Sumico Smile -

To smile the Sumico way is not to hide your sadness. It is to elevate your sadness into a form of art. It is to say, My sorrow has been refined, folded like steel a thousand times, until it is sharp enough to cut—but only me.

Yuki has just told her mother that she will not be coming home for New Year’s. There is a long pause on the phone—the kind filled with the static of unspoken disappointment. sumico smile

The smile holds. It is a porcelain cup with a hairline crack. It will serve tea for another ten years before it breaks. To smile the Sumico way is not to hide your sadness

Congratulations. You have just worn the most human mask there is. My sorrow has been refined

Hold for five seconds.