The room fell silent as Misaki sat on the sofa, slowly turning the pages of Rei's manuscript.
Meanwhile, Miyu had somehow drifted behind her sister, peeking over her shoulder.
The story began with a boy and girl running playfully up the slope.
Their voices unfolded in simple dialogue:
"You know… they say it's five centimeters per second."
"Hm?"
"The speed at which cherry blossoms fall."
"Akari, you know so much," the boy replied.
Miyu turned the page, her expression softening.
Sakura petals slipped through the girl's outstretched fingers. She looked back at the boy, smiling gently.
"Hey… don't you think it looks like snow?"
Miyu felt something stir in her chest.
She tended to immerse herself deeply when reading manga, and Rei's drawing style, soft, atmospheric, beautifully composed, pulled her in completely.
It was the kind of art that made the world around her fade away.
'So that's what the title meant… five centimeters per second. His dialogue is so delicate and evocative,' she thought, glancing at Rei quietly sipping coffee beside her.
Then the story reached its first emotional shift.
The two children reached the top of the hill. The girl crossed the tracks just before the crossing gate lowered, separating them on opposite sides.
She opened her umbrella, turned back and gave him a gentle smile.
"Akari…" the boy whispered.
"Takaki… wouldn't it be wonderful if we could see the cherry blossoms together next year?"
A passing train cut off their view of each other.
Misaki, who had been leaning back casually at first, slowly sat up straight.
She returned to pages she had already skimmed and began rereading them carefully.
Rei's manuscript contained over a hundred pages.
He divided the story into chapters: the "Cherry Blossom" chapter, the "Cosmonaut" chapter, and the final standalone chapter, "Five Centimeters per Second."
There was no music. No voice acting.
Only the quiet rustling of turning pages in the Yukishiro family's living room.
And yet, the loneliness and quiet ache of the story seeped out page by page, tightening around the sisters' hearts.
It was impossible for Rei to reproduce every moment from the original animated film in black-and-white manga form.
But the atmosphere remained, the solitude, the longing, the fragile sadness.
It accumulated steadily, gently, until it melted into the hearts of both sisters.
Akari and Takaki became friends because of their shared interests, believing they would always study together, always be close.
But when Akari had to transfer because of her family, she gathered her courage to call him one last time, only to be met with the clumsy, painful reaction of a boy who didn't know how to handle emotions.
After Takaki transferred, he carried the guilt of hurting her when she needed comfort most.
A year later, exchanging letters one after another, the two finally admitted their wish to meet again.
And then they acted on it.
The boy planned everything carefully, the route, the transfer stations, the arrival time.
He and the girl had decided it all together.
But the snowstorm changed everything.
Back then, information wasn't easy to check.
If the boy didn't arrive on time, Akari, waiting alone in the freezing night, would almost certainly think she'd been stood up.
Especially on such a bitterly cold night…
When the train ground to a halt in the heavy snow, Takaki could only tremble helplessly, tears in his eyes.
He prayed silently.
"Please… Akari… don't wait anymore."
The sadness accumulated steadily, page by page…
Until finally, in the early hours of the morning, several hours later than planned, Takaki arrived at the small rural station.
He assumed Akari must have gone home already. No one would wait in below-freezing temperatures for so long.
He opened the waiting-room door.
Misaki turned to the next page.
The kerosene lamp cast a dim glow across the old waiting room.And there, sitting alone with her head bowed, was Akari.
Her small, lonely figure filled the entire panel.
A sharp pang shot through Misaki's chest.
She was still waiting.
Behind her, Miyu was already a mess.
Her nose was red, her breath unsteady. But she refused to cry outright, it felt embarrassing to weep over someone else's manga.
She glanced at Rei , only to find him smiling reassuringly at her.
That small smile calmed her heart a little.
'He seems like such a bright, gentle person,' Miyu thought.'Even if his art feels lonely and wistful… maybe the ending will be warm.'
They continued reading.
Akari had thought Takaki wouldn't come.
But even then, she clung to a tiny hope and waited until dawn.
When Takaki finally arrived…
Misaki turned the page, and her expression hardened, then subtly cracked.
Her eyes showed a flicker of pain.
There was no dialogue at all.
Akari grabbed Takaki's sleeve tightly, her face hidden behind her lowered head.
Not a single line described the long hours of waiting, the cold, the fear, the disappointment, the hope.
But the tears sliding down the back of her hand told everything.
Misaki stared at that silent panel for nearly two full minutes before she could breathe evenly again.
Following that scene, the pages showed the two walking through snowy streets, sharing a small, innocent kiss beneath a blooming cherry tree, then talking quietly through the night in an old wooden shed.
And then, as dawn broke, they stood before the train station.
A soft farewell.
A parting neither wanted, but both understood.
Would they ever meet again?
Could the promise to see the cherry blossoms together the next year still be fulfilled?
Misaki kept turning the pages, only to find that the first chapter,"Cherry Blossom", had already ended.
The second chapter title appeared: "Cosmonaut."
Cosmonaut?
Why this title?
Misaki continued reading with sharpened focus.
The chapter shifted to the point of view of Kanae, a high school girl living in a quiet seaside town.
She described her daily school life, her friends, and the boy she admired:
Takaki Tōno, who had transferred from Tokyo.
Her secret crush. Her admiration. Her quiet, unspoken longing.
Takaki was always staring into the distance as if searching for something he had lost.
He was always checking his old, outdated phone.
'Was he contacting Akari?'
Misaki wondered.
Would Kanae's unrequited love end in heartbreak?
At first, the loneliness that filled the "Cherry Blossom" chapter wasn't present.
Kanae's perspective was warm, hopeful, full of tiny joys and insecurities typical of a girl in love.
But as the "Cosmonaut" chapter progressed…the tone changed.
The narrative slowly shifted to Takaki's point of view.
The truth unfolded quietly between the panels.
He and Akari had long since fallen out of contact.
The messages Takaki tapped into his phone every night, the ones Kanae thought he was sending to someone special, were never actually sent.
There was no recipient anymore.
He simply wrote them out of habit, out of loneliness.
Takaki and Akari were completely disconnected.
Seeing this, Miyu stiffened, her eyes widening in disbelief.
She turned to Rei .
Rei looked calm. He noticed her stare and offered a small, reassuring smile.
But that only made her more flustered.
'Rei… what is this?'
'Akari and Takaki cared so much for each other in the first chapter, how could they lose contact for just a few years?'
'Can a few hundred kilometers of distance really break apart two people who truly love each other?'