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Synopsis

Saku Chitose seems to enjoy an ideal high school existence: magnetic, self-assured, and naturally amiable, the kind of student others gravitate toward. Yet his visibility brings its own complications; admiration and resentment coexist, and murmurs of cynicism trail him whenever he stands out. Saku holds a conviction that a life perceived as ugly is worse than death, a belief that compels him to protect his immaculate public persona. Early in his second year, his homeroom teacher asks him to reach out to a classmate who has stopped coming to school. Hoping for a brief errand, Saku discovers that the withdrawn Kenta Yamazaki openly despises him and what he represents. What begins as a favor reveals the gulf between those accustomed to social attention and those who have been excluded from it. Caught between the expectations of admirers and detractors alike, Saku navigates the fragile boundary between genuine feeling and staged behavior as he seeks to understand what it means to live beautifully in a society that judges only appearances.