The Alley refers to a narrow street, often a small passage between two buildings.
Because it is narrow, few people pass through it, making it secluded and a breeding ground for the dark sides of many cities.
With the development of the times and the progress of society, as the city's surface becomes more and more glamorous, more and more people begin to associate this term with negative words such as delinquency, crime, underground transactions, and so on.
Satsuki Yumizuka.
A typical"modern girl in the sense of the later generations, a typical idol image—without any derogatory meaning, purely positive.
She comes from a good family; her parents are successful people with high incomes.
She is sweet and cute, well-mannered, and gentle in personality, and apart from her chestnut-colored hair, she conforms to the traditional Japanese Yamato Nadeshiko image.
She excels academically, and both her classmates and teachers give her high praise.
Such a girl, embodying all kinds of goodness, destined to have a happy life, should have nothing to do with the increasingly derogatory place like an alley. The education she received and the common sense accumulated over time also tell her that she should not have anything to do with such a place, preferably never in her life.
However—Fate, always likes to play tricks. On that day, the wheel of fate, which was moving normally on the main road, suddenly seemed to hit something, inexplicably turning in a direction and veering into a side road.
This road is narrow and dangerous, with the risk of car crashes at the slightest carelessness.
It was an evening, the girl had just finished her summer cram school class and was on her way home.
Although there had been frequent reports of missing persons recently, and the police had issued notices urging everyone to be careful when going out at night, this had little impact on. The cram school was in the city center, and her home was in a high-end residential area not far from the city center. The roads she took were wide streets, patrolled by police officers all year round, in the safest area, She was not worried about anything happening to her until she saw a familiar figure.
A slender figure that looked somewhat frail, with messy hair because he didn't care, a plain white shirt, and black trousers, showing none of the youthful vigor of a young man.
No mistake, this kind of increasingly rare attire among young people in the city, she had only seen on one peer. A boy who was unremarkable but caught her attention for several years.
His name was Shiki Tohno.
The first time she noticed him was in junior high. A boy with no distinctive features other than poor health and frequent anemia liked to sit alone in a corner.
She didn't know why she noticed him, clearly so ordinary, with almost no presence in the class. Maybe it was a feeling, a sense of fragility, staying around this boy always made her feel that even the air was so fragile, as if it would shatter at a touch.
Of course, this attention was just a fleeting moment, and there was no interaction between them. She was always surrounded by many people, and he was always alone, at most having some interaction with that delinquent student.
She was truly attracted to him during the winter vacation of their second year in junior high. The school's badminton club had collective activities during the winter break, and as a member, she naturally participated and helped tidy up and return various sports equipment after the activities.
The warehouse used by the badminton club had a problem with its door after many years of use; it would automatically lock if not careful when closing the door—and this lock could not be opened from the inside.
The weather was very cold at the time, and the girls, who hadn't had time to change out of their sportswear, closed the door to organize the equipment to keep warm and were accidentally locked inside the warehouse. The girls cried out for help, hoping someone would come to their aid, but they also knew the hope was slim because it was getting dark, and there might not be anyone left in the school. The girls were trapped in the dark warehouse, cold and hungry, and just when they were crying, a boy's voice came from outside the warehouse.
"Is there anyone inside?"
Calm, even a bit indifferent, the kind of unconcern that made the trapped girls very angry. The captain of the badminton club, a senior who had been blaming herself for trapping everyone here, exploded and directly grabbed a baseball bat and smashed it against the iron door.
The boy's voice finally showed some fluctuation, seemingly startled, but soon returned to calm, informing the girls that the teacher had already left.
The girls, including her, were utterly desperate. They didn't want to stay there for another minute, yet they might face the worst outcome—waiting until the next morning.
At this point, the boy knocked on the door again and calmly said, "If you promise to keep it a secret, this door can be opened."
The captain of the badminton club got even angrier and threw another baseball bat at the door.
"If it was that easy to open, we wouldn't need to ask for help!"
Shortly after those words, the door opened. Everyone thought it was the bat that did the trick and happily ran out, except she noticed the frail boy quietly standing behind the door—Shiki Tohno.
At that moment, her mind went blank; she just stood by the door crying, her eyes red and her face streaked with tears.
The boy patted her head and, in a calm yet incredible tone, said, "Go home quickly and eat something."
It sounded perfunctory but unexpectedly made her feel warm.
Looking back, wasn't eating something meant to warm up the body? Couldn't he have expressed it a bit better? But that was exactly what attracted her to him.
A school idol, a popular figure? That was merely a misunderstanding by outsiders. The real her was very timid, always yielding to others, always appearing amicable even when she didn't want to, and gradually being called an idol—not something she would choose herself. If she had a choice, she wouldn't even want to come to school.
She hated this about herself, which made her especially admire people who were natural, genuine, and unpretentious.
Shiki was such a person. A very ordinary conversation opened a new door in her heart.
Since then, she began to pay attention to Shiki, more and more, watching him secretly, even wanting to talk to him. Later, with the help of that delinquent-looking but kind-hearted person, she became friends with him, and she realized that she liked him.
It was so late, why was he here? This wasn't the direction to his home, neither the Arima residence nor the Tohno residence.
She quickened her pace, wanting to call out to him, but then he suddenly sped up and turned into an alley.
Without much thought, she jogged after him.
"Tohno-kun... wait."