Episode One: Meisa Uehara’s Summer Holiday ―August 2032―

A week had passed since the supplementary lessons with Kakei-san ended and summer holiday began.

My morning routine starts with checking my phone, but for the past month, it’s been a real drag because my mood plummets first thing.

‘Good morning, Meisa’
‘I need to talk. Can we meet today?’
‘Can’t we just try again?’

Seeing yet another message from Wataru, probably the hundredth begging for us to get back together, inevitably made my brow furrow.

‘No.’

I replied with just one word and turned off notifications. I’d blocked messages from Wataru, but then I realised it meant Ryōka, my friends, even Fuwa were getting messages saying ‘I want to talk to Meisa’ – it was causing them trouble.

　So, reluctantly, I unblocked her… but now messages came daily, and I was utterly fed up.

—Even though the person who wanted to get in touch never gave me their contact details.

“…I wonder what Sensei does during the summer holidays?”

Summer holidays = no need to go to school. Without school, I had no way to see Sensei.

　If I’d deliberately failed the resit, would I have been able to see the teacher during the holidays? But that would have ruined their break, and I’d probably have ended up disliked. Besides, failing the resit would have been embarrassing. I wanted to show the teacher at least a little bit of my good side.

I looked back down at my phone. Several more messages had arrived, one of them from Suzuka.

‘You’re at home now, right? If you’re not working, let’s hang out.’

For convenience when arranging meet-ups, I use a location-sharing app with Ryoka and a few other friends, so we always know where each other is.

Most of the class have the app too, and it feels perfectly normal to us. But if that uptight teacher heard about it, she’d probably go on about how ‘personal information is being leaked too easily, it’s a crisis of awareness’ and all that nonsense.

　…Oh, I’ve gone and thought about the teacher again.

‘I want to relax before my shift, so another time, then.’

I sent a quick reply and let out a big sigh. Feeling this gloomy first thing in the morning was down to Wataru and this relentless heatwave.

Actually, it was nearly noon, not morning. I had to get ready for work.

　I climbed out of bed to take a shower. Mum, who works at the snack bar, is often asleep at this hour, or hasn’t come home yet. So, I can get up whenever I like, but I know I have to be careful not to let myself go completely if I’m not careful.

　On the living room table sat a glass with half a glass of water left in it. Looks like Mum’s home today.

Dad isn’t here. Not absent for work or anything; she’s never been here since I was born.

I was told when I was ten, just before Grandma passed away, that I was the child conceived between Mum and her lover.

　Grandad was often away for work, so Mum, raised by strict Grandma, apparently had no experience of romance until she finished high school.

When Mum started university, she was drawn to a professor over thirty years her senior. His gentle, dependable manner embodied the father figure she’d longed for, and they began a relationship.

　Stupid, wasn’t it? To the professor, I was just a fling, but Mum was dead serious.

Then, while Mum was on an affair trip with the professor, Grandad suddenly died of a heart attack. Using plausible reasons like “the guilt of satisfying sexual desires while my father was suffering” and “the loss of family”, Mum became even more dependent on the professor… and ended up pregnant with me.

　Mum resolved to become an unwed mother and dropped out of university. I do admire that determination, that drive, and her love for me – I’m grateful for it.

So I was raised by Mum and Grandma. When I was little, I asked why I didn’t have a dad, but neither of them wanted to talk about it. So I stopped asking. Grandma was kind, and though Mum and I basically lived separate lives, she doted on me whenever we were together. So I made sure never to say anything that might upset or trouble either of them. …My knack for reading the room, my habit of watching people’s expressions – perhaps that’s where it came from.

Even without a dad, I believe Mum poured her heart out to me in her own way.

　But after discovering through her affair with the professor that a man could satisfy her stress, loneliness, and need for validation, Mum often disappeared to be with them at night.

Grandma, who’d apparently been strict in the past, repeatedly said she’d reflected on her mistakes after seeing Mum’s late rebellion. So she was gentle and calm with me, though I heard it so often my ears must have grown calluses: “You should study, it’ll open up more choices in life.”

　We couldn’t afford cram school, but determined to heed Grandma’s advice, I diligently studied at home and managed to get into Ayakawa Minami High School, a decent academic institution.

Unlike middle school, makeup and piercings are allowed here. I haven’t heard any stories of underhanded bullying either. Everyone in my class gets along well – it’s a peaceful, decent school, I think.

　I even met this funny teacher, Kakei-san. She must be keeping to a strict routine even during the summer holidays… Wait, my head. Give it a rest.

It’s hot today, and all this reminiscing and thinking about the teacher is making my brain go haywire.

I decided to take a colder shower than usual, but first I washed the half-empty glass of water Mum had left out before heading to the bathroom.