Room 01 T.
She slid the door open.
"Here's my room, welcome~"
It was quite a heavily-decorated room, filled with posters of an idol by the name of Karin, it was one I'd seen before briefly, but I don't think she was anywhere near the popularity of Tobiichi-san.
"Thanks, I hope you don't mind."
"Of course I don't mind, Kizutaka-senpai!"
We made our way inside.
She quickly headed to her bathroom, leaving me alone beside her bed. I didn't want to look around too much, but I could clearly notice the irregular setup of it. It seemed less like a bedroom and more like a storage room. There was no sense of order, yet everything seemed to be overtly covered by Karin-chan posters.
"—You can sit on my bed if you want."
Her voice came from the bathroom.
Contrasting all the disorder, her bed was cleanly-kept. It was a light shade of pink, emblematic of teenage life, yet it seemed almost out-of-place.
A few moments later, she came back.
"Sorry I took so long, I wanted to clean my bathroom a little. My things were all over the place, aha."
"It's fine."
I got back up.
"So what do you want to do now."
"Ah, looking to leave already~?"
"It's not that…"
"Haha, just kidding, we should check up on Shimizu-senpai."
I began making my way toward the door.
"That's a good idea."
Before she left, Akechi-san grabbed some medication and food from her cupboard, stuffing it inside a little shoulder bag.
I guess I should get something too. I should've gotten something at the convenience store.
Oh well.
"Which room is he in?"
"Ah, you don't know~? Even though we're all friends?"
"Um."
"Haa, he's in room 13 K in the boys' dormitory."
Making our way through the silent dormitory hallway, Akechi-san seemed to be awkwardly looking around the walls. I suppose I wasn't exactly being very interesting.
Maybe I should say something.
"Akechi-san."
"Yes, Kizutaka-senpai?"
"Um, so what do you usually do on your days off like this."
She laughed a little.
"Is that your way of having small talk with me? It's like we're complete strangers~"
"Sorry."
I guess talking was a bad idea.
She looked over at me and smiled a little.
"But still, I've been hanging out with Rin-kun and you, haven't I?"
"Yeah, but you seem quite popular, do you not hang out with others as well?"
"Oh? I'm popular? That's new~."
"It's true."
She was silent for a brief moment.
"I suppose I do talk to lots of people, but I'm not really that close with any of them."
"So you're only really close to Shimizu-kun?"
She laughed again, covering her mouth with her hand.
"What's with the self-deprecating attitude?"
"What do you mean."
"I'm close with you as well, you know!"
She glared at me.
"Ah."
"Anyways, I hope Shimizu-senpai is doing alright, he seemed really under the weather this morning."
"Yeah."
Making our way into the boys' dormitory, we once again waited for the elevator to come down.
"By the way, Kizutaka-kun, what's Sakai-san like?"
"Sakai-san?"
"Yeah, you're in the student council with her aren't you?"
It wasn't expecting her to ask about Sakai-san.
"I don't really know her that well. I thought that you were acquainted with her?"
"Not really, I only know her since I talk with Kanao-san. It's pretty hard to get a read on Sakai-san."
"I guess she does seem to be hard to understand."
"She's the student council president, right? I was pretty surprised to find that a first-year had gotten the position, what happened?"
"They had a game."
"A game? What do you mean?"
"She and Tsukumo-kun had a contest to see who'd become the next president."
"That's so weird. They decided through a game?"
Ding.
The elevator door opened.
Akechi-san continued to wait for a response as we made our way inside.
"Well, she suggested one. It's just the way the school works, I suppose."
"That's interesting. What was the game?"
"They were guessing each others' Core Attributes."
"That simple?"
"Yeah."
There was another moment of silence as the elevator arrived on Shimizu-kun's floor.
Akechi-san awkwardly stared off into the distance as we walked toward his room.
…
We made our way to room 13 K.
Akechi-san knocked on the door.
For a few moments, there was no response, until the door lethargically opened.
"Hana-san?"
"How are you doing, Shimizu-senpai? Kizutaka-senpai and I were worried about you."
"Oh… yeah… I'm doing alright."
"You don't look alright!"
Akechi-san quickly grabbed some of the medication from her bag.
"Here, take these."
"Ah, thank you, Hana-san."
There was a moment of silence.
It was clear that Shimizu-kun wasn't in good condition.
But that wasn't the only thing.
From what I could see, it seemed that it was a bit more than just a simple cold—weirdly so.
I made my way forward a little.
"Shimizu-kun, are you sure you're feeling fine?"
"Huh…? Oh, Kizutaka-kun, yeah… it's nothing. Don't worry… about me."
"You should see the nurse."
He resisted.
"No… I don't want to. It's honestly not that bad… I'm just going to get some rest."
With that, he walked back and slammed the door shut on us.
…
Akechi-san looked over at me.
"What's the matter, Kizutaka-senpai?"
"His condition seems to be a little more than a cold."
Her demeanour changed.
…
"I know."
…
I see.
"Did you poison him?"
Akechi-san glared at me.
"No, I didn't."
"Ah."
The atmosphere went tense.
"If you know, aren't you going to care for him a little more?"
There was a moment of silence.
"It's not like there's anything really I can do."
Akechi-san seemed overly-rational for the first time.
"Well, what are you planning on doing."
"Nothing really, but I am going to talk to Sakai-san."
"Sakai-san?"
"It's unrelated to this, but I still need to. By the way, Kizutaka Rin-kun, how much do you really know about this school?"
…
She didn't seem to care much about Shimizu-kun's condition—or it seemed more that she had already accepted it.
It was definitely out of character for the girl I knew as Akechi Hana-san.
[Volume 1 - Part 1 - END]