Sighs - Short Short #KazemakaseLiteratureClub

An office at dusk. As the whiteness of the fluorescent lights felt strangely cold, I closed my laptop screen and let out a deep breath.
"Sigh..."
That sigh, which fell onto my desk, echoed more heavily than I expected.
From the desk next to mine, my colleague, Saeki-san, looked up.
"Sighing again? You're going to let your luck slip away."
I could only offer a bitter smile at her joking tone.
"If my luck could be let go that easily, maybe I never had any to begin with."
As I said that, I felt a quiet sense of impatience deep in my heart.
Lately, work hasn't been going well, and my personal life feels like it's spinning its wheels.
Before I knew it, nothing but sighs were spilling from my lips.
Just then, Saeki-san reached her fingers toward my desk and made a gesture as if pinching something out of the air.
"There, caught it."
"...Caught what?"
"Your sigh. I catch it like this and throw it outside. So your luck doesn't escape."
Saying that, she stood up and released her hand toward the window.
She opened her hand wide, as if letting it vanish into the valley between the buildings.
I almost laughed, thinking it was ridiculous, but strangely, my chest felt a little lighter.
"See? That's one more you didn't let escape."
Because Saeki-san said that and laughed, I found myself laughing a little too.
Since that day, my sighs have been caught in her palms and released into the sky.
And before I knew it, my laughter had begun to increase, little by little, more than my sighs.

#KazemakaseLiteratureClub
#Sigh

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