High-school student Minatozaki Sana, always a bit of a misfit, doesn't expect life to change much when she moves from Japan to South Korea.
Then she meet Tzuyu, a handsome but mysterious teen whose eyes seem to peer directly into her soul. Tzuyu is...
Sana's mother drove her to the airport with the window rolling down. In Osaka, the sky is perfect, cloudless blue. She was wearing this.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
In Seoul, South Korea, a town named Dobong-gu. exists under a near-constant cover of clouds. It rains on this inconsequential town more than any other place in the South Korea. It was from this town and its gloomy, omnipresent shade that her mother escaped with her when she was only a few months old. It was in this town that she'd been compelled to spend a month every summer until she was fourteen. That was the year Sana finally put her foot down; these past three summers, her father, vacationed with her in Japan for two weeks instead.
"Sana," Her mom said to her - the last of a thousand times - before she got on the plane.
"You don't have to do this" Her mom looks like her, except with short hair and laugh lines. Sana felt a spasm of panic as she stared at her wide, childlike eyes. 'How could I leave my loving, erratic, harebrained mother to fend for herself? Of course she had new husband now, so the bills would probably get paid, there would be food in the refrigerator, gas in her car, and someone to call when she got lost, but still...'
"I want to go," Sana lied.
"Tell your father I said hi."
"I will."
"I'll see you soon," she insisted. "You can come home whenever you want - I'll come right back as soon as you need me." But Sana could see the sacrifice in her eyes behind the promise.
"Don't worry about me," Sana urged. "It'll be great. I love you, Hahaoya." Her mother hugged her tightly for a minute, and then Sana got on the plane, and she was gone.
It's a six-hour flight from Osaka to Seoul, and then an hour drive back down to Dobong-gu.
Flying doesn't bother Sana; the hour in the car with her father, though, she was a little worried about. him had really been fairly nice about the whole thing. He seemed genuinely pleased that she was coming to live with him for the first time with any degree of permanence. He'd already gotten her registered for high school and was going to help her get a car. But it was sure to be awkward with him.
He was more than a little confused by her decision - like her mother before her, she hadn't made a secret of her distaste for Dobong-gu. When she landed in Seoul, it was raining. She didn't see it as an ome- just unavoidable. She'd already said her goodbyes to the sun.
Mr. Minatozaki was waiting for his daughter with the cruiser. He is Police Chief Minatozaki to the good people of Dobong-gu. Sana's primary motivation behind buying a car, despite the scarcity of her funds, was that she refused to be driven around town in a car with red and blue lights on top. Nothing slows down traffic like a cop.
Mr. Minatozaki gave her an awkward, one-armed hug when Sana tumbled her way off the plane.
"It's good to see you, Sana," he said, smiling as he automatically caught and steadied her.
