Maika was enrolled in a cram school.

          Sendai-san attended a prep school.

          In both of their cases, they were told by their fathers that if they went, their tuitions would be covered. Though, truth be told, I wasn’t sure what the difference between a cram school and a prep school was.

          Both places had something to do with studying.

          That was the only thing I knew about them.

          I wasn’t interested in attending either of those myself, so I felt a bit bad about calling Sendai-san over all the time. I decided to limit myself to summoning her once a week.

          Usually I’d tell Sendai-san to come over whenever I was having a bad day, but recently I would try to put up with as much as I could.

          That was a decision I made after Sendai-san left last week.

          However, I found myself wanting to invite her over already.

          「I don’t want to do anything anymore…」

          I leaned back in my chair and heaved a sigh. Maika, who was sitting across from me, laughed as she said,

          「You sure got roasted alive today, Shiori. Talk about unlucky.」

          「Seriously, that was so unlucky. Tigerhashi¹ was in such a bad mood.」

          Ami was sitting next to Maika. She was referring to one of our teachers, Takahashi-sensei, who always seemed to be dressed in blue. I thought back to the class that had just ended. Now that Tigerhashi wasn’t around anymore, I was free to voice my complaints.

           「I wish he’d stop using us as punching bags. Seriously, he’s just the worst.」

          Tigerhashi was our world history teacher who had a reputation for taking his anger out on his students whenever he was in a bad mood. Even before class began today, he was scowling and had a deep wrinkle between his eyebrows.

          Please don’t let it be me.

          That was the prayer I made, yet fate had a different plan; I became his primary target. He continuously prodded me with unanswerable questions, followed by incessant nagging when I couldn’t respond. He kept singling me out, sprinkling in a few snide remarks, before finally returning to the staff room. As a result, I could feel my energy levels plummeting beneath the earth.

          「I want to go home already.」

          I muttered while putting my textbooks and notebooks away in my desk.

          「I get how you feel, but we have gym class next, so we better get moving soon.」

          Ami said as she nudged me.

          「Yeah, I know.」

          I replied as I stood up, holding my gym clothes in my hands.

          The three of us left the classroom together and walked down the hallway towards the gym, with the sounds of our footsteps echoing around us.

          「Oh, speaking of which…」

          Maika said, as if suddenly remembering something.

          「Did you hurt your arm or something?」

          「I didn’t. Why do you ask?」

          「You’ve been touching it a lot lately.」

          「…… Have I?」

          「I mean, you’re touching it right now.」

          When Maika pointed it out, I suddenly became conscious of it.

          I was holding my own arm like it was some sort of habit I developed, although the mark that Sendai-san made there had already disappeared.

          「Oh, I guess you’re right.」

          I let go of my arm.

          The hickey that Sendai-san made last week didn’t last very long. It had already started to fade after two days. Before I knew it, the red mark had gradually faded until it matched the colour of my skin, disappearing as if it had melted into me.

          In that time span, I had no recollection of touching my arm.

          Even now, I probably never would’ve noticed without Maika pointing it out.

          What was this?

          I hated how I was acting like I wanted the mark to still be there.

          「Heeey, Shiori. Don’t forget to keep walking.」

          Ami said as she pulled me by the arm.

          That was enough to snap me out of my own head, and I managed to get my feet to start moving again.

          「Was getting bullied by Tigerhashi that much of a shock?」

          Maika laughed while giving me a pat on the back.

          That wasn’t the real reason, but I didn’t bother correcting her either.

          As I was being pulled along by Ami, I decided to ask Maika the question that had been on my mind for a while.

          「Oh right, Maika. Is cram school hard?」

          「Well, it is pretty hard, but I need to tough it out until the entrance exam is over. Oh, are you attending one right now, Shiori?」

          「No, I’m not.」

          「If you’re going to enroll in one, you should come to mine. The teachers are pretty good at explaining things.」

          Maika advertised the cram school she went to as if she owned the business.

          I didn’t really enjoy studying, but maybe going to the same cram school as Maika would feel better than just being alone in my own room all the time.

          Or maybe if I went to the same prep school as Sendai-san――.

          An idea that would never manifest briefly popped into my mind, but I immediately chased it away.

          If I had to pick between attending a cram school or a prep school, I would definitely choose the former. But for the time being, I had no plans of going to either.

           「I’ll think about it.」

          I responded to Maika’s fervent invitation with a tentative answer.

          When I looked ahead, I saw a familiar figure at the end of the hallway.

          「As always, they stand out quite a bit, don’t they?」

          Ami said without mentioning any names. However, when I saw Ibaraki-san and her group heading our way, I knew exactly who she was referring to.

          Of course, Sendai-san was among the people in that group.

          The girls walked straight down the middle of the hallway as if they ruled the school.

          「They sure do.」

          Maika said in a whisper as she moved aside for them to pass by.

          The group in front of us buzzed with energetic, high-pitched voices as they chatted excitedly amongst themselves.

          As Ibaraki-san’s voice came closer to us, Sendai-san’s eyes met with mine. But the exchange only lasted for a moment before we passed by each other.

          Our school was quite big, but the third-year classrooms were all in the same building – things like this happened often. Sendai-san and I would never exchange words or wave if we saw each other in the hallways, though. That was one of the rules we’d set, there was nothing to be disappointed about.

          Despite that, it felt like I’d been pricked by a strange sense of unease.

          An odd feeling of discontentment plunged me into a melancholic mood. It didn’t help that getting hit by Tigerhashi’s wrath left me itching to summon Sendai-san.

          However, it would only remain a temptation.

          I’d already decided that I would try to put up with as much as I could, after all.

          「Oh, right. Did you guys hear about what happened?」

          Maika suddenly said, turning around to make sure Ibaraki-san and the others were out of earshot before facing us.

          「I heard Sendai-san was confessed to by a second-year on the boys’ basketball team.」

          Maika leaned in, whispering as if she were sharing classified information with us.

          I had no idea where she even managed to hear that from.

          「Oh? Who was it?」

          Ami asked, sounding extremely curious about the details.

          「Apparently, it was Yamada.」

          I traced my memory upon hearing the name.

          I hadn’t heard anything about Sendai-san being confessed to by a boy from the basketball team. The name “Yamada” was never brought up before at all.

          In fact, I didn’t even know who this “Yamada” person was.

          Sendai-san and I weren’t close enough to engage in idle conversation, let alone discuss matters of love, so it wasn’t surprising that I was unaware of what happened. However, when I heard Maika mention something unfamiliar to me, I couldn’t help but feel unsettled.

          「Isn’t he pretty cool?」

          Ami spoke in a more excited voice than usual.

          「Hmm, I don’t think he’s that cool?」

          「Really? Well, what do you think, Shiori?」

          My feet came to a halt when the question was suddenly passed over to me.

          「…… Me? Well, I don’t really know who he is. More importantly, you seem pretty up to date on this stuff.」

          「Oh, actually, I heard it from someone who goes to my cram school.」

          Maika replied casually before moving onto the next piece of gossip.

          If I remembered correctly, Sendai-san had to go to prep school today.

          Even if I asked for her today, she would only be able to come by tomorrow.

          I’d feel bad if I called for her too often, though.

          I thought to myself.

          Despite that, I decided to send Sendai-san the usual message after gym class. 

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1. In the original text, Shiori (can I call her that now ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა) and her friends refer to their teacher, Takahashi-sensei, as “Dorahashi” (どら橋
   はし). This is meant to be a portmanteau of “dragon” (doragon/ドラゴン) and, well, Takahashi. This is presumably because dragons are vicious in nature, so I took that idea and tried to find a similar animal in English while hoping it rolled off the tongue (kind of). I was going for something along the lines of “tiger parents”, if you get my drift.
   
   Also, hey, “tiger” in Japanese is “tora” (虎), so I think I found a pretty good substitute. Toradora, anyone?!
   
   You might be wondering why I bothered localizing it at all instead of leaving it as “Dorahashi”. Well, simply put, I just didn’t want anyone thinking of a certain child who loves exploring. ↩︎

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Credits to himi for proofreading and editing this part!

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