The clock ticks forward.
Early January.
I failed to obtain Japanese citizenship. Something about originally being stateless, or whatever. Thankfully, my residency status was still approved, so I’ll be taking the high school entrance exam as a foreign resident.
…Which means I’ll be applying under the name Yuri Tachibana (Western style), not Tachibana Yuri (Japanese style). All that effort practicing how to write my new name in kanji, wasted.
Mid-January.
The day of the Common Test—every exam-taker’s favorite. That evening, Yuuki messaged me self-deprecatingly to say he had officially become a rōnin (a student who failed university entrance exams and will try again next year). Apparently, Yuuta’s still in the fight.
From both of them, I got this unsolicited golden nugget of wisdom:
“Start prepping for the Common Test from your second year. If you wait until third year, you’ll forget everything from first year.”
Uh, excuse me? I’m literally in the middle of studying for my high school entrance exams right now. Why am I already being warned about exams in a high school life that hasn’t even started?
Early February.
On entrance exam day for Matsubara Girls’ High (or in short Matsujou), I was the only one wearing a formal ceremonial suit while everyone else showed up in blazers or sailor uniforms. After the test, I met up with Hina in another classroom to compare answers. We matched on most of them. This year’s applicant-to-seat ratio is 1.15, but usually, getting just over 80% correct is enough to pass at Matsujou . We both scored around 90%, so we’ll probably get in.
Two weeks later.
As expected, we both passed. Looks like I’ll be living the high school girl life from spring onward. I won’t even bother commenting anymore.
Following the instructions in the acceptance notice, I went to the Matsubara Girls’ High gym on the designated day for uniform fitting. But girls’ uniforms are a whole other beast.
I’m used to right-side buttons by now, but the ribbon? Feels completely wrong.
And the skirt. Way too short. Apparently, some girls roll it up to make it even shorter. Not a chance I’m doing that.
Hina said I looked weird, but I went ahead and ordered one size up for the skirt and used a skirt belt to force it to hang below the knee.
(I later learned that skirt length is considered normal in the Kansai region.)
Gym uniform:
Pretty standard. Our year’s color is red and we’ll be using it for all three years. Now that I think about it, the ribbon was red too.
School swimsuit:
...In four months I’ll be wearing that in class?
Even so...
“Sigh…”
“Hmm? What’s wrong, Yuu-chan?”
“I was just thinking… Unlike you, Hina-nee, I’m such a runt.”
We’ve been getting fitted together, but Hina is consistently being measured for sizes at least one full tier above mine. Standing next to her, there’s over 15 centimeters of height difference—not to mention the curves.
I’ve barely managed to squish enough together to qualify as a B-cup, but Hina’s apparently finding even C-cups a bit tight lately. No comparison.
And on top of that, she’s got a perfectly cinched waist, which means that with every measurement, it feels like I’m being publicly executed.
Honestly, I could hear the inner thoughts of the staff: “Ah, the older sister who passed high school is here with her younger middle-school sibling... Wait, the little one is getting measured too?!”
And yet, my perfectly reasonable complaint just made Hina mad.
“Haaaaah?! What do you mean public execution?! I’m the one being publicly executed here! Try being the girl who keeps getting told she’s an ‘S’ or ‘XS’!”
Why?! Why am I the one getting yelled at?! I said nothing wrong!
“Come on, look at me—I’m clearly the pathetic one here! Everyone thinks I’m a little sister tagging along with her big sister who just got into high school. You seriously haven’t noticed the way they’re looking at us?! Hina-nee, try checking out your own figure in the mirror sometime!”
“Oh please! You’re the one who needs to look in the mirror! Where the hell did you come from, huh?! You look like a freakin’ fairy, you know that?!”
And so, the endless bickering continued between the two of us.
Later, we’d come to find out that this very argument is what led to us becoming a well-known pair of “sisters” throughout our incoming class even before the entrance ceremony.
Late March.
I finally managed to obtain Japanese citizenship before April. Now I’m officially Tachibana Yuri. Also, the uniform we were fitted for came back. In two weeks, I’ll be wearing this thing to school every single day. This is harassment.
And just when I was thinking that, they told me to get changed so we could take entrance ceremony photos in the garden. I didn’t want to wear it, but in our house, when Ryou-nee gives an order, there’s no resisting.
“Yuu-chan. Here.”
What she handed me was… an ordinary glue stick? Huh?
“You use it to keep your socks in place. You can imagine how annoying it is when they slip down, right? Boys can hide it with pants, but girls can’t.”
“Wait, but this is just regular glue.”
“There are products like Sock Touch that are made specifically for this, but the ingredients are basically the same. Only real difference is whether they’ve added fragrance or not.”
…Seriously? Being a girl is tough.
I finish getting dressed.
Hina is wearing the same uniform beside me, but seriously—this two-shot is public humiliation. Girls’ blazers, unlike the boys’, are typically designed with a "princess line" that narrows at the waist.
And on Hina, that design works perfectly. Meanwhile, I’m built like a block. (Though, for the record, I had my height measured during the uniform fitting last time and it was 156.1 cm, so I shouldn’t be considered short.)
Saying “We’re the same grade” when we look like this? If that’s not bullying, then what is?
“Ryou-nee. I’m sorry. I don’t want to take a photo next to Yuu-chan. This is straight-up bullying. I do have some pride, you know. Up until around last November, it was no big deal, but now she suddenly got all cute. Just standing next to her makes me look like the supporting cast…”
And yet for some reason, Hina insists I’m the better-looking one. I don’t get it.
“Alright, alright. You two, quit the nonsense and stand together. I’m sending this to Dad, so make sure you smile.”
The two-shot photo we were forced to take with awkward smiles ended up prompting an immediate reply from Dad: “I’ll come see you right away.”
And just like that, his return to Japan in April was confirmed.
In the past eight months, my life has changed dramatically. After living as a girl for that long, I’ve gotten used to a lot of things. There are still plenty of things I haven’t come to terms with, but whether I do or don’t... either way, that’s okay.
Three years ago, I lost the chance to live a normal high school life.
Now, that life has returned in a new form, standing right before me.
So maybe… it’s okay to consider today the beginning of a new life.
Yeah. I think it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment