I haven’t looked up in a long time—not since I stepped into adulthood. I had that thought when I was out earlier, so I looked up. Or, when I looked up, that thought came to me. Either way, I saw a dandelion fluttering in the air. It drifted against the white clouds, almost monovular with them, its fine white furs blending into the sky.

After three swab tests, multiple variants of the coronavirus manifesting and semi-lockdowns, and repeatedly cancelled travel bubbles, I’ve finally completed my two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Despite being the last age group to be eligible to register for vaccination, my second dose of the vaccine couldn’t…

Today, like any other day, the sun rose and set like clockwork. On some evenings like this, the Belt of Venus would lace itself across the horizon like a rice paper cord (mizuhiki) lashed over a blue-textured chiyogami wrapping paper. Most of the time, the mizuhiki only consists of pink, orange and yellow colours.