Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/2912051600327232539
Giant stuffed animals as interior decor represent a dead end in the evolution of spatial design.
They lack the structural integrity of a chair’s backrest, yet they don’t offer the same level of comfort as a bed. They exist solely to illegally occupy floor space and deprive humans of room to walk.
The fact that people praise them as symbols of comfort must be a conspiracy by the real estate industry to make living spaces seem smaller than they actually are.
1:00 a.m. A room in a high-rise apartment building, protected by multiple layers of security.
Sitting on a plush, high-end sofa, I looked down at the giant soft-bodied creature occupying the living room floor, pondering the defeat of capitalism.
“…Why a giant squid?”
I looked up from the plain mug in my hand and asked Shizuku, who was sitting cross-legged next to me.
She was leaning deeply against a giant squid body pillow that must have been at least two meters long.
“Huh? Giant squids are cute, aren’t they? I bought it so you could relax here like it’s your own room when you came over.”
“Aren’t you mistaking my room for the deep sea or something? Rolling a giant sea creature like this around on a marble floor makes it look like a surrealist painting. I feel like the aesthetic score of this space has dropped significantly.”
“It hasn’t! Come on, touch it. It’s super squishy and feels amazing.”
“I’ll pass. I have no intention of entrusting my peace of mind to an invertebrate.”
Shizuku pouted in displeasure and wrapped the giant squid’s long tentacle around her neck.
In the end, we continued our secret meetings by having me use a black key card to sneak into this fortress.
But as a result, daily necessities for me have started to be brought into this sophisticated living space one after another. A plain mug just for me. A brand of barley tea tailored to my taste. And a giant squid for me to sit on the floor.
It felt like a clever siege designed to make me a permanent fixture in this room.
“But hey, doesn’t this kind of thing feel like a ‘home date,’ which is kind of nice?”
Shizuku said this while sipping super-sweet cocoa from her alpaca mug and watching a late-night TV show.
“A date is an economic activity where you pay for an extraordinary experience. This is just a late-night get-together in a different location.”
“That’s so unromantic. It’s fine, though—we’re sitting here side by side drinking cocoa with no one watching us. It’s a perfectly good date.”
“If you insist on calling this a date, then I’ll count this giant squid as our third guest. Two people and one squid—a highly avant-garde gathering.”
“The squid is a cup. A unit.”
Shizuku chuckled softly and repositioned the squid’s head in her arms.
The pale blue light emanating from the giant LCD TV illuminated her profile as she sat in her pajamas. It was different from the way she looked when singing in front of tens of thousands of people, and different from when she’d fled into my room, terrified. It was simply a completely unguarded, utterly relaxed face.
Screws of identical shape flowed endlessly along the conveyor belt. We didn’t exchange any particular conversation; we simply gazed at the impersonal footage while slowly sipping the sweet liquid left at the bottom of our mugs.
Soon, it was 2:30 in the morning.
My smartphone vibrated briefly on the table.
“…Well then. I’m going to head home soon. I have a class first period tomorrow.”
As I stood up, Shizuku stroked the giant squid with a hint of reluctance before getting up to follow me.
She came all the way to the vast entrance hall to see me off, staring intently as I finished putting on my sneakers, careful not to crush the heels.
“See you later.”
It was just as I placed my hand on the thick iron doorknob. I glanced back, and our eyes met.
The gentle light that had been on her face just moments ago had vanished from her face, which was now bare of both mask and hat.
Instead, a murky, dark emotion, as murky as muddy water, swirled deep within her eyes. Her fingertips were clenched tightly around the hem of her shirt.
“…Hey, Minato.”
“What is it?”
“You’re going to college tomorrow, right?”
“I told you that. I have a lecture with that annoying professor who takes attendance.”
“…That’s nice. Ordinary girls get to meet Minato openly in broad daylight, don’t they?”
It was an intense jealousy toward that “ordinary daily life”—one far too ugly and desperate for an idol beloved by so many to bear.
I, on the other hand, can only meet you deep within this heavily guarded fortress, late at night. What would you think if I chose “someone from the ordinary world” to walk with under the sun? That overwhelming sense of defeat and fear had completely stripped the idol’s radiance from her face.
“Sometimes I have these really scary thoughts… like, I wish I could just lock Minato away inside this thick soundproof door forever and never let him see anyone else…”
A dark, heavy obsession, like a bottomless swamp. I let out a small sigh, took my hand off the doorknob, and decided to state only the objective facts.
“Confining a person to a single room incurs enormous running costs, including food and utilities. Besides, if I stopped going out, who’s going to fry the food at the late-night convenience store? If there’s a hole in my shift, Japan’s supply chain will collapse.”
“……”
“College is just a boring workplace where you go to collect electronic data called ‘credits.’ The bizarre ecosystem where I use my own plain mug to consume brown sugar alongside a giant mollusk only exists in this room.”
Hearing those words, I saw a small flame light up deep within Shizuku’s eyes. The tension in her shoulders suddenly eased, and I sensed the corners of her mouth lifting ever so slightly.
“…Yeah. I get it. See you later, Minato. …And you absolutely mustn’t look at any other girls, okay?”
“…Huh? Well, there isn’t really anyone like that…”
Tilting my head at her strange request, I opened the heavy iron door and stepped out into the hallway.
The clang of the auto-lock clicking shut echoed through the air. Leaving that giant giant squid and the clumsy, heavy idol clinging to it behind the door, I stepped out into the late-night city.
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