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Yellow DaysAuthor: Umezaki Haruo

Original Title黄色い日日
Author梅崎 春生
GenreModern Short Fiction
Author TypeMale Author
SummaryA man languishes in a haze of physical and emotional malaise, his world tinged yellow by an unnamed illness that saps his vitality. His days blur into lethargy as he observes life through a glass door: a neighbor’s mottled dog invades his garden, pilfering old shoes and uprooting peonies with mindless persistence. The crumbling bamboo fence between properties mirrors his own unraveling—neighbors drift in with veiled demands, while memories of a friend’s criminal downfall and a disquieting visit to a psychiatric hospital linger like shadows. His body feels leaden, thoughts adrift in a numb void, yet small disturbances—a stolen wallet, a missing shoe, a gamecock’s fate—prick at his detachment. As autumn winds stir dead leaves, he navigates a world of half-hearted obligations and spectral connections, where even laughter feels foreign. What threads of purpose remain in this fading existence? The answer lies in the quiet decay of fences, the flicker of a dog’s tail, and the unspoken weight of days stained yellow.