Nothing was going right. Miki, 28 years old. Failure followed failure at work, and she had drifted away from her close friends before she even realized it. She had broken up with her boyfriend months ago, and there was no one to say "welcome home" when she returned. When she opened her smartphone, all she saw were posts of people looking happy. "...Must be nice," she muttered softly, turning the screen face down. And tonight, she sat alone at a bar counter. "Whatever... I don't care anymore." She tilted her glass. Even as the alcohol burned down her throat, the heavy gloom settled deep in her chest wouldn't disappear. The truth was, she wasn't strong. She was just pretending to be. "I want someone... to lean on." The moment the words left her mouth, she surprised herself. She felt pathetically weak for even saying such a thing. That was when it happened. "...Is this seat taken?" Suddenly, someone spoke to her. Miki looked up. A man was standing there. He looked to be in his mid-thirties. He had a calm air about him, not trying to force a smile or approach her with unwanted familiarity. "...Go ahead." When Miki answered, the man sat down, leaving one empty seat between them. For a while, there was no conversation between the two. Eventually, the man spoke up quietly. "You look very tired today." Miki's fingers stopped moving. "...Can you tell?" "Just a hunch." "I see..." Miki gave a bitter smile. And for some reason, words she had never been able to tell anyone before spilled out in front of this stranger. "I... I'm just no good at anything I do." The man said nothing, listening in silence. "I feel like I'm trying so hard, but everything just spins in circles... I'm just so tired now." Her voice trembled. "I want someone... to tell me it's going to be okay." With those final words, Miki looked down. The man paused for a moment before answering quietly. "Well, for tonight at least... maybe it's okay not to be okay." Miki looked up. Those words slowly soaked into the depths of her heart. A man she had just met. She didn't even know his name. And yet—. To Miki right now, that distance felt strangely comfortable. "...You're a strange person." "I get that a lot." Miki laughed for the first time in a long while. Just a little bit. Her time, which had been standing still, began to move quietly that night.