The park was quiet under the blanket of night. Ayaka, an exhausted advertising executive, sank onto a bench, dragging her weary body along. Her smartphone screen flickered with unread messages from her boss—messages she had been avoiding. Since her promotion to team leader, her workload had doubled, and the strain of human relationships had become unbearable.
“Is this really the career I wanted?” she murmured to herself.
The excitement she once felt upon hearing the news of her promotion now seemed like a distant memory. The expectations of those around her had become heavy chains, stripping away her freedom. Colleagues who had once been friends now felt distant, separated by the invisible barrier of responsibility. It was only now, as she sat alone under the vast sky, that Ayaka realized how much she had been forcing herself to smile just to get through the day.
Looking up, she was surprised to find the night sky speckled with stars. Amidst the towering city buildings, she had not expected such a view. As she gazed in silent wonder, a voice spoke from the neighboring bench.
“Do you like watching the stars?”
Turning her head, she found a young man with a telescope, offering her a gentle smile.
“I wouldn’t say I like them… It’s just been a while since I looked up,” Ayaka admitted, her voice tinged with weariness. “I’ve been too caught up in work to have time for things like this.”
The young man tilted his head slightly, then said with a soft chuckle, “Well, sometimes it helps to throw your worries into the night sky.”
Ayaka blinked in surprise, taken aback by the unexpected suggestion. His words held an odd sense of comfort. Almost without thinking, she reached into her bag, pulled out her business card holder, and selected a card. Holding it lightly between her fingers, she tossed it towards the sky. The card twirled in the air before gently landing on the grass.
“Feel any lighter?” the young man asked playfully.
Ayaka couldn’t help but smile, a real, unforced smile for the first time in what felt like ages. “Yeah… a little,” she replied, and in her voice, the weight she had been carrying seemed to lessen just a bit.
As the night continued, the young man pointed his telescope toward the sky, introducing her to various constellations. “That’s Orion, and over there to the left is…”
Listening to him, Ayaka felt herself reconnecting with the world beyond her work. The stars, unchanging and eternal, had been there long before her struggles, and they would remain long after. For the first time in a long while, her problems seemed smaller, less overwhelming.
The conversation was brief, yet it left Ayaka feeling strangely lighter. As she parted ways with the young man and walked home, she found herself opening her boss’s messages, something she had been dreading all evening.
“I’m still reaching for my own star,” she thought, a renewed sense of hope quietly glowing within her.
And with that thought, she continued walking—each step now carrying a faint but undeniable sense of purpose.
