The List Wasn't Kindness

Sakura Airi's toes drew back half an inch.

Kushida's pen tip had already touched the clipboard.

"Sorry, Sakura." Her voice remained soft. "When you went to get water last night, your right foot kept landing more lightly than your left. That's why I guessed your ankle might be bothering you."

As she spoke, her pen moved downward as well.

Gu Heng reached out and pressed down on the clipboard.

"Don't write it yet."

The surroundings fell silent at once.

Sakura clutched the hem of her clothes, her shoulders drawing in a little further. She didn't look at Kushida, only stared at that small blank patch of paper.

Gu Heng asked her first, "Do you want your ankle written down?"

Sakura's lips moved, but in the end, she shook her head faintly.

"I don't want to..."

Gu Heng nodded and crossed out the word "ankle."

"Then we won't write it."

The several tense gazes from the girls' side didn't immediately disperse.

Some looked at the crossed-out line as though they were confirming for the first time that today's records might not nail their embarrassment in place as well. Others still stared at the clipboard, clearly waiting to see whether Gu Heng would rephrase it and slip the same meaning back in.

Sakura's throat moved slightly, as if she instinctively wanted to thank him, yet feared that opening her mouth would draw even more attention onto herself.

The smile on Kushida's face didn't fade, but her thumb paused against the edge of the clipboard for half a beat. She didn't rush to fill that space with different wording.

Ike Kanji scratched his head nearby.

"But if we don't write the reason, how are we supposed to assign people later?"

"What nearly caused trouble just now was that nobody knew who should take which stretch, not that someone didn't explain their private matters in enough detail." Gu Heng turned the clipboard toward the middle. "What we need is an arrangement we can carry out, not medical records."

Horikita looked at him.

"If we don't record the reasons at all, someone will still push themselves too hard next round."

Hirata didn't respond right away either.

He glanced at Sakura before speaking quietly. "But if we only write whether someone can walk or not, the assignments will be too rough."

Horikita added, "Who writes it, who sees it, and who can change it—we need to make that clear first."

"Otherwise, even if we stop it today, someone else will bring up the exact same thing next round."

Gu Heng pulled out a blank sheet and pressed it beside the clipboard, then wrote three lines.

Girls' preference sheet

Status limitations sheet

Final coordination sheet

"Separate them," he said. "From now on, the three sheets will handle three different things."

Yukimura understood first.

"Explain."

Gu Heng pushed the three sheets apart at different distances, making sure none of them covered another.

"Kushida takes the girls' preference sheet." Gu Heng looked at her. "Only ask whether they're willing to be grouped with someone, whether they need someone from the girls' side to speak to them first, and whether they want someone to walk with them. Record preferences only, not reasons."

Kushida blinked, the smile still hanging on her face.

"What about their status?"

"Sakura will copy down the status limitations sheet." Gu Heng slid the second sheet in front of Sakura. "Only write down current limitations: long routes, carrying loads, rear position, whether they need support. Don't write the reason unless the person agrees."

Sakura was visibly stunned.

"Me?"

"You're on the slower route yourself," Gu Heng said. "When people see the sheet in your hands, they'll understand first that it isn't there for people to laugh at."

Someone among the girls raised her head.

Letting Kushida hold the form and letting Sakura hold the form were completely different messages. The former was like holding the paper up beneath a lamp; the latter was more like tucking it into one's sleeve, leaving only the lines that truly needed to be carried out.

Sakura's fingertips lingered at the edge of the paper. After a long while, she nodded lightly.

"...I can do it."

Finally, Gu Heng looked at Hirata.

"The final coordination sheet goes to you. Routes, rear positions, loads, replacements—only those go on this sheet. No final placements without checking the first two sheets."

Hirata took the final sheet.

He turned it over first, as though telling everyone that this sheet wouldn't be laid out here for people to crowd around and inspect.

"So no one will hold both someone else's reasons and their final placement at the same time."

"Right."

Only then did Kushida smile faintly.

"Gu Heng, are you afraid I'll let something slip?"

"I'm not worried about you alone." Gu Heng removed his hand from the clipboard. "This is to prevent anyone from knowing both why someone is embarrassed and where they'll be placed next round. Including me."

Kushida looked at the three separated sheets. Her smile remained, but her voice grew softer.

"So now I'm only passing messages along?"

"Passing messages is dangerous enough," Gu Heng said. "That's why someone needs to watch over it. You're passing along preferences, not private reasons."

Horikita added coldly, "And you already crossed the line once just now."

Hirata looked at Gu Heng, as if confirming that this wasn't something he had improvised merely to shut someone down.

Gu Heng didn't avoid his gaze.

He knew that once the three sheets were separated, everyone would remember who had drawn the boundary here today.

If anyone wanted to squeeze reasons and placements back onto the same sheet, they would at least have to overturn these rules in front of everyone.

After those words fell, the people whose shoulders had been tense just moments ago visibly slowed their breathing.

Ike Kanji muttered under his breath, "How did one list get split into so many...?"

Yukimura didn't even raise his head.

"Because your brain can only handle looking at one."

Hirata didn't let the two continue bickering.

He pressed the three sheets down separately and steadied his voice.

"We'll follow the new rules first. Whether someone wants to speak goes through Kushida; what they can do goes through Sakura; I'll confirm the final arrangement."

"Before anything is written down, I'll ask the person again," Hirata said. "Anyone can change it on the spot. No explanation needed."

Sakura spread out the status limitations sheet, her pen touching down very lightly.

The first line only read:

Short route

No carrying loads

No reason.

After writing that line, her shoulders were actually less tense than before.

Kushida took back the girls' preference sheet as well and turned with a smile toward Inokashira Kohane beside her.

"Inokashira, if you're assigned to the slower group, would you be willing to walk with Sakura?"

Inokashira first looked at the sheet in Sakura's hands, then at Kushida.

"I-I could..."

Kushida only wrote down, Can be grouped together.

This time, she didn't ask anything further.

Another girl beside them hesitated. The first thing she brought up wasn't her status.

"If I have to say something... I want to speak to a girl first."

"That's fine." Kushida nodded. This time, she only wrote Needs a girl to speak first on the girls' preference sheet. "You only have to say as much as you're willing to."

Sakura lowered her head and copied down the status limitations sheet, only placing that person in the Middle section without looking up at her expression.

Only at this point did the process finally seem truly separated.

The girls who had originally been crowded together also spread apart by half a step.

At least now, they knew they weren't speaking to the same list that would swallow everything whole.

The first person to speak no longer had to immediately worry that her vague "I don't feel well" would be casually translated into something the entire class could spread around.

That small measure of restraint didn't seem like much, but it was precisely what would determine whether anyone was still willing to tell the truth later.

Hirata pressed the final coordination sheet against his knee and slowly continued downward while comparing it with Sakura's status limitations sheet.

Every time he added an entry, he would first turn the paper over for the person involved to see, then press that line back against his knee. Even when Ike Kanji complained quietly that "this is taking forever," nobody casually finished someone else's sentence for them anymore.

Even Ike Kanji, who had originally leaned his head over to peek, sulkily pulled back when Hirata turned the paper face-down against his knee.

Just as the atmosphere settled somewhat, Kushida raised her head again.

"Shinohara."

Shinohara looked over with her arms folded.

"What?"

Kushida's eyes curved, her tone still gentle.

"I'll reserve a rear position for you today. Don't go near the water route either. If that foot slips again like it did last night, it'll be even more troublesome."

Her pen hovered over the girls' preference sheet without touching down.

Yet the surroundings fell silent again.

Horikita's gaze turned cold first.

The final coordination sheet in Hirata's hands also stopped moving.

Several gazes that had just lowered lifted again, landing on Kushida's sheet—the one that was only supposed to record preferences.

The force with which Shinohara held her arms slowly tightened.

What upset her was no longer merely "being assigned to the rear."

What she stared at was the overly familiar tone Kushida had used when she said "last night." It wasn't a guess. It was more like someone had already grasped the part of her that she hadn't intended to make public, merely waiting for a convenient chance to speak for her.

Even Inokashira pulled back the hand she had just relaxed.

The three sheets that had only just been separated seemed to have been dragged back toward the same dangerous direction by that one remark.

"That foot last night?"

She stepped half a pace forward and fixed her eyes on Kushida's face.

"How do you know about that?"