Continuation - Shoddy Utopia Policy (True End)
『That day, the end of the world was announced. Although I couldn’t help but think of it as something that had nothing to do with me, the world very easily fell into chaos.
Up until yesterday, I’d taken my everyday life for granted. Waking up in the morning, fixing my bedhead, and heading to the station at 7:30. My life at school had also been normal in its own way. Without slacking off too much, I studied like I was supposed to, and made sure not to forget my homework. My grades weren’t anything extraordinary, but I still did fairly well. Thinking back on it now, I don’t really understand why I kept doing such single-minded things.
I once wished that these boring days, that were the same days that everyone else had, would just be destroyed. However, after seeing my wish actually come true like this, I began to think that it wasn’t such a good thing after all. For instance, if my wish were to really came true, I’d want to go back to the life I had before. This kind of thing isn’t uncommon. Once you lose something precious, it’s only then that you realize for the first time how precious it was.
As I thought about those things, it would finally be fated day tomorrow. And for some reason, I felt like going to school one last time. So I woke up in the morning as always, fixed my bedhead, and headed to the station at 7:30. The trains weren’t moving anymore, so it was already rather late by the time I reached the school.
At the school, I remembered about him. Although it wasn’t like we were dating or anything of the sort. We were on speaking terms, but because we never had anything in particular to talk about. We always just talked about things like, “I wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow?” Perhaps he would be in the cla.s.sroom again today, as usual, and we’d talk about the weather, as usual. I didn’t think it was possible, but contrary to my expectation, he really was in the cla.s.sroom. Without looking particularly surprised, he turned towards me and said:
“I heard that there’s a place where the trains are still running. Do you want to go together?”
Without saying a word, I nodded my head. I felt that if we got on that train, it could take us far, far away from the end of the world.
And so, we managed to make it onto that train. There was no one inside besides the two of us. Looking outside of the window at the empty line, I spoke.
“I wonder if I’ll be able to live freely starting tomorrow.”
He smiled at me. I’m sure that he knew the destination of this train from the very beginning. I also realized halfway that this was the life-sized defiance that we’d learned from textbooks.
“It’d be nice if the weather is nice tomorrow, as well.”
I said while looking out the window at the blue sky.
The train slowly moved, taking us away from the destruction of the world. Slowly, it fell, to the bottom of the valley. 』
“Isn’t running away from things you don’t want to see, also an option?”
After tossing popcorn in his mouth and washing it down with juice, someone muttered this.