Or more precisely, who should be going.

They’d always avoided the subject of school. She’d never imagined they were even living so close.

‘Oh!’

Fuka, the next to come into the Game Room, let out a little yelp. She had also caught sight of Aki’s uniform.

By now they were no longer surprised.

THEY WAITED FOR LATE AFTERNOON, when Rion would appear.

Fuka and Ureshino had displayed the same reaction: What the—?

When Rion arrived, they understood he would be the one exception, but that riddle, too, was soon solved.

When they told him that they should all be attending the same junior high, Rion looked taken aback. ‘That’s …’ he began. ‘That’s in Minami Tokyo City.’

‘Yep!’ they said in near unison.

He took a deep breath. ‘I was due to go there, too.’

They stared, speechless.

‘The plan was for me to go there, if I hadn’t gone abroad.’

‘So then, is this what it means?’ Aki asked, arms folded. ‘That we’re all kids who were supposed to go to Yukishina, but actually aren’t going? Is that the common factor that’s brought us together?’

‘I guess so. But …’ Fuka wrinkled her nose in puzzlement. ‘Aren’t we quite a big group?’ she asked, to no one in particular. ‘Are there really this many kids who’ve dropped out of the same school? I always thought it was just me.’

And I thought it was just me, thought Kokoro.

Kokoro, Rion and Ureshino were in the first year of junior high.

Fuka and Masamune were in their second year.

Subaru and Aki were in their third.

Kokoro hadn’t been aware Rion and Ureshino were from the same school as her, let alone in the same grade. Rion’s situation was different, but the incident with Ureshino must have taken place in a classroom very near her own.

Kokoro remembered overhearing her mother talking to the head of the alternative School.

Elementary school is such a pleasant, comfortable place for most children, so it’s not at all unusual for many to have trouble fitting in when they make the transition to junior high. Especially with a junior high like Yukishina No. 5, which has grown so large, what with other schools merging.

She remembered how repelled she had felt when she’d heard this, turned off by the thought that she was being so easily classified as one of those who had trouble fitting in.

‘Isn’t it because Yukishina No. 5 has so many students? We can’t be expected to know everyone,’ she said.

Fuka inclined her head. ‘I wonder. I mean, each grade has about four classes, doesn’t it? That’s not so many.’

‘Really? Is that true of second year?’

‘Yeah,’ Fuka nodded.

‘But third year has eight classes?’

‘That many?’ Fuka was surprised.