I still wait a little for those who have stopped updating
I think the phrase "they were" is just a little cruel.
There "were" a few note creators I liked.
The reason I use the past tense is that those people no longer update.
No new articles go up.
No comments increase, and no "like" footprints are left.
I suppose they have probably quit note already.
I remember them on a whim and try opening their pages.
The last update date is, as expected, still stopped on that day.
Perhaps there is no longer any way to know what those people are thinking now.
When I think that, I feel a little lonely.
Even though we barely had any interaction.
Even though I only called their names a few times.
Even so, only the realization that "they were here" remains.
A relationship connected only through social media.
To think that the moment words stop, it ends so quietly.
There is no moving notice, no closing announcement.
Just by stopping updates, that person disappears from daily life.
And from here, I can do nothing.
I can only wait, and
I will probably stop that "waiting" someday too.
Even so, I think I will remember them from time to time.
That I liked the words that person wrote.
While leaving behind a little bit of lingering attachment
to writing that I might never be able to read again.
Surely that is because
it was a "relationship without deep involvement,"
which is why the way it ends is so vague and so quiet.
So today, too, I quietly close the page that has not changed at all.
Confirming that it has not been updated,
I return to my daily life just like that.
That is all.
That is all, but—
it is still a little lonely.
And I suddenly think.
Perhaps the people I like and read now
might also disappear quietly someday just the same.
The moment I think that,
I feel like the loneliness increases just a little more.
<Bonus>
↓ Illustration storage
#note #essay #diary #column #SNS #relationships #empathy #feelings #emotions #lonely #aftertaste #words #writing #writing #notecreator #creation #daily-life #daily-essay #daily-things #record #thoughts #thinking #realization #quiet-time #alone-time #margin #distance #connection #SNS-fatigue #parting #sense-of-loss #lingering-attachment #memories #memory #past #this-moment #want-to-reach-someone #words-that-remain-in-the-heart #liked #book-lover #writing-lover #kind-feelings #sad #loneliness #like-the-aftertaste #fading-relationships #someone-whose-name-I-do-not-know #was-here #quiet-ending #margin-of-words #this-months-reflection #graduated #creation-award-2026 #essay-category #AI-illustration-Aira