The narrator tells his mom that he's about to go through with his dream of becoming an astronaut. He tells her that he has nothing to lose, and that he doesn't need to worry about it. He's just going to have to get through the first round of tests, which are supposed to be fun. The narrator asks his mom if she's related to an astronaut named hibito, and she says yes. He says that his younger brother raised him up to the heights that he is now, and he'll do the same for him. He also says that he flunked the first test, which is supposed to test a person's intelligence. He thinks that if the people around him start to think he is a weird person, he won't be able to cope. He explains that he had bad posture, which made it hard for him to sit down. The first thing he does when he sits down is loosen the screws on the side of his chair, which makes it feel a bit wobbly. The other people in his group notice it, but they don't notice it as much as he does. The only one who notices it is the woman in the first group, who says, "Thank you for the meal," after she finishes her meal. She looks so happy, the narrator says, when she finishes eating. He asks if she wants to make a bet on whether the three people in the second group make it through.