Hello, everyone! I’m mikawaghost! Since this volume of My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me (or ImoUza for short) has a horror theme behind it, I thought I’d share a terrifying story with you all. One that really happened.
As you readers already know, ImoUza is about a group of high schoolers who spend their youths doing romantic, funny, and sometimes pretty creative things. I tried to make the high school girl characters as lifelike as possible (which served to give some real depth to the story) and to make the story strangely realistic, despite it being a work of fiction. But if I wanted to have these characters be just like real, modern-day high schoolers, there was one topic I couldn’t shy away from:
Bubble tea.
I’m writing this afterword in October 2019, a time when bubble tea is hugely popular. It would be sloppy of me to write a story about ordinary high school girls and not mention bubble tea.
So, my editor and I made for a certain bubble tea store in Roppongi, to drink on the publisher’s dime (whether they’d actually cover the costs was a different matter, since I never checked, but whatever). It was delicious, and I could see why it was so popular. They say seeing is believing, and the naysayers also say it’s a drink you buy only to get more Instagram followers, but I was surprised to find it tasted good. It looked cute too.
After my first taste of bubble tea, I finally returned to my desk and typed out a chapter title.
Chapter 2: My Homeroom Teacher has a Thing for Me and Bobble Tea
What an impressive title, I thought.
It was a title I couldn’t have come up with if I had never tried bubble tea, and all my knowledge of it came from the odd Twitter post. I began to write, feeling a fiery passion burning in my eyes as I drew on my real-life experiences. I had made it. I was qualified to write about bubble tea. Finally, my manuscript was done.
“This is how you write high schoolers! This is how you write a romantic comedy set in the modern age!”
I thrust my manuscript at my editor, “smug” written all over my face. My editor returned the manuscript a few days later with the following comment:
“You know it’s ‘bubble tea’ and not ‘bobble tea,’ right?”
I stared.
“I see, so you’re trying to write about a trend without knowing the first thing about it, even though you looked so smug. It’s super obvious how hard you’re trying too! What, you thought that one serving of bubble tea meant you’d tapped into the mind of every high school girl out there? Pfft.”
“Don’t think I’m gonna let this slide just because you’re trying to sound like Iroha right now, dumbass! She gets away with being annoying because she’s cute, but you’re just annoying!”
(I may be exaggerating these messages a bit. I was actually way more polite than this. I guess my editor didn’t say all of that exactly either, but that was how it came across.)
Right now, mistaking “bubble” for “bobble” makes for a funny story, but back then I was so embarrassed and my face was so red that I yelled and rolled all over the floor that my Roomba only just cleaned.
How’s that for a scary story?
Just remember, this time I was the one who messed up with the current lingo, but next time it might be you. Then you will know the full extent of my embarrassment.
Time for the thanks.
First, to my illustrator tomari-sensei. I can’t thank you enough for the fantastic pictures you drew for this volume! Lately, my editor and I have been using the term Godmari for when you send us another one of your godlike pictures (It’s a combination of “godlike” and “tomari-sensei”). I look forward to working with you in the future, if you’re up for it too!
To my editor, Nuru-san. To everyone at GA Bunko’s editorial department. To everyone in the sales department. To the staff in the stores that are so excited to sell my work, and to everyone who was involved in this book’s publishing. Thank you so much!
Thank you to everyone who bought and/or read this book! I’m really grateful!
A special drama CD will be bundled with volume 4 in Japan. Things are starting to get really exciting! I hope you’ll continue to support ImoUza in the future!
That’s all from me,
mikawaghost