There is a Japanese saying: “Even a small touch of sleeves is a connection from a past life.” Maybe today we can say, “Even when our shoulders touch, it is a connection from another life.”

One day, I was crossing a crosswalk. I was not watching the front. Because of that, I bumped shoulders with a man walking by. I said, “Sorry,” but he did not look back and just kept walking.

At that moment, the word “scammer” came to my mind. I realized that I am not good with crowds. Or maybe I am simply not good with strangers.

I finished reading Kien Mandara Owari by Jakuchō Setouchi.

I did not know it was part of a series, but I could read it without any problem. The book is full of strong and deep moments from her life.

While reading, I thought, “Famous people have a special kind of power.”

Setouchi met many people, and it seemed she used each meeting as strength. She lived with freedom, pain, love, and loneliness. Because she carried all of these, she experienced quiet meetings, warm meetings, and overwhelming meetings.

And I lived in the same time as this woman. This fact makes my heart feel calm and strange at the same time.

A person who is now spoken of like a historical figure was actually feeling the same seasonal wind as I did, living in the same society. This closeness and distance feel mysterious.

Her life is more like fiction than fiction itself. But it was not an accident. She chose and accepted her own story.

A person with such a powerful life was living in the same flow of time as me.

When I think about that, time feels three‑dimensional, and I can see the shape of my own life a little more clearly.

People I know, and people I only pass by— we are all living in the same time. This feels mysterious to me. I wonder how many more people I will meet in my life.