Morning in Hoshimura smells like salt and rain.
The ocean sits just beyond the train tracks, quietly breathing against the shore, like an old man exhaling after remembering something painful.
Ren Saito walks the same route every day, across the narrow bridge, past the vending machine that never works, through the alley where the cats sleep. His uniform's always a bit wrinkled. His tie? Never straight. He doesn't care.
It's not rebellion. It's fatigue.
The kind you don't notice until silence starts to sound heavier than words.
---
Class 2-B feels like every other classroom in Japan, windows half-open, chatter bouncing around like stray thoughts. The kind of normal that numbs you.
Ren sits by the window, third row from the back. He doesn't really look out the window; he just stares through it. The teacher's voice fades into background noise, like static from an old TV.
He writes a name in the margin of his notebook.
But he stops halfway.
Because the name never finishes.
"Ai…"
That's it. Just Ai. Every time.
Every damn time.
---
> "Hey, Ren! You even listening?"
A pencil bounces off his desk.
It's Ryo, his childhood friend. Loud, restless, too alive for a town this small.
> "Sorry. Zoned out."
"You always do. I swear, man, you got ghosts in your head or something."
Ren half-smiles. He wants to say, Yeah. Maybe I do.
But instead, he just says, "Maybe."
The bell rings.
Everyone rushes out.
Ren doesn't move. He just listens.
The wind passes through the open window, soft, hollow, carrying the scent of the sea.
It's empty, but familiar. Like someone whispering his name, only quieter.
---
That's when she walks in.
A girl he's never seen before.
Transfer student. Short black hair tied loosely, eyes the color of winter mornings, not cold, but distant. She's holding a sketchbook against her chest like it's something sacred.
The teacher introduces her as Aika Hanabira.
She bows politely, says a few words he doesn't really hear, and takes the empty seat near the window — two rows ahead of him.
But when she opens her sketchbook, Ren's heart stops.
On the page is a charcoal drawing of a cliff overlooking the sea.
Waves crashing. A lone figure standing with the wind in their hair.
He knows that place.
He's seen it in dreams he can't remember.
He leans forward, just slightly, and catches a glimpse of the bottom corner of the page.
> "Hoshimura Cliff — Summer, 2015."
Ren's throat tightens.
He doesn't know why, but that date hurts.
Something inside him whispers,
"You were there."
---
That night, the wind howls again outside his window.
He can't sleep.
He dreams of a girl standing by that same cliff, her hair whipping in the wind, turning back to smile at him before the sea swallows the sound.
He wakes up sweating, breathing hard.
And in the quiet of his dark room, he whispers her name — not knowing if it's real or something his mind stitched together just to keep him company.
> "Aika?"
The wind answers.
Soft.
Empty.
Unforgiving.
---
End of Chapter 1.