A Troubled Heart

"..."

At the Hero Association Affiliated Hospital, in a classroom.

Lin Muyao sat calmly by the window, her pen scratching across the page. After finishing a line of notes, she turned to look at her deskmate across the aisle.

Shasha of the Winged Folk was using an invisible Magic Hands formed from the tip of her wing to hold a fountain pen and copy notes. Her amber eyes remained fixed on her book, giving no hint of what she was thinking.

But as Magical Girl Nightingale, Lin Muyao had her own unique insights when it came to understanding the emotions of those around her.

...Shasha seemed really down. Was she just imagining it?

When they had met that morning, Shasha had been pretty happy. Lin Muyao had figured she was quite interested in yesterday's TRPG session, or she would not have seemed so delighted.

But after lunch, when they returned to the classroom after the midday break for their afternoon lessons, Shasha's whole demeanor had wilted.

What had happened to her?

Had she gotten a complaint while delivering food at noon? Or had some unscrupulous restaurant deliberately stalled, causing her punctuality guarantee to deduct money?

That was awful. She should ask which lousy restaurant had done that, then send Fox Fox a superchat and ask her to blow the place up tonight.

She should write her a note and ask.

With that in mind, Lin Muyao immediately pulled a sticky note from her drawer, quickly scribbled a line on it, and tossed it onto Shasha's desk while the teacher turned around to write on the blackboard.

Suddenly struck by a small folded note on her desk, Shasha instinctively turned toward where it had come from and met Lin Muyao's eyes as she gestured for her to read it.

[Shasha, you