"This is a cruel joke," Ren whispered.
The teacher, arms crossed, clearly didn't care.
"Six people skipped cleanup last week. So now? All six of you. Together. One hour. Gym storage room."
Rika raised an eyebrow. "This is technically emotional warfare."
Yui groaned. "I didn't skip. Ren did. Why am I here?"
Haruka didn't say anything, but her sigh was loud enough to count as a full sentence.
Emi already had gloves on, eyes locked forward like she was marching into a battlefield.
Mei stood off to the side. Quiet. Distant.
And Asuka?
She smiled. "Finally. I love confined spaces and unresolved tension."
The gym storage room smelled like chalk and loneliness.
Old mats were piled in corners. A broken basketball hoop leaned against a stack of folding chairs.
Ren held a broom like it was a weapon.
"Okay. Let's just clean. Quietly. No drama."
Rika smirked. "Aw, but drama is my only personality trait."
Asuka leaned on a mop. "Mine too."
Ten minutes passed.
Silence.
Except for:
The squeak of Yui scrubbing too hard.
Rika humming the theme song of a romantic drama way too pointedly.
Emi wiping shelves like she was erasing memories.
Mei organizing boxes with robotic precision.
Haruka cleaning the same spot on the window frame. Over and over.
Ren swept.
And swept.
And tried not to explode.
Then someone finally spoke.
Asuka: "So. What's it like?"
Ren blinked. "What's what like?"
Asuka: "Being adored by five beautiful girls and being too emotionally constipated to pick one."
Cue silence.
Haruka dropped her cloth.
Yui snapped her head around. "Say that again?"
Asuka turned with the grace of a villainess in a dating sim.
Asuka: "I said—"
Rika: "We heard you. Loud and annoying."
Asuka (grinning): "Aw. Did I touch a nerve, Minami-san?"
"You're not touching anything except this mop," Rika said sweetly. "Before I shove it—"
Emi: "Enough."
Her voice was soft.
But it cut through the room like a knife.
Everyone froze.
She turned to Ren.
"You're not the only one confused, you know."
"You keep saying you don't want to hurt us. But silence hurts more."
"We're all scared too."
She looked at the others now.
"We're scared of being second. Of being forgotten. Of losing what we already have."
Mei said nothing.
But she had stopped cleaning.
Ren swallowed.
"…I'm sorry."
No one spoke.
He continued.
"I'm sorry for not choosing. For not being honest. For laughing with someone new. For running from everything that felt real."
"And I'm sorry most of all… that you all still showed up when I got sick."
He looked around the room.
One by one, they met his eyes.
Yui. Haruka. Rika. Emi. Mei.
Even Asuka.
No one smiled.
But no one walked away.
They cleaned in silence after that.
Not because the tension was gone.
But because sometimes, the only way to survive the fire…
…is to keep moving through the smoke.