First Snow

Chapter 5: The Baton of First Snow

As I walked down the short hallway from the living room to the entrance, I took a deep breath. The cold air entering my lungs felt refreshingly tense against my warm body.

"Are you leaving already, Ao? You could have stayed a bit longer."

Grandma gently adjusted the collar of my coat, though her eyebrows lowered slightly with a touch of sadness.

"No, Grandma. Thank you for the dango. It was delicious."

I smiled. There was no longer any shadow in my smile.

With a rattling sound, I opened the old sliding door. The air outside was completely freezing, and the night sky of Otaru was dyed in a deep indigo.

Looking down the hill leading to the station, orange streetlights stood in equal intervals, and the lights of the harbor flickered gently in the distance.

The nightscape of Otaru, which once seemed like a declining, desolate town, now somehow felt like the most beloved place in the world, filled with the raw, breathing lives of people.

"Go on, Ao. You'll be just fine."

Grandma patted my back with her wrinkled, warm hand. It was the same quiet, steady strength as when she silently supported me when I fell and cried as a child.

"Yeah. I'm off, Grandma."

I took a step. The feel of the pavement beneath my recruitment shoes felt far more dependable than before.

Shortly after I began descending the hill, something cold and tiny brushed my cheek. Looking up, I saw tiny white specks dancing down through the orange glow of the streetlights.

First snow.

Just as Grandma said, the first snow of November was silently but surely arriving in Otaru, announcing a new season.

I stopped and pulled my right hand out of my pocket. In the cold air, a single snowflake drifted onto my open palm and gently melted into my skin.

This right hand isn't for comparing myself to others. It isn't just for swiping away rejection emails in fear. It's a hand for drawing schematics, connecting circuits, and lighting up a new light in the dark. It is my own irreplaceable, physical hand, which Grandma called "the hand of a magician."

Just like Grandpa shoveled coal with his pitch-black hands, and Grandma squeezed rags with her bright red hands, running through the invisible future with all their might and love.

I, too, will draw the blueprints of my own future with this hand. I don't need spoilers. I don't need guarantees.

Even if I stumble, fall, and freeze in the cold snow, there will surely be a connection waiting for me—one that I can only find because I walked with my own feet.

As if firmly gripping the invisible, warm baton passed down from Grandma, I clenched my right hand once more.

The headlights of the train entering Otaru Station illuminated the snowy night sky in white. I will no longer look down at a smartphone. With my face held high, bathing in the cold, beautiful first snow, I walked forward dynamically to create my own future.\n

📖Previous Chapter:https://note.com/ttukumoo/n/n32f2aea688f2
🌐OriginalJapanesehere:https://note.com/juicy_laelia8513/n/n1bf0e982723f

"Thank you so much for reading to the very end!"💗