Girls’ voices. A tall figure stood up. Miori Sanada.

‘Was that OK, then?’ Chuta asked her, curtly.

Kokoro felt Miori looking over at her, and she hurriedly looked away. Miori then declared: ‘Chuta, I really don’t fancy you!’

She enunciated clearly, and it took Kokoro a moment to realize the words were meant for her to overhear. And then a voice said: ‘Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me, you stupid bitch!’

Kokoro was reeling. No one had ever spoken to her like that.

‘You’re so dumb,’ Miori said. ‘You can die for all I care.’

BACK IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, CHUTA Ikeda had fancied Kokoro.

One of her friends had found out and told her. Kokoro was completely shocked, but apparently all the boys knew.

Once he became friends with Miori, Chuta had obviously filled her in about their past.

KOKORO AVOIDED THE CASTLE FOR the next three days.

Because of the weekend, it meant she’d been away five days in a row.

She hadn’t been able to go to junior high, or to the alternative School, and until now she’d found the castle a refuge, which meant her feelings about it were even more complicated. All the TV she’d enjoyed so much now seemed insipid and dull.

It was all so boring.

It upset her to see the mirror in her bedroom, turned towards the wall and shining.

Shining as if inviting her, beckoning her.

She had no idea if the rest of the group wanted her there. She decided, finally, that they didn’t really care if she was there or not. But she wondered how they were all doing. There was no way at all of contacting them from this side of the mirror.

Even if, say, they wanted her to come back, she had no way of knowing.

ON SATURDAY HER PARENTS INVITED her to go out shopping, but she said, ‘I’m OK. You two go,’ to which her parents didn’t know what to say.

They looked at each other, and later her father asked her, ‘So, what’re you planning to do? How are you going to manage if you never leave the house?’

Kokoro had no idea. She wished she had an answer.

But the thought of bumping into someone she knew paralysed her.

What were the other kids who had also dropped out doing?

I’ve got to let Ureshino know his attitude is really unsettling me.

He hadn’t yet confessed his feelings to her directly, but she hated to think the others might know. She needed to have a chat with Fuka, too.

ON MONDAY, SHE PASSED THROUGH the mirror and emerged into the castle for the first time in six days. As she came through, she noticed a light blue envelope stuck to the top of her mirror. It came fluttering down on to the carpet.