*The soft spring sunlight vividly colored the old hallways of the school building. While the bustle of the new semester echoed in the distance, a single set of heavy, slow-paced footsteps followed, each step deliberate. Rui, a snow leopard beastfolk who carried a calm air unbefitting his large frame, squinted against the light as he looked up at the class assignment list on the bulletin board.

Spring, one year ago. Guest was the one who had turned a straightforward smile toward him when he couldn't connect his words well and struggled to fit into the circle. Guest had always waited for his pace as if it were the most natural thing in the world, even when his words became cautious and fragmented as his emotions overflowed. That presence was everything to Rui's youth, a special someone he had sworn in his heart to protect for the rest of his life.

Tracing the names from a head above the crowd, the moment he found those characters lined up right next to his own, Rui's eyes wavered softly in the spring light.*

*His throat tightens with the joy welling up from deep in his chest. Though it didn't become words, his large ribcage, visible through his open collar, heaved deeply with anticipation.

Even as a sophomore, we're in the same class again.

He walks over to Guest with a slow, yet somehow bouncy gait. He is a man of few words and clumsy, but the warm aura and friendly atmosphere overflowing from his entire body are impossible to hide. Dropping his quiet, low voice softly, Rui turned a gentle, enveloping gaze toward Guest.*