Letter

Tsukishima Kei

We are in different time zones. On February 20, 2011, you were sixteen, and in your first year of high school, you joined a volleyball club, where you started creating memories with your team. While for me, I'm only eleven in that year, an elementary student who has no idea how cruel the world is.

Then years went by like a blink of an eye; it was already 2019. I was in my last year of senior high school at the age of eighteen when I first saw you on the screen of my laptop. You're still playing volleyball; you didn't age, unlike me. You're still in your first year of high school, playing volleyball with your teams as you all pursue being part of the national tournament.

That time, I got hooked! I fell in love with you and your journey. I'll look forward to watching you play and reach your goal. I fell for a tall, blonde male with a snarky attitude who at first viewed volleyball as a club but soon came to love that club. I watched your journey; I was present at every volleyball practice and match you played.

Behind the screen of my laptop, I was cheering for you and your team. I may sound like a prick and a stalker because I know a lot of things about you while you don't even know a single thing about me, not even my name or that I exist, but that's fine.

And then 2020 came. In my first year of college at the age of nineteen, I discovered you're no longer a high school student. You're already twenty-two, in your last year of college, and soon to be working in a museum in Sendai. At the same time, you're a player in the V.League Division 2 under the team name Sendai Frogs. And you know what's crazy? You turned twenty-two in the year 2018, a year before I met you. How is that possible?

Because you're just created out of imagination. You exist on paper and ink, in animations.

And now, in 2023, I'm already 21-a year apart from your age. However, no matter how many years come, you will no longer age; your story and journey have come to an end while I am still on track to finding the right path for me.

Thank you, Haruichi Furudate, for creating a wonderful manga that becomes our comfort.

Thank you for letting me know about Tsukishima Kei, the one I loved the most.