He addressed it to the old cram school’s address, knowing it would return as undeliverable. He sealed the envelope. Then he walked to the post office, bought a stamp, and dropped it into the red mailbox.
Last week, he had looked up the old cram school. It was a convenience store now. A quick search of Mr. Yamamoto’s name led to a funeral home’s online memorial registry. Sensei had passed away five years ago.
Kenji turned and walked home. For the first time in twenty-five years, he did not feel the weight of a card in his pocket. He only felt the quiet, bitter grace of a letter that would never arrive.
He took out a pen. Slowly, deliberately, he wrote on the blank postcard: jlpt n1 old question
Sensei paid back the missing money from his own pension. He gave Kenji a receipt for the amount, and a blank postcard. "When you can repay the debt," he said, "write the date and the amount on this card. Then send it. Not before."
August 12, 2023. ¥600,000.
He didn’t need to open it. He already knew what was inside: a receipt for ¥300,000, dated August 12, 1998. And a blank postcard. He addressed it to the old cram school’s
Kenji shuffled through the cardboard box in his closet, the scent of mothballs and forgotten time wafting up. He was looking for an old savings account passbook. Instead, his fingers brushed against a creased, yellowed envelope. On the front, in fading ink, was a single word: “Sensei.”
The Unpaid Debt
Kenji stared at the receipt. The debt was monetary, yes. But the real debt—the one he could never repay—was the opportunity to look Sensei in the eye and say, “I am no longer the man who stole.” Last week, he had looked up the old cram school
The sound of the letter hitting the bottom echoed for a second, then was gone.
Twenty-five years ago, Kenji was a scholarship student at a second-rate university in Tokyo. His father had lost his job, and his mother’s small illness had become a large debt. With tuition overdue and eviction looming, he had done something shameful: he had stolen the enrollment fees from the petty cash box of the part-time cram school where he taught.