[Short Story] The Place I Want to Return To, A Missing Person Report.

Dusk.
As the sun began to set,
I was searching for a certain place.

How could I,
convey this wonderful twilight,
and the worldview within me,
to others?

It is not that I cannot express it in words.

It is just that no matter how I express it,
it never quite feels right.

I feel the reason it doesn't feel right is that
both the content I want to convey and the expression itself
are created solely from my own worldview,
and I am unable to gain a new perspective.

When I want a different perspective.
When I want to create more freely.

Whenever I am lost like this,
I always remember a strange story
I heard from a female fellow writer.

To summarize that story roughly,
it went like this.

*―*―*

While I was walking, lost in my own expressions and the words I wanted to weave, a single path was illuminated in the darkness. As I followed where it led, I arrived at a certain building. It seemed to be a coffee shop, and inside, people were excited about a conversation I couldn't quite grasp, but the owner of the shop would settle it into a truly wonderful story. There, I drank a cup of coffee.

When I rested and was heading home, fragments of words descended from the night sky.

*―*―*

Does such a thing really exist in reality?

Although I feel some fantasy-like elements in it,
the way the woman expressed it when she told me this story
was truly realistic.

I, too, want to go to such a wonderful place.

It has been a long time since I started thinking that,
but I still haven't reached it.

I don't know where the coffee shop is.
This is a rather fatal problem.

Does the woman
not want to tell me the location of the coffee shop?
Or does she really not remember?

Even though I remember everything vividly—talking to the owner, the taste and aroma of the coffee, and the events before and after—it seems that the only information missing from my memory is the route to get there.

At first, I thought she was just being evasive because she didn't want to tell me,

but seeing the person who had actually been there looking so bewildered as she said, "I can't return to the place I want to return to," I realized she might truly not know the whereabouts of the coffee shop.

If I could feel the warmth that she felt, would I be able to put into words what I want to express now?

Wouldn't a story well up from within me?

I want to go to that place.

I never had it in my dictionary that I could wish so much to meet a place I had never visited before.

I once thought about filing a missing persons report for a coffee shop whose location and owner's name I didn't even know, but I figured they wouldn't accept it, and it would likely end up as a cold case, so of course, I gave up on that idea.

One day, while I was thinking about this, I ran into the woman on the street.

When I asked her about the whereabouts of the coffee shop, this was the reply I received.

“No, not yet... Even though it's a place I truly want to return to, I haven't been able to find it. My feelings just overflow, and I often walk the same path as that day, searching for it. I feel like my own story has been at a standstill since that day, too.”

Let's look for it together next time. That was all I said before we parted ways at that time.

The woman was down, and I was also disappointed that I hadn't gained any new information.

I don't know where it is... I can't find it... Is it really just a fantasy? What kind of place is a coffee shop that can captivate people so much, even if they can't find it?

It looks like this is going to be a long journey.

While thinking of the mysterious cafe,
I continued to walk today as well,
searching for fragments of words.

<<The End>>

*This is a
spin-off story of the following short story.

Afterword

Hello. This is RaM.

Out of the many note articles,
thank you so much for noticing and reading
this article.😊

I wanted to participate in
Akira Yamane's project,
so I wrote a story.

Akira Yamane-san

Thank you always
for the wonderful projects.

It has been a while since I participated.

I look forward to your support.😌

◎

Now, as I have noted at the end of the main text,
this story is a
spin-off story of the short story
I posted earlier.

This is my first attempt at writing
a story that follows the flow of my own short story.

I never expected to write a sequel, so
this development (idea) was
a huge surprise even to me.

A classic, hazy story where
you have no idea what is going on.

I hope you enjoyed it, but
#WhatIsThisStoryAbout
is a versatile tag I've attached, so
even if you didn't, I'm sure you'll still find it interesting😂

Konishi Kinoko-san,
I leave the rest to you!✨

#AoBuraLiteratureClub
#UntilMay26th
#ThePlaceIWantToReturnTo
#WhatIsThisStoryAbout

◎

Thank you so much
for reading until the end!

Likes, comments, and follows
are a great source of encouragement.

To you, who read this far,
may happiness come your way🍀

Let's meet again in the next post.

*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*

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