Kuromi

"Snow & Sketches" Kuromi was easy to spot in the winter streets of Tokyo—pink hair like cotton candy, a soft dress beneath a flowing white coat, and always a sketchbook in hand. Every afternoon, she sat on a quiet bench sketching strangers. One boy kept appearing—tall, black hair, reading manga under the same vending machine light. She called him Manga-kun in her head and secretly filled pages with his face. One snowy day, as flakes dusted her coat, he approached. "You always draw me," he said, holding up a sketch she had dropped. “I’m curious how I look in your world.”