Chopping Down a Redwood Tree

Even though I graduated many years ago, I still miss my school days. Among my high school classmates was a boy I was very close to. He wasn't a traditionally outstanding student, but he had a slight edge over me in both life and academics. Our friendship lasted for years, and even a decade later, there was no distance between us. He told me about a forest in his heart: among all the ordinary trees stood a few towering giants, jarringly out of place, like a different species of American redwood mixed in among the rest.

Amid the confusion and oppression of adolescence, some people act in ways that defy convention. Their behavior can have both good and bad effects, earning them praise as well as punishment. They aren't heroes or hooligans. They're just a group of young people trying to figure out what they want to do. I thought they would eventually achieve their ideals, but later I realized that all their hard work had only turned them into various kinds of ordinary people.

Only when a redwood is cut down does the whole forest look harmonious.

**Number:**

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.