August 10, 2017

It was the first day back from summer break and our Japanese teacher had an announcement to make. Class took place in the middle of the night on an empty intersection, lit only by the streetlamps and glow of the convenience store across the street. “We’re missing someone today”, she began. She went on to say that someone who was in our class last year had transferred to a school in the States, right before their last year of high school.

“Get some sleep”, she concluded and we proceeded to roll out our futons onto our desks. “I feels nice to sleep today since we don’t have homework”, I said, before turning over to sleep. It was okay to sleep outside today.

I laid on the mattress face down, half-conscious while the others decided it was too early to go to bed. I couldn’t fall asleep completely but I was also too tired to do anything about it as they continued to make noise all around me.