Amid, the pain, amid the sorrows, amid the thousand nails that scratched my skin and pierced my soul like an old balloon… I found you. You looked right into my soul and saw a blooming garden in places where everybody else could only find dead weeds and mud.
You made me smile.
Suddenly my gloomy days became ever so bright, and I learned there was another path in life, out of that in which I carried a burden like a stoic slave. You held my hand, and together we climbed the obstacles or smelled the pretty flowers. This happiness could have never been possible without you.
Now that time and distance make us swim against furious tides, I can only say Thank You for standing next to me despite it all. Thank you for teaching me to see this life with smiling eyes, and above it all… Thank you just for being who you are, with virtues and flaws, with laughter and tears… because who you are is all I ever want to embrace.
Aishitemasu, Minori…