Aoba Toshie gently pushed over Aoba Tomoyo’s easel.
The drawing board crashed straight to the floor, and painting tools scattered everywhere.
Facing the mess on the ground, Aoba Tomoyo looked up but could only see her younger sister acting like a resentful wife abandoned by her lover, pouring all her love, hatred, and everything she had for that heartless man onto her.
She didn’t know what kind of wrong medicine her sister had taken, and though she wanted to stop her, she couldn’t.
The love that Aoba Tomoyo had voiced with her own words was denied by the person she loved most.
How could the word “like” that she had spoken turn her sister into this state?
Many things that shouldn’t happen happened every day, and Aoba Tomoyo had grown used to it.
Just like how she quickly accepted the love she felt for Hiiragi Shuichi.
A love so consuming it nearly killed her, a love that was clearly utterly unreasonable.
But what logic could love ever follow?
Love simply didn’t follow logic…
That was what she had thought.
‘No… no!’
Could little Toshie have fallen for that guy too?
What kind of sense did that make?
Aoba Tomoyo clutched her head, feeling dizzy.
Through her wavering vision, Aoba Toshie picked up the painting tools scattered on the floor, throwing out a brush, then a pristine snow-white eraser, until finally, everything had been thrown out.
Aoba Toshie’s possessed-like intensity was so fierce that no student dared to stop her.
Even the usually gentle and refined Koizumi-sensei was so frightened that she hid alone in a corner, trembling.
Aoba Tomoyo watched her sister’s possessed state and felt pained, but she didn’t react excessively.
She simply stood there and sighed, not regretting the thrown items at all.
The only thing on her mind was how to clean this up, and for a brief moment, a thought even surfaced.
‘Maybe this isn’t so bad after all.’
Because her sister truly lacked discipline.
If she used this mistake as a reason, then as her older sister, as the eldest daughter of the Aoba family, she might have a chance to rein in her sister’s rebellious heart.
It was a shame about that eraser, though.
It worked really well…
But no matter how useful it was, its value couldn’t compare to their family problems.
Suddenly, the only sounds in the classroom were the crisp echoes from the open ground below as painting tool after painting tool was thrown out the window.
The students’ opinion of Aoba Toshie seemed to drop a few more notches, about to plummet straight to rock bottom.
Kawasaki Yuki quietly observed everything, her inner thoughts equally turbulent.
She clutched the paper torn from Hiiragi Shuichi’s drawing board in her hand, recalling how at noon, he had shouted those words beside her.
“Everyone’s Hiiragi Shuichi.”
In that delayed realization, Kawasaki Yuki felt a surge of encouragement.
If she truly wanted to understand someone, shouldn’t she become that person?
‘Think about it… What would my most, most beloved Hiiragi Shuichi do right now…?’
Kawasaki Yuki’s feet suddenly moved on their own, as if a pair of invisible hands had gently lifted her legs, carrying her through a dead sea called “fellow classmates.”
But she knew that invisible force didn’t exist.
She was doing this for herself, for that desire in her heart to understand Hiiragi Shuichi.
Kawasaki Yuki stepped up to Aoba Toshie, grabbed hold of her raised arm, and said with a trembling voice:
“St… Stop this!”
Downstairs from Building B, Hiiragi Shuichi, who had been waiting patiently, finally caught his opportunity.
Far too many painting tools had been thrown down below, yet not a single eraser among them.
Hiiragi Shuichi had nearly started thinking that maybe due to objective constraints, Aoba Toshie couldn’t break the laws of physics and directly complete his instructions.
But when that white eraser flew out of the window like a caged bird rejoicing in freedom, Hiiragi Shuichi’s eyes went wide in an instant.
“Finally…”
Hiiragi Shuichi lunged forward in one stride.
Before the eraser’s bounces on the ground had even come to an end, he snatched it out of midair with one grab.
Hiiragi Shuichi didn’t hesitate.
He immediately left the scene and headed back to the A Building classroom block.
Just as Hiiragi Shuichi was on his way back, someone emerged from behind Building B near the vending machine and happened to see him.
Shiraishi Jun had taken advantage of her break time to come downstairs and buy a can of coffee.
Seeing Hiiragi Shuichi rushing off in a hurry, she felt confused.
“Isn’t this class time?”
“Huh… That Hiiragi kid is skipping class?!”
Suddenly, a series of clattering sounds came from above.
Shiraishi-sensei saw students on the third floor continuously throwing things down.
“What on earth is going on today…”
Shiraishi-sensei paused mid-motion as she was about to pop the tab on her drink.
For a moment, she couldn’t decide whether to chase after Hiiragi Shuichi or head back upstairs.
After a brief shuffle of her feet, she ultimately chose to walk back up.
Hiiragi Shuichi didn’t bring the eraser upstairs.
While changing his shoes, he hid the eraser inside a shoe locker, just not his own.
To prevent someone from stuffing love letters into his locker, or trying to steal his indoor shoes and thereby discovering the eraser, Hiiragi Shuichi had encountered such situations many times.
To be an outstanding person, one would inevitably be liked, and inevitably be envied.
Hiiragi Shuichi hid the eraser in Asuka Ryunosuke’s shoe locker.
That guy was dumb enough not to figure out what the eraser could be used for.
More importantly, no one else would be idle enough to open his locker.
Back at the art classroom, Hiiragi Shuichi pulled open the door and saw a mess.
By the time he returned, it seemed the incident had already come to an end.
Aoba Toshie sat collapsed on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
Aoba Tomoyo stood off to the side, her face ashen.
When she saw Hiiragi Shuichi enter, her face lit up with a flash of vitality, but it vanished as quickly as a flower blooming in an instant, soon dropping again.
Most importantly…
Kawasaki Yuki was quietly restoring order to the scene, rearranging the scattered classroom back into place.
Hiiragi Shuichi noticed that Kawasaki Yuki’s high ponytail was gone.
Her hair hung loose, her blue locks cascading down like a waterfall, her red hair tie lying on the floor like a lonely child.
There were even small wounds at the corner of her mouth.
‘How… how did she get dragged into this?’
Hiiragi Shuichi couldn’t figure it out for a moment, ripples stirring in his heart.
“Back already? Where did you go just now?”
Hiiragi Shuichi, lost in thought, was snapped awake by the voice.
Shiraishi-sensei walked over and patted his shoulder.
He hadn’t noticed at all when he came in that Shiraishi-sensei was also there.
“I… went to the restroom.”
Naturally, Hiiragi Shuichi wanted to complete the alibi he had prepared in advance.
But he had no idea that Shiraishi-sensei had seen him downstairs just moments ago.
Shiraishi-sensei didn’t call him out on it.
She simply gave a slight smile and said:
“They all seem to be here because of you?”
“Since it started with you, then you should resolve it…”
Shiraishi-sensei popped open the tab on her drink can, took a big gulp of coffee, and prepared to leave.
As she was leaving, she quietly said to Hiiragi Shuichi:
“Remember, when you casually move someone’s heart, you have to take responsibility…”
She patted Hiiragi Shuichi’s shoulder, then announced crisply to the students:
“Today’s art class ends here.”
“Follow the subsequent class arrangements.”
“Dismissed!”
Then she handed over the scene.