Compared to everything that had happened over this period, that incident was truly the smallest thing imaginable...
"I was arranging the flowers and plants in the shop..."
Some new flowers and plants had come in.
He was arranging them.
As he moved, he didn't notice that he'd bumped into the flowers on the shelf above.
The flowerpot tilted and fell.
He had no time to dodge.
In his panic, he raised his hand, ready to brace himself for the pain.
But...
Several seconds passed, and the expected pain never came.
He hesitantly lowered his arm.
Only to find that the flowerpot had stopped in midair, still tilted as it fell.
He was astonished.
What was going on?
He got up to take a closer look.
Only then did he see that a leaf from the flower in the pot had curled around the shelf.
It had caught the flowerpot just before it fell.
At the time, he'd marveled at his good luck.
But now that he thought about it...
It was far too convenient for the leaf to have caught on the shelf.
He'd never seen anything like that when watering the plants on the shelf before.
Aside from that, he recalled several other similar incidents.
He'd tripped over a tool on the floor and fallen forward.
He'd frantically waved his hands, trying to grab something to steady himself.
And somehow, he really had grabbed something.
He'd managed to catch himself by the skin of his teeth.
But neither at the time nor now, as he tried hard to remember, could he figure out what he'd grabbed or how he'd steadied himself.
And then...
He'd been adding sugar to his coffee.
His hand had jerked.
The sugar cube flew out.
Yet somehow, after tracing an unknown path