The sunset-lit playground was the place where children brought their day to a close, like a ritual.
The children, who had been running around with the air of having nothing to fear in the world, gradually disappeared one by one, following the parents who had come to pick them up.
One little boy, who had been acting like the leader of the group until just a moment ago, was sulking over the fact that his parents were always the last to arrive. Left alone in the now-empty playground, he played by himself in lonely silence.
"...And then his father quietly murmured, 'Ah, Gracios, why would you make such a foolish choice?' Gracios replied, 'Because it is the duty I inherited from you, Father.'"
"...?"
Startled by a voice coming from the playground he thought was empty, the boy stopped playing in the dirt and stood up.
It was a tiny voice.
When there had been lots of children around, he hadn't been able to hear it, but now that the playground had gone quiet, it sounded like a calm voice singing a lullaby to the silence.
"'Father frowned and pressed his lips into a hard line. He could not accept it. Why must his son shoulder such a burden alone? Unable to endure it any longer, he said in a voice thick with anger, "Gracios. The hatchling dragon you brought home is surely the seed of disaster. A monster hated by all humans, one that will repay that hatred a hundredfold once it reaches adulthood. Just what is your mission that you would raise such a hatchling?"' ...What's 'mission'? Dictionary, dictionary..."
Rustle.
With the sound of branches brushing together, a few leaves drifted down like petals.
Seeing that, the boy looked up.
It was one of the ordinary trees planted in the park, but it was tall enough that a small child would have trouble climbing it alone.
And yet, somehow, a little girl was up there, reading a book with it open in her hands.
She looked about five or six years old. Her hair, only just brushing her shoulders, was slightly curled.
Her white cheeks glowed warmly in the evening light, and she was so cute and lovely that she could have passed for a doll.
"Ah..."
The boy, completely drawn in by the sight of her, let out a sound without thinking.
Maybe she heard him. The girl lowered her gaze and found the boy looking up at her.
"Huh? ...Ah!"
As she leaned down to look, the book resting on her knees slipped free.
The boy could only stare, wide-eyed, unable to react to the sudden turn of events.
Seen from here, it was a very thick book. As it came hurtling down with terrifying speed, straight toward his head, the boy squeezed his eyes shut.
Thud!
"Phew~! Safe!"
But the pain he had feared on top of his head never came.
He opened the eyelids clenched shut by fear and looked up again. The book, which had been falling open like a monster from a story that devoured children, was now caught in the girl's hand.
If an adult had seen that scene, they would have noticed something strange.
First, by the time the book slipped and fell, it was already too late for the girl's hand to reach it. And yet she had already caught it.
Second, and more importantly, the girl's position had changed.
She had clearly been sitting like a cat on a high branch so far up that not only children but even adults would have trouble seeing her. But now she was down on the lowest branch.
It was as if, while the boy had his eyes shut, she had leapt from the upper branch to the lower one.
Having snatched the book, the girl hung from the branch like a circus clown performing a trick and looked down at the boy.
It was certainly a scene full of oddities, but the young boy, who had not yet formed fixed ideas about the world, found nothing strange in her behavior.
"Sorry. I dropped my book by accident. You aren't hurt, are you?"
"Uh, no..."
"Really? That's a relief~!"
Hanging upside down with a bright smile, the girl looked as if the sun had risen again and was lighting the world in broad daylight.
The mischievous boy, who usually divided people into boys and girls, friends or not friends, experienced for the first time today the strange fluttering in his chest that came from feeling something called "the opposite sex."
"Hup!"
The girl swung her body back and forth like a pendulum.
Then, with a cute little grunt, she pulled herself back up onto the branch.
"I'll be more careful next time~."
Saying that, the girl tucked the thick book under her arm and began climbing the tree with one hand, skillfully.
It was impossible to understand how such strength could come from those slender arms and legs, exposed between her frilled short-sleeved shirt and short shorts.
"U-um, hey!"
"Hm?"
At the boy's call, the girl stopped climbing and looked down.
"W-what's your name?"
The boy, who usually charged into anything without fear and caused trouble for everyone around him, was experiencing for the first time what it meant to "gather courage."
Clutching the hem of his clothes with both hands, he asked her name and waited for the girl's lips to part.
"Me? My name is... ah!"
Halfway through her answer, the girl broke into a radiant smile that spread across her whole face. It was such a dazzling smile that it felt as though she had turned into a beautiful jewel.
Not knowing why she was smiling like that, the boy tensed up.
That was when a rough but gentle hand pressed down on his head and ruffled his hair.
"If you want to steal my daughter, at least grow up enough to take my fist of wrath first, kid."
"Dad!!"
The girl waved the arm holding the book with a bright voice.
The boy turned around in surprise.
The girl's father was much younger than the boy's own father. He looked more like an older brother than an uncle.
He wore a short-sleeved dress shirt suited to summer, along with a pair of jeans that looked old and worn. In one hand he carried a shopping basket, as if he had just come back from the market. It looked like this girl's family was having curry for dinner.
The man looked up at the girl in the tree and said, "Eto. I told you to wait at home."
"But if I wait outside, I get to see you sooner, Dad."
"Even so, if you climb somewhere dangerous like that..."
"Hup!"
"Hey, you little—?!"
As the girl sprang down, the man panicked, hurled the shopping basket aside, and ran. Then he spread his arms and caught the falling girl in his embrace.
"Heeheehee! It's okay even if it's dangerous! Because Dad comes running like this, right?"
"...Okay, then I guess it's fine if I give you less dinner tonight as punishment for scaring your dad?"
"That's cruel!"
Even while looking on the verge of tears, the girl refused to let go of him. In fact, she climbed even higher and rode on his shoulders like a piggyback.
The man, clearly used to this, picked up the shopping basket he had thrown aside and passed by the boy, ruffling his hair again as he went.
"You should head home soon too. Your parents must be worried."
"Bye~! Oh, right. My name is Eto! Takaki Eto!"
Introducing herself as Eto, the girl walked away with her father toward the sunset and disappeared from view.
As he watched Eto gaze at her father with a truly happy expression while they left, the boy felt something in his heart say goodbye.
A little while later, the boy's parents arrived at the playground.
"Sorry, Tatsuya! Work ended a little later than expected."
"...Mom."
"Hm? What is it?"
"...Why is love so painful?"
"What on earth is a five-year-old saying right now!?"
And so the boy's first love ended in heartbreak in less than a minute.