At that moment, her eyes widened noticeably for an instant.
Then she quickly looked away.
Lin Mu and Kushida entered the dorm room one after the other.
The room was small, but tidy.
The bed was neatly made, and the blanket was folded into a perfect square.
The stationery on the desk was neatly arranged, with notebooks and textbooks lined up by size.
A few little succulents sat on the windowsill. Sunlight streamed through a gap in the curtains, falling on their plump leaves.
Several cute stickers were stuck to the wall: a bear, a rabbit, and stars.
A plush toy sat on the bedside table: a little cat wearing a bow.
Cute little decorations filled the room, giving it a distinctly girlish feel.
But there was also a lonely, chilly air about it, quiet and forlorn.
Kikyo Kushida looked around the room with a gentle smile, ready to say something polite.
Lin Mu spoke first.
He leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets, a new grape-flavored lollipop between his teeth.
He looked calmly at Airi Sakura, making no attempt to beat around the bush. He got straight to the point:
"Hey, Sakura."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly through the quiet room:
"You're the witness to Sudo's assault incident, right?"
One sentence.
The quiet room froze in an instant.
Kikyo Kushida jolted, the gentle smile she'd prepared frozen at the corners of her mouth.
She hadn't expected Lin Mu to be so direct. No small talk, no preamble.
No roundabout approach like, "We just wanted to ask if you'd heard anything." He'd simply put the question to her, bluntly and straight to the point.
For a moment, she forgot to react. She just stared blankly at Lin Mu, then looked at Sakura.
Airi Sakura