‘Kokoro, the thing is—’ he began.

‘Mr Ida.’

Her mother stepped in between them. She held his eye, her voice calm.

‘Shouldn’t we first hear, directly from Kokoro, what happened? Just as you’ve heard Miss Sanada’s account.’

Mr Ida looked on silently. He was about to say something, but her mother spoke first. ‘That’s enough for today,’ she said. ‘Next time I’d like you to bring the teacher in charge of the whole year, or even the head, with you.’

Mr Ida said nothing, his lips drawn tight. He looked down, avoiding her mother’s eyes, and Kokoro’s.

‘I’ll come again soon,’ he said, and got to his feet.

After she’d seen him off at the front door, her mother called her. ‘Kokoro.’

She was about to ask her something but stopped, changed her mind. She looked tired, but calmer, more collected.

‘How about coming shopping with me?’ her mother asked. ‘We don’t have to go to the mall. If there’s somewhere else you’d prefer, let’s go.’

IT WAS A WEEKDAY, AROUND midday, so she could get away with not seeing any other junior high school students.

She was seated in the food court at Careo with her mother, eating an ice cream.

Inside Careo were the McDonald’s, Mister Donut, and even Misudo that Kokoro liked, but she avoided them, since students from school were often there.

It had been so long since she’d been outside her house, since the day she’d bought the chocolates for Fuka at the convenience store.

The light outside seemed dazzling, and she was consumed with awkwardness around anyone other than her family or the castle group, but her mother was with her today so she felt less frightened.

As these thoughts ran through her head, she realized she was searching for someone.

Whenever she saw a young person with dyed hair pass by, she’d look carefully, hoping it was Aki or Subaru. Would Ureshino or Fuka turn up on the walkway over there, arm in arm with their parents, like her? Would Masamune pass right in front of her, carrying a bag with the latest video game he’d just bought? She hoped it would come true. She even hoped that Rion, away in Hawaii, might suddenly make an appearance.

How awesome it would be if one of them spotted her, and she could introduce them to her mother as my friend.

But no one appeared.

As it was a weekday, the food court was almost deserted. The others must be in the castle.

‘In the days when you were younger, Kokoro’ – her mother, sitting opposite, was likewise scanning the passersby – ‘the mall wasn’t as colourfully decorated as it is now.’ These days, the stores were decked out with vibrant red, green and white decorations, and ‘Jingle Bells’ rang out relentlessly from speakers above them.