Gentle Cage

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” so goes the old adage about art, and nowhere is this truer than in the relationship between Itsuki and Tokiwa. To every one else, Itsuki is nothing more than a useless wallflower, but only Tokiwa can see that the man is actually a diamond-in-the-rough.

It all began eight years ago, when amateur painter Itsuki Hashimoto and up-and-coming sculptor Masatsugu Tokiwa became friends through their love for art. But a few years later, family circumstances forced Itsuki to cut Tokiwa out of his life. Now, Itsuki is living a confined life as the “human pet” of Yamabe-sensei, Tokiwa’s former teacher.

Can Tokiwa help Itsuki break free of his cage? Or has Itsuki become too much of a living “doll,” without a soul or freewill of his own?