Volume 1 - Prologue

On a certain day during breaktime, while visiting the neighbouring classroom to play, I saw a boy throwing a notebook into a trashcan.

Since it’s been thrown in the trash, whatever that thing is, it surely must be worthless. After tossing the notebook, he immediately left the classroom.

While everyone in the classroom was engrossed in chatting and laughing to each other, I was following his figure with my eyes.

"Sorry, I’ll be back in a bit."

I left my friends, and took a peek in the trash can. The thrown notebook was heavily stained by other garbage mixed inside.

"Is something wrong, Airi?"

“Nn. Wait a minute..”

Although I feel bad for doing so, I picked up the thrown-away notebook.

Because the boy's expression looked so pained when he left the classroom, I became curious as to why he threw it away.

As soon as I got home, I immediately opened the notebook. I flipped through the pages and read every single character without missing a single one.

“Incredible…”

I let out a sound of heartfelt admiration.

The notebook was filled with a hand-written novel.

It was about the love story of a girl who, despite suffering from a serious illness, faces forward and confronts a boy even in the face of death.

It seems to be unfinished though, as the text in the death scene, where the heroine confesses “I love you” to the boy, is suddenly interrupted.

After reading the story, I noticed that tears were coming out of my eyes.

It was the first time I had ever cried after reading a novel. Until now, whenever a book-loving friend said 'I cried reading this book', I always thought it was an exaggeration. And even though I found books recommended to me interesting, I had never cried to one before.

Although I consider myself as a person with a tough tear ducts, my emotions were easily shaken by a novel that was written by a boy I don't even know the name of.

Without a doubt, it was something that struck my heart more than any other work I had read up to that point. It was surprising to know that a male first-year high school student had written it.

Why would anyone throw away such an amazing novel?

It’s such a waste. I couldn’t find any words to explain what I’m feeling.

Every time I reread the novel, I empathise more and more with the girl who continued to face life forward with a positive outlook.

And then I thought to myself.

I, too, will give it my all until the very last moment, just like this girl.

TN: To whoever is reading this, I’m Sin (KCinDX). I’m still new to the translation sphere and I'm currently still learning Japanese. If you find any errors in my translations. Please point it out to me. It will be a good chance for me to learn from my mistakes. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!