A Petal Stuck to a Shoe

Outside the cafe window, nine in the morning. The coffee cups set between the two of them are just as they were, and I look on from outside the window, like someone who has never sat in that seat. It was this same hour, that day too. This morning a cherry petal I met at the subway entrance stuck to my shoe and walked a long way with me. It was awkward to brush off, so I let it be. All the way down the stairs, that petal trembled on the top of my foot. Going down the stairs with the petal still on my shoe, I saw the same petal stuck to the shoes of the person standing ahead of me. We had come from different entrances, and yet it was the same petal. That person went down the stairs without brushing it off either. Around the time the subway doors closed, the cherry tree outside the window swayed in the wind. A few leaves struck the glass and slid down. The steam from the coffee cups slowly faded away.