Two hours later.
"Huh?" Miori's incredulous voice echoed through the room. "So the story can twist like that?"
The plot of Yesterday's Starlight continued replaying in her mind. For a moment, she even felt slightly suffocated. She closed her eyes and carefully reorganized the entire storyline in her head.
Then another problem surfaced.
"Why does it end here?" she burst out angrily.
"What is wrong with these authors? Why has every single one of them mastered the art of cutting the story at the worst possible moment?"
She complained loudly, but in her heart, the pen name Airi, the so-called genius high school novelist published under Crimson Maple Literature, had already left a deep impression.
It was true that, from a structural perspective, some parts of the story still felt a little immature. But the further she read, the more obvious it became how dramatically the quality improved with each chapter.
"If she really is a debut novelist, then this is kind of amazing. Her potential is huge. A first work this good could easily earn her a place in the light novel scene someday."
Miori did not write novels herself, but she had absolute confidence in her ability to judge quality.
"This is only rated 8.7? That feels low."
There was a page in the tankōbon volume that briefly introduced Yesterday's Starlight and its serialization data.
After reading it, Miori genuinely felt that Minamijo readers were undervaluing the book. She personally loved it.
"Alright. Now let's see what kind of monster this 9.5 rated novel is, the one that was serialized alongside Yesterday's Starlight in Fleeting Blossoms."
She could find the basic information for Blue Spring Ride on another page near the front of the book.
"Just don't tell me it's worse than Yesterday's Starlight."
She complained like that, but still quickly flipped open the first page of Blue Spring Ride.
Compared to most youth romance novels aimed at girls, Blue Spring Ride started much faster.
Most stories in this genre followed a familiar pattern. The male and female leads meet by chance. They gradually interact for various reasons.
Then, through a series of youthful and ambiguous moments, they slowly fall for each other.
Just going through that formula usually took three or four chapters in a serialized novel. But Blue Spring Ride used barely a couple thousand words in its first chapter to convey something very clear to the reader. Kou and Futaba were the male and female leads. They liked each other. And after losing contact for three years, they reunited in high school.
Miori became absorbed in Blue Spring Ride at least two or three times faster than she had with Yesterday's Starlight.
Before she realized it, the room was filled only with the sound of her steady breathing and the soft rustle of turning pages.
Futaba and Kou's reunion in high school. The formation of Futaba's friendship with Yuri, the adorable girl ostracized by their classmates.
Miori Sato's eyes grew intensely focused. Her fingers curled and relaxed unconsciously. The immersion was so strong that she found herself emotionally reacting to everything Futaba experienced.
By the time she reached chapter two, she already had an extremely high opinion of the novel's quality. After all, any story that could capture the attention of a veteran reader of over ten years within a couple thousand words deserved its 9.5 rating.
She genuinely had not expected that a relatively obscure second-tier magazine from Minamijo could produce two novels of this caliber.
Yesterday's Starlight stood out through its originality and concept.
Blue Spring Ride, on the other hand, left her with nothing to criticize. The pacing was smooth, the plot flowed naturally, and everything felt perfectly balanced.
However, as she read through chapter seven, irritation began creeping in.
Yuri developed romantic feelings for Kou after he saved her, and she even confessed everything to Futaba, her closest friend. Then came Futaba's internal struggle. Should she choose herself and continue loving Kou, or should she give up her feelings for the sake of her friendship?
"Please don't turn her into some self-sacrificing saint heroine," Miori muttered anxiously. "I finally found such a good novel. Please, author, do not mess this up."
By now, she was completely absorbed. Without noticing, the afternoon had already arrived. Then she reached chapter eight.
The now-iconic scene at the station platform, the moment of choice at the closing train doors, shattered her emotional defenses completely.
"If he gets off the train, I'll keep loving Kou. If he doesn't, I'll give up on him."
As Miori read the detailed depiction of Futaba's inner turmoil, she felt the same tight, breathless tension rising in her own chest.
[Get off the train.]
In the novel, accompanied by Futaba's desperate inner cry, the calm and handsome face of the boy appeared under the glow of the setting sun.
From helping Futaba with school duties, to waiting alone for half an hour at the school gate just to walk home with her, to this moment where Futaba made an unreasonable request and Kou stepped off the train without asking a single question.
When a boy likes you, this is the kind of understanding he gives. The story was simple.
Kou never once verbally expressed lingering feelings for Futaba. And yet, through his actions alone, the reader understood perfectly. Kou still loved her.
The moment Miori imagined the scene in her head, her inner teenage heart exploded. Her fingers tightened around the page. The paper quality felt good, but she was already desperate to read what came next.
Would Futaba and Yuri finally confront each other and compete fairly for Kou? Would Yuri darken and turn against Futaba? Or would the story take some kind of compromise route? No matter how it developed, one thing was certain. Kou got off the train. Which meant Futaba had a place in his heart.
A simple plot, supported by heavy psychological depiction and two full chapters of buildup, exploded at the very end of chapter eight and released all the reader's emotions at once.
Miori felt incredibly satisfied after reading it.
Full of anticipation, she turned the page. What would happen next?
Her expression froze instantly. Instead of the continuation of chapter eight, she saw a single line.
"End of Volume One. Please look forward to Blue Spring Ride Volume Two. The release date is coming soon."
In that instant, a massive wave of frustration surged straight into her chest.
"What is this?" she shouted in disbelief. "Coming soon my ass. What does soon mean? What month, what day, what time?"
What kind of divine operation was this? What publisher would end a standalone volume here? Who could possibly sleep after finishing Volume One of Blue Spring Ride? This cliffhanger was criminal.
"So annoying."
She sat there for a long time, unable to calm down. Then she remembered the novel's 9.5 rating.
Nine point five. Hah.
If Shiori did not pull these shameless cliffhanger stunts, would readers really have docked half a point? Serves you right. Serves you right for only having a 9.5.
The resentment and desperate curiosity for the continuation pushed her to do something she rarely did.
She picked up her phone. She scanned the QR code printed in the book and was redirected to Crimson Maple Literature's website. More precisely, to the discussion forum dedicated to Fleeting Blossoms.
The moment the page loaded, her screen was flooded with furious posts about Blue Spring Ride's cliffhanger.
The forum was packed to the brim.
Out-of-prefecture readers and Minamijo locals alike had taken over the entire space.
All of them were people who had bought the Blue Spring Ride tankōbon volume that day from bookstores across Japan. They had binge-read from chapter one to chapter eight in one sitting.
Because it was a standalone volume, the reading experience was smooth and uninterrupted, unlike following a serialized magazine week by week.
But precisely because of that smoothness, the emotional buildup had been even stronger.
When they hit the cliffhanger at the end of chapter eight, their frustration far surpassed that of the original magazine readers. Most people could not hold back. They logged into Crimson Maple
Literature's site and started venting immediately.
Meanwhile, long-time Fleeting Blossoms readers gleefully fanned the flames. What could be more satisfying than watching others fall into the same pit you once fell into?
That night, the official Fleeting Blossoms forum was bursting with traffic. Of course, among the countless angry posts about the insane ending of Volume One, there were also many readers offering to buy copies of Fleeting Blossoms issues containing chapters nine and ten of Blue Spring Ride.
Magazine issues, once missed, could not be purchased again through normal channels.
For readers who could not wait for the unknown release date of Volume Two, the only option left was to hunt down magazine readers willing to sell their copies through the forum.
_______________________
[You can leave your power stones here.]
Support me at patreon.com/CulturedOne and read 50 Advanced Chapters