I Will Forget This Feeling Someday

Really interesting story structure. 70% prologue and 30% “real” story. This makes the book’s structure mirror Kaya’s emotional attachment to Chika - it basically represents his obsession over his first love and how he can’t let go.
Yoru Sumino’s longest book by far, which is a bit conflicting because of how little happens. A lot of the book is extremely detailed description of Kaya and Chika’s dialogue and interactions at the bus stop. It’s almost poetic how the book gets you attached to this duo through their interactions, only to have you finish the book and barely remember what exactly they talked about. Even having binged it in a day, I can only recall one or two actual conversations they had, despite the first 70% of the book being almost entirely their dialogue.
Because of how strangely poetic the narrative was, despite it not really being that compelling of a story, the book made me really start thinking about interpersonal relationships and our connections with each other.
The characters aren’t great, but I think it was clear that they weren’t necessarily supposed to be likeable. Kaya is a huge narcissist who is desperate to feel special, while Chika is this idealized entity that we only get to interact with through Kaya. Kaya clings to his memory of Chika years later, which is pretty understandable given how close he got to “feeling special” with her and the supernatural phenomenon that surrounds their meetings.
Sunou Sanae is a decent foil to Kaya. I’m not 100% sold on the romance between them, although honestly thats exactly what Kaya felt for most of the time as well so it works out. I loved her conversations with Kaya while she broke down his shell and ego. Both satisfying and heart wrenching, because as a reader I developed fondness and intrigue for Chika and her world.
The meeting between Kaya and Aki (the lyricist who wrote Silhouette) was also really nice. I’m glad the author didn’t shoehorn some kind of sappy meeting between them, and kept it down to earth and small-talky. The single out-of-place line, “I pray we both are happy” edges just close enough to that sappy line without crossing it, and I really liked the delivery.
The book is a very emotional one, rather than a narrative one. I read it empathizing with the characters and what they’re feeling, rather than being sucked in by a compelling narrative (which there wasn’t). I think if you’re looking for a good story, this book isn’t it. But if you’re open to getting immersed in a story and emotions of a character, this book is a solid, though provoking trip into Kaya’s life.
On a personal note, man I envy Kaya and Chika’s relationship in the beginning of the novel. I feel like I don’t get truly invested in most romance stories because I’m not able to buy into the love. Some examples off the top of my head include Kaguya-sama and No Game No Life Zero, where the romance is predetermined and doesn’t actually develop. I think this is mostly due to the amount of dialogue - most stories wouldn’t dedicate such a huge part of their time solely toward dialogue. In some ways, its a waste of time - a few good scenes are enough to convince the audience that two characters are in love. But in this case, dedicating 270 pages solely to dialogue between Kaya and Chika was a daring masterstroke. Reading it feels like watching a visceral, deep human connection and god damn I want to know what that’s like.