THE NEXT DAY, SHE WAS still wavering – should she go to the castle or not? She waited until the afternoon and her mother still didn’t come back, so at three o’clock she headed through to the castle.

Just for a short while, she told herself.

Just to see the rest of the gang briefly, and get home before her mother came back to check on her. Those were her thoughts as she slipped through the mirror.

What she found took her by surprise.

WHEN THEY HAD FIRST VISITED the castle it had seemed sterile, but now, after three months, it was littered with the gadgets and snacks they’d brought with them, and it had begun to feel much more like home. Someone had set up name plates, written on cut-out drawing paper, in front of each of the mirrors that connected to their homes: Kokoro, Aki, Masamune, and so on.

Today, unusually, each mirror was shimmering with a rainbow glow. Kokoro was the last to arrive.

When she got to the Game Room, the scene inside took her aback.

‘Oh – Kokoro-chan.’

Masamune and Subaru, as ever absorbed in their video games, turned towards her.

The whole group was there. Fuka and Aki on the sofa, and the boys by the TV.

But it was one of them in particular who caught her eye.

Subaru.

The last time they’d met, he’d been talking about his father – he hadn’t finished the story – but now his hair was dyed a light brown. Not like Rion’s, which was naturally bleached by the sun, but dyed artificially.

‘Subaru-kun.’

‘Hey.’

‘Your hair.’

The rest of the group were silent, clearly following the back and forth.

‘Oh, this?’ Subaru said, grabbing a strand of hair by his ear. The gesture made Kokoro more puzzled, for Subaru had definitely changed. He seemed even more mature.

Underneath the lock of hair, she saw he had a small, round earring in his earlobe. ‘My older brother made me,’ Subaru said. ‘It’s the summer holiday, so you’ve got to do something new. He almost forced me.’

‘Did you dye your hair?’

‘No. Bleached it. When you dye it the first time the colour doesn’t take well, but if you bleach it, it does.’

‘I see.’

Her heart thumped.

It was Masamune, playing video games with Subaru. He didn’t have on his usual smirk.

‘So you have an older brother,’ he said.

Kokoro was surprised. This was the first she’d heard about Subaru’s older brother, but Subaru and Masamune were such good mates and even he didn’t know?

‘What about the piercing? Did your brother make you do that, too?’

‘My brother and his girlfriend. The hole closed up at first, so he told me you’ve got to keep it in when you go to bed. And last night, there was blood all over the pillow where I’d slept on it.’