C27

Chapter 27: Crumbling Friday — First Half

Friday morning.

Students were arriving at school one after another into the classroom.

Yet, the morning scene there was nothing like what it had been until yesterday.

Even if they spotted a close friend, few people called out to them immediately. Even upon reaching the vicinity of a desk, they merely exchanged a brief greeting before heading straight to their own seats.

Even when together with someone, conversation barely lasted.

There were people all over the classroom. And yet, a strange distance had been born, as if everyone were somehow entirely alone.

Even if someone started to open their mouth, they ultimately looked away without saying anything. Such scenes were repeated over and over in the morning classroom.

Dropping their gaze to their smartphones, organizing the insides of their desks over and over, or staring out the window lost in thought—each person looked like they were doing something, yet they were merely pushing through an uneasy stretch of time.

Every time the classroom door opened, several people reflexively turned their faces toward the entrance.

The gazes directed at the entering students lasted only a fraction of a second, but sensing that atmosphere, some students slightly slowed their pace, heading toward their seats with their bodies slightly cowering, and the gazes tracking those backs immediately returned to their respective places.

Each time the door opened again, several people looked toward the entrance. Yet, realizing the figure they sought wasn't there, they quickly pulled their gazes back.

Meanwhile, there were students who kept their heads bowed, trying not to look at their surroundings. Yet, even though they should have been averting their eyes, there was a spot where their gazes were pulled in at the slightest moment.

A single empty seat left behind in the classroom.

Reo Tachibana's seat.

Today, too, his figure was not there.

...It was the fourth day.

The gazes directed toward it did not linger for long, quickly escaping to somewhere else.

The more they looked, the more it felt as though what had been sinking deep within their chests was taking on a distinct shape.

Amidst a silence in the classroom that felt as though it were waiting for something, the chime signaling homeroom finally rang out.

Before long, the homeroom teacher entered the classroom, and the faint murmurs remaining in the room cut off, students' gazes naturally gathering toward the front.

Heading to the podium, the teacher operated the tablet in their hand and began checking attendance just as usual. In stark contrast to the teacher operating the screen with detached routine, the students stared silently ahead, as if tracking the movement of those fingertips.

And then—

"Sugisawa and Tachibana... absent again today, huh..."

The teacher murmured softly.

At those words, several students stirred slightly.

Dropping their gaze to the screen, the teacher's eyes turned to the remarks column noting the reason for Tachibana's absence.

Lingering their gaze to trace the contents displayed there for a while, they fell silent as if pondering something.

...Before long, they furrowed their brow slightly.

"......I suppose I should try contacting him."

It was a casual remark.

Yet—

The classroom's atmosphere now shook distinctly.

A little while later, the teacher left the classroom.

Even after the door closed, words failed to return to the classroom for a while, and several people probed each other's faces before quickly averting their eyes.

Reo Tachibana was absent for the fourth day today.

The teacher would contact Tachibana to confirm the circumstances—that fact pressed heavily upon the students' chests.

If Tachibana spoke of what happened that day—how would they be viewed by the school then?

No one spoke it aloud—yet simply imagining what awaited beyond that point spread a heavy impatience deep within their chests.

Time quietly ticked by while each harbored anxiety within their chests, and eventually, when the sound of the next teacher's footsteps echoed from the hallway, the students turned their gazes forward carrying their heavy feelings...

◇

The first-period class began.

The teacher headed to the front, and the students opened their textbooks. Even though an ordinary class should have begun, most students in the classroom were still dragging along the teacher's words from moments ago.

...I suppose I should try contacting him.

Until then, even if they thought—what if Tachibana says something, what if the school finds out—they could leave themselves an escape route somewhere, convincing themselves it wasn't bound to become reality yet, and managed not to think about it.

Yet, now it was different...

The teacher was going to contact Tachibana to ask about the circumstances. What would they ask there, and what would Tachibana say? If the events of that day were communicated—just imagining what awaited beyond that made their chests turn cold.

...What's going to happen to me?

I was just there when it happened. They were supposed to have thought that. Yet—what happened in the classroom, who said what, who laughed, and what they themselves were doing—memories they had tried not to think about popped up into their heads one after another.

Their gaze fixed on their notebooks froze, and though they should have been hearing the teacher's voice, not a single piece of its content registered in their heads, and they could no longer pretend not to think about it.

The teacher's casual remark had forcefully dragged what they had kept averting their eyes from right out in front of them.

And then—why did they have to go through feelings like this right now?

Every time that question arose, their consciousness gradually began to turn toward those who had started the events of that day.

◇

The first period ended, and the teacher left the classroom.

Even after the chime rang, few students stood from their seats as usual, and from a group of boys a little ways away, hushed voices leaked out, mindful of their surroundings.

"Isn't this seriously bad? The teacher's gonna ask Tachibana's house for the reason he's absent, right?"

"If he talks about what happened back then, everything—like who said what, or who was laughing—is gonna get exposed. Once it gets passed from Tachibana to the teacher, there's no hiding it anymore."

"......Aren't we screwed too?"

"But we're not the ones who did it."

"We were watching, though. Me included."

In a group of girls a little further away, muted conversations also began.

"If Tachibana-kun tells them everything about that day... I wonder what's going to happen."

"It's not just Kujo-kun and them, right? Everyone was there back then."

"......We're gonna get asked by the teacher too, aren't we?"

"Like, what we were doing?"

"Yeah. Who was doing what."

"......What am I supposed to answer?"

To that question, no words came back in reply.

Further back in the classroom, a boy who usually tossed around light jokes lowered his voice.

"......Hey, you were laughing back then, weren't you? I was laughing too, but thinking about it now, wasn't that a situation where you couldn't normally laugh at all?"

"Don't bring that up now... At the time, that was just the vibe of the room."

"That's why I'm saying, if the teacher asks, how are we supposed to explain it?"

"......I don't know."

An awkward silence fell between the two.

Before long, the chime signaling the end of the break rang.

The small conversations exchanged all over the classroom cut off, and the students returned to their respective seats.

The exchanges from moments ago were also cut off there for the time being.

And the second-period class began.

The teacher started the lesson at the front, and the students opened their textbooks. Yet, fingertips gripping pens wouldn't stay still, knees shook under desks, glances were cast repeatedly at the clock—minor abnormalities continued across various parts of the classroom.

Even trying to focus on the lesson right in front of them, at random moments, the teacher's words or Tachibana's empty seat crossed their minds. The harder they tried to forget, the more the events of that day floated to the edges of their awareness, causing their hands to stop once again.

Determined not to think about it anymore, the students forcefully dragged their consciousness back to the lesson before them.

Even so, as if chasing after their attempts to escape, reality kept rushing back before their eyes over and over.

Before long, the chime signaling the end of the second period rang, and though the students stood from their seats, the brightness typical of a break time failed to return, and even if someone spoke up, conversations didn't last long, leaving a heavy atmosphere lingering in the classroom.

The third-period class began.

Amidst the ringing of the teacher's voice, a taut, strained atmosphere drifted through the classroom.

There were students staring at the exact same page over and over with their notebooks open, and students continuing to fiddle meaninglessly with erasers at their fingertips. There were even students reading the exact same section of the textbook repeatedly yet hesitating to turn the page.

If their eyes met with the seat next to them, they exchanged glances for a split second as if to confirm something. Even so, they exchanged no words, immediately turning back to face the front.

Even when called upon by the teacher, answers wouldn't come out for simple questions that normally wouldn't cause any hesitation. Silence fell as they searched for words, and even that brief pause felt strangely long inside the classroom.

Everyone was trying to carry on with the lesson right in front of them, yet somewhere in their consciousness, they were thinking about entirely different things.

If things from that day get communicated from Tachibana—

Every time they imagined what lay beyond that, the depths of their chests sank heavily.

...Why do we have to be tormented to this extent?

Such thoughts piled up as time passed, and anxiety slowly transformed into irritation...

◇

In the corner of the classroom, two boys lowered their voices while minding their surroundings.

"I mean, we just went along with it in the heat of the moment back then, but... aren't Kujo and the others seriously messed up?"

"I know, right. Tachibana didn't do anything wrong at all. So why did they have to go that far?"

One of them glanced briefly toward Kujo and the group, then quickly looked back.

"I mean, if someone told me I could date Suzumura-san, I'd totally take it seriously."

"For real though... If Suzumura-san confessed to me or something, I'd get so carried away I wouldn't be able to think straight either."

"Tachibana was probably like that too."

With that, their words cut off once.

The two exchanged looks as if probing the surrounding mood.

"......I'm glad we weren't the targets, but they seriously went way too far."

With those words, the two boys spoke no more.

Yet, all around the classroom, similar hushed voices were being exchanged.

A little further away, three girls pulled their desks together and lowered their voices, minding their surroundings.

"......Suzumura-san works as a model, so I wonder why she did something like that."

"Who knows. But isn't Tachibana-kun pitiable? You'd totally take something like that seriously."

"I could never do something like that... Well, maybe if you're as cute as Suzumura-san, you start thinking you can get away with anything."

"That might be true. The boys end up going easy on Suzumura-san anyway."

"Still, Suzumura-san didn't seem like the type to do that kind of thing."

"Yeah. If anything, she felt kind to everyone."

"Then why did she do something like that? Since she's pretty, maybe she figured she didn't have to worry about how the other person would feel."

"That kind of thing is a bit enviable, though. If I did the same thing, I'd definitely just end up looking like a genuinely bad person."

"......Being a gorgeous girl really has its perks."

"Seriously."

Toward the back of the classroom, a mixed group of several boys and girls lowered their voices while watching their surroundings.

"......Hey, I wonder if Kano-san really deleted that video she was recording back then."

"Kujo-kun told her, 'Delete it.'"

"He did. But wasn't Kano's reply a little too casual?"

"That 'Sure~' thing?"

"Yeah. Like... did she really delete it?"

"Well, Kujo-kun told her to, so she probably did it?"

"I hope so, but..."

One of the girls lowered her voice just a bit.

"To begin with, filming a scene like that in the first place is honestly creepy."

"I know. While Tachibana was getting told all that stuff right next to her, she was filming the whole time."

"Meiko looked genuinely having fun back then, too..."

"And plus, right after Tachibana stormed out, she checked it saying, 'Got it on video.'"

"......Seeing that, isn't it a bit sketchy?"

"If it's still around, that's seriously messed up."

"It's a video filmed right in front of the whole class, after all."

A brief silence fell.

Afterward, another boy muttered softly.

"I wonder if Kujo-kun really needed to go that far right then and there."

"Tachibana-kun didn't say anything, did he?"

"Yeah. He stayed quiet almost the whole time while Kujo-kun kept laying it on him."

"Even though Suzumura-san was trying to stop him too."

"......That was a bit harsh to watch."

When someone cast their gaze toward a spot a little ways away, Kujo and his group were huddled together more quietly than usual, with no one gathering around them the way they used to, and a sort of evasive distance had formed.

"......I guess treating them like we used to is impossible anymore."

To those words, no one replied.

Only the gazes directed toward Kujo and the others had clearly changed...