Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)

by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

“I’ll mourn how I mourn. Everyone’s different,”

Water flows from high places to low places. That is the nature of gravity. Emotions also seem to act according to gravity. When in the presence of someone with whom you have a bond, and to whom you have entrusted your feelings, it is hard to lie and get away with it. The truth just wants to come flowing out. This is especially the case when you are trying to hide your sadness or vulnerability. It is much easier to conceal sadness from a stranger, or from someone you don’t trust.

How can such a simple wish be so terribly scary?”

And yet at the same time, she was sensitive and highly strung. Her father’s death left her in a dark place emotionally. She had encountered death for the first time, and referred to it as the very dark box. Once you climbed inside that box, you never got out. Her father was trapped in there—a place where you encountered no one, awful and lonely. When she thought of her father, her nights were robbed of sleep. Gradually, her smile faded.

There was a reason. He had to go. If your father could see from his box and see you crying every day, what do you think he would think? I think it would make him sad. You know how much your father loved you. Don’t you think it would be painful for him to see the unhappy face of someone he loved?

“I am really glad for the life you gave me.”

The present hadn’t changed—but those two people had. Both Kohtake and Hirai returned to the present with a changed heart.

was so absorbed in the things that I couldn’t change, I forgot the most important thing.

still goes on believing that, no matter what difficulties people face, they will always have the strength to overcome them. It just takes heart. And if the chair can change someone’s heart, it clearly has its purpose.