On Sunday night, Kiryu Yume returned to his dorm. He had just finished showering and stepped out while toweling off his hair when his phone lit up with a ding, displaying a notification that points had been deposited into his student card.
Five hundred thousand points had been transferred into his account. The note read, "Reward for assisting with the handling of an on-campus security incident," and it was signed by the student council.
He glanced at it, placed his phone face-down on the desk, then dropped backward onto his bed. The night outside the window was perfectly quiet. Only now did that whole messy affair finally feel settled. He stared at the ceiling and let out a long breath.
The moment he woke up the next morning, there was a new message on his phone. It had been sent at 6:12, and the profile picture was Sakura Airi's.
The message had been typed and withdrawn, withdrawn and typed again. Even the final version bore traces of repeated edits: "Kiryu... are you free this afternoon... I want to thank you in person... if it's not too much trouble..."
After reading it, he smiled and tapped out a reply. "Sure, no problem."
After thinking for a moment, he added another message. "What time? Just tell me."
The morning classes passed uneventfully.
The instant the lunch bell rang, Kiryu Yume was about to get up and leave the classroom when he looked up to find Morishita Ran somehow already standing beside his desk. Yamamura Miki stood behind her, tightly clutching a lunch bag so hard that her fingertips had gone pale.
Morishita Ran said, "Come on. Lunch."
Kiryu Yume said, "I've got plans today."
Morishita Ran abruptly froze, then expressionlessly spat out two words. "Traitor."
Yamamura Miki had been standing there quietly,