Prologue-The city of fireflies

Some nights, I still dream of that summer. The one where the fireflies danced, and she stood beneath them, laughing like the world would never change.I

 was seventeen when I first met her. Eighteen when I left. 

Hoshimachi was always too small for me. A town with quiet streets and sleepy afternoons, a place where people were born, lived, and died without ever seeing the world beyond its hills. I swore I wouldn’t be one of them.

But then she happened. She saw beauty in everything—the way the wind carried the scent of summer rain, the way the old train station creaked under the weight of forgotten years. She could turn a moment into a memory with nothing but a smile. And somehow, in the middle of that unchanging town, she made me feel like I belonged.

For the first time, I questioned everything.

Did I really need to leave? Was the world beyond the hills really worth more than the one she showed me?

I left anyway.

And now, when I look out at the endless city lights, I wonder if she still waits by the abandoned station, humming softly to herself, watching the fireflies fade.

Or if she stopped waiting long ago. Because no matter how far I go, I can still hear her voice in the wind. And sometimes, when the nights are quiet enough, I can almost feel her beside me.

Like the ghost of a summer that never truly ended.Like a firefly’s glow—brief, beautiful, and impossible to forget.