==JAPAN: KM== [Contemplation]

I decided to jog in order to go on a diet, because our school is planning to have a physical examination a few weeks from now. I am ashamed to be seen jogging by my friends, so I go out at midnight. It seemed to worry my family for me to jog by myself at such a late hour, so I waited for them to fall asleep and then I slipped out of my house. Going out, I was surprised. Under a full moon, it was far brighter than I expected.
Suddenly a voice said to me, "Good evening, what a bright moon it is!" I was surprised and looked back to find a boy, a stranger to me, smiling at me. "Are you going jogging?" he continued.
"Yes, I am. How did you know?"
"I didn't know. I only hoped so, because I'm going to jogging, too. I'm going on a diet." To be sure, he seemed to need a diet. I couldn't help laughing for happening to meet a boy who had the same goal and purpose.
"Oh, really? I'm on a diet, too."
He, too, began to laughing and said, "May I go with you?"
I nodded and we started jogging. Bright moonlight changed the mood of the town. The scenery which I used to see looked mysterious in the silence of the night.
After a while our jogging course led us into a park. Soon, I lost my breath and sat down by the fountain of the park.
"Are you O.K.?" he asked, looking into my face amusedly. "You'll get used to running in a few days."
I could only nod while breathing heavily.
"Just a moment," he said and went away. When he came back, he had a big leaf in his hand. He made a cup out of the leaf and scooped up a little water form the fountain. He handed it to me. I thanked him and drank it. While I caught my breath, he sat down beside me and we talked about various things.
The next night I slipped out of my house with the expectation that the boy would come again. As if we had made a date for jogging, that expectation came true.
Every night from then on I went jogging with him. He became more and more slender day by day.
Two weeks passed by. On that night we could see stars especially clearly. I said to him after running, "Look! How beautiful the stars are! There seems to be more stars than usual."
"Look up the sky. Can you see the moon?"
I looked for the moon to find it among the great many stars.
"Yes, I can, but it's very thin, like a fine thread."
"Of course, it is. There will be a new moon tomorrow," the boy hesitated. "By the way, I won't come here tomorrow."
I was disappointed and asked, "How about the day after tomorrow?"
"No, I won't come. I need not jog any more. I finish my diet today. In fact, I must become fatter from now on."
I couldn't understand what he meant. But he only smiled without any explanation and said, "Good-bye. Thank you for jogging with me. Do your best on your diet."
And he went away.
The next night I was standing in front of my house, not feeling like jogging. To run by myself seemed too dull.
I gave a sigh and looked up the sky around where the moon used to be. There was a new moon and I could see nothing there, and I heard his faint voice.
"Don't give up I'll start my diet again about two weeks from now."
Hearing that, I thought vaguely about the moon becoming full again after two weeks.
And then I suddenly realized what the boy was!
He had to go on a diet to be a new moon and become thicker to be a full moon. He is just the moon.
I burst into laughter and waved to the vision.
"Let's jog together again in two weeks!"

COMMENT
It is a good idea that a heroine realized the boy was a moon by the boy's going on a diet at an interval of two weeks. And this story has more reality from conversations between two characters and changes of her feelings. But I wonder if this story needs more explanation that this whole story is fiction, for the first half shows much reality and readers may be able to tell whether this story is a fiction or nonfiction. And the story will have more depth if the heroine's feelings after realizing the boy is the moon are added.

Masako Hongo