Chapter 318

Train stations were always busy.
There were still business men in suits hurrying home;
high school girls carrying shopping bags laughing and flirting;
old men attending to station shops.
In a station you can always find people of all kinds, minding their own business.
Always the same faces, the same routines.
Even on Christmas, train stations never changed.

It was Christmas Eve wasn't it?

For a moment I lost myself in this unchanging world.
It was as if life was normal again.
This norm I used to have.
Nothing ever changes.
Every day the same.
Everything safe.
And sound.
Until...

I started walking once again; I had to spend the rest of the night with Aoi.
We always spent Christmas together.

She was waiting for me, I knew.