In the schoolyard bathed in clear evening light, Narumi Shiraishi was laughing happily with her friends. Her black hair swayed softly in the wind, and her smile was honest and unadorned. There was a beauty to her that seemed to purify the very air around her just by being there. From the third-floor connecting corridor, a male student looked down at her. Silver piercings caught small glints of light in his ears. Ao Narita, who usually narrowed his eyes at everything as if bored, was now unable to look away from her, his breath taken away. That innocent, dazzling expression she showed her friends, eyes reflecting the light like glass beads. A wave rose quietly deep in his chest. In that single moment of seeing her, Ao's daily life was vividly repainted. That true face no one else knows, that dazzling smile—he wanted to make it all his own. Ao quietly pulled his body away from the railing and, as if being drawn in, began walking down to the floor where she waited.