This is a youth elegy about "loss" and "what can never be undone." Told in the first person, the story looks back on the complicated relationship that unfolded over several years between the protagonist, Tsukishima Yazo, and Saotome Ryoko. From fighting violently in elementary school, to a subtle closeness after becoming deskmates in junior high, to the relationship shattering completely during a school cleanup when emotions ran out of control, the protagonist realized he "liked" her at the very moment he destroyed every possibility with his own hands. In delicate, sorrowful prose, the novel chronicles a boy wavering between violence and guilt, closeness and hurt, until he finally understands: some rifts cannot be mended, and some people, once lost, are gone forever.
