In a childhood colored by oppressive shades of gray, he is a quiet top student who hides his foster mother’s scolding and the burdens of daily life while counting stars on the rooftop. She is a bold, unruly “big sister” who uses a sharp exterior to conceal the scar of being ostracized for standing up for others.
They first meet in an alley, where she impulsively steps in to help, only for him to see her as meddlesome. Their fingertips brush over a lunchbox, an umbrella is left behind in the rain, and a crooked smile appears on a scrap of paper with a math solution. These small moments are like sparks, smoldering beneath the ashes of misunderstanding. Teasing classmates, an altered exam paper, and a quarrel over an anonymous money transfer push them apart again and again. He fears she will get into trouble because of him, while she mistakes his reserve for contempt. Pride and insecurity pull them back and forth through their youth.
Only when surveillance footage reveals the truth, and the coincidence involving a strawberry candy from their childhood comes to light, do they realize they have long since left their mark on each other’s lives. The starlight they share on the rooftop, the moment he grips her wrist and stands up to his foster mother, and the words “From now on, I’ll protect you” at graduation finally let their tangled vines break through the ground.
This is a story of two lonely souls saving each other. Through a push and pull of misunderstandings and tentative closeness, the boy lets go of his habit of keeping his head down, and the girl lowers her sharp armor. In their gray world, they strike a light that is bittersweet yet burning hot, a light that belongs to them alone.
