Some time had passed since that incident. Under the inertia of the cycle, most citizens had unconsciously put the scenes of that day out of mind and returned to their normal lives.
Although the New Year was approaching, there were no particular changes to be seen in Misaki City. Even as the weather grew colder by the day, it actually snowed less often than before.
On one of those days so dull that people wished the holidays would arrive tomorrow, the crash of a door bursting open shattered the heavy silence in the student council office at Misaki Private High School.
It was raining again that day, and to save on electricity, the school had a rule against turning on the lights during daylight hours.
The rain had already cast the office into gloom.
Even so, the girl who had jumped in fright still recognized the person striding openly inside.
With a perfunctory response, Aoko Aozaki casually shut the door behind her, sat at the desk, and propped her chin in her hands. Her gaze gradually went blank; it looked as though her main purpose was to seek refuge in the quiet atmosphere.
This instead left Kumari Kanaruko stunned. As the student council's treasurer and Aoko Aozaki's friend, she had never seen her friend look so troubled in all their time together.
Although she often sulked, the person called Aoko Aozaki had always been brisk and energetic, without a single wasted movement, moving like the wind and standing firm as a pine.
The way she held her fingers around an object, the way she moved through classrooms and corridors, the way she occasionally glanced back at her companions to check whether she was walking too fast-every gesture drew the eye.
Yet even setting aside the atmosphere around Aoko Aozaki now,