Ren was still dragging yesterday with him. Aoi's voice in the alley. The warmth when she grabbed his shoulder. The way she started to say "You are…" and then stopped. Every time Ren thought about what came next, he shook his head. No. It's the curse. He was just feeling weird because his body was female now. That's all. Friday morning, and Class 2-3 at Furin High was a little noisier than usual. Ten minutes until homeroom. Ren was sitting in his usual seat by the window in the back row, staring blankly outside when— The sliding door scraped open loudly. "[excited]Good morning, everyone!" Mishima Yuki came in carrying an enormous furoshiki cloth bundle. She was the student council president ranked 12th in the grade—excellent, and vice-chair of the discipline committee. The girl who always showed up with perfectly creased skirt pleats was holding the bundle with both hands today. It was bulging. Everyone's eyes gathered. Ren turned to look too. Yuki stood in front of the desks and set the bundle down with a thud. She grinned. Her eyes looked like a cat plotting something. "[cold]Sakuragi. I've collected some charms to break your curse." Ren's brow furrowed instantly. "[sarcastic]…What?" "[serious]I researched some documents. I ordered several items that are effective for exorcising evil spirits—" As she spoke, Yuki untied the bundle's knots. What came out was—cat ear headbands. A magical girl wand (pink, star-shaped, glittery). A crystal ball. Three small bags of salt. A stack of papers covered in characters Ren couldn't read. The classroom went completely silent. A second later, it erupted. "What is this?" "What documents?" "What do cat ears have to do with exorcising evil…?" Yuki didn't react to any of it. She picked up the cat ear headband and walked toward Ren. "[cold]Let's start with this. Apparently ears are important for warding off evil spirits." "[angry]Like hell they are!! Stop it!!" "[sarcastic]If you don't like it, you can stay female forever." ………… Ren clenched his back teeth. Yuki was smiling sweetly. A perfect smile with no warmth behind it. "…Tch." Yuki reached out smoothly. *Click*—the cat ear headband went on Ren's head. One second of silence. Then the classroom erupted in laughter. "Oh no…" "That's so cute…wait, no!?" "Dude, it actually looks amazing on them." The boys were whispering, but all their faces were twitching. Some of the girls were shaking their shoulders, holding back laughs. "[angry]Anyone who laughs is getting knocked flying!!" The voice was high. Zero intimidation. One of the boys kept muttering "scary… cute… scary…" Yuki opened her notebook, looking satisfied. "[cold]Next. The magical girl wand. Just say one line and you're done." "[scared]A-absolutely not…!! Anything but that!!" "[sarcastic]Then I'll just put this salt around your neck." "[angry]Why!? What's the point!?" Yuki reached silently to put a salt bag around Ren's neck. Ren tried to swat her hand away and his arm hit the desk. *Bang*—a loud noise. "[angry]Stop it already!! I want to break the curse! I don't want to cosplay!!" He slammed the desk. But his voice was high, so it lost all impact. Frustrating. Yuki didn't budge. She flipped through her notebook. "[cold]Next we'll use the crystal ball to check the flow of energy." At that moment, the sound of a chair scraping came from the front row on the hallway side. "[angry]Mishima! That's enough!!" Aoi had stood up. Her crimson hair fell to her waist, swaying. The morning light caught the freckles on her cheeks. Her soft brown eyes were more serious than usual. Aoi walked through the desks from the hallway side and stood in front of Ren. "[serious]A curse can't be broken with something like that! Sakuragi is suffering!" Yuki looked over coolly. "[cold]Oh, Hinata. Don't interfere. This is a serious ritual to lift the curse." "[angry]Since when do serious rituals use commercial character goods!!" "Since now. I'm doing it right in front of you." "[angry]That's not the point—!" The two of them started arguing. Classmates watched with bated breath. No one stopped them. The atmosphere didn't allow for it. Yuki's eyes narrowed slightly. "[cold]If you're so worried about Sakuragi, just leave it to me. Having you around… you're just in the way." Aoi's face flushed red. "[angry]I'm in the way? You've been doing nothing but things he hates since yesterday!" "[sarcastic]Did it look like he hated it? It looked like he was enjoying himself to me." "[angry]He wasn't!! No matter how you look at it—" "[angry]…Enough. Stop." He said it in a low voice. But his voice was high, so it didn't carry much weight. Still, both of them turned around. "Don't fight because of me. Please." A moment of silence. Then Aoi and Yuki opened their mouths almost simultaneously. "[angry]"It's for your sake, so stay quiet." "…Huh?" Their voices matched perfectly. Then they looked at each other and glared. Suppressed laughter leaked from the class. Ren's stomach twisted. --- After lunch ended, it was cleaning time. "Desk-wiping team, stay here," the duty person called, and most of the class split up for hallway and stairwell assignments and left. Third floor, South Wing. Class 2-3. Afternoon light streamed through the windows. Dust floated gently. The air moved slowly. Ren started working silently, cloth in hand. Only a few people stayed. One of them was Aoi, assigned to the blackboard. The sound of chairs moving. The sound of cloth scrubbing desks. The sound of chalk dust being wiped away. There was no conversation between them. Ren wiped the desks one row at a time, thinking about Yuki this morning. The cat ears. The salt bags. The crystal ball. Was she seriously trying to break the curse, or was she just messing with him for fun? "[gentle]…Sakuragi." Aoi's voice fell into the quiet classroom. Ren looked up. Aoi was holding the blackboard eraser, looking at him. "What." "[gentle]Do you remember elementary school?" "…Remember what?" Aoi's gaze wavered slightly. Then she continued slowly. "[gentle]On the way home from school, there was an irrigation ditch, remember? A cat fell in there and… you jumped in first, got completely soaked—but you were laughing, so I…" Her words trailed off. Aoi covered her mouth. Her face was getting a little red. Ren stood there with the cloth in his hand, watching her. "…So what." "[surprised]N-nothing! Anyway, the blackboard's clean now!! Um, maybe I should wipe the windows too…" She spoke loudly, changing the subject, and turned away. Ren wrung out the cloth and— She was about to say something. That's what he thought. There was something after the story about the ditch and the cat. She was about to say it, then stopped. Why? (Stop. Don't think about it.) Ren shook his head and went back to wiping desks. It's the curse. He was just feeling weird because his body was female. The reason he was seeing Aoi differently than usual, the reason he cared about what came next in that story—it was all because of that. He told himself that. But the more he told himself, the more Aoi's face from earlier stayed in his head. --- A while later, quiet returned to the classroom. Ren finished wiping the last desk and stood there, cloth in hand. Aoi put down the blackboard eraser and turned around. "…Sakuragi, your face is red." "[sarcastic]It's just hot." Immediate answer. Aoi tilted her head slightly. "…Are you maybe thinking about what I said earlier?" "I'm not thinking about it!!" He tried to say it. But his mouth opened a beat too late. Aoi noticed. Her brown eyes widened slightly. Ren looked at Aoi. Aoi looked at Ren. Both of them looked away at the same time. Silence fell on the classroom. Chalk dust drifted slowly through the light from the window. Footsteps echoed faintly from the hallway. Nothing else. Aoi started to open her mouth. Her lips moved, forming "Um…" Right then. *Ding-dong, ding-dong.* The cleaning-time-over chime rang out. Classmates' voices and footsteps came rushing back down the hallway. The sliding door opened. "That was hot—" "The stairs had so much dust." Aoi put the blackboard eraser back in the rack. Then, without looking at Ren, she said something barely audible. "[whispers]…I hope we can talk about it properly later." That was all. She mixed into the flow of returning classmates and headed toward the classroom entrance. Ren stood in the wave of people coming back, unable to move. Laughter. Chairs scraping. Someone saying "I didn't eat before Yasuda-sensei gets here." The usual pre-class-end bustle. In the middle of it all, Ren stood holding the cloth, thinking about the irrigation ditch and the cat and himself soaking wet and laughing—trying not to, but thinking about it anyway. "[cold]Sakuragi." Yuki poked her head in from the hallway. "[sarcastic]I'll bring a more powerful charm tomorrow. Look forward to it." She smiled sweetly and disappeared. Ren's stomach tightened.