Whenever people talked about the passage of time, they often turn to trees since its colors represented how seasons change. It is always a beautiful sight to watch it grow, change, and wither. Akio has always been fascinated by this. Yet somehow, he is also bitterly reminded of how oddly his time ran.

It was a cool spring night when he came across an old pocket watch. It was in a small dusty cabinet that was Akio's present to his grandfather, who was a really good carpenter. It's been years, he thought, if he counted correctly.

It's been years since the last summer that he spent with his grandfather, and when Akio decided to create a drawer cabinet. It was one of the few moments that he saw his grandfather smile. Surprisingly, it still remained sturdy even with the nails sticking out haphazardly on wood.

Due to his fascination, he decided to keep the pocket watch. It had a gold chain, and the cover was in plain gold too. It had an engraving: It was always yours, Akihiro. Apparently, the watch was his grandfather's.

He was about to open it to look at the clock but suddenly decided against it since it probably stopped working anyway. No one uses pocket watches anymore. He placed it back into the drawer.

Akio always had a dependent relationship with clocks. He can't go anywhere without his watch. It wasn't because he was fascinated with it. It was the only thing that told him how fast or slow his life would pass him by, and seeing it stop working irrationally scares him, making him think that he'll end up frozen in time

His time would sometimes speed up, and it would move slowly. It unfolded in a crazy, spiral mess instead of a straight line which was apparently how "normal" people experienced it. He felt like he was watching his life in a movie instead of living in it. Someone, or something else held the controls, or that it stopped working. It was how it's always been.