The countryside's embrace: a boy's journey of healing and discovery - Chapter 0
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- Chapter 0 - I don't have to talk about me
If I were to be reborn, I would like to live a slow life in the countryside.
I definitely felt like I had thought about such a thing at some point, maybe on my deathbed.
I don’t remember when it was, or what kind of death it was, or anything like that. If that was my last wish, then I guess I probably lived a life as a corporate slave or something like that, but there’s no way to know for sure.
However, according to the faint memories of my past life, I think I was a child who didn’t have a countryside.
I was born to parents from Tokyo, and I probably only had relatives who were too distant to visit.
During the summer vacation, the friends I used to play with would gradually disappear, one by one, two by two, and as a child, I felt lonely. The number of people at the daycare center I always went to also gradually decreased, and around the Obon holidays, I would have almost no friends left. My parents would be home instead, but there was still nowhere in particular to go, and both of my parents, who were raised in the city, were true homebodies, so they didn’t want to go out because it was hot, and they spent their vacation as usual, with very little change.
As for me, I had nothing to do besides play games and do my homework, and as a result, I think my grades were good, but before I knew it, I had become a child who hated summer vacation.
And when the summer vacation was over, I would hear all sorts of fun stories from my friends who had gotten very tanned, like how they caught fish in the river, went bug catching, and swam in the sea every day, and I would feel like they were just bragging. It was totally my own sour grapes, but I remember being so envious every time I heard those stories.
That’s probably why my past life me wished to live a slow life in the countryside someday. That wish didn’t disappear from me, even after I died and was reborn.
Just like the friends I used to tell me about, I want to run around the fields and mountains, catch bugs, and go fishing. I want to catch stag beetles, chase cicadas, and eat watermelon on the engawa. If possible, I would like to live in the countryside, but even if I can’t live there permanently, I would like to stay for a few days or go camping. This time, I want to do all those things.
What begins now is the story of me, a countryside enthusiast, fulfilling that dream from my past life…a commonplace tale of aiming for a slow life. Probably.