That night, Kenji didn't watch a movie. He did Day 2's exercises on nagara (while doing something). He learned that "Ocha o nominagara, terebi o mimasu" meant "I drink tea while watching TV." It was a simple sentence, but it was his sentence.

Kenji frowned. Gakushudo was a website he’d bookmarked months ago but never really used. He opened his email. Subject line:

He flipped further (the PDF was 187 pages, but it felt light, not heavy). The kanji section grouped characters by theme—"Hospital," "Post Office," "My Room." Each kanji had stroke order diagrams, three common compounds, and a tiny crossword puzzle at the end of each group.

Kenji forgot about the rain. He forgot about his messy desk. He printed just the first week's pages (the PDF was mercifully printer-friendly) and started on Day 1.

He slumped back in his chair. His N4 exam was in six weeks. He had a grammar list as long as his arm, a kanji list that looked like a spider had dipped its legs in ink, and listening passages that sounded like adults talking in a Charlie Brown cartoon. Wah-wah-wah.

He picked up his phone. "Yuki," he typed. "This Gakushudo PDF is amazing. Where has this been all my life?"