Mizuno and Chayama

Mizuno and Chayama by Yuhta Nishio, Eleanor Summers, and Erin Hickman explores themes of societal pressures and personal freedom.

Mizuno, the daughter of a mayoral candidate, is desperate to escape the suffocating pressure and scrutiny of small-town life. Chayama, the heiress of the tea company Chayama-en, is firmly walking the path laid out for her, despite being forced to atone for her family’s apparent misdeeds.

Yet in the bubble of the school’s third-floor guidance counselling room—away from rumours, watchful eyes, and their feuding families—they are simply Mizuno and Chayama, two teenagers who find comfort and hope in each other.

But when the outside world tries to tear them apart, the two must find a way to protect their relationship and, more importantly, themselves.