Character Arc
The young Yae is the beating heart of the series' past, a high school girl in snowy Hokkaido whose openness and warmth make her impossible not to love. She dreams of the wider world, imagines herself crossing skies as a flight attendant, and falls headlong into her first romance with a tenderness that feels almost unbearable to watch. Rikako Yagi gives her a luminous, unguarded quality that defines the show's nostalgic glow.
Her relationship with the young Harumichi unfolds with the dizzy intensity of first love, full of small gestures, shared music, and the conviction that nothing could ever break them apart. These bright early scenes carry an undertow of foreboding, because the audience already knows how cruelly time will intervene. Yagi makes every hopeful moment land with the weight of what is to come.
Her story turns on the accident that will sever her from her own past, transforming the radiant teenager into the haunted woman of the present timeline. The young Yae represents everything that is lost and, ultimately, everything worth fighting to recover. Her performance forms the foundation on which the entire romance is built.