"Your origamis, they were the shapes of your heart," Airi said to her closest friend, Kotori.

Kotori sent the crane origami on New Year's Day. Receiving the origami, Sae, who had come from Tokyo to see her, was dazzled by it. Suspicious of this visitor's motive, Airi began to investigate and discovered Sae's dark past, and the danger she might represent them.

"I am the person without a heart," said the girl from Tokyo.

Airi tried to warn her friend in countless ways.

But Kotori refused to listen, and she said to Sae. "I want to fold origami for you."

Everybody has Secrets, some Worse Than Others

"The last girl you were close with. And she's just about my little sister's age, too. What happened to her?"

"How?" As Sae spoke, her mouth began to shiver.

"Did you kill her?"

Sae's eyes flashed a glare my way. "That's too far, Airi," she said. "Don't cross the line!"

Even between Best Friends are Not As It Seems

Her mentioning of Airi now, made me jolt.

"That girl thinks you're her friend, and she always goes miles for you. But, you have just been using her, haven't you Kotori?"

I should say something, and admitting to it would be the start. Because she was right.

Airi had no idea I had been using her all these years.

But when all else fail, can you Trust Your Heart?

"I don't really understand what you mean by heartless, Sae," Kotori said. "But so long as you're a human, you're bound to have less or not have something that others do. And I, who have a poor personality myself, would never expect you to be flawless. That's why if you wouldn't mind me for my lacking, then, I wouldn't judge you for not being perfect. So long as you're yourself, I would never hate you. And I want to get to know you more if you would let me. I want to fold origami for you."


This Shape Is My Heart is a novel about possibilities. It explores the volatility of affection among young friends and fascination with those special people that sometimes capture our attention out of nowhere. A narrative about Loyalty, Friendship, Curiosity, and Love in all its complexities, the novel will draw in readers by making them rethink and re-evaluate both their closest relationships and those evasive ones that ended too soon.