Chapter Four

While Yuta devoted himself to his studies, his parents' lives also quietly continued in their respective worlds.

His father had inherited the family’s seafood wholesale business, and leveraging his connections in the fishing industry, he also ran a seafood restaurant.

Though it didn’t yield significant profits, it was a steady business.

However, his interests extended beyond that—he was increasingly absorbed in launching an IT company, using the knowledge he’d gained from selling seafood online.

He was even trying to market his business model to companies in unrelated industries. This endeavor required a substantial initial investment, especially because he planned to hire programmers to build a platform.

His focus had shifted entirely to corporate management.

His mother, meanwhile, served as a board member for several welfare organizations and was often busy with meetings and related activities.

Sometimes she came home late, but an elderly housekeeper would prepare dinner on those days.

This housekeeper also handled chores such as cleaning and laundry.

She had lost her husband and was living on a survivor's pension, but it wasn’t enough to make ends meet. That’s why she started working at Yuta’s home.

When Yuta came home from school, he always greeted her first—otherwise, she couldn’t leave.

Their relationship was distant, and they rarely had personal conversations.

Autumn passed, and winter arrived.

Withered leaves clung to the cold roadside, blown about by the north wind.

Yuta still didn’t manage to place first in the final exams.

Worse, he dropped one spot and ranked fourth in his grade.

When he saw his report card, a hot feeling boiled up from the pit of his stomach.

“So this is what they mean by ‘disgusting,’” he thought.

Then a dark thought came over him: “Maybe I’m actually just stupid.”

Even though he was fourth, his school had only about sixty students—just two classes in total—so it wasn’t anything to be proud of.

For Yuta, he needed to be the top student even in a city school with hundreds of students.

He couldn’t afford to be stuck in a rural backwater like this.

Yuta made it his goal to get a perfect score in every subject.

With 100 points in all subjects, first place was guaranteed.

There were times when he shared the top spot with someone else, but never dropped to second.

Yuta thought, “I can only prove myself with numbers.”

During winter break, he decided to spend every day in the library.

One morning, he woke up later than usual and ran into his father just as he was leaving for work.

Normally, Yuta left earlier, so their paths rarely crossed in the morning.

While putting on his shoes, his father said:

“You’ve been working hard lately.”

Yuta simply replied, “Yeah.”

His father put on his shoes, grabbed his briefcase, and hurried out the door.

Yuta went to the kitchen where his mother greeted him.

He replied with a lazy “Morning.”

He didn’t have to answer, but he figured ignoring her would only cause trouble, so he returned the greeting half-heartedly.

He knew he was going through a moody phase and even felt like he was playing the role of a sullen teenager in front of his parents.

“Going anywhere today?”

Yuta casually asked his mother.

“No plans today. I’ll be home all day.”

“Make me a bento.”

“Are you going to the library?”

When Yuta nodded, his mother, clearly not in the mood to cook, handed him money for lunch instead.

Yuta’s house was five minutes from the sea.

There were five vacant houses on the way to the small fishing port where two boats were moored.

He vaguely remembered there being more fishing boats when he was little, but he wasn’t sure.

In any case, it was a depopulated fishing village.

Among the homes there, Yuta’s house stood out for its size and spacious grounds.

There wasn’t much near his home, but around the junior high school, there were enough shops for daily needs.

The library was not far from the school, located next to the five-story city hall.

A convenience store stood at a nearby intersection, making it easy to buy lunch.

On the map, the convenience store appeared right beside city hall, but to reach it, you had to cross a needlessly large, mostly empty parking lot where only a few cars were ever parked.

Then you had to cut through a similar lot behind the police station.

At the library, Yuta saw the high school boy again, dressed in casual clothes.

When Yuta arrived a little early, he saw the boy waiting quietly outside, resting one foot on the brick wall by the shrubbery near the entrance.

He wore jeans, a dark Indian-blue turtleneck sweater, and a lazily unbuttoned heron-blue duffle coat.

A worn gray canvas shoulder bag hung from his shoulder, accentuating his languid aura.

That moment alone seemed like it had been plucked from a coming-of-age novel, far removed from everyday life.

When the library opened, the boy headed straight for the front counter.

Yuta also had books to return, so he ended up walking in behind him.

The boy handed his returns to the woman at the counter, and while she processed them, Yuta pulled his books from his backpack.

As the woman finished, she set the boy’s newly borrowed book on the counter.

Drawn by her movement, Yuta glanced at the title—it was Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky.

Yuta had heard of it but never read it.

On his way to the convenience store across the parking lot, he saw a boy and girl standing in the shade of some trees.

The girl was the same one he had seen in the pine grove.

They seemed to be arguing.

Suddenly, the girl turned and ran off.

To Yuta, it looked like she was crying.

The boy just watched her coldly, then lit a cigarette from his shoulder bag and exhaled smoke toward the sky.

Tragedy often strikes without warning.

Rumors spread through town that a local high school boy had taken his own life.

But according to his mother—who was PTA president—it was confirmed that the boy had killed himself due to the stress of college entrance exams.

She explained that he had rowed a boat into the frigid winter sea and jumped in.

While studying at the library, Yuta overheard nearby high school boys whispering about the incident.

From their conversation, he gathered that the suicide victim was that same boy he had seen, and that the cause wasn’t exam stress—it was love.

According to the whispered gossip, the boy had been dating the girl, but when her parents found out, they vehemently opposed the relationship.

They even confiscated her phone, the only means they had to communicate.

Her parents’ reason? The boy came from a certain village community.

Despairing over this prejudice, he had taken his life.

Hearing them whisper, Yuta thought:

"Love is found in the act of dying…"