As Aki approached, Kokoro picked up the scent of perfume from her, and that made her even more perplexed. It wasn’t just the red hair; Aki had given up her trademark ponytail too, and her fingernails were all pink. Aki might not be used to painting her nails, for Kokoro spotted places where the colour had spilled on to the skin. She felt as though she’d seen something she shouldn’t, and quickly averted her eyes.

If I did that, Kokoro thought. If I dyed my hair like that …

My mother would faint. She’d blow her top, and force me to dye my hair back.

Were Subaru’s and Aki’s parents really fine with it?

After this, Ureshino stopped coming to the castle.

He said he was going to school, and that it would be good for him. Maybe he wasn’t at his original school any more, but had transferred somewhere else.

Kokoro regretted not having spoken more often to him.

They needed to apologize. Ureshino surely must have felt they were making fun of him, with their teasing and jokes, and he must have hated it.

Ureshino’s mirror in the grand foyer was right next to Kokoro’s. His mirror didn’t shine, and Kokoro was full of regret all over again.

We should have had a real heart-to-heart, she thought. We shouldn’t have parted like that, after arguing. We should have given him a proper send-off, now that he was going back to school.

‘Ureshino isn’t coming, is he?’ Rion asked her one day, as she was standing in front of his mirror. In spite of his awkward confession, Rion was still visiting the castle regularly. And Kokoro found this comforting.

‘Yeah.’

‘I mean, no one cares, do they? Whether you go to school or not, you should simply come here and have fun. Like me,’ he murmured, sounding a little sad.

By mid-September, Kokoro and the others were still feeling the same.

Until Ureshino reappeared at the castle.

Gauze on his face, his arm bandaged, his face swollen.

He was back at the castle, covered in cuts and bruises.

THE BATTLE-SCARRED URESHINO TURNED UP one day without a word in the Game Room.

He didn’t seem to have broken anything, and he wasn’t dragging a leg, or carrying his arm in a sling. All the same, he cut a pitiful figure.

He had slunk silently into the room.

That day everyone was present.

A video game was on, though no one was playing it, and the background music carried on cheerfully.

I’ll be back at school after the break.

Ureshino’s words came back to Kokoro.

The second semester had only begun two weeks earlier.

All eyes were fixed on Ureshino; no one uttered a word.

Ureshino himself seemed at a loss for what to say. He avoided their gaze, and was about to drop down into an empty sofa.