Chapter 1: The Unfamiliar Frame

Hikaru Shimizu sat in the dim light of his room, surrounded by the soft hum of the evening rain tapping against the window. His pencil danced across the page, sketching the familiar contours of his own face, though in the drawing, he didn’t look quite like himself. His hand paused for a moment as a wave of melancholy washed over him—memories he couldn’t quite grasp, emotions he couldn’t fully explain. He closed his sketchbook with a sigh.

Turning his attention to the small, enchanted Frames on his desk, Hikaru carefully traced the edges of one. The magic in these Frames captured fragments of his life, playing them back in still images that shifted and blurred depending on his mood. His fingers hovered over the nearest Frame, which flickered to life, revealing a moment from a few years ago—his first day of high school. He remembered the nerves, the isolation, the way his footsteps echoed in the unfamiliar halls. The image was muted, as if the colors themselves had faded over time.

He placed the Frame back on the desk. Hikaru didn’t usually like to linger on his memories for too long. They had a way of making him feel incomplete, like a painting with too much white space. Besides, there was nothing particularly exciting about his life worth remembering.

But then, his gaze caught on something unusual.

One Frame, nestled among his collection, glowed brighter than the others. He hadn’t placed it there. His heart skipped a beat as he reached for it cautiously. This Frame was different—full of life, vibrant and brimming with energy, as if the memory itself was reaching out to him. The image inside wasn’t his own.

In the center of the Frame stood a boy. Hikaru blinked, confused. He didn’t recognize him, but the boy seemed strangely familiar. The figure had tousled auburn hair that caught the sunlight, his posture relaxed, almost carefree. His eyes—a striking golden-brown—gazed out of the Frame with an intensity that made Hikaru’s breath catch. The boy was smiling, his expression full of warmth and something else…adventure, maybe?

"Who…?" Hikaru murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.

He had never seen this boy in his life, yet here he was, captured in one of Hikaru’s Frames as if he belonged there. Hikaru’s mind raced, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Frames only reflected a person’s own memories. They couldn’t show someone else’s life. Could they?

A knock at his door startled him. Hikaru quickly placed the mysterious Frame back among the others, hiding it under a stack of papers.

“Come in,” he called out, his voice still shaky from the discovery.

The door creaked open, and his grandmother, Ayame, stepped in, her silver hair tied back neatly as always. She glanced around the room, her keen eyes lingering on the scattered sketches and Frames before resting on Hikaru.

“Still working, I see,” she said with a gentle smile. “You’ve been in here all day.”

“I’m fine, Grandma,” Hikaru replied, trying to sound normal. “Just…thinking.”

Ayame moved closer, her hands resting on the back of his chair. “Thinking is good, but don’t get lost in those thoughts of yours. There’s a whole world outside this room, you know.” She tapped his sketchbook lightly. “And you have the gift to capture it.”

Hikaru nodded absentmindedly, though his thoughts were still swirling around the mysterious boy in the Frame. Could his grandmother sense that something was off? She was always so perceptive, but Hikaru wasn’t ready to share what he had found. Not yet.

Ayame sighed softly. “Dinner’s ready when you are. Don’t wait too long.”

As she left the room, closing the door behind her, Hikaru’s attention snapped back to the Frame. His fingers itched to pick it up again, to study the boy’s face, to understand why this stranger had appeared in his life. Against his better judgment, he retrieved it, staring at the image for what felt like an eternity.

Who was this boy? And why did he feel so drawn to him?

Suddenly, the Frame flickered. Hikaru’s eyes widened as the boy in the Frame moved. It wasn’t like the usual shifting of colors or fading that his memories did. The boy’s golden-brown eyes locked onto Hikaru’s, and for a split second, it felt like they were truly looking at each other. The smile on the boy’s face shifted into something softer, almost inviting.

Hikaru’s heart raced. This wasn’t normal. Frames didn’t move like this—at least, not on their own. He placed the Frame back on the desk and backed away, feeling his pulse quicken. He had never been the adventurous type, but something about this was calling to him, pulling him into a world he had no idea existed.

The rain outside intensified, its rhythm now matching the rapid beat of his heart. Hikaru stood frozen, staring at the glowing Frame. He knew, deep down, that this wasn’t a mistake. Whoever this boy was, his life had become entwined with Hikaru’s in a way he couldn’t yet understand.

And something told him that this was only the beginning.

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