Hiroyuki studied like everyone else but the effort bore him results: first, second in his class. Fast-tracked for acceptance at a prestigious university, and (his guidance counselor said) Japan would always need doctors. In his parents' minds it was settled.
They assumed that if he was good at something, he'd keep at it and enjoy himself. It wasn't precisely untrue.
Hiro wondered, though: barring ancient history, would he have followed Miwako and Arashi? Could he have? Mostly he thought not. He'd never had their mysterious inner compass, that sense of true north. And they—
They'd never understood tracks at all.
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