She heard Ureshino hesitantly asking Rion, ‘Do you have a girlfriend? You’re not thinking of making one of these girls here your girlfriend, are you?’

To which Rion replied, ‘Not really.’ Ureshino surely asked the other boys the same thing.

That meant she didn’t need to worry about Aki or Rion.

And Masamune’s teasing she could put up with.

But what really bothered her was Fuka’s reaction.

There were only three girls here, and when they’d first introduced themselves, Kokoro thought she and Fuka might quickly become friends. But they’d never had a chance to open up to each other, and the words she’d spat out still stung.

How dumb can you get?

Fuka was referring to Ureshino’s switch from one girl to another, and wasn’t particularly commenting on Kokoro. Kokoro reassured herself of this whenever she passed through the mirror into the castle, and at night when she went to sleep, but somehow Fuka’s words still bothered her. Whenever Fuka visited the castle, though, she either stayed holed up in her room or, on the rare occasions when she joined them, would sit silently reading a book.

Once, when Ureshino wasn’t around and Kokoro was sitting with Masamune and the others in the Game Room, they grinned at her again and said, ‘What a mess, eh?’ Fuka was with them.

Kokoro had no idea how to respond. ‘Mm.’ She nodded vaguely.

And Fuka, eyes still glued to her book, said what she’d said before: ‘How dumb can you get?’

Kokoro froze.

Fuka carried on. ‘Guys like that, who aren’t popular, always falling for the pretty girl in class, or someone way out of their league, whenever I see that, it really annoys me.’

‘Whoa – that’s pretty harsh. You’re scaring me,’ Masamune said, and pretended to shrink back.

For Kokoro, it was hard to take Fuka avoiding her eye all the time. She bit her lip in frustration.

Was that pretty girl remark aimed at her? She had no idea. She wanted to push back, but it seemed pointless.

She’d tried to be so careful.

She’d tried her best, when she was with the two boys, Masamune and Subaru, not to do anything that would make the other girls feel uncomfortable.

So why did things have to turn out the way they did?

UNABLE TO MAKE AMENDS WITH Fuka, Kokoro grew despondent, and took a day off from visiting the castle.

A day off was an odd way of putting it, but since the beginning of July she’d felt as if the castle was like junior high, a complicated place she was compelled to go to.

The day after she’d skipped out, she went as always to check the Game Room, and what she heard made her gasp.

‘Aki-chan, I know you think that, but the sequel of that film was way better.’

‘What? There’s a sequel?’