My friend G, he was a diligent guy. In class of course, but even in his free periods he'd have his textbooks and notebooks spread open, without getting up from his chair, concentrating fully on preparing for his next lesson. On lunch breaks, he'd have a neatly-made bento that he probably brought from home, but when he would eat exactly half of it, he'd then turn to his question sheets for the cram school he was attending.

Because G was like that, he was naturally isolated from others, and he had nobody he could call a friend except for me. We'd only have reason to talk together on our return trip and would go back home together sometimes, and when I think about it now the problem was whether or not I could call him my friend. But anyway, G was extremely taciturn and the only one he could exchange conversation with, was me.

One time, after I got ready to leave and went out the school gate, I was trudging along the road to my house when up ahead I saw G's retreating figure.
I trotted up to him and called out, "Yo!"
"Ahh, it's you..." His back which was usually bent, slouched even more as he responded with his face down.
"What's the matter? You're awfully gloomy aren't you?" I tried to begin a conversation with G, thinking that was usually the case.
G informed me, his face wholly expressionless, "Uh-huh, my grades dropped..."
Which reminded me, the result rankings from the term test we had a little while ago were posted in the corridor today. And certainly, it seemed that G's name which was usually written within 5 from the top, was not there.
'I see,' I thought, and said to G,
"You wanted to hear it for some time, but didn't you study diligently until you crashed? Will your parents be scary?"
G lifted his head a little and said this to me. "No, there's just my mother at my house. They divorced when I was still young. After that, yeah, I've been burdened myself with my mother's expectations. Because my mother's only has wishes for my good grades you know..."
I hadn't known that G's parents were divorced, and thought 'What a terrible thing to hear...' as well as, 'He was trying his best for his mother then? Hes more of a good guy than I thought.' My innermost sentiments seemed pleasant.
On one such day, it was already dark when I had finished practicing for club activities and I was heading home at night, walking with music playing in headphones in my ears. I noticed G walking toward me from the pedestrian crosswalk up ahead.
'Ahh, he must be on his way home from cram school. It's perfect timing, we can meet up and go home together now.'

I was forlorn when walking alone at night, so taking advantage of this situation I waited for G to come my way when the traffic light changed. But at that time, there was a tremendous 'BANG!!'

I didn't understand what happened right away, but it seemed like one of the large trailer trucks I often see had suddenly stopped, and there was a print of black tires scorched into the road, along with a burnt smell.
'No way!!' I thought, searching for G's figure who was facing forward just now, but I couldn't find him.
I ripped out my headphones and hurried around to the front of the truck to see, fidgeting restlessly. I saw that there was a person lying on his face. With a futile thread of hope, I checked the clothes he was wearing and the hairstyle, and understood that it was G's body. All of my strength fell out of me and I helplessly crumpled to the ground. The area was dyed by a pool of blood and in that moment, with just a glance I knew for sure that he had died.

Somehow or other, G rose to his knees as though nothing at all had happened, and started moving as if he was searching for something...
'Maybe... he's bleeding badly but he's still conscious so I have to help him!' I thought, and rushed over to G.
The instant I called out "Are you okay?!" behind G's back, he looked over his shoulder at me, and I was struck utterly speechless by what I saw... More than half of G's face was missing, and even though he didn't seem like he would be very alive, his hands were going through the motions like scooping up water, as it seemed he was collecting his own brain matter that was floating in the red blood...

Next thing I knew, I woke up in a hospital bed... It seemed that somehow or other I had become pale and passed out in that place... My parents were standing nearby worrying about me, and there was also an unfamiliar face hidden in a cap.
"G, what happened to G?" I asked the policeman rapidly.
But all he said was, "I'm afraid to say that your friend died instantly..." while taking off his cap and slowly tilting his head to the side.

The policeman asked me several questions as the first witness, but I simply couldn't talk about what G was doing when I last saw him. Even if I did talk about it, he certainly wouldn't believe me anyway, so I thought I'd better not speak of it no matter what.

If I think back now, G surely didn't want to part with his brain that was packed with his mother's hopes... Could it be that, even more than his own life, it seemed G was scraping together all the dreams, or should I say the mass of memories that he accumulated up until now, without being aware that he had died...