The moon began to rise after the sun had set beyond the horizon.
Yuto, finally, after his father's mercy and with the lights turned off, was able to sleep.
And like anyone asleep, he began to dream.
The same dream repeated itself, the one that chased him without rest, the one that kept appearing from time to time. Though to call it a dream would be a grave mistake. At this point it could only be called a nightmare, or perhaps trauma.
The same rainy day, the same darkness, the same boy jumping in the puddles.
Until that boy was no longer the same as a few moments ago. His gaze sharpened, he grew serious, looked around for a moment, then turned and ran. He ran endlessly in the opposite direction, but that did not stop things. The rain intensified, cars kept rushing by, and the sirens drew closer.
The boy felt that, despite running with all his might in the opposite direction, he was actually getting closer. As if the ground itself were a conveyor belt, shrinking and contracting with the sole purpose of dragging him to that place, not letting him escape.
The boy heard his parents' cries in the distance again. He felt the world trembling and...
bzzzzz bzzzzz
Yuto opened his tired eyes right in the middle of the night, wondering what had woken him. His nightmare, or something else? He began to look for another possible cause.
Only to find his phone buzzing like crazy right beside him.
Yuto grabbed it and, squinting against the sudden light, tried to look at the messages on the screen.
| Download completed: "How to get a job…" |
| Tutorial: "How to gain experience without a job" |
| Breaking news: Russian prince wants to leave all his fortune to the hardest-working employee of his company |
For some reason, his phone had been filled with spam, ads, and videos related to what he had searched for earlier that morning. To figure out exactly what had happened, Yuto unlocked his phone.
He discovered that nearly 100 tabs of suspicious sites had been opened in his browser.
Yuto could only think that probably, in one of his attempts to look up job stuff, when he shoved the phone back in his pocket, he had left it on. It must have clicked into every page or link until it ended up in this state, full of spam and almost certainly infected with a virus.
That is what he thought as a video started playing of a blond-haired man trying to show off every muscle possible while dressed as a construction worker.
"Looking for a job? Come to Ochara Kenchiku. Our construction sites are perfectly safe, and you'll get as strong as me!" To emphasize the point, he lifted a pair of cement bags, and the video transitioned to show the logo of a company, an orange ball with a white ball inside it.
After the video ended, it automatically redirected to a page full of ads with things like: Win ¥5,000,000.0000 with this survey! or Get a car by CLICKING!
Yuto simply decided to turn off his phone and leave it on the side of his bed. Later he would either take it to a tech shop or just reformat it.
With sleep gone, his phone looking like a neon billboard, and the lights off, he could only open his curtains to let in the moonlight and avoid getting out of bed.
Bathed in moonlight, Yuto could see his room more clearly: his bed, the nightstand beside it, a built-in closet, his work desk along with educational material in a kind of drawer underneath.
And of course, all the things scattered across the floor. Yuto knew he should take advantage and pick them up so he would not trip over them tomorrow in his rush to school, but at this point he simply did not feel like doing anything.
He just sighed, turned his gaze to the window, and looked at the moon and the stars rising above him, shining with their soft glow.
Yuto began to speak, maybe to himself, maybe to someone else, or maybe to no one in particular.
"You know, at school they taught us that decades ago, people back then released tons of strange gases constantly into the air, and that was having consequences in the world. The climate started going crazy, the lights in space began to fade, and for some reason they were fighting over basically everything."
He paused for a moment before continuing.
"You know, I wonder how people felt when they realized that the stars that had always been above them were starting to disappear, to go out."
"Although I guess at this point it does not matter, right? The stars eventually bloomed again, did they not?"
"Unfortunately, I am not a star, I suppose."
"You know, sometimes I miss you. I guess things would be easier if you were here."
"And I am not that stupid. I know you cannot be here. But even so, I miss you."
Yuto kept looking at the stars for a while longer before standing up to pick up the scattered things in his room.
"One day at a time, right? That is what they say, is it not? Well, we will start tomorrow. Any day is a good day to start, except yesterday, since I was a complete disaster." His tone carried a touch of melancholy but also motivation and a bit of humor.
After finishing tidying things up and putting them into his nightstand drawers, he went back to bed and pulled the covers over himself. He had school tomorrow.
"One day at a time? Yes, one day at a time," Yuto whispered to himself.
And Yuto began to sleep, though he did not know that certain events from that night would affect him for the rest of his life.
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