旅の余白

In a scene inspired by the Six of Pentacles, a middle-aged East Asian woman in indigo stands at the centre of an Osaka language-school classroom, holding a scale in her left hand and distributing study cards with her right; exactly six clearly countable pentacles hang above, while a student on one side prepares to leave and a new classmate enters on the other, beside an empty chair, with fading fireworks and late-afternoon light outside the window

The Pause Button: October 18

After staying out until the early hours following the fireworks festival, I slept again until afternoon. With homework still undone, an exam apparently coming next week, the class about to be reshuffled, and the middle volume still stalled, today I want to press the pause button once more.

After the fireworks festival, I did not get home until the early hours. I woke up, then went right back to sleep until afternoon; I still had not done my schoolwork, and when I checked my calendar, I discovered that there seems to be an exam next week. It is all a little “oh dear, oh dear.”

Yesterday, amid the casual chatter, I confirmed that some classmates would be changing classes. On the class platform the school and students use to communicate, I also saw the information that new students had been added to our class.

I wonder what effect this round of reshuffling will have on the class from here on?

Sometimes I also wonder: could it be that these classmates had decided from the beginning that they would not stay in this class for long, and that was why they interacted with everyone else so infrequently?

It does not matter. It was only my curiosity at work.

I still have not done my homework, so I have to do my homework.

It is just that sometimes people have to fight their own inertia. Once I stop, I no longer want to do anything; all I want is to let my mind go blank.

I should also be putting pen to paper and working properly on the middle volume, but I am forever stuck in the same place.

Today, though, let me press the pause button once again.

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