I have something I have to do—I haven't finished making amends yet.

#nana56b


Synopsis

Amid the hustle and bustle of campus, Taiga always seemed like a quiet island.
With his handsome features and gentle smile, which he directed at everyone without distinction, he possessed more than enough charm to attract the attention of female students—yet no one had ever sat next to him.

“Taiga, that girl’s got her eye on you. Why don’t you just start dating someone already?”

In a corner of the cafeteria, I once asked him this in a joking tone. Taiga didn’t take his eyes off the programming textbook in his hands; he smiled with an expression that seemed both troubled and as if he were gazing into the distant horizon.

“…No, it’s fine. I still have things I need to do.”
“Things you need to do—you mean studying? To become a programmer?”
“That’s part of it.”

He paused, then continued in a voice that sounded almost like a whisper from the back of his throat.

“I haven’t finished making amends yet.”

To this day, I still can’t forget the sad shadow that flashed across his eyes for just a moment at that moment.

Back in high school, Taiga had a girlfriend named Shiho.
Back then, he was obsessed with his dream: to get into one of Japan’s most prestigious universities and become a world-class programmer. That ambition drove him forward, but at the same time, it narrowed his view of the world around him.
“Let’s stop seeing each other until the entrance exams are over. I want to focus on my studies with all my heart.”
They say Shihō nodded sadly, yet resolutely, as she saw him off. “I understand. Good luck, Taiga.”

True to his word, Taiga studied like his life depended on it. And he successfully earned an acceptance letter from his top-choice university.

However, when he tried to excitedly share the news with her, it wasn’t her smile that awaited him.

While he was poring over his textbooks, Shihō had fallen ill and passed away quietly.

“This is the most important time of Taiga’s life right now. Please don’t tell him about my illness under any circumstances. I don’t want to let my condition get in the way of his dreams,”
she had apparently told those around her repeatedly while she was hospitalized.

After graduating from college, Taiga landed a job at a major IT company known to everyone.

He worked like a man possessed. He made a name for himself as a rising star programmer and led numerous projects to success. Since I had taken a job in another region, our contact gradually dwindled to just New Year’s cards.

And then, five years passed.
What arrived suddenly wasn’t a letter from him, but news of his death.

He was 27 years old. The cause of death was heart failure due to overwork.

The moment I stepped into the funeral home, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
The Taiga lying in the coffin was not the man I knew. His cheeks were sunken, his hair streaked with gray, and his fingertips were as thin as bones. He didn’t look like a 27-year-old. It was as if he had burned through decades’ worth of life …