It was Friday evening, or perhaps Thursday or Saturday. Days kind of started to blend together when you worked six-day weeks and often even put in extra time on Sundays as Naomi did. The exploitative schedule didn’t really bother her though, as she had no one to get home to other than a mostly dead peace lily plant. Her parents had cut off ties right around college when she'd decided to study business management instead of going for a medical degree. Friends came and went, but mostly went, as Naomi had very few interests outside of work and was never one to go out for drinks.
So, on this Friday, or perhaps Thursday or Saturday evening, she had just left her office and was heading home, with two scheduled stops: the manga store and the ramen stand next to the train station. Not in that order.
She needed to visit the former because she had once again destroyed a copy of ‘Summer Flowers’, her favourite light novel. The word ‘favourite’ didn’t quite encompass the full scope of the woman’s obsession with that book. In fact, the last copy she owned got destroyed two nights ago when, fuelled by hatred towards the evil two-faced protagonist Rose Pinkstar, whose spilt drink led to the demise of poor Lady Jeneviere Avignon, and a little too much sake, Namoni threw the book out the window, and the neighbour’s dog ate it before she’d had the time to retrieve it.
“I’ll have my usual,” Naomi said as she approached the ramen stand.
“Coming right away, Miss Akiho.” The young man behind the counter replied. He was no more than four years younger than Naomi, and sometimes the woman wondered why he still called her ‘miss’.
With a plastic bowl in one hand and a pineapple soda under her arm, Naomi took a seat at one of the foldable tables by the stand. While she waited for my food to cool, she had a look around. She knew the area well enough, so, although it might have seemed a bit shady to an outsider, with tall buildings hiding narrow alleyways between them, she felt safe there.
This ramen stand opened onto what Naomi liked to call a two-storey highway. A wide-laned street ran right beside it, while a six-lane motorway prevented her from seeing the sky. There was a train station nearby as well, but the soothing sound of metal wheels over rails was overpowered by that of motor engines.
Maybe my love for trains was one of the reasons I had picked up ‘Summer Flowers’ in the first place, as the story took place in a vaguely dieselpunk setting. ‘Vague’ was perhaps too generous of a word, as only two trains played a major role in the story, and the political stage was more akin to traditional Victorian fantasy stories. But the magic system and aesthetics somewhat made up for that. Somewhat.
As Naomi slowly ate her noodles, she held a one-woman debate about which setting she’d classify her favourite book as. It contained a lot of ‘regal’ tropes, with the female lead - that insufferable Rose - being distantly related to one of her love interests, who thankfully got sidelined for the local emperor. But on the other hand, ‘Summer Flowers’ was the epitome of feminism, and true gender equality, as it showed women and men ruling, fighting, and falling in love side by side.
June, of the full name Jeniviere Avignon, was one of those strong characters. She rose from nothing to one of the four pillars of the Land, before a chandelier-related accident took her life away. Passing away in such a terrible manner was only half the tragedy of her character, as after her death, it was revealed that she’d suffered greatly throughout her childhood. The author played a clever trick of perspective, hiding the details of June’s past, and killing her a second time, in a way, when the real reason she’d been kept away from her fief until the age of 25 was revealed.
Of course, Naomi took pride in having picked up on the details of June’s troubled home life before the grand reveal. She related to the character more than she wanted to admit, and none of June’s off-hand comments about tasting fresh bread for the first time, not wanting to be washed by maids in fear of hearing comments about her body, checking that doors only locked from the inside, or stashing rations in her room, slipped past Naomi.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
June reminded her of herself when she was younger. Her parents were of course never that bad, but they were also never there for her, be it at home after school or to explain to her how life worked. Naomi felt abandoned and alone, and as much as she hated to admit it, she had come to the conclusion that for someone to love her, they’d need to be in a worse place than her. This was perhaps the origin of her infatuation with Lady June.
“Miss Akiho, should I take your plate?” The owner of the ramen stand snapped her out of her thoughts, as he approached her table. For him to have come out from behind his post must have meant that she’d really overstayed her welcome.
She realised that it was true when she checked her watch and saw that she had spent over an hour and a half there, slowly sipping on her soda and staring at her empty bowl, while failing to make out the sound of passing trains and inhaling an unhealthy amount of car fumes, their scent masked by that of spices and freshly prepared food.
"Yes, of course. Sorry for taking so long.” She politely excused myself.
“It’s no trouble; see you next week, miss Akiho.” The owner waved goodbye.
Checking her watch again, she rushed to the manga store, ignoring the car that honked at her as she crossed a red light.
“Ah, it’s you!” The bookkeeper explained, a wide smile on her lips, as a little bell chimed when Naomi slammed into the store’s door. The forty-or-so-year-old woman smiled at her favourite client, whose name she hadn’t bothered to learn despite the years of Naomi coming to this store almost monthly. “Here to preorder the limited edition of ‘Summer Flowers’ I presume? Please treat my door more gently,” She continued with a smile.
“Good evening Miss Mori,” Naomi closed the door behind her, trying to contain her excitement at the mention of a limited edition. She hadn’t heard anything about it, but bookstores usually got those news weeks in advance to prepare their shelves. “How much is it?”
The bookkeeper grinned. This was why she liked this particular client of hers.
“I would estimate about double of the regular edition. But the official pricing hasn’t been released yet.”
Naomi’s expression dropped.
“Do you have -”
“The cover preview, of course!” The bookkeeper pulled out a tablet. And handed it to Naomi.
The woman ran her fingers over the glossy surface of the tablet. June wasn’t in her regular spot behind Cedar, who was kneeling by Rose, while Basil bowed, offering her a bouquet of purple roses.
Naomi didn’t voice her discontent with this version, as poor marketing choices were beyond the bookkeeper’s jurisdiction. She was about to hand the tablet back to the woman when the bookkeeper spoke:
“There is other limited edition merch too, have a scroll.”
Naomi tried not to get her hopes up and was quickly proven right in doing so. Among the keychains and posters, there was nothing featuring June that she didn’t already own. Well, there was one thing. But she refused to buy a body pillow of her 2D crush in the not-too-unlikely chance an actual, three-dimensional, girl would come over to her palace.
“I’ll think about the limited edition. In the meantime, could I get a new copy of the regular book?”
“Of course,” The bookkeeper hid her disappointment well enough and left the counter to fetch a copy.
“Will the regular version be going out of print?” Naomi called out to the back of the store.
“Not that I’m aware of,” The bookkeeper replied with the tone of someone who had too much inventory of ‘Summer Flowers’ to worry about that, even if it did go out of print.
Naomi pressed her lips together in an uncertain smile. Two things had been a stable constant in her life these past years. Her deadbeat job, and the pages of ‘Summer Flowers’ featuring Lady June. She tried to push back the concerns that people around had voiced more than once, about the impact both those pillars had on her wellbeing.
“Here,” the bookkeeper handed her a plastic bag. “Come by when you’ve decided to pre-order.”
“Yes, have a nice evening Miss Mori,” Naomi forced a polite smile.
The second she was out of the store, she pulled out the book and opened it on the chapter of the ball. She walked an all-too-familiar path to the train station and hastened her pace when she heard someone honk at her as she crossed the street. She heard the honk again and lifted her eyes only to be blinded by the headlights of a truck.
image [https://imgur.com/QNF8WGD.png]