Gu Heng enlarged the photo to the corner of the chart, his thumb pressed against the edge of the screen.
He turned the terminal into his palm and checked on Hirata first.
Hirata's eyes, which had just closed, were already open. His hands were braced on his knees.
Over by the girls' group, the sound of pages turning had stopped as well.
The two terminals lit up almost simultaneously, their glow falling over the girls' preference sheet in Kushida's hands.
Kushida stood on the other side, holding the sheet a little lower, its corner resting against her thigh.
Shinohara was the first to turn off her terminal. Her fingertips hovered near the hair tie around Kushida's wrist.
That thin hair tie was right there.
"Kushida."
Shinohara's voice was quiet.
One girl held onto her water bottle, forgetting to put it down. Another dimmed her terminal screen.
"What's with the photo?"
Kushida lowered her eyes and glanced at her wrist.
When she looked up again, she drew the girls' preference sheet closer to herself and softened her voice.
"I don't know."
"That's your hand in the photo, right?"
"Yes."
Kushida's hand remained pressed against the edge of the sheet. She did not pull it back into her sleeve.
"But I didn't take it."
Someone in the girls' group loosened her grip on her water bottle.
Others shifted their heels half a step away.
Shinohara turned toward the people who had been standing beside Kushida.
They flipped their terminal screens back into their palms and said nothing.
Hirata stood up.
"Don't crowd around Kushida for now."
Gu Heng lifted a hand to stop him.
Hirata's toe was halted by Gu Heng's raised hand.
But this time, he did not step back.
"I'll only say one thing."
Hirata stood before the crowd.
"Before