[Joint Practice Note] The Invisible Button, Is It Okay to Press It?

Kuitaro's wonderful story is here

Well then, here you go

😎
'Perhaps people live their lives pressing buttons every day without even thinking about it.
Elevator buttons,
remote control buttons,
and the buttons of the heart that no one else can see—

but among them,
there seem to be buttons you must never press,
and buttons you must never forget to press.

That 'one' you pressed this morning,
was it... which one?'

The Invisible Button

There is a man who appears in the square in front of the station every morning without fail.
He is in his mid-fifties.

He wears a gray suit and
always the same black trench coat.
His feet are in slightly worn leather shoes.
He carries nothing,

says nothing,
stands in the center of the square,

looks up at the sky for a while, and then slowly reaches out his right hand.
Then, he makes a gesture as if pressing a point in the empty air with his fingertip, 'click.'

A student watching him
'It's that guy again, look, the "Button Man."'

whispers.
The office ladies
'I wonder what kind of button it is,' they laugh.

Sometimes children get scared and start crying.
But he doesn't care about any of it.

He just appears every morning

at a set time,

presses the invisible button just once,
and leaves again.

◆
One morning,

I, who was sitting on a bench in the square, decided to try speaking to him.

'What are you doing with that button?'
The man looked a little surprised, but immediately gave a small smile.

'It's a reset button.'

'For what?'

'A button to delay the "end" of this world by one day. If I forget to press it, it'll end, you see.'

With a face that was neither joking nor serious,

he reached out into the air again and pressed it, 'click.'

At that moment, I felt as if the clock tower in the square
had started moving one second later than usual.

◆
The next morning, I was in the square.

The usual time.
But the man did not appear.

One second later, the clock stopped.

'Huh...'

The sky that day
was slightly, turbidly red.

😎
'What he was pressing was
a small prayer to keep the end of the world at bay for just one day.
The reason tomorrow comes again

is because someone wished for it.
The next time that button is pressed,

it might be... your turn.
Well then, until next time...

let's meet in a strange world.'
(──Fading into darkness along with a piano melody)

What is this story about?

This is
a story about something somewhat strange

──And they lived happily ever after