This reminds me so much of Maka-Maka!!!!
I hope he makes a sequel of those two...

Writing down this theory of mine cause it's been nearly two decades:

So, it's basically a story about two girls who join the art club and find themselved coiled around each other in strange ways.

"A picture that becomes unreachable for the artist after he finishes it."
"A picture that surpasses the artist's self."

Both of them have a lot of strange parallels to each other. Sumire appears like a "ghost" with how she has barely any presence when she paints, completely transfixed on what she's working on, while Momo is a "ghost member" (i.e somebody who joins a club just for the credits but doesn't actually join any activities)
Sumire isolates herself all the time, but so does Momo, despite how outgoing she appears to be

Momo is obvious, she flaunts her sexuality, does as she pleases, and her interactions with men are incredibly overt and out in the open; Sumire, meanwhile, is way more quiet with her real intentions and for her it is enough to just share the same space as the person she yearns for, despite the fact that they are separated by a door.

Sumire ends up working on tons of art, just to end up burning it, because it's her only way she can think of to stay close to the teacher. That was the point of her saying those things to Momo: "Since I can distinguish between things that are important to me... and things that aren't... feelings like envy and hate are entirely alien to me."
-> this is a direct response to her knowing that Momo and the teacher are having an affair, saying that she doesn't care about what either of them do, because how Sumire feels is ultimately the most important thing to herself.

Meanwhile, Momo caught on to how Sumire feels, partly also because she saw how Sumire reacted to her ex boyfriend at the school festival. She seems to react incredibly negatively to men (people?), but then willingly spends all of her time just to be somewhat close to the teacher, even if it means being in the freezing cold

The reason why Momo ends up wanting to kill Sumire spontaneously is because I think at some point between the flashback in the car and the oil incident, the teacher broke up with her. Momo ends up letting out all her anger on Sumire. I think she suspects that the teacher and Sumire are also having an affair (probably got the wrong idea with Sumire hanging around constantly, the teacher wondering if she's hot, etc)
We can see evidence of this break up that happened in the background with how Momo ends up treating the teacher in the last part ("Both you and your car are junk!", Momo's cold demeanour upon entering the room, etc)
Momo wanting to "burn" Sumire is also a parallel to Sumire's desire to burn her own paintings - Momo is not 100% satisfied with Sumire, it could be because she is reminded of things about herself in the past, because Sumire isn't afraid to be vulnerable but still straightforward...

"If she's not 100% satisfied with the picture... she douses it with oil... and burns it."

The story then ends with Sumire finally overcoming her love for the teacher by painting something that "surpasses the artist" and showing her true character - wanting to be like Momo, indulging in a physical affair with the teacher and constantly being close to him, being headstrong and vibrant and unafraid of consequences; and Momo, who is at the end of the affair with the teacher, now coming to the same conclusion as Sumire but from a different direction lol

As for why Sumire and Momo suddenly got so "close" - it really isn't very suddenly. The part where Momo asks Sumire to paint her has the implication that it happened during the colder seasons (as she was wearing a scarf), with her seeing the teacher again during the start of the new year, which begins in April.

The "catharsis" happens for Sumire while she is working on the painting. She spots Momo's hickey - presumably given to her by the teacher - and through painting Momo, I think she was able to process the attraction she feels for her teacher while also "living vicariously" through Momo. I can imagine something like the hickey gradually fading from Momo's body while it becomes more and more visible on the painting, thus immortalizing that brief moment of passion that sparked between Momo and the teacher. That is why she didn't burn the picture at the end - Momo is everything she ever wanted to be, to have.

I think they both realized they were essentially the inverse mirror image of each other and, to some extent, maybe were each other's secret ideal.

Going to a place where she doesn't need to draw anymore -> a museum
I'LL EVEN GO SO FAR AS TO STIPULATE that she said that because the teacher possibly promised her a museum date as a joke for completing a certain painting
It would also explain why she looked so smug while saying it - like hah, take that, I will go to a museum with him and you won't, at least I have that one over you

Anyway (_ _), it's been almost 20 years since I read this short story and ended up re-reading it often because I always felt like I was missing a huge part of the story.

last edited at Jul 30, 2024 10:49AM