Episode 35: Unrest
When I got back to the classroom, Honoka wasn’t there.
There wasn’t much time left before the bell would ring, ending lunch.
So it wasn’t strange, really, that Honoka might have gone back to her own classroom first.
(…She just went back to her classroom.)
Even thinking that, a faint unease lingered in my chest.
Nothing was actually wrong. Nothing had actually changed.
But something, just slightly, wouldn’t settle.
I couldn’t quite work out what that feeling was.
Telling myself I was overthinking it, I sat down at my desk.
I looked out the window. The sky was calm as ever, clouds drifting slowly by.
(…Just my imagination, right?)
Even repeating that to myself in my head, something unnameable kept snagging, somewhere in my heart.
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After school, I headed straight for Honoka’s classroom.
We were supposed to go home together.
So going to meet her should have been the usual routine — it should have been. And yet.
(…She’s not here.)
I peeked in from beside the door. A few students were still around, but Honoka wasn’t among them.
I let my eyes drift, casually, over her seat, the corners of the room.
But she was nowhere to be found.
(That’s strange.)
On impulse, I took out my phone and sent Honoka a message.
【Have you already left the classroom?】
I pressed send and stared at the screen.
But even after waiting several seconds, the notification didn’t change.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the number of students in the room gradually thinning.
(Maybe she already went home.)
I put my phone away and turned to leave.
The evening corridor held a faint chill. The murmur of voices leaking from classrooms grew fainter and fainter the closer I got to the entrance.
With only the sound of my own footsteps for company, a faint unease lingered in my chest.
(…What is this.)
I remembered Honoka silently returning to her classroom at lunch.
Back then too, she’d vanished without a word.
And now she wasn’t here either.
Thinking about it that way, something about it felt unpleasant.
But I couldn’t say why.
There was no answer to be found by thinking it over, so I simply walked out through the school gate and started for home.
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When I got home, I opened the door, took off my shoes, and quietly closed it behind me.
The moment I stepped into the room —
“—!”
A strong force shoved my back, and my body swayed.
Before I could steady myself, I fell to the floor.
The scene in front of me blurred for an instant.
Before I could understand what was happening, I felt something come down over me.
Close by, I could faintly hear breathing.
A faint scent reached me — one I knew well.
“…Honoka?”
I caught my breath and said her name.
But there was no reply.
Only a deep, fixed gaze, staring straight at me.
Honoka, right in front of me, wasn’t smiling. Wasn’t making any of her usual coaxing sounds.
There was only the raw feeling there, bleeding through, unconcealed.