In the middle of the night, a boy was tossing and turning in his bed, dreaming. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he woke up, screaming the name "Nansho."
"Oh, I'm crying? Did I cry?"
"Why is there a girl in my dream? For some reason, she's just bothering me."
"Who is she?"
When he woke up, it was pouring rain.
A chill in the air made the boy close the open window.
Just then, he heard a voice calling.
Shinji! Shinji!
At the dead of night, he just ignored it and went back to sleep.
The boy's name was Shinji, a 16-year-old high school student. Both of his parents had passed away. He was living with his grandmother and struggling to get by.
Morning has dawned, and the city of Bansan is bustling and beautiful. The townspeople are friendly, and the weather is pleasant. It is a charming little town filled with the sounds of birdsong.
Shinji usually goes to school at 6 AM.
But now,
his grandmother is waking him up.
"Shinji, get up."
"You're going to be late for school."
Shinji gets out of bed, washes his face, and looks out the window.
It was sunny outside, but he felt uneasy about going to school. He wasn't interested in his schoolwork and didn't want to go. What he wanted to be was a poet. While reciting poetry, he prepared to go to school.
He is stylishly dressed in a collared shirt and jeans.
However,
he is reluctant to go to school.
He is listening to the weather report on his grandmother's radio.
The forecast says it will rain.
The Bansan cityscape is shown, small but beautiful, with bustling mountain ranges.
Shinji's breakfast is just a piece of bread.
Shinji is discouraged; he is poor.
He can't live as comfortably as the other students.
Living and studying is difficult.
He is a student who has to work part-time on the side.
The poem is titled
"I'll dream of a love play"
"I'll get the address of the god where the beautiful lady is"
He arrives at school reciting poems
As Shinji enters the classroom!
Scornful voices from the girls in the class
Hmph! Look at him, thinking he's so cool.
His jawline is so long, too.
Yeah, right.
I don't know what he's trying to be.
Shinji is depressed.
Not a single person has befriended Shinji, and it's only been one week of classes.
When homeroom period arrives
Shinji is reading a poem.
A boy tells the teacher, "This kid isn't doing his homework, he's reading a poem!"
The teacher scolds Shinji and asks him a question.
Shinji was too scared to speak up, and he thought for a long time. In the end, he was made to stand outside the classroom. All Shinji could think about was turning last night's dream into a poem.
Shinji couldn't keep up with the trends of the modern youth.
He gazed up at the sky, mesmerized and stunned.
As he thought about his dream from the night before, his heart began to ache.
In the dream,
A girl... who was she?
Shinji didn't know who the girl was.
Shinji tried to ask, but it was too late.
He remembered a beautiful girl wearing a Western-style dress.
The city in that dream was an industrial metropolis. Whenever Shinji thought about it, he would dig up memories of the past.
He couldn't even imagine turning the dream into a poem. He had no experience writing or composing. And after spending just one day like that, he found himself longing to sleep even more at night.
At that moment, Shinji wondered if he would dream that dream again. He was as captivated as if he had never seen the girl in his dream before. And with that, his heart began to ache again. He prepared to go to sleep.
At that moment, Shinji was dreaming alone.
"Hey, girl"
"Hmm, who is it?"
"My name is Shinji."
"My name is Nansho."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm just walking around."
"Ah!"
In the dream, he meets the girl again, and she introduces herself.
Then, he and the girl start talking.
Shinji imagines that he's going to make her his friend.
She doesn't know what kind of dream world she's in.
And so the girl and he become friends.
They talk about what happened to them today.
Shinji: Being teased at school is funny.
Nansho laughed when she heard about it. After she finished telling her story, she said goodbye and walked out. Then the dream abruptly ended.