Shimamura Shinosuke asked Yukimura Mayoi back to her seat, so she walks back to her seat. Despite that she walks by rubbing her shoes on the floor making noises, no one seemed to notice her presence, except for Shinosuke and Chisato.
"I'm happy that he noticed me and all but..." Yukimura Mayoi has a secret. A secret that only her and Amanogawa Chisato knows. Back before her first year in Hokutosei High, she lived a normal life. It was until one night, she decided to feed a stray cat she is very friendly with. There is fog surrounding the area, making it hard to tell where the cat is. Instinctively, the kitten was scared of the big figure of a human approaching and started running off.
"Hey! It's me! Come back!" Mayoi shouted. The fog thickens, as Mayoi tries to follow the kitten further into the streets, until she came across a crossroad. In Hoshido, crossing a crossroad in the night could potentially curse anyone who crosses it if a curse happened to be set there. There is, in fact, a curse on the said crossroad.
"Huh...? Didn't I came here before?" Mayoi asked. Being a member of the track team, she has a running route around her neighbourhood. It can be said that she is very familiar with the streets until now, she felt lost in her own neighbourhood for the first time. The curse isn't very evident until she got lost a few more times.
"Oh no... Did I just...?" Mayoi started to realise what she had walked into. Being determined, she decided to close her eyes and depend on her other senses to navigate her way home. The cracked wall on the house, the pole of the streetlight every set distance... She touched and felt her surroundings, and slowly becoming one with them. As she thought that she reached home, she opened her eyes to see herself before the crossroad she crossed. The fog is also lifted as her surroundings became clear to Mayoi.
"I did it!" She celebrated. Just as she turns around to go home, she saw a small puddle of blood. Upon inspecting it closer, it was the kitten she was trying to feed.
"Gasp! What?! Why?!" Mayoi was surprised and scared. She quickly ran back home, just to notice as she rushes up to her family, none of them noticed her.
"Mom! The kitten outside! She's dead!" Mayoi exclaimed.
"I think it's time for sleep, dear. Please turn off the lights now." Her mother said to Mayoi's father.
"What?" Mayoi is shocked.
"Are you kidding me? Mom!" Mayoi tried to assume that they were joking. They never responded to her.
"Mari! Please respond to me!" Mayoi rushed upstairs to check on her little sister.
"Zzzz..." Mayoi's sister didn't hear her voice, continuing to snore away the night.
"What should I do...?" Mayoi sits down on the floor, clueless and desperate for a way to change the situation.
The next day, she tried to act normal and go to school. As she expected, no one noticed her. Including her best friends in school, they didn't respond to her calling their names.
"Who was that girl again? Miyo? Honestly..." A friend who barely remembers even badmouthed Mayoi.
"I see... This is how everyone sees me..." Mayoi muttered. Unable to do anything, she dwelled around the school for a long time until one spring, a girl talked to her.
"Are you perhaps interested in joining our student council?" A girl asked.
"Are... Are you talking to me?" Mayoi looked around to see if the girl is really asking her.
"Who else I'm going to call if there's no other people here?" The girl laughs.
"I see... I hope I can be some help." Mayoi agreed.
"Well then... Let's start from introductions, my name is Amanogawa Chisato, what's yours?" Chisato introduced herself.
"Yukimura Mayoi..." Mayoi muttered.
"I see, nice to meet you Yukimura-san!" Chisato is delighted. The two spent some time together preparing for the campaigns and eventually became very familiar with each other. As the two of them spend time together, people from her surroundings doesn't seem to notice Mayoi at all.
"Amanogawa-san... I'm actually..." Mayoi told Chisato about her condition, and oddly enough, Chisato accepted her claims.
"I see... That's fine. No matter what, you've helped out a lot. If you're an evil spirit, I would've been cursed long time ago!" Chisato said.
"I see... I'm happy..." Mayoi is relieved, as she finally found a friend who accepted who she is. As the two of them were talking about the campaign, a guy showed up.
"Shimamura Shinosuke, I'm here to be a part of the student council!" Shinosuke introduced himself as well as declaring his intentions clearly.
"What a cliché, Shimamura-kun. We'll need your help in making me the next student council president." Chisato said.
"O... Oh! I'll do my best!" Shinosuke said. As Mayoi was watching them quietly, Shinosuke turned towards her.
"Hmm? I never seen you before, what is your name?" Shinosuke asked.
"Huh?! Me?" Mayoi was greatly startled.
"Uh... Is there a problem?" Shinosuke is clueless.
"I... I'm Yukimura Mayoi! Nice to meet you! I'm so happy!" Mayoi said.
"Happy? I see. I'm Shimamura Shinosuke from class 1-B, nice to meet you." Shinosuke introduced again.
At this fateful day, the trio of the student council members were formed together, they worked tirelessly to realise their goals. At last they did, tasting the flavour of both victory and hard work. All Mayoi could feel is the happiness of witnessing her friends' successes. When asked to take a picture as a memento, she reluctantly joined in. The picture, despite that she expected that the photograph will not show Mayoi in it, yet It did. It was a miracle, that she would treasure that picture forever, perhaps as a proof of her existence in this lonely world.
Every person have their troubles. But for Mayoi, the word melancholy weighs differently for her. For what happened to her on that day, as well as if she really did existed up to now. Whether the time with her precious friends was really going to be a fleeting one or not, as well as if her feelings were to go unnoticed...