Ayaka Oishi 〈EASY〉

“Today I left him. Not because I stopped loving him, but because I loved the shape of my own shadow more.”

The next morning, she went to Kennin-ji. The teahouse had been renovated twice since 1945, but the old floorboards in the corner storage room—the ones no one ever walked on—remained untouched. She pried one loose with a crowbar borrowed from the temple caretaker. Ayaka Oishi

“You found him,” Kenji said softly. “My uncle. You found the part of him we thought was lost.” “Today I left him