SUMMER BREAK WAS OVER, and schools were reopening across the country.
Not that the incident with Ureshino was behind it, but since then, Aki had again stopped coming to the castle. And the day she did turn up, her hair was dark red.
Subaru had gone for more of a dark blond look, but Aki had chosen red.
‘I did it!’ Aki laughed when she noticed Kokoro staring. ‘Do you want to try it too, Kokoro? I found a really great hair dye. Shall I show you?’
‘No. I’m good,’ Kokoro said.
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.
Kokoro had no clue if they should ask him what had happened.
Just then, someone spoke up.
‘Ureshino.’
It was Masamune.
He walked over to Ureshino and gave him a light push on the shoulder. The gesture looked awkward. But it was clear he was doing his best to seem casual.
‘Do you want to play?’ he asked.
Ureshino bit his lip, as if holding back something. There was a momentary hush in the room as they all watched.
‘Yeah,’ Ureshino said. ‘I’d like to.’
And with this, their short exchange was over.
There was one thing everyone here understood, without asking.
Kokoro didn’t know the details of any of their situations. But she knew full well that whatever they’d experienced, it must have felt like jumping into a storm or tornado, one that would mangle and maim you.
Exactly like the feeling Kokoro had – that if she went back to school, Miori Sanada would murder her.
It must have taken a lot of courage for Ureshino to come back. And it upset her to think how much he wanted to be back, even after having jumped into the storm.
She knew exactly how he felt.
It was clear that even Masamune, forgoing his usual barrage of insults, quietly understood all this as well.
When Ureshino replied, ‘Yeah, I’d like to,’ his eyes had shone with a faint luminescence. A single tear, as if unable to bear its own weight, ran down his cheek, and he didn’t wipe it away.
He settled down with them in front of the screen.
No one asked him about his wounds that day.