What We Started For
始めた理由
For two days, the three founders argued more than they ever had before.
Ken believed that came first, because a dead company helps nobody.
Rio feared that money would slowly change the very heart of their work.
Maya listened to both of them, feeling between safety and belief.
"If we had never started this," Ken said, "we would still be ordinary students."
"And that man by the bin would still be hungry," Maya answered quietly.
That night, Maya could not sleep, so she walked to the old bakery again.
She stood on the same corner where the whole idea had first been born.
The street was quiet, and the of that first night came flooding back.
She remembered the wasted bread, the cold bin, and the searching hands.
"It was hunger that started this, not money," she said to the empty street.
The next morning, she called Ken and Rio to their small kitchen table.
"I have been thinking all night about what we started for," she began.
"If we had wanted to be rich, we would have chosen an easier problem."
Ken looked down, and for a long moment he said absolutely nothing.
"You're right," he finally admitted. "I was afraid, and made me forget."
"It was never really about the money," Rio added with a small, tired smile.
They agreed that mattered, but not at the price of their .
"Then we need another way to survive," Ken said, opening his laptop again.
If they had given up their idea, they would have lost themselves as well.
So they decided to say no to the offer and search for a fairer partner.
It was not an easy choice, and it might cost them everything they had built.
But for the first time in a week, all three of them felt .
They had remembered who they were, and why the table had a name.
Now they had one week and one decision left: how to survive without selling their .