C26

Chapter 26: Cracked Thursday

Thursday morning.

The classroom was filled with the usual morning scenery, and upon arriving at school, the students gathered around their close friends as always to exchange words, yet those voices were somewhat subdued.

What could be heard from all around were hushed voices, as though probing the surrounding atmosphere.

Every time the door opened, several students unconsciously turned their eyes toward the entrance. For a fleeting moment, a hint of expectation would float there. However, upon confirming who had walked in, that momentary spark of expectation vanished, and they returned their gazes as if nothing had happened.

Such tiny movements were repeated over and over inside the classroom.

Whenever someone walked past nearby, voices naturally dropped. Even conversations that had been going on until just a moment ago would cut off midway, seamlessly shifting to a different topic.

Occasionally, brief laughter would ring out. Yet, that too immediately melted into the quiet air of the classroom.

Even though they were gathered with friends, there was an awkward pause where everyone probed each other's demeanor. Everyone was trying to act as usual—yet it was clearly different from yesterday.

The entire classroom was preoccupied with something.

Yet, not a single person spoke of the reason.

Before long, the chime signaling homeroom rang out, and the students slowly returned to their respective seats, cutting short their conversations with friends.

Shortly after, the homeroom teacher stepped into the classroom.

A strange, taut tension drifted through the room, and as the students settled into their seats, they silently tracked the teacher's movements with their eyes.

Picking up the tablet on the podium, the homeroom teacher began checking the attendance status just like always.

Checking the students' names in order—

"......Sugisawa and... Tachibana are absent today, too."

At those words, the classroom's atmosphere rippled.

The gazes of several students turned toward Kujo and Kokona—yet that, too, lasted for merely a split second before their eyes immediately returned to their respective desks, and no one spoke a word.

Without seeming to notice the classroom's state, the teacher dropped their gaze to the overview column for the reasons for absence.

For a while, they stared at the tablet as if confirming what was displayed. After reading the contents, they paused for just a fraction of a second, as if pondering something.

However, saying nothing beyond that, they shifted their gaze to the next name.

The students silently watched that sequence of actions.

They didn't know what the teacher had been confirming.

Even so, everyone could sense that Tachibana's absence was no longer a matter of just a single day off.

The fact that Tachibana hadn't shown his face for three consecutive days was beginning to settle heavily over the entire classroom, bit by bit...

◇

The first-period class began.

When the teacher started projecting materials onto the front screen, the students opened their notebooks, and the quiet sound of pens scratching across paper echoed through the room.

The teacher suddenly glanced back.

Almost all the students directed their gazes eagerly toward the front—even though students would normally exchange hushed whispers with the person next to them during a lesson, not a shred of that could be heard today.

Only the gazes directed toward the front were strangely uniform.

The teacher stopped their hand for a single fleeting moment.

The students were concentrating on the lesson—in itself, there was nothing strange about that. Even so, the atmosphere drifting through the classroom carried a strange, underlying tension.

The teacher let out a small breath, and while feeling a sense of incongruity, returned their gaze to the screen without speaking of it. Leaving the odd tension hanging in the air, the lesson simply proceeded.

◇

When the chime signaling the end of the first period rang, the students each pulled back their chairs and slowly began leaving their seats. Yet, the murmurs didn't spread across the entire classroom in a rush the way they usually did.

There were students gathering with friends.

It was just that people didn't naturally gather into large circles; instead, small clusters of two or three people formed here and there across the room.

The conversations exchanged among them were short. Even if someone spoke up, the other person would simply give a small nod, words failing to continue any further before drifting off into another topic.

Everyone was trying to spend the break time as they normally would—yet even in spots where people would naturally crowd together, today there was no sign of anyone adding to the numbers.

Meanwhile, a few students were still gathered around Kujo.

Surrounded by Rinko and Meiko, a small group encircled a desk; though it wasn't as large a circle as before, conversations that felt no different from usual continued there.

Occasionally, laughter would rise. Yet, that voice didn't spread to those surroundings, remaining confined strictly to that spot before quietly vanishing.

Amidst that, Kujo glanced toward Kokona several times. He would freeze his movements for a split second, as though trying to address her—yet in the end, he couldn't take that single step forward, slowly pulling his gaze back instead.

Even so, the classroom's atmosphere was beginning to shift, bit by bit.

Yet what was reflected in Kujo's eyes wasn't the changes in his surroundings.

It was just a single person at the destination of his gaze—Kokona Suzumura alone.

Before long, the chime signaling the next class rang. The students returned to their respective seats.

The classroom's atmosphere didn't change drastically.

Even so, harboring something deep within their chests, the students pretended to go about an ordinary day...

◇

The chime signaling the end of the fourth period rang.

Though the students stood from their seats, there was none of the usual brightness of a lunch break.

Even as they gathered around their friends, a sense of restlessness and preoccupation lingered here and there across the room.

Rinko stood up from her seat as well, casually scanning the classroom.

Normally, come lunch time, people would naturally gather, and laughter would be heard from all directions, but today it was strangely quiet.

"Hey, doesn't the classroom feel kind of gloomy since morning?"

Rinko turned her face toward a close female friend nearby.

Before answering, the girl glanced around the classroom.

"......You think so?"

"Yeah. Isn't everyone way quieter than usual?"

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

Tilting her head as if pondering, Rinko looked around her surroundings. Failing to spot anything particularly out of the ordinary, however, she immediately laughed in her usual tone.

"What's with that. Is everyone tired since morning?"

"......Maybe."

The girl replied vaguely, giving a small shrug.

"Eh, and it's lunch break, of course?"

Rinko puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

"......Rinko has a lot of energy."

"Well, duh. Look, smile, smile."

"No way."

"Eh, why not."

The girl's reaction was so blunt that Rinko furrowed her brow.

"......Is everyone's vibe seriously terrible today?"

For a fraction of a second, the girl made eye contact with Rinko—then immediately averted her gaze.

"......It's not about the vibe or anything."

"Eh?"

Right as Rinko asked back, the girl suddenly raised her face.

"Ah, Hina—. Let's go to the cafeteria!"

She called out to a friend a little ways away.

"Yeah, coming now!"

The boys listening to that exchange from a short distance away exchanged glances.

After a brief moment of hesitating silence, they directed their gazes around and lowered their voices so no one else could hear.

"Hey... Rinko said she was gonna apologize to Tachibana the other day, didn't she...?"

"Ah. That's what that's about, right. She's tight with Kujo and them."

"......I suppose."

It was truly a voice like a whispered secret.

A little further away, there was a boy sitting in front of a bento box without touching his food at all.

"......What's wrong?"

The boy raised his head just once, minding his surroundings, and then muttered quietly.

"......I wonder if Tachibana-kun's okay."

The boy who had called out fell silent for a split second.

"......I was wondering about it, too. I was just watching, but... that wasn't normal, was it?"

The two did not continue their words any further than that.

Yet, even though that conversation hadn't been overheard by those around them, before long, similar talks began to be exchanged in other places as well.

No one had brought it up out loud.

Even so, the topic of that day spread bit by bit across various corners of the classroom, as though a microscopic crack had finally formed in a tightly shut door.

However, rather than minding the classroom's changes, Kujo directed his awareness toward something else.

Staring intently with his eyes as Kokona headed toward the exit, he recalled her cold reaction when he spoke to her yesterday. Even so, the desire to speak with her once more did not fade.

Seeing Kokona about to leave the classroom, Kujo stood up from his seat.

"Hey... weren't you just saying my name?"

At that voice, Kujo—who had been nearby—halted his movements.

"Eh? ...No... I didn't say it."

"Huuuh..."

After staring at the boys for a moment, Meiko casually averted her gaze.

"Kujo-kun, let's go to the cafeteria. Rinko, let's go too."

"Eh... ah."

"Yeah, let's go, let's go."

The three of them left the classroom.

Several students tracked those backs with their eyes.

And in the classroom where the primary figures were now gone, words that had been suppressed until then began to surface, little by little...