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Rocks rolling along the road. Two men are kicking them side to side like playing soccer. "Did you practice soccer?" Shoyo questioned. "No, I couldn't go. I had to wash the toilets and went straight home since we have exams pretty soon. The teachers give us lots of work these days." "So you have been pretty busy? You also do a part-time job in some other place right? Do you have any illnesses or any hardships?" Shoyo asked. Rei stopped walking after all the questions from Shoyo. He lifted up his face which was looking down the whole time. He takes a deep breath and exhales. He turn towards Shoyo, "Would you mind stop asking me anymore questions?" He glares at Shoyo without even blinking. "Sorry! Did I piss you off?" Shoyo asked. Rei looked back down and kicked the rock to the side of the road and started walking. Shoyo is upset by what happened, so he quietly follows him.

"We are here" Shoyo came in first to the bus stop. It'sthe bus stop of Inaho. "Yea. Oh look... The bus to Choji will arrive in five minutes." Rei said. "It's your bus right?" "Yea. Choji. Gyeol is where you live. That means you have to go the other way. Look, it will be here around 9.15pm." Rei said and looked back down. He isn't looking at Shoyo at all. "Rei is avoiding eye contacts with me." Shoyo thinks to himself. "I'm sorry! But today is really not the day for me. I am kind of tired. This week is exhausting for me." Rei said, looking at Shoyos' face. "I can say it bro. What's important now is that you go home and get some rest. Understood?" Shoyo put his hand on Reis' shoulder and said. Rei looked at him and smiled. "Yeah! I will. Don't worry." "K then. there..your bus is coming. Make sure to call me or message me whenever you can, okay?" Shoyo said. "I will. I promise!"" K then, good bye!" Rei got on the bus. He walked all the way back in the bus and got seated. The bus started going. Shoyo waved at Rei. They kept waving at each other until they could no longer see each other.

~The next day, Thursday morning ~

The school bell goes. School corridors are silent. *Class 3-A* "Good morning students!" "Good morning teacher!"

*Class 3-C* "Good morning class!" "Good morning Mr. Seiji!"

*Class 3-D* "Hello everyone!" "Hello teacher!" Every class in the senior building has already started their classes. Meantime class 3-B boys.... "Shut the f*** up! "Yo stop it! "WTF! Seriously?! "B**** you know it's a stupid idea. Class 3-B girls.... "This is a brand new one. "Oh My God! That's so pretty. "Gurlll... this lipstick isn't that pretty. Look, it's darker than this...." The classroom is like a fish market. So noisy.

Meanwhile, Rei is sleeping and Sens' desk is empty. "Yo Rei, where is your boyfriend?" Hiroto came and sat at Sens' desk. "I think his boy friend went to bring him some flowers." Ichiro joins in "Stop it guys! He is sleeping. Kuromi pushes away both Hiroto and Ichiro. "Yea yea! He must be tired after cleaning toilets in the morning." Ha ha ha ha! Miya laughs while high-fiving Hiroto and Ichiro. From that sound Rei woke up. "Would you mind getting over it already?! I know am washing toilets, you don't have to remind me over and over again Miya, thank you!" Rei yelled and went back to sleeping. "Oh well... you guys deserve it. Stop pissing him off for the millionth time MIYA!" Chiyo yelled. "Class, please stop talking and be quiet, the vice principal might be here any second." Chiyo said loudly. Yuu Chiyo is the class leader. A pretty figure skater and also a genius for math. "I have work for you. Let's start with the sleepy heads. Rei wake up! This math problem is for you." "Bye!" Rei got up and left the class from the back door. "I wonder if Sen's ok. He must be tired after that. Poor guy! Next time I shouldn't ask for help." Rei thought while going to the washroom.

******

"Yes, so Miss Oreki will escort you to your classrooms. It's in the same building as senior classes. You can do it right Miss Oreki?" "Yes. I just helped some other first years to find their way back to classes. I can help them too. Okay Boys and girls... follow me." Hotaru took all the transferred freshmen students and headed out of the main building. Students are chatting on their way to the class.

"Ummmm... excuse me!" A girl said. "Yes?" Hotaru said. "Did you happen to know about the news yesterday?" "Which? What are you talking about?" "I am talking about that announcement yesterday. which was in the last class." Hotaru looks confused. "Yesterday last period? There was no such announcement. Besides, There was no announcement at all. I didn't hear anything." Hotaru thought and kept quiet because she didn't know what to say. They finally reached the senior building. Every class is silence. Hotaru is walking while looking at the classroom signs. *The computer lab* *The computer lab* *Class 3-A* *Class 3-B* Hotaru quickly went near the class as soon as she saw the sign and looked over the wall-windows. The class is super silent. Chiyo is standing in front of the black board. The students are writing something that is on the board. It's a math equation. Chiyo is watching everybody and telling people work. "That's my girl." Hotaru tells herself very proudly. She started walking again. At the same time, Chiyo started walking towards the students and came to Rei and slapped his back head. "Wake up you lazy bug! Wake up and do your work or I swear to god I'll kick your butt!" Everyone burst into laughter. Even the freshman students and Hotaru. "I already know how to do it. Let me be!" Oh! You are not gonna die if you do it again! DO IT!" "Argh!!" Rei lifted up his head while hitting on the desk and pushed the desk, got up and left the class again.

*Silence Silence* Everybody looked at each other. First years are looking at Rei who's walking in front of them. Hotaru also keeps looking at him. "What's his problem? Can't he just do it, if he so knows how to do it?" Hotaru whispered to herself and kept walking. Footsteps. Hotaru and the students are going to the third floor. "What was the class name again?" She asked. "It's class 1-F Miss." "Alright. there it is. C'mon fast." Hotaru hurried her steps and went to class 1-F. All the students are working.

"Hello!" Hotaru greets while knocking at the opened class-door. "Oh, hello miss Oreki! Did you bring my new students?" The homeroom teacher of class 1-F came to the door and waved at the new students. "Come on in. Take a look at your new class." All the new students came to the class. "There are empty seats. They must be for us." "Woah! This class is huge!" "Yeah! It's way bigger than our last high school." "Look... There is a tennis court." A boy said. "Oh yeah! That tennis court belongs to our school. When you have Physical Education, we'll got there and play." The homeroom teacher said. "Woah! Amazing!" "Yes indeed! Dwilight high school is one of the top standing schools for both facilities and education. And if you are transferred to this school, it means all of you here are smart. If not, you have to become one. Because Dwillight High School only accepts students with good grades, as you might all know. Now, take your seats. Your names are written on a piece of paper at each desk. You have to get seated where your name is. And say thank you to Miss Oreki for escorting you here. She will be your math teacher in third year." "Thank you Miss Oreki! Have a nice day!" Hotaru left and quickly went back to her class. In her head she was only thinking about Rei.

******

"Man.... It's already lunchtime." "Yeah it still feels like the first class." "The day flew fast but I'm happy about that. At least we didn't really feel the day going." Miya and Chiyo walk to the cafeteria. The cafeteria is crowded. So many students and too much noise. "Let's just go buy a cup of noodles from the convenience store." "yeah I think that might convince us too" they giggle and leave the cafeteria and walk towards gate B.

On their way, they see Kuromi and Hiroto walking near the outdoor pool while eating buns. They seem to be in a serious talk with their mouths opening really wide while eating. "I really wanna do something." Miya said. "Now is not the time. Am hungry. Let's just go." Chiyo says and grabs Miyas' hand and leaves the school.

Munch! Munch! Munch! "Do have any idea why Sen is absent today?" Kuromi asked. "Don't know. The only thing I know is that Rei is not in a good mood today." Hiroto said while taking a bite. "We should try at least talking to him. We are his friends too after all." "Yea but, has he ever talk to you about his life or anything about him? We are friends but he only talks with Sen about all his sadnesses and every other thing." Hiroto said with a upset face. "You know him Hiroto..... He has always been like this ever since middle school. We have been with him that long but only things we know are..... are.... nothing! We don't even know if he has siblings and stuff. Nor about his parents, where he lives. Only thing we know is that he lives without his parents at Sens' cuz he is his best friend. I bet Sen knows everything." Kuromi said. "Duh! Obviously dude! They are literally like a couple. Whatever, when we have physical education we'll play together. Then we can ask him if he is ok." Hiroto said.

******

* Class 1-F* "Hey what's up" Some students crowd around the new first years. "Mmm.. nothing much." A boy said quietly. "Nothing uch? Wanna play soccer? Dwilight soccer team is the best in the prefecture." "I know that." "Then let's go play." Some boys grab the new boy and push him towards the door. He bumps into a girl who is also new. "Oh sorry!" "No. It's ok." The girl said. "Hey, watch where you're going!" A boy said. "Am sorry! Please go ahead." She stepped aside from the door until the boys left. Soon after, her eyes go to the corner of the corridor where the staircases are located. A black color thing went down from the stairs. It seemed like a ghost. "A black jacket? Oh, may be it's a student." The new girl said to herself and went inside the class.

******

The school bell goes. "Ok everyone, today we play dodgeball." "YAY!! Woohoo!" "So you all know the game rules. We will play boys and girls separately." Everyone formed two lines of girls and boys. The PE (Physical Education) teacher divided girls into two and the boys into two groups. "Since we are on the school grounds, make sure you don't get hurt or it will take time to fetch first aid. Got it?" "Yes Sir!" The whistle blows and everyone started playing. Few minutes later: "huh huh huh... breathing so heavily. A lady teacher is running towards the group.

"Miss Oreki?" "Oh look! It's Miss Oreki." *Breathing heavily* Hotaru is running as fast as she can. "Miss Oreki?" The PE teacher looked. "Yay Miss Oreki, you can do it!" "Woohoo keep running! You are almost here!" The students cheered for Hotaru. She quickly came and stopped in front of the PE teacher. "Miss Oreki, what's wrong?" Huh...Can I please.. can I.. cough cough" Hotaru falls on the ground. "Quickly! Someone pass a water bottle.'' The PE teacher yelled. "Drink it slowly." The students are looking at Hotaru while looking at each other's faces. They all look surprised to see their homeroom teacher running, who once told that she would never run in a million years. "Miss Oreki? What happened? What's with all the rush?'' The PE teacher asked with a low voice. "Can I please check my students presence?" Hotaru asked while getting up. "Ok, hang on. The PE teacher hands over the presence card. Hotaru quickly goes through it. Absent marked in front of Sen. She quickly looked at Rei. "Rei... Do you know where Sen is?" Hotaru asked while handing the presence card back to the teacher and walking to Rei. "No Miss Oreki. I mean... He is sick." Rei replied. "Ok then he is safe." Hotaru sighed.

"What happened Miss Oreki? What is it?" Chiyo asked. "Well... as you know, that tragedy we all had to face two years ago?" "Yea.. what about that?" "It started again." Hotaru said with a worried face. "Yea we know. The announcement the other day made us realize it. Although the first years and the second years are probably confused about it cuz they don't know about that." Ichiro said. "Yea. It happened when we were in first year so they don't know." Tsukki, another boy said. "So that's the announcement that they were talking about and I didn't hear about. When I went to the staffroom, all the teachers were talking about a student going missing ever since lunch. They said it was a girl but that they weren't quite sure about it cuz lots of students left during lunch. They didn't even tell me which group was the missing student was. So I came running here to make sure it wasn't one of my students. Thank god you guys are safe!" Hotaru put her hand on her heart and closed her eyes.