374: Rush Hour 🚇✨
Daily Image created using ChatGPT (Anime AI Art)
💼 Back to Work
The holidays ended without ceremony, with just a quiet Thursday night and the soft dread of Friday morning. After seven o’clock, the metro station was alive again. Turnstiles clicked in rhythm, green arrows blinking like heartbeats. Commuters moved with practised choreography, tapping, pushing, none lingering, on with their stride.
Kaito adjusted the strap of his shoulder bag and tapped his green IC card against the reader. The arrow lit up. He stepped through. His jacket still smelled faintly of bonfire smoke from New Year’s Eve, but the scent was fading, like the memory of fireworks over the river and the taste of mochi that stuck to his teeth.
Platform A2. He didn’t need to look at the signs, but he did anyway out of habit. The train would arrive in two minutes. He stood behind the yellow line, next to a woman scrolling through her phone and a boy in a school uniform yawning into his sleeve. He pictured the empty office he’d be walking into. If it weren’t for a client meeting, he would have restarted next week with the rest.
He looked around. The station posters had changed. Winter campaign adverts. A new ramen shop is opening near Exit 3. A reminder to report suspicious behaviour. Kaito’s eyes skimmed the wall, then drifted to the ceiling, where sunlight filtered through the glass panels. It was too bright for January, the kind of glare that made his eyes water before he was fully awake. He squinted.
The train pulled in. Doors hissed open. He stepped into the car and found a spot near the door, one hand on the overhead strap. Across from him, a man in a suit typed furiously on a tablet. A girl with earbuds mouthed lyrics to a song only she could hear. The car smelled of coffee and fabric softener and the faint metallic tang of morning breath.
Kaito’s phone buzzed. A message from his coworker. “Seems the client moved the meeting to 10:30. You’ve got time.” He exhaled. All that morning rush and preparation for nothing. Maybe he’d grab a coffee and a matcha doughnut near the office and review the presentation. Maybe he’d walk the long way and watch the koi in the fountain.
The train lurched forward. Outside, the city blurred past, billboards, rooftops, laundry lines. Inside, everyone swayed in unison, tethered by gravity and routine. Back to work. Back to school. Back to the rhythm of turnstiles and timetables. It was now a new year. The holidays were over. The train kept moving.
