Life, Once Again!

ed like it would serve a different purpose in the future.
Inside, all there was, were some lights and some snacks on a table.

“Quite a lot of people came here in uniforms.”

More than half of the students that came inside were wearing student uniforms.
For middle school students, almost all of them were wearing student uniforms.
Perhaps their schools instructed them to.

The students were in groups of three throughout the room and they watched each other as they quietly ate the snacks.
However, the silence only lasted a brief moment.
The students, who came all the way here because they were mesmerized by creating the type of content known as film, immediately became close to each other and started talking about the film they shot.

“Uhm, I heard that you guys won the grand prize.”

“What did you shoot?”

In the middle of them was Sora.
As the guide had mentioned that she got the grand prize in front of everyone, they all knew who she was and gathered around her.
Maru slightly fell back with a paper cup in hand.
Ando also sneaked his way out of the crowd.

“She must feel proud,” Ando said.

His eyes were fixed on Sora, who could be heard clearly despite being in the center of the crowd.
Sora didn’t feel pressured by all the attention on her and was speaking with even more delight.

“You don’t seem to like it,” Maru noted as he sipped his drink.

“I do like it.
I mean, for the first time in my life, I get to receive an award.
I’ve never received an award, you know? Not even an attendance award.”

“Then why do you look so gloomy?”

“Because honestly, I didn’t do anything.
She wrote the scenario, and you did the acting.
But as for me, all I did was chase you guys around with a camera.
I did something that anyone else could have done, so it doesn’t feel real that I’m getting a prize.”

Ando spoke as after he ate some snacks,

“Also, look at those other people.
They created a film because they are full of the will to do something and have received a prize as compensation, right? But as for me, I just did what I was told to do.
There was no sense of duty in me either.
It just suddenly dawned on me that maybe it’s not really okay for me to be here.”

“I heard that people get emotional during graduation season, and I see that it must be true.”

“Maybe that’s why?”

Ando laughed powerlessly.
Maru looked at him and spoke,

“If you’re envious of them, then why don’t you try doing it properly?”

“What?”

Ando stopped just as he was about to eat some snacks.

“You might not have had the intention to do it, but the videos you shot were really decent.
Just look at Sora.
Do you think she’s the kind of person who would be okay with a not-so-decent video?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Yet she still let you have the camera.
If, like what you said, shooting is about chasing the actor with a camera, then there would be no reason for her to pick you to hold the camera.
When it comes to work, the will to do it isn’t always the most important.
Heck, it would be weird instead if you think that this is your path when you are just a beginner.
No, you can call that crazy.
In your eyes, everyone here might look like they have a specific purpose in life, but people aren’t that different.”

Maru raised his hand and pointed at the people chatting in front of them.
Ando no longer spoke and focused on their conversation.
The things he heard weren’t anything much.
‘We just shot it for fun’ and ‘we got a prize, isn’t that lucky?’ could sum up the entire conversation.

“That’s true,” Ando chuckled.

“While it might sound funny for me to give you any advice, you should look into learning about shooting videos.
I’m not telling you to learn about it seriously; I’m just telling you to do it as a hobby.”

“As a hobby?”

“You don’t have anything to do since you got admitted to college already.”

“Both Sora and you, why do you think that I would have a lot of free time?”

“So, do you have anything better to do?”

“If you say it like that, I’ll get hurt, you know?”

Ando leaned on the wall before continuing,

“After we finished shooting, I suddenly got my hands on a lot of free time.
We were really busy during summer, weren’t we? We met up on days when you didn’t have shoots and walked around late at night, and we even went to Sora’s house to shoot more.”

“It was the best when we walked around alleys to shoot street scenes.”

“Yeah, I thought I was going to die.
I mean, you guys weren’t carrying anything, but I had to carry the camera bag, the microphone bag, and gee, don’t even mention it.
I was sweating like mad, my shoulders were aching….
Back then, I wanted to throw everything away and go home.”

“Yeah, you worked really hard.
You deserve the prize.”

“Now that I think about it, if I don’t get the prize, no one here should,” Ando said as he flicked his chin with his fingers.

“How is it during a drama shoot? Are camera directors people who just work according to orders from the overall director?”

“There’s no way that’s true, is there? It depends on how old they are, but usually, the camera director is the one who talks to the producer the most.
It is up to the producer to decide on how to shoot a scene, but it’s the camera director’s job to get the perfect picture.
There are times where the two clash and delay everything.”

“So you’re saying that they aren’t just lackeys?”

“Why do you think they’re called camera ‘directors’ in the first place? Though, some places call them the cameraman.”

“So in any case, they aren’t just yesmen under the overall director, right?”

“Why, you want to go against Sora?”

“I’ll see how it goes.”

Ando tensed his eyes and looked at Sora.
Perhaps feeling his gaze, Sora turned around and looked at him in confusion.
Ando looked at the ceiling before putting his head down again.
He didn’t seem like he had any intentions of going against her for the time being.
After watching others chat for a while, Ando quietly spoke,

“I don’t have anything better to do, so should I try?”

“You should investigate it first.
You haven’t fully decided that you are going to do it, have you?”

“Of course not.
My dream is to become a civil servant.”

“What a nice dream.”

“People around me always said that becoming a civil servant is the best when you don’t have anything you want to do.”

“Right, civil servants are the best.”

“Or get employed in a big company.”

“That’s good too.”

After saying those words, Ando pointed at the table and spoke,

“Let’s eat all those up.
Since I’m here, I’m going to get the most out of it.”

“I’ll treat you to dinner afterwards, so don’t eat too much,” Maru said as he hung his arm around Ando’s shoulder.