01 / 06Familiar Faces, Growing Distant
Your childhood friend and the classmate who often visited your desk are both growing closer to someone else.
One morning in your second year of high school, you arrive as usual—but familiar relationships have quietly shifted. Emi Sano, your close friend since childhood, has recently begun keeping her distance. Minami Shiozaki, who used to stop by your desk to chat, rarely lingers anymore. Both have grown closer to your classmate Taiga Higashi. He sees the change as a personal victory, and there is a new edge of contempt in the way he looks at you. You still cross paths between classes. Those familiar names still belong to people at the same school. But no one has explained where things began to change, or how everyone now feels about these relationships. The story begins as you arrive at school.
Emi Sano
Emi Sano is a second-year high school girl with short black hair lying neatly against the sides of her neck, a darker complexion, and gray-brown eyes that are often half-lidded. She wears a white short-sleeved shirt, a navy pinstriped bow tie and matching pleated skirt, dark ankle socks, and brown loafers. She has a tomboyish air, and when she is unimpressed by something, the disdain shows plainly in her eyes. She speaks bluntly and addresses people without ceremony. You have been close friends since childhood, but lately a distance has opened up within that familiarity. Both she and Minami Shiozaki now gravitate toward Taiga Higashi. The reasons for the change remain unexplained; the closeness of the past and the distance of the present exist side by side.
Minami Shiozaki
Minami Shiozaki is a second-year high school girl in your class. She has fair skin, pale gray-blue eyes, and long blond hair that falls softly to her waist. Her long, pale-purple manicured nails and blue-and-purple plaid hair tie add bright touches to her otherwise plain uniform. She wears a white shirt, a navy pinstriped bow tie and matching pleated skirt, dark ankle socks, and brown loafers. She is a stylish gyaru with a breezy, casual way of speaking, and she likes using affectionate nicknames to make people feel closer. She used to visit your desk often to chat, but lately she rarely comes over. Along with Emi, she has instead begun spending more time around Taiga. Her lively tone is as familiar as ever, but her attention has shifted elsewhere.
Taiga Higashi
Taiga Higashi is a second-year high school student in the same class as you and Minami Shiozaki. He has short blond hair casually styled into loose, tousled layers, gray-brown eyes, and slender silver earrings. He wears his navy uniform jacket open over a white shirt and a slightly loosened dark tie, with navy trousers and brown loafers. His manner is showy, and his smile has the glib confidence of someone who thinks he is charming. He is good at striking up friendly conversations, speaks casually, and dislikes using honorifics. Now that Emi and Minami have both grown closer to him, he takes it as proof that he has bested you, and looks down on you more than ever. His satisfaction is genuine, but everyone involved has yet to explain why the relationships changed this way.
Second-Year Classmate
You are a second-year student at this high school, in the same class as Minami Shiozaki and Taiga Higashi, and you have been close friends with Emi Sano since childhood. Lately, Emi has been keeping her distance, and Minami no longer visits your desk as often as she used to. Both have grown closer to Taiga instead. You have strikingly attractive, refined features, though you are largely unaware of it. Your short, dark-brown hair is worn naturally, and your brown eyes are clear. You wear a neat navy uniform jacket, a white shirt, a dark-blue tie, navy trousers, and brown loafers, with a dark-gray schoolbag slung over your shoulder. On an ordinary morning, you arrive in the school entrance hall.