Before Your Memory Fades (Before the Coffee Gets Cold Book 3) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Author:Toshikazu Kawaguchi [Kawaguchi, Toshikazu]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: 2022-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

It must have been the text that Todoroki sent in front of Reiji. The text clearly indicated Todoroki had no intention of returning.

‘How could such a thing . . .’

Reiji swallowed his breath and looked at the vacant chair.

Todoroki, Hayashida and Setsuko had all applied for the same school. Hayashida and Setsuko were capable studiers, but Todoroki wasn’t. Although he wasn’t the smartest, he wasn’t entirely inept either. His grades were in the middle-high range, while Hayashida’s and Setsuko’s were always in the high-high range. In middle school, all three wanted to get into the National Institute of Technology, Hakodate College. As the only national college of technology in the city of Hakodate, it was known as the Tech College. It offered mostly five-year courses in industrial and engineering studies, though mercantile marine studies was five years and six months long.

This was before Todoroki and Hayashida decided they wanted to be comedians. Tech College had a comparatively free environment, and its graduate employment rate was high. Ranked twenty-first among all four hundred and eighty-six high schools in Hokkaido, and first among Hokkaido’s fifteen public technical high schools, it had a reputation for being difficult to get in. At the one-on-one interview with their home-class teacher, where students were given honest advice regarding their prospects, Todoroki alone among the three was told in no uncertain terms that he was doomed to fail.

However, Todoroki hated to lose, and he declared, ‘I’m the guy who can do anything if I try.’

If all three were going to the same school, Hayashida cool-headedly suggested, ‘Perhaps we should adjust to Gen’s level.’

But Setsuko was adamant. ‘Gen, you’ve got what it takes to do this!’ she said encouragingly.

That decided it. Todoroki started studying like his life depended on it. Setsuko provided motivational support, while Hayashida taught him how to study. For the entire month before the exam, he crammed for more than seven hours every day.

On the day of Tech College’s exam, Hakodate received heavy snowfall.

But it was nothing for a snow town like Hakodate. Exams were not cancelled. Silently, snow blanketed down through the still air, cloaking the world in pure white. The three arrived at the exam hall together, everyone fully prepared. Even Todoroki had managed to scrape in with bare passes in mock exams.

‘Gen, you would have to be cursed by the gods not to get in with that effort,’ said Setsuko, and she gifted him an amulet for exam-passing.

‘Don’t worry, I’ve prepared plenty.’

Todoroki puffed his chest out. He had never studied like that in his life. Perhaps, I might even enjoy studying . . . he even accidentally thought one day. But in the end, he didn’t pass. He alone was unsuccessful in his bid to go to Tech College. He felt bad for disappointing the other two, who had given him so much support, but he had no regrets. He had done his best, which left him with a sense of achievement. Anything he said wouldn’t change the fact that he had failed.

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