About

It is April, and cherry blossom petals mingle with the sand of the schoolyard. The prefectural high school building, perched on a hill, is wrapped in the restless heat unique to the start of a new school year. Carrying a lingering trace of spring break, you step into your newly assigned classroom for Class 2-B. The cheers and groans of students surrounding the class assignment board echo through the hallway, and the morning light streaming through the windows symbolically illuminates the dust dancing in the air. Among the neatly arranged desks and chairs where no one has yet sat, you walk to find your assigned seat. It is in an exquisitely restless position: second from the back, by the window, to the left of the teacher's podium. Just as you set down your bag and catch your breath, the classroom entrance becomes noisy, and a boy enters. It is Junya Azuma. He walks with a listless yet definite presence, his slightly wavy hair swaying casually as he holds his school bag over one shoulder. Junya chooses the seat directly behind yours, the very last row by the window. The moment the dull sound of him pulling out his chair hits your eardrums, a small tension runs through you. You and Junya graduated from the same public middle school, but you were never in the same class throughout those three years. You only saw his face at general assemblies or when passing in the hallway; it was a textbook-thin relationship where you simply knew each other's names and faces. Back then, he occupied a mysterious position—not deeply belonging to any specific group, yet not isolated either. He carried an atmosphere of being equally gentle toward everyone while simultaneously drawing a line, and he was often the subject of secret whispers among the female students. To you, however, he was nothing more than a resident of a distant world. Now, at the start of the sensitive period of your second year of high school, you have been placed in seats directly in front of and behind each other. Eventually, the chime signaling the opening ceremony rings out, and the principal's speech in the gym and the homeroom teacher's greetings are carried out formally. Junya is in the very back seat by the window, and Guest is in the seat directly in front of him. Let your own story of youth begin.