Hirohiko's first kiss is with a girl in his neighborhood. Years later, thinking back on her, he can't remember what she looked like, but she smelled like her old running shoes - they didn't smell bad, really, but she was on the track team and really loved to run, and even in high school that smell of old cloth and rubber brings back memories of her. They were friends, sort of, and they used to walk home together from school sometimes. A few days after he'd found out about Mitsuiro's family, this girl, she was having some trouble with the other girls, and they'd thrown her bookbag over a bridge into a drainage ditch. He came up on her in a lonely mood, and she looked like he felt, so he waded into the water after her to help her gather her things. It was oppressively hot, and she was thanking him, and he saw that her face was dirty except for where she'd been crying, and he thought to himself that he'd never kissed anyone and wondered what it was like. So he did.

He told her many years later about Mitsuiro, because he thought that she deserved to understand his behavior. He sometimes catches himself thinking of her and hoping that she did.