The gentle rays of the morning sun glisten on the tear tracks dried across Miori's face.
She's asleep on a bench in a public park on the southern outskirts of Sakari, a town near the border of Ueda.
After running away from home, she wandered aimlessly for almost an hour.
Exhaustion finally caught up with her around four-thirty in the morning, and she collapsed onto the bench.
It's around nine o'clock when the shouts and laughter of the first children brought to the park by their parents wake her.
Miori slowly opens her eyes, still red and burning from all the tears she shed.
"Mom, why is that lady sleeping in the park?" a curious little boy asks, taking a few steps toward Miori.
"What are you doing? Get away from her!" his mother hisses, pulling him back by the arm.
"But Mom, I want to sleep in the park tonight too!" the boy whines.
"If you don't study, you'll end up spending your life sleeping in parks just like that girl!"
Then the woman walks up to Miori.
