The exam hall door was at the back of the building. The street-facing side had no entrance.
A hundred or so candidates were let in through the side door, one team after another.
Inside stood rows of long desks, name slips stuck to their corners, the writing aligned with the light coming through the doorway. The slips were neatly placed.
Those who entered first found their seats. Those behind them filed down the aisles. Once they found their names, they set their bundles on the corners of the desks and sat, shifting their chairs to face forward, resting both hands on the desk edges without moving again. The people passing behind them stirred a breeze that lifted a corner of a name slip before it fell back on its own.
The seats by the walls filled first. The middle rows filled next.
One team passed through the side corridor, their footsteps so perfectly matched that they made no sound.
It was unnaturally quiet.
Only after they passed did sounds return to that section.
A team entered another section, making more noise with the desks and chairs than anyone else.
Once that noise ended, they too fell still.
The footsteps in the aisles slowed, grew sparse, then stopped. As the movement subsided, the room went quiet.
The door closed gently behind the last team.
Some coughed. Some shifted their bundles. No one spoke.
The seated candidates glanced ahead and behind, then to either side, before returning their eyes to their own desks. Every seat in the room had been decided the moment they entered.
Desk legs knocked against the floor here and there. No one paid anyone else any mind.
Kiyoshi's seat was in a middle row, beside the aisle. The aisle was his only way in or out.
As he