Quietly walking through the school building as twilight approached, I eventually reached the student council room.
Standing in front of the door, I knocked. In the brief time until a response came, I breathed a deep sigh.
Eventually, after no footsteps at all, the door opened with a quiet creak. The heat had to be on pretty high; I felt the hot air from the slight crack. A girl with glasses and braids held the knob. I seemed to recall she was their clerk. She seemed to know who I was and let me in, though she was a bit timid about it. “Come in…”
I gave her a casual bow of thanks and went inside to see the vice president at a desk right ahead crying, “There’s no time…no time…” as he worked.
Good, good. Excellent. Suffer more.
I scanned the whole room, but Yukinoshita was nowhere to be seen. There was just Isshiki at the desk at the back, crunching on snacks as she stared at me vacantly, tilting her head. “…I didn’t call you here.”
I’m not allowed to come if I’m not called? That’s no good.
I was opening my mouth to start by telling her the purpose of my visit when Isshiki clapped her hands. “Oh, is it to help? You’re applying for slavery? Unpaid labor?”
What’s with that logic? Just how far are you gonna jump with this conversation? I was a little exhausted by the familiar antics of old Irohasu, and my shoulders slumped. “Look forward to next year. I’ll introduce a promising rookie to you.” I responded to her usual nonsense with the first thing that came to mind, and then I asked, “Anyway, where’s Yukinoshita?”
Isshiki tilted her head like Huh? before glancing over to the simple desk Yukinoshita must have been using. “Huhhh, now that you mention it, she’s not here. Hmmgh.” Isshiki had only just noticed, so Yukinoshita hadn’t been gone long.
Okay, so did she run off because the heat was on too high again? Whatever the case, if Yukinoshita wasn’t around, then there was no point in my being there. “All right, then never mind. See you.”
“Ah, hey! What?! Didn’t you come for a reason?!” Isshiki called me to a stop when I tried to stride on out again.
Hearing the word reason, I suddenly realized. Miss Hiratsuka hadn’t specifically told me to, but it would probably be best to tell Isshiki. I stopped and turned back to her. “Oh yeah. The prom’s officially on, with your plan. You can make it happen. Good luck.”
“Uh-huh… Huh?” Isshiki’s jaw dropped, and she tilted her whole upper body along with her head. It would be too much trouble to explain what had happened if she pressed me for details, so I would slip out before she had time to collect her thoughts.
I hadn’t even decided where I would go, but my feet never hesitated, taking me there automatically. I was sure she had to be there.
The empty halls of the special-use building. Nearly a year had passed since I’d begun walking through here to go to the clubroom. I could probably even get there with my eyes closed.
Eventually, I saw the door ahead of me. I came to stand in front of it, and I ran my hand over the handle before gripping it. Though it had to be made with the same material as any classroom door, I felt like I would never forget this cool temperature or hardness.
With a bit of a pull, it rattled in its track and moved smoothly.
Before my eyes was a completely ordinary classroom, nothing unusual about it.
But this room had a very different quality to it because of the presence of one girl.
In the slanting sun, with a breeze blowing, Yukino Yukinoshita stood by the window, looking outside. She must have been airing out the room that nobody had used in a while, as the window was wide-open and the curtains were fluttering. The sight was so picturesque, I wondered if even after the world ended, she would still be here, just like this.
My body and spirit came to a stop.
—I was entranced.
Noticing the presence of a visitor, Yukinoshita held her hair in place against the wind as she turned around. Her eyes widened a moment in surprise, but her expression quickly turned to a smile. “Hello.”
“…Uh-huh,” I answered, and she closed the window. When the fluttering curtains wafted down, the sound disappeared from the room. All that filled this tranquil space was the vivid red of the twilight.
Squinting against its brightness, Yukinoshita turned away from the window, sweeping her glossy black hair back over her shoulders. “Did you have some business here?”
“Oh, just a message for you.”
“Oh, I’m sorry you had to come all the way up here. I took up your time.”
“You don’t have to worry about it. It didn’t take long,” I replied as I pulled out the chair closest to the entrance. Sitting down in my usual spot, I casually gestured for Yukinoshita to sit as well. She seemed momentarily confused, but when I waited, she eventually sighed in resignation and went to sit in the chair closest to the window.
“About the prom—ultimately, your revised plan went through,” I told her. “She’s going to explain to the parents who opposed it to win them over.”
Though this would be Yukinoshita’s first time hearing this, she didn’t appear surprised, not so much as twitching an eyebrow as she quietly listened. Despite my misgivings about that, I added at the end, “So, well…this is my loss.”
“No.” Eventually, Yukinoshita sighed deeply and muttered, “It’s your win.”
“…Why?”
“Well, the whole affair wound up like this because I took advantage of your tactics. Functionally speaking, this is your victory.”
There was something that bothered me about the way she was smiling in that self-deprecating way, and I decided not to keep my doubts inside. “…But you still anticipated this. Didn’t you have a vague idea of what I’d do, at least? Meaning you won after all.”
When Hayato Hayama and Haruno Yukinoshita found out about the dummy prom, they’d both instantly seen through it. Yukinoshita’s mother had just about gotten me in checkmate. So then it was no surprise for Yukino Yukinoshita, who was on a similar level, to see through Hachiman Hikigaya’s shallow wit.