Chapter 9 – Autumn (Part 1)
Autumn, Part 1
Novel Title: ツァイガルニクの恋の沼 (Zeigarnik’s Love Swamp)
Author：月村奎著 (Tsukimura Kei)
Illustrator：志水ゆき (Shimizu Yuki)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists: 市川春音 (Ichikawa Harune -MC) & 二ノ宮航輝 (Ninomiya Kouki -ML)
*Please read at universalnovel.com, the original site of translation. TQ*
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An acorn popped with a pleasant crack under the sneakers.
Acorns, for some reason, have a shape that makes you want to pick them up. Apparently, they can be used as food, but the main reason people pick up acorns isn’t to eat them. It’s just fun to collect those shiny little nuts.
In terms of practicality, the cap of the acorn is more useful than the nut itself. Back in vocational school, they made brooches and earrings by putting acorn caps on round beads crocheted with lace yarn. They sold like hotcakes at the school festival. Harune wondered if he should make some again and put them in the shop. Just thinking about it makes him excited.
He also collected pine cones of various sizes to use in Christmas workshops.
As he was absorbed in gathering them, a voice called out, “Harune.”
When he looked up, Kouki was standing next to him. He hadn’t noticed him approaching.
“I thought you were late, but here you are wasting time,” he said, looking down at Harune with a mix of exasperation.
“Oh, sorry.”
Today, Harune was on his weekly day off, and he was on his way to Kouki’s workshop to check out a stool. After Harune had mentioned his shop’s folding chair was falling apart, Kouki—who happened to be experimenting with chair designs—offered one of his prototypes.
Kouki’s workshop, which also served as his home, was located in a forest behind a shrine on the outskirts of town. It was about a 20-minute walk from Harune’s shop.
Harune had set out carrying a box of baked goods as a gift, but when he reached the edge of the forest, he couldn’t resist the temptation of the acorns scattered on the ground.
“Did you really walk all the way here?” Kouki raised an eyebrow in confusion.
Harune looked up at him and nonchalantly nodded. “Yeah. It’s such nice weather.”
“How are you going to carry the chair back?”
“Huh, is it already finished? I thought I was just coming to see the prototype in progress.”
Harune stood up, cradling his hat full of acorns and pine cones.
“I’ll borrow Nacchan’s car then.”
Just as Harune was about to turn back, Kouki grabbed him and pulled him back, causing some of the acorns to spill at his feet. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you a lift and deliver it on the way.”
Kouki alternated his gaze between the fallen acorns and Harune’s face, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“How old are you, collecting acorns like a kid?”
“Just so you know, they’re materials for my work.” Harune retorted with a serious face, though he had only picked them up because he wanted to. So he felt a bit awkward.
Kouki took off his hoodie, zipped it up, tied the sleeves together, and flipped it upside down.
“Hand them over.”
He took the hat from Harune’s hands and transferred the gathered acorns and pine cones into the makeshift bag.
“Thanks. Now I can collect even more.”
Just as Harune gleefully bent down to pick up more, Kouki pulled the hat down over his face, blocking his view.
“That’s enough. We’re done here.”
“Aww.” Pouting, Harune reluctantly gave up and followed Kouki.
Kouki’s workshop was originally a painter’s studio that had been vacant for a long time. He rented it a few years ago and renovated it himself.
Harune had visited once before when Natsuno asked him to drop off something, but he’d only handed it over at the door. This was his first time going inside.
The stylish, single-story wooden house reminded him of a summer cottage. After passing through the entrance and down a dim hallway, they arrived in a spacious living room. Surrounded by the greenery of the forest, it really felt like they had come to a mountain retreat.
“Oh wow, a wood stove! Have you already started using it?”
Harune asked excitedly, only to be met with the same exasperated look as when he was picking acorns.
“If I turned on the stove on a warm day like this, we’d overheat and die.”
Indeed, the temperature was still rising considerably during the day. Even under Harune’s thin cotton knit sweater, he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt.
“Well, I’ve always wanted a wood stove.”
“Yeah, wood stoves are great. I’m grateful to the previous owner for leaving it. Once I light it up, come by again.”
Kouki said it so casually, making Harune feel a bit flustered. They’d fallen into the role of childhood friends, naturally going in and out of each other’s homes.
The gap in their years apart had somehow vanished without a trace. Harune had once wondered if Kouki had lost his memory, but it seemed that no one else around them remembered either.
It might have been because they’d entered that phase in middle school where playing with neighbourhood friends stopped, or maybe it was because they were in different classes and clubs. To others, the fact that the two had drifted apart likely seemed like the natural flow of time.
Harune had once thought of that Christmas incident as a monumental event, like the French Revolution, but he was the only one who had thought so. Kouki didn’t even remember, and nobody around them had noticed at all. Over the past six months, Harune had gradually become more and more relieved about that.
The living room wasn’t just about the wood stove; it was filled with calming and attractive furniture. The table with its beautiful wood grain and the wooden bench were clearly not mass-produced.
“Hey, did you make all this furniture yourself?” Harune asked.
“Yeah,” Kouki replied.
Harune rested his cheek against the smooth armrest of the bench, utterly charmed. “It’s amazing. Living surrounded by furniture like this must be great.”
“Want me to gift you a full set as a late housewarming present?”
Kouki said this casually while opening the box of baked goods Harune had brought.
“Lucky me! Thanks a bunch!” Harune joked in a lighthearted tone, before breaking into a wry smile. “But honestly, I don’t have room for it. Could you put that generous offer on hold until I can afford a place separate from the shop?”
“When do you think that’ll be?”
“Hmmm, at the rate my business is going, probably in my next life.”
It was a joke, but not far from the truth.
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*Translator’s Note: He remembers it, Harune-san… -K
Next update: 2026.06.15
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