Prologue

 

Although love and resentment walk hand in hand through time, my heart remains devoted to a lifetime of longing.
The sky above me is silent, unmoved by the world’s noise, hiding my humble home deep within the forested city. I once prayed that happiness would come quietly, that peace could be shared without fanfare.

Yet the road is narrow and endless, and passers-by hurry on.
Since childhood, I have carried impressions of the world—fading colors of a city I once knew, its memories washed thin by time. Still, what I saw and felt as a child never left me. Perhaps it’s because life itself is too still, too ordinary.

When we are young, we live for tomorrow. But by the time we finally understand the world, the heart is too weary to be moved again.

So I linger in remembrance—of faces, voices, moments that refuse to fade. Even if time tears us apart, our memories burn on, like tiny flames lighting the corridors of the years. I fear them, yet I cannot look away.

In this vast city, my friends and I drift through uncertainty. We don’t know when we’ll meet again, or where our journeys will end. Our little joys, regrets, and quiet efforts—all swallowed by time.

Still, if destiny allows for a reunion every ten years, perhaps, beneath the same sky, we are fated to meet again.

Next