All conversation in the meeting room fell silent at once. The editors moved on without wasting a second, picking up the second manuscript and continuing their review. Each novel only received a few minutes of discussion. With dozens of manuscripts to evaluate, the meeting was bound to last two to three hours at minimum.
The meaning of "pending" was clear.
Akira had acknowledged that the first chapter of that novel was strong enough to qualify for serialization in Crimson Maple.
However, if it was not the most outstanding submission in this entire meeting, it still had no chance. After all, there was only one open slot in that flagship magazine.
At the same time, over at Minamijo Third High School, the opening ceremony for the second semester of second year was underway.
Within the lineup of Class Two, Year Two, Haruto stood with dark circles under his eyes.
Over the past few days, he had been burning the midnight oil, adapting everything he had already seen of Blue Spring Ride into a total of seven chapters of novel text.
Unfortunately, over the last two nights, the memories from Shiori's soul had shifted again. Instead of continuing Blue Spring Ride, she had been watching other anime. There were romance titles like Suzuka, and then there were isekai and fantasy series such as Kyo Kara Maoh! and various "healing hero" shows.
Suzuka was fine. Watching it through the soul memories actually pulled Haruto in quite deeply. But Kyo Kara Maoh! was another matter entirely. Even though he had only seen a few episodes through fragmented memories, if he was not mistaken, that series leaned heavily into boys' love themes. Watching it left him feeling thoroughly uncomfortable.
These shows left him stunned. He could only admire how wildly diverse and intense the tastes of creators in that parallel world were.
What shocked him most was that Shiori, this cute, soft-looking girl, seemed to enjoy absolutely everything, watching all of it with great enthusiasm.
It became increasingly clear that not every work from that other world was suitable for adaptation here. None of the recent anime he had seen in his dreams would work in the domestic market at all.
This was bad.
'Shiori, pull yourself together. Hurry up and watch Blue Spring Ride.'
If the serialization meeting approved Blue Spring Ride today, Haruto really did not want Yukino showing up at his house with a metaphorical knife in hand, demanding chapters a few weeks later.
As he thought this, the dark circles under his eyes seemed even more pronounced.
The opening ceremony ended quickly. It was mostly just formalities. From the next day onward, the students' second-year, second-semester lives would officially begin.
Their homeroom teacher gave an impassioned speech about how there were only four hundred days left until university entrance exams.
He urged everyone to work hard, struggle forward, and abandon novels, anime, and games, claiming that studying was the only true path.
Naturally, almost no one listened.
What did catch Haruto's attention, however, was his girlfriend. No, his ex-girlfriend. Rin, sat in the same row as him, barely a meter away.
Dressed in a white school uniform, she looked youthful and eye-catching, drawing the attention of many boys in the class.
During winter break, after Haruto's family situation collapsed, Rin had immediately broken up with him upon learning the truth. Since they were classmates, there was no way to completely avoid each other. She chose to pretend he did not exist, avoiding any awkwardness.
Seeing her attitude, the last trace of lingering affection in Haruto's heart finally faded away.
"Hey, Rin, weren't you and Haruto pretty close before? Why are you not saying a word to him today?" a classmate asked.
"Close? We were just ordinary classmates. Don't overthink it," Rin replied, glancing briefly at Haruto.
His mother had passed away early. His father had taken his own life during winter break. The family had gone bankrupt. Yet Haruto had not dropped out. That surprised her.
He must have relatives supporting him, she assumed. Still, no matter how she looked at it, he was probably one of the most pitiful people in the entire school now.
Staying involved with him would only invite ridicule about her poor judgment, and there would be no benefits at all. Worse, he might even come asking her for money.
All sorts of imagined scenarios played out in Rin's mind. If she were not studying finance, she could have become a novelist with that imagination.
They had only confirmed their relationship near the end of the previous semester. It had lasted less than a month before collapsing during winter break. The time was too short, and no one in class had even known they were dating.
A gentle breeze drifted through the classroom, lifting the students' hair slightly.
Lost in thought about his novel's serialization prospects, Haruto gradually zoned out.
Rin frowned. The more she tried to ignore him, the harder it became. His calm, detached attitude toward her, toward school, toward everything made her uncomfortable. It felt as if the one who had been dumped was actually handling things better than she was.
Tomorrow, school would truly begin.
---
"Next, the twenty-second novel under review. Blue Spring Ride. Proposed serialization magazines: Fleeting Blossoms and Searching for Sound."
Yukino stood up and introduced Blue Spring Ride to the editors present.
Around the table, pages rustled as the editors flipped through the manuscript.
In this meeting, five novels were competing for the two open serialization slots in Fleeting Blossoms.
The competition was fierce.
Thirty seconds later, subtle changes appeared on the editors' faces.
They were all veterans with sharp eyes. Most novels did not differ dramatically in reading experience at the first chapter stage, since the plot had not fully unfolded yet.
But Blue Spring Ride's first chapter was genuinely engaging.
From the very beginning, it established that the male and female leads had once harbored mutual feelings.
Then came their reunion three years later. Just as everyone expected old emotions to resurface, the male lead delivered a decisive line.
"We can't go back to how things were."
That single sentence defined their relationship.
At the end, the heroine Futaba's unwilling inner monologue, her refusal to accept that her connection with Kou had ended just like that, sparked a strong sense of anticipation for the second chapter.
The depiction of Futaba's relationships, emotions, and inner turmoil left a faint ache and bittersweet pain in everyone's hearts after finishing the first chapter.