The mushroom-haired little girl began trembling all over.
She pressed her lips tightly together.
Only a few sounds escaped her now and then.
The mushroom-haired little girl started elementary school.
This time, she wasn't a transfer student.
Like all the other students, she came to a new class.
But her experience...
was no different.
It was like kindergarten all over again.
The mushroom-haired little girl was quiet, timid, and shy.
She barely spoke even to the classmate sitting beside her.
Her deskmate preferred talking to the students in front of and behind them.
During PE, she always went around with someone else.
At lunchtime, the mushroom-haired little girl was alone again.
The mushroom-haired little girl was disappointed.
She never met another "Lulu."
But...
she gradually accepted—or perhaps simply grew used to—being "all alone."
She went to school and came home by herself.
She ate lunch and went to PE alone.
Whenever they had to form teams for an assignment, she didn't have to do anything.
She could just wait until the students left over at the end teamed up with her.
There was nothing left for her to hide or cover up.
Everyone knew she had no friends in class...
The mushroom-haired little girl stopped thinking about Lulu as much.
She made herself avoid thinking about her.
She even began to resent Lulu a little.
After all this time...
Lulu really hadn't come back to see her.
She had still held on to a faint hope...
Maybe...
they would meet again in elementary school.
Sadly, that wasn't what happened.
The mushroom-haired little girl gathered all her courage and passed by the door of every classroom.
She didn't find the familiar figure she was looking for.
No.
She didn't find the familiar figure she wanted to