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SpringAuthor: Okamoto Kanoko
| Original Title | 春 |
|---|---|
| Author | 岡本 かの子 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Female Author |
| Summary | In a quiet Tokyo neighborhood, Kanako cares for Kyōko, her childhood friend turned madwoman, whose ethereal beauty masks a fractured mind. Once a celebrated socialite, Kyōko now drifts through life in a haze of delusion, her days marked by surreal rituals—like mailing impassioned letters to "Mr. Shūo," a phantom lover whose identity even Kanako cannot unravel. These letters, poetic yet disjointed, spill secrets of unrequited longing and fragmented memories, blurring reality and fantasy. When a chance encounter with a university student ignites an obsessive episode, Kyōko flees into the night, only to be returned by police, exhausted and more unmoored. As Kanako navigates the bleak corridors of a psychiatric hospital with her, she confronts the weight of guilt and duty, questioning her own motives for sheltering a woman whose madness mirrors both tragedy and fleeting grace. Amid cherry blossoms and crumbling institutions, their bond teeters between devotion and despair, haunted by unanswered questions: Who is Mr. Shūo? And what shadows lurk in Kyōko’s past that even love cannot dispel? |
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