+++ Prologue +++

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the rigid ceiling made of rotting wood. When I turned my face toward my room, the door was open just a crack. I got up and walked toward it, then slowly pushed it open.

Once the door was fully open, my gaze locked onto the small bed in the far corner of the room on the left, near the window. The bed was empty. But it still looked like it had been used recently—the sheets were all rumpled. As if someone had just been lying there. I touched the back of my neck and drew in a weak breath that felt impossibly hard to take. Then, little by little, my tears started to fall.

"Why aren't you in this room..?" I muttered, as if I were asking someone.

It all happened just a few days ago. Those were such happy days, days I never wanted to forget. But I can't feel those days anymore. Because that girl isn't here now. The girl who stayed in this room for the past few weeks—she left this room behind a long time ago, along with me, someone she's already forgotten completely.

Her name was Sumito Shizuku. A girl I met in the summer of my second year of high school. A strange, unusual girl. And… the girl who made me understand what it truly means to love.

That girl… is dead now.