[Amano Writing Club] Short-Short: 'Falling Seven Times, Finally Getting Up'

Kenji Sato had "fallen" once again. Needless to say, this wasn't a physical fall. His project proposal, into which he had poured his heart and soul, had been rejected, and the path to his promotion had drifted further away.

"Am I really just a failure of a human being...?"

He sat down on a bench, muttering in the depths of despair. Come to think of it, throughout his life—exams, job hunting, romance—he had "fallen" at every turn. Although he had managed to pick himself up in his own clumsy way each time, he figured that a truly capable person wouldn't stumble in places like this, and even if they did fall, they would surely get back up effortlessly without showing a hint of it. He wondered if there was no progress at all in just getting hurt and trudging along like he did. Just as he was sinking into these dark thoughts, a man sprawled out on the sidewalk caught the corner of his eye.

"Are you okay?"

Kenji asked instinctively. The man didn't move an inch, as if he had become one with the asphalt.

"…Hmph. If you're going to pity me, give me money."

The man kept his cheek pressed to the ground, moving only his eyeballs to glare at Kenji.

"Huh...? No, I was just trying to help. Are you hurt, or did something happen?"
"Hurt? No, I just fell perfectly on that curb earlier. That's why I'm right in the middle of a business opportunity now."

Kenji was dumbfounded.

"What is that supposed to mean? Get up already."
"I refuse! I live by the principle of 'never getting up for free when I fall'."

The man continued proudly, still stuck to the asphalt.

"Listen, once I've fallen, it would be the height of stupidity to get up for free. I won't move a single inch until someone pays a price for the 'labor' of me standing up."

Kenji was speechless. This man was interpreting the proverb 'never get up for free when you fall'—which means to learn a lesson from failure—not as a metaphor, but as a hopeless misunderstanding: 'when you physically fall, don't move until you extort money from someone.'

"…No, that's just loitering. That's not what the proverb means at all."
"Shut up! Lessons don't put food on the table. I've chosen a way of life where I extract the goodwill of passersby by lying here like this. Now, if you want to help me up, it'll cost you a thousand yen."

Kenji quickly shoved the hand he had been about to offer deep into his pocket. The worry he had been feeling until just a moment ago—'I'm a failure'—was far surpassed by the scene in front of him.

(…I thought I was a failure, but there's always someone worse off in this world.)

"Do as you please. I'm in a hurry."

As Kenji turned his back and started walking away, a panicked voice flew at him from behind.

"Hey! Wait! You're leaving!? You're just going to leave me like this?"
"…Yes."
"Wait! Hey! Aren't you going to… aren't you going to help me up!? I'll give you a special deal for five hundred yen! Hey, don't ignore me!"

Ignoring the man's desperate cries, Kenji quickened his pace. When he looked back, the man was still stuck to the ground, cursing at passersby, telling them he'd get up if they paid him. That figure, far from showing any progress, looked as if he were rooting himself into the very spot where he had fallen.

"So, you don't get up for free, huh?"

Kenji stared at his worn-out shoes. He hadn't always been able to turn his failures into lessons every time he fell. He had simply endured the pain, brushed off the mud, and crawled back to where he started.

However, wasn't it better to stand on your own two feet and move forward, even if you gained nothing, than to cling to the ground like that man, obsessed with 'profit'?

"I'll just get up for free."

Kenji chuckled. No matter how many times he fell on the road of life, he would get up each time for 'free,' using only his own strength. That might just be the most luxurious and boldest way to live.

Kenji straightened his back and disappeared into the bustling crowd. From behind him, the man's hollow voice still echoed in the distance: "Hey! One hundred yen! Just one hundred yen is fine!"

"...Heh."

A smile spilled out naturally. He felt a little more confident. He was still walking on his own two feet. Wasn't that alone hundreds of times more 'excellent' than that man?

"Alright, time to go home and rewrite that proposal."

Kenji straightened his back and disappeared into the bustling crowd.

The End

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