At dusk, the playground was the site of the children's end-of-day ritual.
The kids, running with the reckless confidence that nothing in the world could frighten them, one by one vanished with their parents who came to fetch them.
One boy, who had been the leader of the pack just moments ago, remained behind, resentfully waiting for parents who were the last to arrive and playing alone in the now-empty playground.
"…Then his father murmured quietly: 'Ah, Gresios, why would you make such a foolish choice?' Gresios replied, 'Because this is the mission I have inherited, Father.'"
"…?"
Just when he thought he was completely alone, another voice drifted across the silent playground, startling the boy into stopping his dirt-play and standing up.
It was a tiny voice.
A sound that had been drowned out when the playground swarmed with children now came through like a lullaby for the quiet swings and slides.
"'His father frowned and pressed his lips tight. He couldn't bear it—why must his son shoulder such a harrowing burden alone? At his wit's end, he spoke with anger: 'Gresios, that hatchling you brought is surely the seed of calamity. It will earn the hatred of all humans, and when it matures, will repay that hate tenfold. What mission could you have that justifies raising such a monster?'"
The boy felt a calm in that voice—one that seemed as peaceful as when his mother read him bedtime fairy tales.
He searched every corner of the playground for the speaker, but saw no one.
Just as he began to fear he might be hearing a ghost, a rustling sounded overhead.
rustle
With the sound of branches brushing together, a few leaves trembled like petals and floated down.
The boy looked up.
It was just one of the ordinary trees planted in the park, but too tall for a single child to climb alone.
Yet there, up among the branches, a little girl sat reading from an open book.
She looked about five or six, her hair barely brushing her shoulders in soft curls.
Her pale cheeks glowed warmly in the evening light, making her look as adorable as a doll.
"Ah…"
The boy was mesmerized and accidentally let out a small sound.
As if she'd heard him, the girl looked down and spotted him staring up.
"Oh? …Ah!"
Startled, she leaned forward and the book resting on her knees slipped free.
The boy froze in surprise, eyes wide as the heavy volume tumbled toward him.
It was a hefty book, and as it fell directly above him, he squeezed his eyes shut.
grab!
"Phew! Safe!"
But there was no painful thump overhead.
He lifted his eyelids and looked up again.
The book, which seemed to drop with the gaping maw of a storybook monster, was caught in the girl's hand.
An adult would have spotted the oddities immediately.
First, when the book slipped, it was already out of her reach—yet she had caught it.
Second—and most strikingly—her position had changed.
She had been perched like a cat on a high branch, out of any child's—and even an adult's—line of sight. Now she was on the lowest branch, mere feet from the ground.
It was as if, while he closed his eyes, she'd leaped from the upper branch to the lower one.
Catching the book, she hung from the branch like a circus acrobat, dangling and gazing down at the boy.
Though it was undeniably bewildering, the boy—unchallenged by any fixed notion—noticed nothing strange in her antics.
"Sorry, I dropped my book by mistake. Are you hurt?"
"Uh, n-no…"
"Really? Thank goodness~!"
With that upside-down grin, she lit up his world as if the sun had suddenly risen at noon.
The mischievous boy who had always sorted people by boy or girl felt something new today: his heart fluttered with what adults called romance.
"Hee!"
She swayed back and forth like a pendulum.
Then, with a cute grunt, she hoisted herself onto the branch.
"I'll be more careful next time~."
Saying that, she tucked the thick book under her arm and nimbly began climbing back up the tree with one hand.
Despite her frilly T-shirt and short shorts, her slender limbs flexed with strength beyond her size.
"Um, excuse me!"
"Huh?"
At his call, the girl paused mid-climb and looked down.
"Y-Your name?"
Usually he dove into mischief without a second thought, but today he discovered what it meant to muster real courage.
Clutching his shirt in both hands, he waited for her to answer.
"Me? My name is… Ah!"
She stopped mid-sentence as a radiant smile spread across her face, stealing his breath as if she'd turned into a precious gem.
Startled by her brilliance, the boy tensed up in confusion.
Just then, a rough but gentle hand ruffled his hair from behind.
"If you're going to woo my daughter, at least be strong enough to take the punch of my wrath, kid."
"Dad!!"
The girl called out cheerfully, waving her book-clutching arm.
Startled, the boy turned around.
The girl's father looked far younger than his own, more like an older brother than a stranger.
He wore a short-sleeved shirt fit for summer and worn jeans, carrying a grocery bag—tonight's dinner was clearly curry.
Looking up at his daughter, he said:
"Eto. I told you to wait at home."
"But if I wait out here, I can see you sooner, Daddy?"
"No matter what, climbing into dangerous places like that…"
"Hee!"
"Hey, you little rascal?!"
As the girl leapt toward him, he gasped, tossed aside the bag, and dashed forward.
He spread his arms wide and caught her as she fell.
"Hehe! It's okay even if it's dangerous! Because you run to me like this, Daddy!"
"…Okay, so as punishment for scaring me, you're saying it's fine if I get a smaller dinner tonight?"
"That's too cruel!"
The girl pouted but refused to let go, instead climbing onto his shoulders for a piggyback ride.
As if by routine, he picked up the dropped grocery bag, ruffled the boy's hair again as he passed by, and said:
"You should head home soon, too. Your parents must be worried."
"Bye~! Oh, right. My name is Eto! I'm Eto Takaki!"
Introducing herself as Eto, the girl and her father walked off into the sunset and faded from view.
As they left, the boy saw Eto gazing at her father with pure joy and felt something in his own heart slip away.
A little later, the boy's parents arrived at the playground.
"Sorry, Tatsuya! I got held up at work."
"…Mom."
"Hm? What's wrong?"
"…Why does love have to be so painful?"
"What is a five-year-old talking about, huh?!"
And so, the boy's first crush ended in heartbreak in less than a minute.