Taiyou yori mo Mabushii Hoshi

Sae Iwata has never fit the delicate image she associates with other girls. Bigger and stronger than most of her classmates, she spent childhood looking after her gentle friend Kouki Kamishiro and quietly falling for him. As the years pass, Kouki grows taller and more confident, and the two drift far enough apart that Sae tries to treat her old feelings as something finished.

Reconnecting near the end of middle school proves otherwise. Kouki is still the kind boy she remembers, and the affection Sae buried returns almost immediately. Then high school places them in the same class. As their friendship becomes close again, Sae tries to protect it by hiding how strongly she feels, even while the boy beside her seems to shine more brightly with every ordinary day.