19. The Price of 'Still Okay'

In the forest, Hayato suddenly stopped.
The sensation in his right foot felt just a little bit off.
It wasn't that he couldn't walk. But every time he took a step, his footing felt slightly unstable.

“...Huh?”

He crouched down and looked at his shoe.
The shoelace looked like it had come loose.
He reached for the lace and gave it a light tug with his fingers.

—Snap.

“Ah... damn it.”

Along with a dry sound, the shoelace broke quite easily.
When he looked at that spot carefully,
the color had changed just a little bit there.

Suddenly, he remembered a few days ago.
He had noticed it when he retied them.
That it was starting to get worn out.

And yet.
“It’s still good.”
Thinking that, he left it as it was.

In the forest, a small moment of carelessness can cause you to collapse from the feet up. Hayato hurriedly took off his backpack.

“Let's see, let's see... something, anything I can use.”

A water bottle, a blanket, some wrapped bread, and a little bit of tinder grass for starting a fire.

“No, no, this won't work.”

He opened the front pocket of his backpack.
His fingers brushed against something rough at the bottom.

—It was 'string-wood'.

A long, thin piece of wood he had found at the edge of the forest.
When you peel the bark, supple fibers come out from inside.

When he brought it back, Atsuko had said while twisting it with her fingertips:
—If you keep things on hand assuming they'll break, you won't have to panic.

“This is it!”

He untied the old lace and threaded the string-wood fibers through. They were a bit thicker and stiffer than the original shoelace.
Even so, when he tied it tight, his foot felt secure on the ground.

He stood up and tried jumping.
No problem.
Then, he slowly took a step forward.

“Phew... that was close.”

Wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, Hayato looked at his shoe once more.
In the forest, you never know what might happen.
That is precisely why pretending not to see things is not good.

More than the fact that it broke, the fact that he had left it alone even though he had noticed it was what scared him a little.

(Atsuko-san, thank you.)

But at the same time, he thought:
Next time, I'll be able to notice a little sooner.

“...I'll be careful next time.”

He muttered quietly and started walking deeper into the forest.

The morning light filtering through the trees
was quietly illuminating his back.

What is string-wood?⬇︎

What kind of person is Atsuko?⬇︎