A large group photo was quickly taken, without cheers or sadness, as everyone still had about half a month to spend together.
Everyone in the gymnasium was quickly waved back to the classroom by Teacher Fujiro-sensei to continue class.
Before the cherry blossoms in the sunlight could cast complete shadows on the curtains, the after-school bell woke up the frozen time on the blackboard.
"Class dismissed, everyone be careful on your way home." An elderly teacher on the podium closed the textbook in his hand, nodded to the students, and left the classroom.
Amidst the noise, Tsuna quickly packed his school bag, waiting for Shouko, who was still chatting nearby.
"Let's go, Tsuna, to the Art Club."
"Okay."
In the final period, Tsuna had already withdrawn from the Track and Field Club, and Mr. Sakai also agreed to his decision.
Now, the two only had the Art Club in common, and Shouko was still the Art Club Leader, so she couldn't withdraw anytime soon.
Following the memories in their minds, the two walked to the Art Club on the first floor of Teaching Building No. 3.
A year ago, due to the Principal's impulsive decision, the Art Club was also moved from its original location to Building 3, and most clubs were moved here.
"Knock knock... knock..." Tsuna knocked on the door first, but there was no response for a long time.
Seeing this, Shouko took out the Art Club key from her school bag, opened the classroom door, and walked in. "It seems Teacher Fujiro hasn't arrived yet."
Tsuna simply glanced around the classroom and shrugged. "After all, Teacher Fujiro is pregnant, so she must have been delayed by that. Otherwise, she would usually want to stay in the Art Club twenty-four hours a day."
The two walked to the back seats and sat down, starting to continue the painting they hadn't finished yesterday.
As time passed, more and more club members came to the Art Club, greeting the two one by one, and Tsuna and Shouko responded politely.
After all, these two were the only third-year students here, and Shouko was their kind Art Club Leader.
As for the other girl of the same grade who joined the club at the beginning, she had already withdrawn from the club half a month ago.
"Knock... knock... knock...!"
As the last bell of the afternoon rang, everyone in the Art Club said goodbye to each other and left school.
Tsuna and Shouko cleaned up, checked that nothing was left behind, and locked the door.
The March wind still carried a biting chill but had been warmed into a honey color by the setting sun.
The pachinko parlor on the corner lit up with neon lights, and office workers in camel-colored trench coats streamed out of the station ticket gates.
Their leather shoes and the round-toed Mary Jane shoes of high school girls crisscrossed on the stone path, and the shadows of briefcases and Rakuten shopping bags overlapped on the ground.
In the broadcast of the train arriving at the station, someone adjusted their bangs, messed up by the west wind, in front of their phone camera, and the rhinestones on the black phone charm shimmered with a faint rainbow.
Somewhere, early-blooming Kawazu cherry blossoms were rustling down. The moment Ajitani raised her hand to catch a petal, the white shirt inside her uniform cuff was revealed.
"I'm home!"
"I'm home."
"Welcome home...!"
Shouko, who was changing shoes at the entrance, was startled because the 'Welcome home' was Yuzuru's voice, and she had clearly returned to Tsuna's house.
Tsuna didn't think too much, changed his shoes, walked into the living room, and looked at Yuzuru eating strawberries. "Yuzuru, shouldn't you be taking Hachiko for a walk at this time?"
He was still a little unaccustomed to her short haircut from half a month ago, after all, he had seen her with long hair for several years.
When she first wanted to cut her hair short, Auntie Yaeko and his mom thought she might have been bullied at school.
Because they were worried, they secretly investigated without telling her and found out it was a big misunderstanding. Yuzuru simply wanted to change her style, and the weather was going to get warmer, so she also found the long hair a bit bothersome.
They naturally wouldn't tell her about this, otherwise, they didn't know how long she would laugh.
"I gave Hachiko a day off, so no walk today. Let him rest." Yuzuru waved her hand without raising her head.
"Woof..." Hachiko lay on the tatami mat nearby, whimpering softly.
From the time he was picked up from Kindergarten until now, he was no longer young, and you could tell even from his bark.
"Yuzuru came here to borrow your junior high textbooks." Shizuka on the sofa lowered the TV volume and explained, looking at the two at the living room entrance.
Tsuna walked to the coffee table and sat down. "Mom, are you sure I would have these textbooks?"
"I know you don't have them, but that doesn't stop me from keeping Yuzuru here to watch TV with me."
"..." Tsuna was slightly speechless. This was even worse than not explaining why Yuzuru was here. "Do you still need them? I remember Futaba Publishing sells them."
Yuzuru stood up and waved her hand. "No need, Onii-san. I've already found my sister's old textbooks. I originally came to borrow them just out of curiosity to see what a study ace's textbooks are like."
She then explained to the two why she needed the textbooks and led Hachiko home. To be blunt, it was simply because the school teachers were bored.
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As the last train passed over the elevated bridge, someone stood on the platform using their phone to photograph the blurry moon.
In the aftershock of the vibrating tracks, the neon sign of the 24-hour video store stretched and flattened his shadow, finally turning it into a swaying ginkgo leaf in a river of ink.
The mist from Oden drifted from behind the warm curtain of the izakaya, colliding at the intersection with the white smoke exhaled by commuters surging from the direction of the station.
"Tsuna, I'm going back to sleep now, goodnight."
"Goodnight."
"Click..."
Only after the door closed did he look away, his gaze returning to the lit computer screen.
After thinking for a moment, he decisively picked up the phone nearby, unlocked it, and started looking for the email address of the editor from Futaba Publishing he was interested in.
His gaze finally settled on a large headshot of a girl wearing round-rimmed glasses and two braids, with her email address next to it.
Tsuna followed the process from two years ago, submitting the first volume of [Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day],while mumbling:
"Whether you can grasp the password to wealth depends on your choice."
Meanwhile, in the house next door to Miyamura's, Yuzuru said goodnight to Yaeko in the living room and quickly returned to her room.
Closing the door, she went straight to her destination, taking out her sister's old textbook from her school bag.
Placing it on the desk, she opened the first page, looked at the four large characters 'Miyamura Shouko' on it, and decisively took out her camera to preserve the evidence.
Evidence that her sister was giving something away for free, and this, without accident, could also 'threaten' her sister a little.
For example, when eating something delicious, she could make her sister give up half or something.
When she came home this afternoon with Hachiko and found this textbook in the storage room, she was incredibly surprised.
And she was sure that her sister had definitely forgotten about this, otherwise, she wouldn't be so calm. She didn't believe her sister could be that calm.