I’m Back in the First Grade of Elementary School, so I’m Going to Live Well

AN: The other day I received an opinion that the posting time should be earlier, but I’m not going to change it without hearing other people’s opinions, so I’m asking for your opinions in the preface.

If you have an opinion that you would like to see the posting time earlier, later, or as it is now, please send us a comment, even if it’s just two words like “earlier” or “later”.

If the opinion is biased towards one thing, i.e. if the majority of people say early, then early will be used, and if late is the case, then late will be used.

If there is a split between early and late, we will leave it as it is.

In other cases, we will deal with it here.

I have an appointment posting system, so I don’t care what time of day it is.

What would you think if a girl in your first grade class confessed to you that she liked picture books?

I can express what I thought in that situation in just one word, three words.

“And, so what?”

What the hell is wrong with liking picture books?

There is no room for doubt.

Just as dogs like to play with balls and cats like to play with catnip, it’s common knowledge that children like to read picture books.

At least, from my point of view, it’s extremely natural.

It’s not even a question, it doesn’t even feel strange. It’s a perfectly legitimate hobby.

That’s why I was taken aback when she said that to me as if she was confessing her love.

However, in contrast to me, Mizui-san’s cheeks were dyed with shame at the fact that I revealed it to her.

“Well, I mean, it’s not like I need to be told anything…”

She was embarrassed by my lack of reaction and asked me to respond.

What the hell am I supposed to say?

But I couldn’t continue to enjoy the awkward atmosphere without saying anything, so my words came out as soon as I could.

“Well… I see.”

It was a bland reaction.

That’s all I can say.

“……”

“……”

Then there was an awkward silence again.

To be honest, I want to go home. I want to be free from this heavy atmosphere.

But that’s not going to happen.

It was probably the big confession of a lifetime for her.

After pondering over whether or not to tell her, she reluctantly opened her mouth and said. 

“…… Why do you like picture books?”

At first, I tried to ask a reasonable question considering the situation.

“If it’s… why don’t we sit down and talk for a while?”

What, is that too much to talk about standing up?

I didn’t say it out loud, but that was the first thing I thought.

But there was no way I could say “no” to the question, so I sat down in one of the two chairs that were placed facing each other without separating the desks.

Mizui-san also sat down, holding her knee-high skirt with one hand and her picture book with the other.

“I’ve always loved picture books, not just now.”

She began with a mysterious look on her face.

“Before I started preschool, my mother used to read to me, and every day before I went to bed, she would tell me stories.

I had picture books read to me every day, and some stories were read to me dozens of times.

I was, and still am, obsessed with picture books.

Whenever I opened my mouth, all I could think about was “buy me a new picture book” or “read to me more than just before bed”.”

You were truly a genuine picture book nerd, weren’t you?

That’s how passionate she was about picture books.

“When I was in kindergarten, the teacher would sometimes read to us as part of the class, and we would often talk about picture books among our friends.

I used to talk about picture books with my friends all the time, and they might have been sick of it.

But at that time, I was really happy and I was more than happy to share what I liked with my friends.”

She chuckles wryly.

“――But you know what? I guess we all grow up, don’t we?”

And now she looks sad.

“By the time they were older, I was the only one who was obsessed with picture books.

As a result, I had fewer opportunities to talk about picture books. Most of the time, I would reluctantly go along with my friends’ games and stories.”

I don’t remember a single thing about kindergarten because my memory of my elementary school days is so poor.

But then again, even in kindergarten, fashions tend to change.

Mizui-san’s love for picture books must have been genuine, because she continued to love them even in her childhood.

“When I became an elementary school student, picture books became even less of a topic of conversation.

Somewhere along the line, an atmosphere was formed that it was childish for elementary school students to read picture books, so we stopped talking about picture books, and before I knew it, I began to unconsciously hide the fact that I was reading picture books.”

It’s not surprising that children like picture books. This is a prejudiced statement, but it does not seem to be completely correct.

Children, in their own way, draw a line between adults and children, and the category of “picture books” is placed on the side of children when they reach the first grade.

That’s how Mizui-san also felt.

So, subconsciously, she probably had a complex about her love of picture books.

“I was lonely.

I did miss it, because I didn’t have time to talk about it with my friends anymore, and it took away one of my joys.

But it didn’t mean I couldn’t read picture books, and I wasn’t in that much trouble at that point.”

At that point. The fact that there are words like “at that point” means that there must have been a really troubling event.

“As a reaction to not being able to talk about picture books with my friends, I spent all my time reading picture books when I came home. Except for bath time and dinner time, I read picture books by myself all the time, and there were times when it was so bad that I didn’t sleep at all and spent the whole day engrossed in picture books.”

“That’s amazing.”

“Fufu, isn’t it? ――But that kind of life didn’t last very long.

One day, my mother got angry when she saw me engrossed in my picture books.

We got into a big fight, and in the end, she hid all my picture books in the back of a locked closet.”

It may sound harsh, but I think Mizui-san was so passionate about picture books that she had no choice but to be a little pushy.

However, I wondered if she have a very strict mother, hiding all the books out of reach.

“But I don’t forget picture books that easily either, so I make excuses to my mom that I’m playing with my friends and go to the library after school to read picture books.

That’s my current situation.

There aren’t many kinds of picture books, so I read the same ones over and over again.

And this is the only book I took out of my house and read here.”

Mizui-san looked at the book with great care.

“I hid this one book in the crack of my bed before they hid everything.

If I keep it there, I’m sure my mother will find out someday, so I’ve been sneaking it into a corner of the library.”

“Hee, what kind of story is that?”

“It’s a story about a prince and a princess. I’ve always been particularly fond of this kind of story, and most of the picture books we have at home are about princes and princesses.”

So girls like this kind of love story. I guess girls like love stories like this, just like boys like heroes.

But there was one thing that bothered me.

“If you like stories about princes and princesses, maybe you should have read a novel or something.”

There are many such books, even if they are not picture books.

A novel is not childish but rather mature, and if it’s literature, her mother would have tolerated it more or less as part of her education compared to picture books.

“At first, I thought so, too, and tried reading various books. They were not to my liking… 

I think I like stories where the prince and princess stay happy.

See, most of those stories in novels are sad, aren’t they?”

Many of the stories in novels are indeed about tragic love. Romeo and Juliet, for example.

Even if the story has a happy ending, there are probably many peaks and valleys in the process, so it doesn’t fit Mizui-san’s wish to “stay happy”.

In a picture book, there would be such descriptions, but they would be expressed in a relatively milder way than in a novel.

In that sense, picture books are the best hobby for her.

As a third party, I thought it would be a good hobby for her.