Chapter 1
The kitchen was filled with the aroma of egg fried rice. Maria, Yuu's mother, flipped the rice in the pan with a wooden spoon before setting the pan down on the dining table.
"All done," she muttered to herself.
She walked to the foot of the stairs and placed a hand against the wall. Her curly hair was tied back in a ponytail. Looking upstairs, she raised her voice.
"Wake up, Yuu!"
"Wake up! It's already 1:30 p.m.!"
"Brush your teeth and come have lunch!"
Upstairs, Yuu slowly opened his eyes as his mother's voice echoed through the house. Being scolded was the first thing he heard after waking up, and it was already making his day feel stressful.
With a tired sigh, he reached for his phone on the bedside table. The screen lit up, showing the time: 1:30 p.m.
Yuu groaned softly. He sat up, stretched his arms, and slowly got out of bed before making his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
A few minutes later, after finishing his morning routine, Yuu headed downstairs. His mother had already started eating.
"You started without me?" he asked. His hair was still damp from washing it, and a towel rested on his shoulders as he dried it.
"Of course I did," Maria replied. "It's not like I'm going to wait for you, pull out your chair, serve your food, and then start eating. You're not some prince, you know."
She gestured for him to sit down with her spoon.
"Whatever," Yuu muttered as he scooped a spoonful of egg fried rice onto his plate.
He took his first bite and his eyes widened slightly.
"It's tasty."
"Hmm."
Maria gave a satisfied nod and a small smile before continuing her meal.
After a moment of silence, she spoke again.
"Did you get any letter from the college yet?"
"No."
Yuu's expression dimmed a little. He stared at his rice before continuing.
"Don't worry, Mom. I only took the exam recently. It'll take some time for the results to come. Just be patient, okay?"
"I know, I know," Maria replied, sounding slightly annoyed as she kept her eyes on her plate.
Warm sunlight streamed through the window, carrying the heat of the afternoon into the room. Yet despite the familiar setting, the atmosphere felt different somehow.
Something had changed.
Yuu returned to his room and tossed the towel onto his bed. He sat down in his study chair and opened his laptop.
The screen lit up, revealing a wallpaper of himself wearing a white medical coat.
Yuu stared at the photo for a moment.
"I wanted to become a doctor," he thought. "It was my dream. But a few months ago, when my results were released, everything changed. I wasn't able to apply to any medical college."
His hand moved slowly across the mousepad. After hesitating for a few seconds, he clicked the delete button.
The photo disappeared.
For a moment, the screen remained blank. Then Yuu changed the wallpaper to a picture of an iris flower.
Leaning back in his chair, he glanced at the textbooks neatly arranged on his desk.
"Every time I open social media, I see my classmates posting about their college lives," he thought. "They've all moved forward while I'm still here. It hurts more than I want to admit."
Yuu lowered his gaze.
The day his exam results were released, a thought had crossed his mind.
"I don't want to do this anymore."
Not studying. Not trying. Not chasing a dream that felt so far away.
His mother had suggested that he take the entrance exam for a nursing college instead.
It wasn't the future he had imagined for himself.
But in the end, he went and took the exam anyway.
Just as Yuu sat lost in thought, a notification sound pulled him back to reality.
An email had arrived.
Curious, he leaned forward and clicked on it.
His eyes widened slightly as he read the sender's name.
It was from the nursing college where he had taken the entrance exam.
Yuu scanned the message once.
Then he read it again.
And again.
He had been accepted.
For several moments, he simply stared at the screen, his expression blank.
He wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel.
Should he be happy that he had finally gotten into a college?
Or should he be sad because it wasn't the future he had originally dreamed of?
Yuu let out a quiet sigh and leaned back in his chair.
"I don't know what this means for me," he thought. "But I'll give it a try."
"A new college. New friends. A new environment."
"Maybe I'll start liking it once I get there."
A small smile appeared on his face.
"Besides, it's one of the best nursing colleges. That's not so bad, I guess."
Before he could change his mind, Yuu jumped to his feet.
He rushed toward the door, leaving it half-open behind him.
"Mom!" he shouted down the hallway.
"I got accepted into the college!"
