She felt as if she had just had a dream, but the coffee in front of her was empty. Her mouth still had a sweet taste in it. - Toshikazu Kawaguchi

At the end of the day, whether one returns to the past or travels to the future, the present does not change. So it raises the question: just what is the point of that chair?

The present hadn’t changed — but those two people had. Both Kohtake and Hirai returned to the present with a changed heart.

People don’t see things and hear things as objectively as they might think. The visual and auditory information that enters the mind is distorted by experiences, thoughts, circumstances, wild fancies, prejudices, preferences, knowledge, awareness, and countless other workings of the mind.