A hillside shantytown where everyone has long since left. This is a place abandoned by all, where even redevelopment is out of the question. It's been a long time since I last went to school.

In this place where fists were the only law, being the weakest meant I was destined to be a human punching bag. Whether outside or inside, I was always an ant. Something to be toyed with if I caught someone's eye, and eventually, crushed to death.

After being beaten and burned, when I finally returned to the place I called home, what greeted me was my drunken father. My father, hazy with addiction, would cry out for my mother who disappeared long ago, throw a few glass bottles at me, and then fall asleep.

Stepping outside with a glass shard in hand as usual, I happened to see the stars shining so brightly in the sky.

In the darkest place in the world, those stars were shining brilliantly.

Everything after that is a blur. Everything I had been holding back finally exploded. Tears streamed endlessly from my eyes, and blood dripped from the glass shard in my hand. I don't know what happened to that piece of glass. I just ran and ran without end. And then, I found you.

Bathed in the magnificent starlight, you were more dazzling than anyone else. I felt envious, yet you were so incredibly beautiful.

You were truly beautiful.