Soukichi regretted countless things from his time in middle school, so much that coming up with something he didn’t regret proved quite the challenge. One example of such came in the form of picking his real name, Soukichi Kuroya, as his pen name.
There wasn’t a specific reason behind my choice, he thought, but I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t holding out hope that a self-assertive and boring, yet extremely middle-school student like me would finally receive some attention from my classmates. I thought that I’d become one of the most popular kids in my class if my book were a hit.
The book failed miserably in the end, however. Soukichi would’ve been able to leave his past behind him, even sort out his assorted feelings easily had he put the tiniest amount of effort into coming up wit
