Kurenai:Volume 1 Afterword
Afterword[edit]
“Do you what is making love?”
A girl asked me this question straight in the face.
At that time I wasn’t even ten years old.
We were in the school library.
I was a librarian then, and I was shelving books after lessons with a student from another class, there were fifteen people, including me, who were in charge of this duty. The primary six girl was in charge of giving orders, and our work was going smoothly, it was nearly done in an hours’ time.
As the tired students were busily preparing to go home, I picked up a book and flipped through it curiously, that book was filled with the strangest phenomenon in the world, and there were many scary drawings in it, so I didn’t dare to borrow it. After a few pages, I started to feel scared, and when I was about to put it back, I suddenly heard someone laughing loudly, I turned around, and found several primary six girls gathered together and chatting. To the me of that time, primary six girls were like adults, so I was curious about what they were talking about too, after those girls discovered that I was looking at them, their expressions turned slightly unhappy at first, then changed to meaningful smiles, one of the girls gestured to me, and I obediently listened to them. A book was opened on the table, it was probably the topic of their discussion, there were many pictures of nude men and women in the book.
The girls who had called me over giggled and asked me:
“Do you know what making love is?”
I shook my head, then she lowered her voice and said:
“Making love is…”
“Eh.”
“A man and a woman…”
“Eh.”
“Sleeping under blankets.”
“Sleeping?”
“Yes, and… they’re naked!”
Saying that, she squealed excitedly, then laughed with the other girls while grasping their hands.
Men and women sleeping under covers with no clothes… So what?
They’re strange, I had thought at that time.
Actually I had long forgotten this event in the library, but for some reason, I remembered this incident when I was writing this.
How strange, I can still remember my feelings to that incident, as if the whole thing had happened yesterday.
It clearly something that I understand now, but I still have that uncomprehending feeling of that time.
It seems that I haven’t changed much.
Or perhaps this is something normal, but once again, I realized how strong the brain is.
Let me express my gratitude in the following.
I am very grateful to the editor, Fujita who always patiently waited for me who always dragged out the deadline for the manuscript, Yamamoto-san who drew the amazing pictures, the various people in the editorial department, and the readers who are reading this book.
Thank you, everyone.
Katayama Kentarou
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