— The Person Who Moved First —
Kizuki did not hesitate.
While Shin waited, while Shugo hid his feelings, while Airu quietly watched over everyone, Kizuki was the one who acted.
As the pandemic canceled tournament after tournament, and the ordinary world he had always known began to fall apart, Kizuki put his feelings for Mizuho into words.
Was that courage?
Or was it something closer to running from the fear of watching his own world collapse?
This essay looks at what it meant for Kizuki to be the one who moved first — and what that choice ultimately cost him.
The Situation He Was In
Kizuki was a competitive swimmer.
For him, swimming was never just a club activity. It was something that defined who he was.
Then the pandemic hit, and tournaments disappeared one after another. The goal he had been training toward simply vanished. Everything he had built started losing its shape.
Something shifted in him.
In the middle of watching everything he had worked for fall apart, Kizuki may have reached for something he could actually hold onto.
His confession to Mizuho may have been an expression of exactly that.
The Choice He Made
Kizuki’s confession was not calculated.
It wasn’t the result of years spent carefully weighing the right moment, the way it was for Shin. Kizuki simply turned what he felt into action.
That was both beautiful and dangerous.
After his confession, he and Mizuho began dating. But not long after, he injured his shoulder and could no longer continue competitive swimming.
When he lost the thing that had defined him, Kizuki came to a realization.
Maybe there was nothing left of him at all.
That fear cast a shadow over his feelings for Mizuho too. Being beside her while unable to believe in himself became something he couldn’t bear.
He may have felt that, without swimming, he wasn’t someone who deserved to be at her side. That feeling may be exactly what pulled him away from her.
Why That Choice Matters
What makes Kizuki’s story painful isn’t that he was a bad person.
He was sincere. He acted quickly. He never lied about what he felt.
And still, the relationship fell apart.
This is where the story reveals something important.
Being honest with your feelings and being able to protect a relationship are not always the same thing.
Kizuki may have been too honest with himself. The moment he felt that a version of himself without swimming wasn’t worthy of Mizuho, he disappeared from her life — almost like he was running away.
That might look like a selfish choice.
But it was also, in its own clumsy way, a kind of sincerity: the belief that you cannot stand beside someone you love while feeling completely empty inside.
His Role in the Story
Kizuki is the one who first disrupted the balance within the group.
If he hadn’t acted, Shin’s hesitation and Shugo’s silence might never have carried the same weight they eventually did.
In a sense, Kizuki is the starting point of the story.
And at the same time, he embodies one of the series’ central themes: the person who moves first is not necessarily the person who stays until the end.
What Kizuki Reveals About Japanese Romance
In many shōjo manga, the character who acts first is the one who gets rewarded.
This story overturns that pattern.
Kizuki had the courage to act. But he could not fully face what came after — the injury, the loss of self-confidence, the fear of an uncertain future.
This reflects a perspective that appears throughout Japanese storytelling:
Strength of feeling alone is not always enough to protect a relationship.
Final Reflection
Kizuki was the one who opened the door first.
But what waited on the other side wasn’t what he expected.
He lost swimming. He lost his confidence. And eventually, he let go of his relationship with Mizuho too.
Still, it would be too easy to simply call Kizuki’s choice a failure.
He tried to stay honest with what he felt.
And he was just as honest about something else: that someone who feels empty inside cannot truly take care of another person.
That clumsy, imperfect honesty is exactly what makes Kizuki Hazawa a character worth remembering.
Related Reading
✅ Shin Kashiwagi Explained — The Man Who Loved Too Carefully
✅ Shugo Hoshikawa Explained — The Love He Kept Hidden
✅ Airu Izumi Explained — The One Who Protected the Group Instead of His Own Heart
I also share the small manga moments that stay with me long after reading—the pauses, glances, and choices that never fully leave.
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