Sayu didn't stay in Tokyo for long.
For her, Tokyo might have been a better place, but under her mother's insistence, she still returned to Hokkaido with her brother.
Haruto had long since understood that in life, eight or nine things out of ten rarely go your way. Not everything can be wrapped up neatly in a perfect ending.
On the day Sayu left, when she came out of the room, ready to head downstairs and leave with her brother, Haruto noticed that there wasn't a trace of joy on her face despite her going home. He hesitated for a moment before speaking:
"If you can't stay there… you can always come back."
She turned back to him in surprise, but he simply waved a hand and bid her goodbye. Once she was gone, the apartment instantly felt colder and emptier.
His relationship with Setsuna had, more or less, returned to normal. Under Mai's mediation, the two met again. Out of consideration for Mai, Haruto dropped his stubborn stance and talked with Setsuna, letting the matter quietly fade into the past…
When summer vacation ended and he returned to school, Haruto didn't feel much of anything in particular.
What did catch his attention was Yoshii, looking uncharacteristically gloomy—frowning like he was pondering some weighty life issue, only to mutter from time to time about the goals he'd failed to achieve over the break.
"What's with him?" Haruto asked Yuuji.
The answer wasn't unexpected.
"Last night he stayed up the whole night trying to beat a game and still didn't clear it. Now that school's started, he won't have the free time, so it's going to take him another couple days at least to finish it."
Haruto glanced at Yoshii, who looked like he'd lost all meaning in life, and silently turned away. Staring at him any longer felt like it might lower his own IQ.
"The next break's in December," Yuuji sighed. "It's only August now. Four months to go… that's a bit long."
Between sweating through classes and lounging under an air conditioner at home, Yuuji obviously preferred the latter. Even in their thin summer uniforms, the classroom heat was oppressive. Just sitting there made Haruto restless, a sheen of sweat slowly forming on his forehead.
"So, Haruto," Yuuji asked, "what did you get up to for the rest of summer? Felt like you disappeared completely."
"I enrolled in a cram school. Thinking ahead for the future."
That made Yoshii, who had been zoning out, turn toward Haruto in shock.
"Cram school…? Wow."
Yuuji also gave Haruto a strange look, as though Haruto had just betrayed their brotherhood. After a long, wordless stare, Yuuji simply patted Haruto's shoulder and sighed. His strangely understanding expression only left Haruto wondering what on earth that was supposed to mean.
Having spent nearly half of summer at Tsubota's cram school, Haruto found the pace of class at his regular school dull in comparison. He flipped through his textbook without much interest—most of the material was already familiar, and the explanations were so basic they were practically useless. Eventually, he pulled out a supplementary workbook and started scribbling in it instead.
At lunch, Haruto went alone to the cafeteria, ordered a beef bowl, and sat down. Before he could take his first bite, someone sat across from him.
When the person's chest-length wavy hair bounced slightly as she sat, Haruto couldn't help but glance up. His eyes met the sharp, unblinking gaze of Nakano Itsuki. She set down her tray and stared right at him.
"…"
Haruto lowered his head, calmly scooping beef and rice into his mouth. Itsuki's expression tightened in mild irritation at being so easily brushed off.
"Ahem!" She cleared her throat pointedly.
Haruto only frowned.
"What kind of reaction is that?" she demanded.
"Making sure you're not sick—I don't want to catch a cold."
"I'm not sick!"
"Only an idiot wouldn't catch a cold."
"…"
…She was getting angry.
Itsuki felt her temper flare but kept it in check.
"I didn't see you the entire summer. Were you really that busy?"
"I wasn't in Tokyo for the first part of summer. The rest of the time I was at cram school. So, if you were hoping for tutoring, that probably won't work anymore."
"Which cram school?"
"Huh?"
"If I go to the same one, I can still ask you questions, can't I?"
"Why not just ask the actual teachers?"
"Shut up."
Haruto gave her a sidelong glance and returned to eating. After a moment, Itsuki gave a soft "hmph" and started on her own lunch.
"Aomine Cram Scchool. Go if you want."
Leaving her with just the name, Haruto finished his meal, dropped off his tray, and left the cafeteria. Itsuki quietly repeated the cram school's name in her mind, committing it to memory.
Rather than returning straight to class, Haruto wandered across campus, turned a corner, and stopped in front of Futaba Rio's lab.
The door was open, and inside he spotted the girl in her white coat, carefully dripping some unknown liquid into a test tube. Haruto walked in, keeping a respectful distance, and watched her work.
"Did you need something from me?" she asked, setting the test tube down. The liquid had bloomed into a faint pink.
"Nothing in particular. Just checking to see what you're up to… and whether you've eaten."
Rio gave him a long, speechless look, then removed her gloves and sat down at the small table. She took out her bento box.
Haruto joined her, resting his chin on one hand and watching as she opened it.
"Smells good," he said.
"You've already eaten, haven't you?"
"Hm?"
Haruto blinked in mild confusion at Rio's sudden comment. She didn't explain where she'd gotten her information—just picked up her chopsticks and began eating her lunch with an unhurried grace.
Puzzled, Haruto brushed his fingertips along the corner of his mouth, checking for any stray grains of rice. Finding nothing, he relaxed a little. The thought of having walked all over campus with food stuck to his face made him cringe inside.
Rio, noticing the shift in his expression, seemed momentarily curious. Then, with a small flicker of realization, she said,
"I saw you coming from the cafeteria during the break just now. Figured you'd already eaten."
"Ah… so that's it. I thought you had some other reason."
"Nope."
Her answer was brisk and certain. Haruto smiled faintly at her straightforwardness.
"Got any plans this week?"
"What are you thinking of doing?"
"Plenty of things. Just… not this afternoon. Probably have to wait until the weekend."
Rio pressed her lips together, her calm gaze fixed on him for a long moment before she looked down again.
"Do whatever you want. But I might not be free this weekend."
"Then next week works too."
She didn't respond to his easygoing tone, simply finishing her lunch in silence. Once she'd packed away her bento box, she returned to her experiment. Haruto lingered for a while longer before heading back to class just before the lunch break ended.
Life on campus resumed without any real twists—just as it had last term. The same routines, the same atmosphere.
He glanced over toward Eriri. She wasn't looking his way, and he couldn't tell what had shifted in her mindset, but for now, she didn't seem to be having any obvious problems.
When classes ended for the day, Haruto made his way to the astronomy club room. There, he found Koharu waiting—dressed in white stockings just to suit his tastes. He pulled her into his arms, and together they talked about Sayu and her brother, Ogiwara Issa.
"That man Ogiwara Issa—" Koharu began. "He's Sayu's older brother, her father's first child. But when Sayu's mother was pregnant, her father took a new mistress and divorced her. Sayu's mother thought she could use the baby(Sayu) to win her husband back… but when that failed, she grew cold toward Sayu."
She pulled a folder from her desk drawer—information she'd gathered after spotting Issa loitering near Haruto's home.
"So she treated her daughter like a bargaining chip, and when it didn't work, she resented her for it?"
"Something like that. Because of her family situation, Sayu was bullied and ostracized at school. Eventually, she met another girl with a similar story—Yuuko. The two of them became close, but they were still isolated together. Yuuko couldn't take it and ended her own life. Sayu was the only witness, and the suspicions that followed… I think that's what finally drove her to run away from home."
"You've got all this in detail?" Haruto asked, eyebrows lifting as he flipped through the papers.
"It was a big story in the news. I had someone pose as a journalist and dig around—it didn't take long to get the details."
"Any business ties between Ogiwara Foods and your family?"
"None."
Her family had no dealings in the food industry, and she wouldn't have cared about the Ogiwaras if Issa hadn't been lurking around Haruto's place.
"And Issa himself?"
"He's Sayu's older brother, but they grew up apart. He knows what his mother and sister have gone through, so he's tried to take care of her—but only in a material sense."
"So going back home isn't going to be easy for her."
"Mm."
Koharu didn't particularly care about Sayu, but since Haruto voiced it, she agreed without argument.
"You going to do something for her?"
"Like what? Buy a ticket, fly straight to Hokkaido, show up in front of her, and say, 'Don't worry, you've still got me'? Is that the idea?"
"Sounds pretty romantic."
"I barely have any real connection with her. Doing that would just be self-indulgent."
He held Koharu closer, pressing his forehead lightly to her hair and breathing in the faint scent.
"Let things happen naturally."
She didn't reply, just sat quietly in his arms with a thoughtful look on her face.
— — — —
In Hokkaido, Issa sat across from his sister.
"Life in Tokyo might be even harder than it was here. Are you sure?" he asked after a pause.
"Yeah."
Sayu's eyes were dull, her voice flat. After returning home and facing the woman called "mother" again, she'd been met not with welcome but with a slap—and the accusation that everything was her fault.
A house without warmth—could that still be called home?
Ichika's lips parted, but whatever words he wanted to say died before they left his mouth. He sighed inwardly.
"Alright. Then leave it to me. I'll take you to Tokyo. The place you'll be staying is near that guy, Miyamizu—Is that okay??"
"Umm."
~~~~~~~~~~
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