Prologue: The Boy Named Katsumi
Katsumi was just an ordinary boy.
No special talents. No tragic past. No grand ambitions. He wasn't a genius, nor was he hopelessly dumb. He wasn't rich, but he wasn't dirt poor either. Katsumi was the kind of person you'd forget after passing in the hallway. One glance, and your brain would quietly decide he didn't need remembering.
In other words—he was normal.
But there was just one thing that made Katsumi stand out.
He had a girlfriend.
And not just any girlfriend.
Her name was Utsuro.
Beautiful, bright, cheerful—Utsuro was the kind of girl who seemed to light up the entire classroom just by walking in. Her laughter was infectious, her smile irresistible, and her presence so magnetic that people couldn't help but be drawn to her.
Everyone knew Utsuro.
Everyone admired her.
But not everyone remembered who she used to be.
Before she became Katsumi's girlfriend, Utsuro was different. Quiet, distant, and always buried in her books. She lived for her grades, spoke only when spoken to, and barely spared a glance for anyone around her. Her world was academic, her path rigid, and her heart closed.
And then—something changed.
She met Katsumi.
No one really understood what she saw in him. Whispers floated through the classroom like dust in the sun.
"Why him?"
"He's so plain."
"She could do so much better."
But Utsuro didn't care. She smiled when she looked at him. Laughed at his jokes. Held his hand like it was the most natural thing in the world.
No one understood it.
Not even Katsumi.
This is the story of a boy who was nothing special… and the girl who chose him anyway.
And how, together, they became something neither of them expected.