What the Woman Staring at a Single Point Is Looking At

A woman was standing alone at the bus stop.

As I pedaled my bicycle, I glanced at the woman on the other side of the road. There was such a sense of sorrow drifting about her that I couldn't look away.

She looked to be in her sixties. She had short hair, and I could see an expression that seemed a bit tired. 'Spring can be exhausting, can't it?' I said in my heart to her as she stared at a single point.

The new fiscal year has begun, and I often feel quite flustered.

It's not that I'm particularly busy, but I feel flustered nonetheless. It's also a time of year when the weather fluctuates between warm and cold, making it easy for one's autonomic nervous system to get out of balance.

People around me also seem to be feeling under the weather or emotionally unstable, and I find myself being affected by it to some extent.

But what is she staring at?
Or perhaps, she isn't staring at anything at all.

I try to imagine. What lies beyond her gaze.

In front of her, a single hard candy had fallen.

It was a red candy. She noticed that ants, whose nest she couldn't even locate, were trying to carry the candy away.

In the first place, she wondered why the candy was lying there.
It was a candy without a wrapper. Generally, candies are snacks that come individually wrapped.

She considered the following five possibilities as to why the candy was lying there.

1. Someone dropped it the moment they took the individually wrapped candy out of its paper.

2. While rolling the candy around in his mouth, he was startled by an acquaintance who appeared from behind and spat it out. By the way, the one sucking on the candy was a high school boy attending a nearby school, and the acquaintance who appeared from behind was a high school girl he had a crush on. He felt embarrassed that she might see the candy he had spat out, so he kicked it away. The candy rolled and rolled until it reached the road near the bus stop, but that didn't matter to him. He immediately called out to the girl, 'What are you doing?' He never imagined during his entrance exam period last year that such a heart-fluttering spring would come. Good job on passing your high school entrance exams, kid.

3. An elderly person was sucking on a candy for the first time in a while. Apparently, the muscles in their tongue have weakened recently, and the candy slipped and fell deep into their throat. Thinking, 'Oh no, I'm going to die,' the elderly person put all their strength and spirit into moving their esophagus to overcome this crisis. The candy, coughed out, did not regret parting with the elderly person and rolled away heartlessly.

4. A candy that God dropped by mistake, confusing 'rain' (ame) with 'candy' (ame). A precious item.

5. A little girl with round, sparkling eyes said to her stylish mother with wide, bright eyes standing next to her, 'Mommy, I want to eat candy.' 'You can't eat candy yet. It would be terrible if you choked on it,' her mother gently dissuaded her. The girl pointed to the line of ants and said, 'I'm not going to eat it. The ants are going to eat it.' 'Oh, what a cute thing to say. That's my girl,' her mother said, taking a candy out of her bag and giving it to the girl. The girl raised both hands in joy and received the candy from her mother. Then, she popped the candy straight into her mouth. 'Mommy, you've been fooled,' the girl thought with a smug look, rolling the candy around in her mouth. Irritated at being tricked, her mother lightly tapped the girl on the back and said, 'Spit it out.' The girl spat the candy out of her mouth with force. Then, the girl clicked her tongue softly at the rolling candy and thought, 'Tch, I'll have to think of another trick next time.'

Now, which one is the correct answer?
How on earth did that candy end up there? She, staring at a single point, is thinking seriously about how she really wants to know.

What are you talking about?