The Girl Named Tsubaki Yuki

Waking up from her nap, Tsubaki Yuki checked her phone; it was already 2:30 PM.

It was too late to go to the club orientation now.

She got up, washed up briefly, and pondered what to do for the afternoon.

Why did she say those things to Yuto at noon? She knew perfectly well that Yuto had come to this school just to help her...

After being eliminated from the white room, she felt as if she had lost the ability to speak. Seeing her parents for the first time, seeing her younger sister for the first time—none of it felt real.

Even though, back in the white room, she had been able to talk to Kiyotaka and Yuto just fine.

Her parents loved her, and her sister cared for her deeply.

She had once tried attending school, going to a normal institution to relearn the lessons she had already mastered long ago in the white room.

But it wasn't long before the teachers spoke with her parents, suggesting they take her to see a psychiatrist.

The psychiatrist's diagnosis was severe depression.

Because they couldn't get anything out of Yuki, her parents deliberated before signing a non-disclosure agreement with the doctor, then revealed the truth about the white room.

It was the first time the doctor had heard such shocking information, and in the end, they could only attribute it to post-elimination stress disorder.

From that moment on, Yuki began six years of inpatient treatment.

The sterile hospital room gave her a long-lost sense of peace, as if she had returned to the white room.

That was until the moment she saw Yuto again, six years later—

Tsubaki Yuki loved to dance. She had originally intended to join the dance club, but she had been left feeling a bit overwhelmed at noon by the news that Yuto and Sakayanagi were heading to the club orientation.

It felt as though choosing to follow them now would be like keeping them under surveillance.

It would be the same if she signed up later, she thought, and decided what she would do for the afternoon.

She would go to the supermarket to buy some things: stationery for her studies, and some snacks to keep in her dorm room.

She poured herself a glass of water and picked up the medicine bottle on the table. The word "amitriptyline" was faintly visible on the label.

After swallowing the pill with the water, Tsubaki Yuki felt her body and mind ease significantly. She changed her clothes and headed out.

Perhaps it was because all the freshmen were at the gymnasium for the club orientation, but there were very few customers in the supermarket. Tsubaki Yuki bought some food; she was very fond of wagashi, especially sakura daifuku.

Arriving at the stationery section, she planned to buy pencils and an eraser.

After picking out her pencils, she looked at the colorful array of erasers on the shelf and found herself struggling to choose.

"This one seems really popular; there's only one left..."

Just then, her gaze was suddenly drawn to that specific eraser.

With its simple white and blue packaging, the brand-new eraser, about the length of a thumb, lay quietly and alone in its cardboard box, like a solitary star in the universe.

She stood frozen in place, staring at the eraser for a long time, her vision seemingly sucked into a black hole.

It was a style deeply etched in her memory, the same type provided by the instructors back in the white room. She hadn't seen one since leaving that place.

Why was she so fixated on an eraser just because it was the same model?

Was she nostalgic for life in the white room, or did she loathe it?

Complex emotions swirled incessantly in the mind of tsubaki yuki. She was glad she had taken her medication properly before heading out.

At that moment, a large hand reached out from the corner of her eye and ruthlessly snatched up the last remaining eraser.

tsubaki yuki blinked, stunned, as if she hadn't yet recovered her senses.

The owner of the hand, a boy with long, deep purple hair, glanced at her with a sharp gaze. He walked away without saying a word, likely thinking she was a bit strange.

Only then did tsubaki yuki snap out of it, feeling a pang of regret for just standing there blankly. If she had acted sooner, it wouldn't have been taken by someone else.

No, deep down, did she really want that eraser? Did staring at it for so long mean she was actually afraid of it?

Afraid of the life in the white room that it symbolized?

It was like a microcosm of the white room—the scorching white, the blinding blue.

The boy who had taken the last eraser was also holding a notebook and pens—a full set of study supplies. It seemed he was just there to buy stationery and had simply happened to pick that eraser.

"Excuse me, please wait!"

ryuen kakeru had just finished paying and left the store, pondering how to make that tall, dark-skinned guy in his class submit to him, when he suddenly heard a girl calling out from behind.

He turned around, looking puzzled.

It was the girl who had been spacing out in the stationery section earlier. He had thought she was an upperclassman, but judging by her tone, it was more likely she was in the same grade.

"What is it?" he asked, his tone cold.

"I'm tsubaki yuki from class d," the girl said, her tone sincere. "Would you be willing to sell me the eraser you just bought? I was spacing out earlier, and you grabbed it first, but I actually really wanted that style..."

What is this girl playing at? Any eraser would do, wouldn't it?

Ryuen Kakeru said casually:

"You know this is the last one, right? Tell you what, give me ten thousand points and I'll give it to you. How about that?"

The eraser only cost 100 points. By deliberately emphasizing that it was the "last one," he was clearly price-gouging and making things difficult for her on purpose.

But he didn't expect—

"Is ten thousand enough?" Tsubaki Yuki said, actually pulling out her phone to transfer the points.

This girl really is a bit of an idiot, isn't she? Ryuen Kakeru lost interest instantly. Boring.

Based on his observations, Class D seemed to be filled with nothing but weirdos. Perhaps the school's class assignments were intentional after all.

He took the eraser out of the shopping bag. He didn't see anything special about it; it was just a plain, ordinary eraser.

"Here, take it if you want it." He tossed the eraser toward Tsubaki Yuki.

He expected her to scramble to pick it up off the floor, but to his surprise, she had surprisingly good reflexes. With one hand holding her phone, she caught the eraser he threw mid-air with the other.

Ryuen Kakeru turned and walked away.

"Wait? What about the points?"

"Forget it. Go find somewhere else to play." Ryuen Kakeru didn't even look back.

"Wait, please at least take this eraser." Tsubaki Yuki chased after him and handed him a new eraser.

"Since you gave yours to me, you don't have one anymore. I thought I should at least bring you a new one."

Was she worried about him not having an eraser to use? How unnecessary. He didn't need to study; he only bought things to write down his plans.

"Thank you so much. What is your name?"

"Ryuen Kakeru, Class 1-C."

She looked surprised. "Eh? I thought you were an upperclassman... since you were out at this hour... Thank you so much, Ryuen-kun!"

With that, she hurried away.

What a weirdo. Ryuen Kakeru looked down at the new eraser in his hand and couldn't help but frown.

"Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to use this pink eraser shaped like a sakura daifuku?"