Episode 1 – time leap

I Went Back in Time to 10 Years Ago and Saved My Young Lady Childhood Friend and She Became My Fiancee ~She’s Honest and Cool and Looks at Me Like She Wants to Be Cared For~

I have lived a life of nothing.

Looking back on the twenty-five years I have lived so far, these are the first thoughts that come to mind.

After three days of all-night overtime work, I was riding home on the morning train.

I was just in time for the commute around me. The train was packed with office workers who were about to go to work. I am about to go home for the first time in three days, rocking on a train with no space between people.

(……Why did this happen?)

Every day, loose despair swirls in my chest, making me nauseous.

Day after day, I work service overtime. The papers on my desk are getting bulky and untidy, and my boss’s abuse grows more forceful every day. It’s hard. Simply.

I don’t have enough of everything.

I don’t have the time. No ability. No capable people. Not enough sleep. No company morale.

(…… the worst)

My heart hurts from stress.

It happens all the time.

While I was standing holding on to the strap, the train door opened. People were ejected at a tremendous speed. As if caught in the train, I was pushed onto the station platform and fell down. I tried to get back to my feet, but the train doors were about to close in front of me.

Hey, wait.

I am not at the nearest station yet.

Grunting, I stepped out to get on the train, but the doors closed in front of me.

“…… Oh.”

It’s tough.

I’ve been thinking about it more and more lately. Or rather, that’s all I’ve been thinking. Since I was made project leader a few months ago, I feel like I go home less and less.

I walked unsteadily and sat down on the chair provided on the platform.

I curled up with my bag in my arms.

Sleepiness came over me.

–At the same time, I felt a pain in my left chest, but I didn’t pay attention to it, thinking it was a normal occurrence.

Bordering on sleepiness, a memory from my childhood suddenly flashed through my mind.

(Yorumiya …… )

A long time ago, I had a childhood friend.

–a girl named Yorumiya Hina.

I moved to a new place when I was in elementary school, and we became good friends. We went to different junior high schools, but I had heard that she was smart and ranked in the top ten in the nation in mock exams. But just before entering high school, she was in a car accident and died.

I was the one who found her when she collapsed.

That shock comes back to me from time to time.

No matter where I go or what I do, I can’t get out of it without thinking about her.

If I had been able to save her that time – I wonder if the story would have been any different.

(…… Huh?)

“……uuh……gu……aahh……”

At that moment, I noticed that the pain in my left chest was getting stronger. I fell down on the platform as I rolled over, holding my chest. I can’t breathe. This pain is unusual. The sound of footsteps around me flapped, as if they had noticed something was wrong.

(………… dying?)

My vision fades to white from the edges, and sounds fade away. Only the pain is clearly felt as consciousness blurs.

(ah……)

I realize the end.

Suddenly, I felt the pain disappear.

Ah, I am going to die.

When I thought that, the face of Yorumiya vaguely appeared in front of me.

She has a beautiful face and looks at me sadly.

I reach for such a fleeting vision.

Regret comes to mind until the very end.

(I’m sorry I couldn’t save you then.)

With such a thought – the last consciousness ceased.

◇

When I woke up, I was in a room with a familiar ceiling.

“Oh, it’s not the …… hospital …….”

Gently, I move my hand to raise myself up.

I hold my chest, but there is none of the pain I feared.

“What……?”

I look around with a blurry head and quickly realize that I’m in the right place.

……This is my parents’ house.

I was sure it was my room in my parents’ house, which I left when I started college. The games I enjoyed playing were placed around the low table, and the bookshelves were stocked with the books and manga I had collected. It was exactly as I remembered it. The bed, the desk. Everything.

Why am I here?

Is my body okay?

What happened? How did this happen?

“Yes. …… phone.”

I take the phone on the desk. It’s an old model that …… I used to use for some reason.

“Huh?”

Before turning on that phone, I felt uncomfortable with the face I saw on the dark screen.

“W-why ……?”

I jumped off the bed in a panic. I went downstairs and ran to the sink.

And then I looked in the mirror–and involuntarily exclaimed.

“G-getting younger ……!”

It was clearly me as a student in the mirror.

Maiban