Afterword

Hello, this is Wataru Watari.

It’s spring! And spring is the season of meetings but also the season of partings. It’s like, So which is it, then? I’d soon like to part ways with labor and meet a break, you know? Eh?

Actually, the words So which is it, then? pop up too often in life.

For example—deadlines! When you hear the word deadline, typically people think, I have to keep them (sense of duty), but others will say, “Oh-ho, that’s a fake schedule created to make me panic! I still have another two weeks!”

And there are other different responses to the word deadline. Some people will respond, “J-just a little longer (big lie),” while others will go, “That’s obviously impossible (eyes rolling back),” and some people even plead, “Let me have a break already…(sob, sob).”

It may be that the meaning of words is greatly affected by the grounding and values of the one hearing them, as well as the environment they’re in. And because this happens with concrete words, those used for engaging with abstract ideas will have an even greater disparity in reactions. For example, growth or change or real. I think if you really talk about those concepts with people, you’ll find that everyone has different viewpoints on them.

So there are surprisingly few things you can communicate with words, and even when you thought you communicated something, or that something was communicated to you, it probably wasn’t. In the end, the words may have been spoken purely for the benefit of the one who said them. However, I’m still writing today, despite believing a novel has to be the prime example of that.

Even so, I hope that, if even just for this time, at least, he is happy and satisfied with that.

And so this has been My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, Volume 9.

Below, the acknowledgments.

Holy Ponkan. I look forward to receiving the rough drafts for the cover every volume, but with this one of Miss Hiratsuka, I was so excited, only second to the one with Komachi. Wonderful! Thank you very much.

To my editor, Hoshino: Come on, I’ll make the next one easy, ga-ha-ha… I wonder how much time I’ve spent saying that… As always, I’m sincerely sorry. Thank you very much. Come on, I’ll make the next one easy, ga-ha-ha!

Also, in the writing of this book, I made reference to “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry (translated by Hiroshi Yuki).

Finally, to all my readers: Thanks to you, this story has come close to its final stages. It will continue just a little longer. I’d be glad if you would stay with me to the end. Also, thanks to all your support, there will be a second season of the anime. Thank you very much.

Now then, at this point, I’ve run out of allotted pages, so now I will put down my pen.

On a certain day in March, while trembling in the spring storm and building a tower out of empty MAX Coffee cans,

Wataru Watari