Episode 2 · Hinako Note

Hinako Note

Hina freezes up around strangers. Not a little shy, not awkward. She goes stiff as a scarecrow, arms out, mouth shut, and that is exactly why she leaves her countryside town for Tokyo. A play she saw on a school trip lit something in her, and she figures theater will force her to speak like a normal person. So she moves into Hitotose Manor, an old bookshop where the landlady, Chiaki, and a girl named Kuina live, and enrolls at Fujiyama High ready to join its famous theater club. Then she finds out the club has been dead for a long time. No members, no stage, nothing. She is already in Tokyo, already registered at the school. Going home is not an option, and standing still is worse. Chiaki looks at this stiff, determined girl and suggests something odd: just make a troupe out of the people in the manor. So Hina starts learning theater in a bookshop, with Kuina and whoever else wanders in, fumbling through lines and blocking while chasing the dream that brought her here. Will a girl who turns into a scarecrow every time she meets someone ever be able to stand on a stage?