Emotional Trash Can

When the faculty office door opened from the inside, there was hardly anyone left in the hallway.

Horikita Suzune stepped out. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, casting light straight down from above and shrinking her shadow into a tiny patch beneath her feet.

She walked to the stairwell but did not go down. Instead, she stopped at the corner and leaned against the wall for several seconds.

Chabashira-sensei had said it: Sudo's one point could be bought for one hundred thousand points.

She scrolled through her contacts, stared at one name for a while, then backed out.

She stood there for several seconds with her phone clenched in her hand, then took it out again, typed a few words, deleted them, typed them again, and deleted them again.

In the end, she sent three words: "Are you there?"

By the time Kiryu Yume received the message, he was already back in the classroom reviewing his notes. The setting sun slanted in, cutting an orange streak across the edge of his desk, and his phone lit up in the glow.

He glanced at the screen. Horikita Suzune.

He opened it. "I am. What's up?"

Half a minute passed before she replied. It was not a message—the typing indicator appeared and vanished, appeared and vanished.

Kiryu Yume watched it flicker several times without urging her.

At last, a line appeared: "Are you free right now?"

Kiryu Yume: "Yeah. Go ahead."

There was no response again.

After waiting a while, Kiryu Yume added, "Just say it."

More than ten seconds later, the message came. "I need fifty thousand points. I'm borrowing them for Class D. I'll pay you back."

Kiryu Yume looked at the message. It had taken her so long to send that one sentence. He did not ask what it was for and transferred fifty thousand points. "Is that enough?"

More than ten seconds later, she replied with one word: "Enough. Thanks."

Kiryu Yume: "Mm."

He did not reply again and slipped his phone into his pocket.

The chair beside him was pulled out, and Morishita Ran sat back down with a bottle of tea in hand.

After sitting down, she glanced at him. "Your expression changed three times just now."

Kiryu Yume blinked. "What?"

"You had one expression when you got the message, another after you transferred the money, and then you changed again after reading the reply."

She twisted open the cap and took a sip, asking nothing further.

After waiting a moment, Kiryu Yume said, "Aren't you going to ask me anything?"

She thought about it. "You wouldn't tell the truth even if I asked, and I don't really want to know."

She set the tea bottle on the desk. Condensation on the outside spread into a small wet ring on the tabletop.

Kiryu Yume looked at her and lowered his voice. "Mama Morishita."

She did not look up. "Mm."

"Mama Morishita."

"Mm."

"You're talking more today."

She turned a page in her book. "You have less money today."

Kiryu Yume froze for a moment. She did not look at him, and the sound of her turning pages was very soft.

That evening, news that Sudo Ken's expulsion had been revoked spread throughout the grade.

Sudo was staying, and Class D's class points had not been deducted.

At nine that night, Kiryu Yume lay on his side in his dorm bed with the desk lamp on, its light falling against the white wall.

The phone beside his pillow lit up.

Kushida Kikyo: "How much do you know about what happened today?"

Kiryu Yume looked at the message but did not rush to reply.

He deleted several words, typed several more, and finally sent four: "Which thing do you mean?"

A minute passed before she replied. "True, so much happened today. Sudo-kun is okay now. That's great."

She's putting on an act.

He did not play along. "Mama Kushida, you must've had a tiring day too."

A few seconds later, his phone vibrated.

Kushida Kikyo: "Are you sick? Who the fuck is your mama?"

The corner of Kiryu Yume's mouth twitched. "Mama Kushida, don't be so mean."

Kushida Kikyo: "Try calling me that one more time."

Kiryu Yume: "Mama Kushida."

Kushida Kikyo: "...You're addicted, aren't you?"

Kiryu Yume: "Mm, Mama Kushida."

Kushida Kikyo: "Fine. Call me whatever you want. Just don't do it in front of anyone else."

Kiryu Yume: "Got it, Mama Kushida."

Kushida Kikyo: "You were over by the hallway this afternoon, right?"

Kiryu Yume: "Mm."

Kushida Kikyo: "How much did you see?"

Kiryu Yume: "How much do you want me to have seen?"

Kushida Kikyo: "Can you fucking talk properly?"

Kushida Kikyo: "Today, I saw Horikita staring at her phone the whole time. Afterward, she stood there clutching it in her hand for ages. She didn't look too good."

She added, "Later, Sudo's situation got resolved. She did not show much of a reaction, but it got me thinking."

Kiryu Yume waited a moment. "Thinking about what?"

Kushida Kikyo: "Where her fifty thousand points came from. No one in Class D could afford that."

Kiryu Yume's finger paused above the keyboard.

Kushida Kikyo: "You already know what I'm really like, so you have to be my emotional trash can. Name your terms."

Kiryu Yume: "Fine. Every time you're done complaining, give me some useful information—school rules, class developments. You hear a lot. I'll trade information for keeping my mouth shut."

Kushida Kikyo: "You're pretty good at making deals."

Kiryu Yume: "Learned it from you, Mama Kushida."

Kushida Kikyo: "Try calling me Mama one more time."

Kiryu Yume: "Mama Kushida."

Kushida Kikyo: "..."

Kushida Kikyo: "Fine, I'll go first. I've been holding it in so hard today I'm about to explode."

Kiryu Yume rolled over on his pillow. The phone screen's light shone across his face as he lowered the brightness a little.

A few seconds later, messages began popping up one after another.

Kushida Kikyo: "Do you know how long I had to smile at Sudo's stupid face today? That idiot had the answers in his hands and still only scored thirty-nine. The whole class was cramming, and he was the only one asleep."

Kiryu Yume was about to reply when another message appeared.

Kushida Kikyo: "And that cold-faced bitch Horikita even went around gathering points to save him. Why save him? Because losing one person means class points get deducted, right? All she has in her head is Class A, Class A, Class A, like the whole class has to climb up with her."

Kiryu Yume cut in. "Mama Kushida, you type really fast."

Kushida Kikyo: "Don't fucking interrupt me."

Kiryu Yume: "Okay."

Kushida Kikyo: "Why the fuck would I care? Class A or Class D, who's going to remember any of this after graduation?"

After sending that, she stopped for a few seconds.

Kushida Kikyo: "But Horikita is different."

Another two seconds passed.

Kushida Kikyo: "She's serious. So serious it makes me sick."

The corner of Kiryu Yume's mouth moved.

His thumb shifted across the keyboard, then shifted again.

"Every time you insult her, you use twice as many words as you do for anyone else. Did you two know each other before?"

As soon as he sent it, he turned his phone over and laid it face down on the bed.

With the screen facing down, the phone's back blocked part of the lamplight, leaving a rectangular shadow on the sheets.

Two seconds later, he flipped it back over and glanced at it.

The other side had gone quiet. No keyboard sounds, no typing indicator, nothing.

It was so quiet he could hear the faint electrical hiss from the phone speaker.

He stared at the screen, rubbing his thumb back and forth along the phone's edge twice. His nail scraped against the plastic case with a faint click.

Five or six seconds passed.

Kushida Kikyo: "..."

He did not move.

Kushida Kikyo: "What do you mean?"

Kiryu Yume: "Nothing else. Just reminding you."

The other side went quiet again.

Nearly half a minute passed.

Kushida Kikyo: "What's your room number?"

He looked at the line and waited. She neither cursed him out nor said goodnight, just suddenly threw that at him.

The back of his head shifted against the pillow as he changed positions. He read it once more before typing.

Kiryu Yume: "403."

Kiryu Yume: "Why?"

She did not reply. The screen went dark.

He waited a few seconds, but it did not light up.

He waited a few more seconds. Still nothing.

Footsteps sounded, neither fast nor slow. When they reached his door, they did not stop, continuing past it. Then the receding steps halted, backed up several paces, and stopped outside his door.

He stared at the shadow beneath the gap under the door.

Knock, knock.

Someone knocked.

Kiryu Yume stared at the shadow beneath the door without moving.

"Who is it?"

There was a second of silence outside.

"Who do you think?"