The Boy Who Always Took the Later Train

Kaito always caught the train one after the one his friends took. He could not fully explain why. Being exactly on time simply felt wrong to him.

His friends teased him about it. “You're always one train late,” they said. Kaito just laughed. He had also never been stuck on a delayed train, unlike his friends.

One morning, running late, Kaito barely caught the earlier train instead. The station announcement glitched for a second, playing backward, before correcting itself. No one else seemed to notice.

At his stop, a man in a uniform, wearing a glove only on one hand, spoke to him quietly. “You should keep taking the later one,” he said. “It's safer that way.” He walked off before Kaito could ask why.

The next day, Kaito went back to catching the later train, and he felt strangely relieved. His friends teased him again, and this time he did not mind at all.

That night, Kaito overheard his older sister mention an old rumor about a “phantom train” that ran one stop early on the schedule but was never officially listed. He wrote the phrase down and decided not to ask her more.