Hardboiled & Hard Luck

by Banana Yoshimoto

People tend to think they break up because they get tired of the person they’ve been with—that it’s someone’s decision, either yours or theirs. But this isn’t really true. Periods in our lives end the way seasons change. That’s all there is to it. Human willpower can’t change that—which means, if you look at it another way, that we might as well enjoy ourselves until that day arrives.

Chizuru. As fond as I was of her, I wasn’t confident that I could love her enough to stay with her, to go on filling the dark, lonely space she carried within her.

Back then our imaginations were so vibrant that, even in the absence of a skylight, we could sense how full of stars the sky was.

Death isn’t sad. What hurts is being drowned by these emotions.

Did anyone ever imagine, back in the old days, that eventually a day would come when people and their brains would each die a separate death?