The manga adapts Yui Tokiumi's spinoff novel series for Yuki Suetsugu's Chihayafuru manga. 
 
The novels feature a series of stories detailing various characters' lives in middle school. (The original manga begins when they are in elementary school and skips to high school.) 
 
(Source: Anime News Network & Be-Love issue 21)

Chihaya is a girl in the sixth grade, still not old enough to even know the meaning of the word zeal. But one day, she meets Arata, a transfer student from rural Fukui prefecture. Though docile and quiet, he has an unexpected skill: his ability to play competitive karuta, a traditional Japanese card game.
 
Chihaya is struck by his obsession with the game, along with his ability to pick out the right card and swipe it away before any of his opponents. However, Arata is transfixed by her as well, all because of her unbelievable natural talent for the game. Don't miss this story of adolescent lives and emotions playing out in the most dramatic of ways!
 
(Source: Kodansha USA)
 
Notes: 
- It won the 2nd Manga Taisho Award and the 35th annual Kodansha Manga Award for Best Shoujo. 
- It was nominated for the 20th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2016.

Ayase Chihaya is a cheerful tomboy without any ambitious aspirations in life. At school one day, she meets a boy named Wataya Arata who is an outcast at school. Feeling pity despite peer pressure, Chihaya befriends Arata as he reveals to her his aptitude in karuta which institutes Chihaya's dream to become a karuta queen.

Chihaya Ayase is a girl who has spent most of her life simply supporting her sister in her model career. That changes when she meets a boy named Arata Wataya, a talented karuta player who recognizes Chihaya's potential to become a great player herself. As Chihaya takes on a new dream of becoming Japan's best karuta player, she is soon separated from her karuta playing friends, Taichi Mashima and Arata Wataya, as they grow up. Now in high school, Chihaya still continues to play karuta in the hope that she will one day meet her friends again. 
 
(Source: Chihayafuru Wikia)

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