Morning came, but the air in Team 12's dorm felt wrong. Not tense, wrong. Like a piano just slightly out of tune.
Rika stirred awake to the faint sound of Akari humming in the kitchen, a tune bright and careless, but it grated against her nerves instead of soothing. She blinked, disoriented, memories of last night's storm of emotions lingering like shadows.
Across the room, Hina sat cross-legged on her bed, hair a messy halo as she scrolled through her notebook of scribbles. She noticed Rika stirring and offered a sheepish smile. "Morning. Um… you slept through Daika slamming the door at, like, 3 a.m. Impressive."
Rika sat up slowly, clutching the blanket tighter around herself. She remembered the low growl in Daika's voice before they parted ways last night, words curled in her chest like embers: don't break, kitten.
Her cheeks heated instantly. She shook her head hard, trying to shove the memory down.
