Ruhito Okura

We often spin tender lies out of love for someone. Fourteen-year-old Kiita has grown up in just such a lie, living alone with his blind mother, Hanae. As his voice begins to change, the boy decides to venture beyond the fence on his own, and in the back alleys of Tokyo comes face to face with realities far removed from what he has known. Yet just as truth has many faces, so too does its opposite, and Kiita gradually comes to see—and accept—that the lie that has protected his world has another face of its own.

At an unconventional school for kids who avoid traditional classrooms, Tatsuki's carefree approach baffles strict Shizuku as they learn to reach students.

An emotionally distant star student and a quiet loner find an unlikely refuge on a stairwell landing, where shared silence slowly becomes something more.