The Power to Survive (Short Story)

— The world doesn't run on tenacity alone, that's just how it is —

At the morning bus stop, Kenta gripped a can of coffee.
Rubbing his sleep-deprived eyes, he headed toward the office once again today.
"I guess living tenaciously is what this is all about."
That mutter vanished into the sky along with his white breath.
He had never been particularly clever, nor was he exceptionally strong.
He just had that "tenacity" to somehow get back up even after falling down.
That was how he had survived all this time.
But lately, he found himself wondering.
"If someone like me were at the top of society, the world probably wouldn't function."
Tenacity is a power for survival.
But it is different from the power that moves society.
While he was thinking about that,
the face of an old boss suddenly came to mind.
That boss wasn't particularly brilliant either.
But he always stood tall,
and whether he was relying on someone or being relied upon,
he was always somehow natural.
There was a time when Kenta
would follow that back with his eyes.
"Come to think of it, I managed not to quit because that person was there."
The bus arrived.
As he boarded and sat down, the morning sun shone through the window.
Looking at that light, Kenta thought.
You can't move forward with tenacity alone.
It is only when you have someone's back to follow that the wind finally blows.
When he arrived at the office, his junior colleague Misaki called out to him.
"Senior, thank you for the documents yesterday. I'm still not very good at that kind of thing..."
Kenta smiled sheepishly.
"No, I'm just getting by tenaciously myself."
Misaki tilted her head.
"Tenacious, maybe... but somehow, it's reassuring. Being behind you, Senior."
Kenta was a little surprised by those words.
He had never even thought that he might be someone else's back to follow.
But, I see.
Just as he had lived by borrowing someone else's back, perhaps now someone was looking at his.
The world doesn't run on tenacity alone.
But precisely because there is tenacity,
one can follow someone's back,
and one can show their back to someone else.
That's just how it is, isn't it?
And that is enough.
Thinking that,
Kenta pushed open the office door again today, tenaciously and with a little bit of pride.