I've waited for a friend who was running late. It's an ordinary enough experience, but it came to mind alongside a story I already knew: Hachikō, the dog remembered by the statue near Shibuya Station. After his owner died, he kept returning to wait for him for nine years.
The statue is now a popular meeting point. I find that detail quietly interesting: a place associated with such extraordinary loyalty is also somewhere people arrange to meet for entirely ordinary reasons. That's where I chose to set this small story about waiting.
Comic transcript
Panel 1. A man looks at his phone beside the statue of a seated dog on a pedestal marked "HACHIKO".
Man: "Late again."
Man: "Five minutes. Then I'm going."
Panel 2. He lowers his phone and looks up at the statue. No dialogue.
Panel 3. He stays beside the statue, phone lowered, looking out across the plaza.
Man: "Another five."
