Episode 26 · Suzuka

Suzuka

Yamato hauls his bags from Hiroshima to Tokyo and moves into his aunt's bathhouse, where he also helps look after the girls' dorm next door. On the walk over, he cuts past a high school track and stops dead. A girl is practicing her high jump, floating over the bar again and again, and he cannot look away. Then he learns she lives one wall away from him. Suzuka Asahina is a top recruit, a straight-A student, and she has no patience for a clumsy country kid who grins at everything. She does not want him near her. So Yamato joins the track team, mostly to prove he is worth noticing, and it turns out his legs are fast. Between practice, classes, and the drunk college guys stumbling around the dorm, he starts to change. He trains until he can barely stand, chasing a girl who keeps her distance and a sport that does not forgive mistakes. But what happens when getting better at running is not the same as getting closer to her?