Kasahara Natsuki is a thirty year-old hairdresser from Tokyo who comes to Sapporo to relax and enjoy a vacation during the 2000 New Year's Eve festival/party. Unfortunately, she gets locked out of her room and meets Kaede Soichirou, a 25 year-old local newspaper photographer. His kind nature impresses her, but they don't exchange personal information and write it off as a chance meeting. Like all women her age, Natsuki's worried about finding shiawase (lifelong happiness) by marrying and starting a family. When she goes to a matchmaking meeting, the friend of her would-be beau is none other than Soichirou. After that meeting takes a turn for the worst, Soichirou follows her out and cheers her up by taking her up for a ride in his single-engine plane. They part company once more, still not knowing each other's names, and write it off as a chance meeting. Arriving home, Natsuki's roommate Haruko announces that her brother Soichirou will be staying with them in their house, after being transferred to Tokyo's newspaper. ec4 Written by Michael D. Garcia