Shigatsu Tsuitachi no Ame

Yui is an ordinary high school student with one debilitating habit: he cannot help but go along with the people around him. Time and again, he finds himself swept up in the current of the crowd, nodding along to things he privately disagrees with and letting his real objections die in his throat. Each compromise leaves him more frustrated with himself, weary of a life in which all he can manage is a silent, swallowed "no." Then there is Haru, Yui's classmate and his polar opposite in every way that matters. Eccentric and utterly blind to social nuance, Haru is incapable of reading between the lines. While everyone else carefully navigates the classroom's invisible rules, Haru simply says and does exactly as he pleases, oblivious to the delicate performances that pass for harmony among his peers. When a certain incident finally pushes Yui too far, he lashes out at Haru: "Read the room! Do you even know what it means to 'play along'? That's how you build good relationships with people." Haru's quiet reply strikes at the heart of everything Yui has ever believed: "How meaningless." As these two opposing ways of surviving collide, Yui is forced to confront a question he has spent years avoiding — what has all his compliance actually earned him?