yui.
My parents and relatives all call her "Yui", but for some reason, I"ve called her "Little sister" ever since I was young. I really don"t know why I call her that.
However, I wasn"t expecting my sister to come here. Mamiko is coming later. It"ll be fine, right? Last time I talked to her about Mamiko, her mood worsened…
I worried for about 30 minutes while reading manga.
"Sorry to bother you~"
Mamiko arrives looking very nervous. I"ve seen her in casual clothes before, but how should I put this, she"s quite fashionable.
If I had to give an opinion, I would say that she gives off a Yamato Nadeshiko [2] feel. Mamiko came into my father"s work place looking like that, as her eyes became round. She"s probably surprised by the amount of manga around. Of course, she would be. Only a store would have so many books after all.
"A-amazing…"
I get feel complimented when Mamiko says that, even though the manga around here isn"t mine. As Mamiko looks around at the scene around her, she walks into the work area in the back. My sister was reading manga on the sofa while my father was still holding his head, working on his storyboard.
Then, when Mamiko entered, both people had on a shocked expression. It was as if they didn"t believe what they were seeing. Well, it"s not like I don"t understand their feelings…
"M-ma"am, who might you be?"
"I"m Yoshiki-kun"s g-girlfriend."
"O-oh… I see…"
Mamiko was slightly embarra.s.sed as she said that to my father who had no words to respond with. My sister was also surprised with her eyes wide open. A girl like this really does seem wasted on me… It can"t be helped that they"re surprised.
"That"s how it is, are you good now?"
I said that as I had become somewhat embarra.s.sed. I never thought that introducing my lover to my family would be so embara.s.sing. I wanted to escape from this atmosphere as soon as possible.
"Are you good now as in, you"re going to be heading home right now?"
It is true that going home this early would be a little unnatural but…
"No, we"re going on a date together after this."
"Eh?"
I gave out a suitable lie. Mamiko let out a surprised voice when I said that, but it didn"t seem that my father and sister noticed.
"Date, huh, well it can"t be helped then. Though, if you"re going on a date, tell me first next time."
"Sorry. Then, we"ll be going."
I said that as and planned to leave the workplace with Mamiko right after that.
"Wait a moment."
However, my sister"s voice stopped us in our tracks.
"Can I have a little more of your time. I would like to talk to your girlfriend."
My sister continued on to say that.
TL Note:
1: Shuraba – Scene of Carnage
2: Yamato Nadeshiko – “personification of an idealized j.a.panese woman” often used to refer to a shy young women in a contemporary context