Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle

Saku Chitose is a second year at Fujishi High School in Fukui, a place where grades, sports, and social standing are all scored in public. He can handle every arena, so his name gets praised in the halls and dragged through an anonymous school site at the same time. The new class year starts smoothly, then a teacher asks him to help a classmate who has shut himself away return to school. Saku cannot pass the job to anyone else. With his close friends Yuuko Hiiragi, Yua Uchida, Haru Aomi, and Yuzuki Nanase beside him, he tries to reach Kenta Yamazaki without treating him like a problem to be fixed. Time outside the classroom becomes the real battlefield, where a single wrong word can harden into a rumor by morning. Small wins come with backlash, bruised pride, and quiet fear of failing someone who is already cornered. As Kenta starts taking steps back toward everyday life, Saku has to face what his glossy image hides, and what kind of leader he wants to be when everyone is watching.