Asako Yuzuki (柚木 麻子, Yuzuki Asako) is a Japanese writer. She won the All Yomimono Prize for New Writers and the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize. Asako has been nominated multiple times for the Naoki Prize, and her novels have been adapted for television, radio, and film.
This story is so complex yet realistic, I have never seen a portrayal of female friendships that hit this close to home. The author captured the theme of "we are all the villain in someone else's story" perfectly. The story follows different perspectives of girls who are in the same class, they all have their own independent life stories despite being in close proximity every day. It really shows how everyone's life is different despite being so close in distance.
It consists four short stories in total, all stories centers around the theme of "friendship". It dives deep into what friendship means, betrayal, difference in personalities and inferiority and superiority complex, past traumas. All four stories had put different friends in conflict - some choose to hurt, some choose to forgive. However, EVERYONE IS FLAWED, NO ONE IS PERFECT.
Almost all four friendships faced problems, but only one gave clear resolution that the two friends made up after the conflict. My favorite story is the third one because it has my favorite character. However the last story hit me the closest to home. I feel like I can relate to the narrator of the last story the most: past trauma with bullying by people who claimed to be my friend, dark thoughts that eventually hurted others, even the fact that looking down at other people due to an inferiority complex of my own. The last story is the only one where I cried at the end, because I came to the same conclusion as the narrator.
No matter what hurtful things was said between friends, you will have to get through those words to seek reconciliation. Because if a friend is too precious to lose, then ur regret will taunt you longer than the hurt those initial words have caused.