Standing, a peony; sitting, a tree peony. <br>A kite is a hawk. Blue comes from indigo. <br>In the end, a doctor or minister. <hr> They jokingly cheer me on <br>with a smooth, easygoing adult smile. <br>I took those words seriously. Even as a child, I felt a sense of responsibility. <br>Yes, I was Komagata-ya’s poster girl. <br>I’m the only daughter, so someday I have to take over the shop <br>and run it properly and successfully! <br>That's why... I always, always believed them. <br>That I was special. <br>That I was amazing. <br>Komagata-ya’s little darling, the unanimously adored shopping street idol. <br>Everyone’s star, with such high expectations. <br>It gave me a baseless belief <br>that I would someday become someone everyone admired. <hr> Of course, <br>that was a huge, huge misunderstanding. That’s what it was… <br>Ah. <br>Thinking about it now, I'm mortified. <br>I feel like my face might burst into flames... <hr> It’s not like anything special happened. <br>No particularly big event. <br>Nothing major like that. I started junior high. <br>I started wearing a uniform. <br>The same uniform as everyone else. <hr> I wore the common, plain navy blazer <br>that made up the school uniform. <br>I was really just an ordinary, unremarkable girl. <br>You couldn’t see me from 5 meters away. <br>I would always vanish into the crowd. <br>No one could ever tell where I was. That was the first time I noticed it.