[3-Minute Novel] You, Whom I Can No Longer Meet, Beyond the Sky | Night on the Galactic Railroad - GOING STEADY

Most of my belongings were already packed into cardboard boxes.

A slightly lukewarm breeze, signaling the arrival of spring, blew through the window over the pile of brown boxes sealed with packing tape. Next month, I will leave this town to attend university in Tokyo.

Illustration by ChatGPT

When I close my eyes, I am instantly pulled back to that time when I was 14—

Her name was Natsumi. We were in the same class and both on the library committee. In the library after school, when I opened the window, the scent of sweet olive filled the room on the breeze.

Natsumi would always secretly bring CDs of noisy bands that the other girls in class didn't listen to, and let me hear them.

"This is really good! When I listen to it alone in my room at night, it feels like I'm really flying through the night sky."

That was what she said when she lent me this song. A cord extending from a single player. The right earphone in my ear, the left earphone in Natsumi's. By the library window, blown by a breeze mixed with the scent of sweet olive, we were quietly drowning in a flood of sound.

Illustration by ChatGPT

"I'm moving to the next town over."

The moment the song ended, Natsumi said that quietly.It was an era when mobile phones were still a luxury for middle school students. The only ways to stay in touch were the landline at home or letters.

"But it's okay! We can meet anytime."

I believed in the smile Natsumi gave me when she said that, without a single doubt. But reality was not that sweet.

The letters I sent to her new address were exchanged only twice before they faded away as our environments changed. The distance that I thought was 'easy to travel' back then was impossibly far for middle schoolers, and even as we became high school students. Before I knew it, the promise had gathered dust, and we had grown into adults just like that—

Inside the Walkman, the sound of the CD spinning with a faint 'whirring' noise echoed deep in my ears. The spring breeze entering through the room's window carried away the last traces of the life I had lived there.I no longer know where she is or what she is doing. Perhaps she is laughing with someone else somewhere under this vast sky. Now that I am an adult, I had intended to tuck away the scent of sweet olive and the gentleness of the breeze from those days as mere 'memories' deep in my heart.

But only while I am listening to this melody, those days—so blue, so clumsy, and so full of effort—come back to me, accompanied by a faint, gentle lingering resonance.

A precious person I can never meet again. I slowly sat up and looked up at the sunset sky spreading outside the window. As if to layer my voice over the intense melody overflowing from the headphones, I whispered softly.

"Hello, can you see a wonderful world now?"