It's okay to mark time. A story I want to reach you who are standing still [Creative Awards 2026 Support]

When was your "period of marking time"?
Or perhaps there are some of you who feel like you are "just marking time" even now.

At such times, you surely feel anxious, thinking "I'm the only one being left behind," or you give up, thinking "No matter how hard I try from now on, I won't be able to catch up to others."

Days where you think, "I can't believe tomorrow will be better than today," steal hope from us.

Even if I have moved past that stage myself, there are many people who are still there. But I no longer know what to say to such people.

Words like "I had a time like that too" or "It's tough, isn't it" feel shallow against that despair. While chewing on my own helplessness, I end up marking time there myself.

But at such a time, I encountered a certain youth novel.

It is "Forms of Marking Time" serialized by pekomogu on TALES.
It is a work completed in 35 chapters.

Immediately after finishing it, I began writing this in a review.

"It's okay to mark time. Because that time will surely become a precious treasure."

Why was I moved so much?
Today, I would like to tell you the reason.

First, let me introduce the synopsis.

The protagonist is a girl named Madoka Yamaguchi.

She has extreme stage fright and cannot talk to people.
At home or at school, she cannot exchange words with anyone.

The only place where she belongs is the virtual space "O-UNABARA."

She can feel sounds and colors, but she cannot eat meals there.
It is a different world from the warm meals of reality, isn't it.

Another main character is a boy named Tsuki Yamada.
He is reticent and harbors a sense of emptiness somewhere.
Madoka-chan has been thinking of Tsuki-kun from afar for a long time. Days continue where she cannot even call out to him, just watching his figure.

The setting of the story is modern Sapporo, Hokkaido.

The daily lives of high school students who carry the difficulty of living and are marking time are quietly depicted.

Your marking time

During the times when you were marking time, did the people around you allow it?

Actually, the time you can spend "marking time" is precious, isn't it?
In an environment where you are pushed from behind, told "Why are you dawdling? Hurry up," you aren't allowed to mark time.

The people who appear in these "forms of marking time" warmly watch over the protagonists' "marking time."

Even without forcing them forward, when the time comes, this person will surely be able to start walking on their own.

It felt to me as if they were watching over them with that kind of belief.

I understand that the author, pekomogu-san, has mentioned several times in comment replies and on the bulletin board that "because reality is harsh, I wanted to deliver a story wrapped in a warm 'membrane' within the story itself."

In reality, you can't mark time forever.
But because the world depicted in this story is kind, it doesn't blame or give up on those who are marking time; it allows them to do so. That is so warm.

Ah, if only the world were really like this.

It feels like a miracle.

While I think that, I also believe that the moment we think of such a world as an ideal, it stops being a miracle and starts becoming a reality that draws closer.

"Ah, I want to treat people who are marking time like this, too."
"I want to convey warmth, as if wrapping them in a warm 'membrane'."

From the moment such a wish lights up in our hearts, aren't we starting to move forward? Toward that ideal.

My own marking time

Come to think of it, my life has been nothing but marking time.

In addition to truancy in my teens, there was the onset of adjustment disorder, depression, and bipolar disorder after becoming an adult. Periods where I couldn't even get up, let alone work.

To be honest, even now, I might be marking time somewhere.

Days when I just can't believe that a day will come when I can move forward.
Thinking, 'It's going to be like this forever anyway. Unable to go anywhere, unable to take flight.'

But you know, there have been many times when I realized later that the days I felt like I was just marking time were actually necessary.

Even in my daily life writing on Note, there are times when I feel like I'm marking time, unsure if I'm moving forward or standing still.

Even so, when a long time passes and I look back, there are connections and warmth that have steadily accumulated day by day.

That is what led to my encounter with this wonderful story.
So, marking time isn't so bad.

Because I believe that who I am today exists because I cherished and embraced the days I spent marking time.

I want you, who are marking time now, and you, who used to do so in the past, to read this.
It was such a wonderful novel.

I wholeheartedly support pekomogu's challenge for the Creative Awards 2026.
May this story reach many people.
If you are even a little bit interested, I would be happy if you gave it a read.

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