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A week into his student teaching—Monday, May 20.

Sakuta was woken by Nasuno treading on his face, and he left his room to find Kaede making breakfast. The living room already smelled like toast.

“Oh, Sakuta, morning.”

“Morning.”

“You’ve got a break from student teaching and are back on campus today, right?”

“Yeah.”

He took a sip of the coffee she’d made.

“I’m going with Nodoka on her way to work. You want a ride?”

“Sure. I had something to say to Toyohama anyway.”

With that, Sakuta took a big bite of toast.

They left in time to get to second-period classes and were making smooth progress toward their college.

Nodoka was at the wheel. Kaede was in the passenger seat, Sakuta in the back.

It was Mai’s car, but there was no sign of her.

“Toyohama,” he said.

“What?”

They were stopped at a red light.

“I heard Sweet Bullet finally got a show at the Budokan.”

“I guess,” she said evasively.

“It was trending yesterday.”

“I had all those dreams about it, and it’s finally happening.”

“Congratulations, Nodoka!” Kaede piped up.

“Thanks. It’s also ourlastshow, so kinda hard to be that hyped about it.”

This was why she wasn’t jumping for joy.

“I mean, Iamhappy,” she said in brighter tones—before she brought down the mood.

“What’ll you do once you graduate from the idol biz?”

“First thing? I’m gonna go home.”

This was half to herself, and not enthusiastic.

“You’ve been running away for a while now. Definitely time to sort things out. Tell Zukki congrats from me, will you?”

“Tell her your damn self.”

The light turned green, and the car took off.

“Yeah, I guess I will.”

Sakuta took his phone out of his pocket and sent Uzuki a text.

Congrats on the Kokugikan gig.

It was marked to read right away, and she answered a moment later.

Yup, I’m gonna be a yokozuna! No, wait, it’s the Budokan!

“Playing along with the gag? Zukki’s growing.”

“What are you talking about, Sakuta?” Kaede asked, but before he could answer, the phone rang.

Naturally, the screen showedZukki.

And on closer inspection, he noticed it was a video call.

He tapped the answer button and held the phone up in front of his face.

On the other side he could see her in extreme close-up.

“What’s up, Zukki? You’re very close.”

“You’ve gotta come to our Budokan show!” she yelled, moving the phone a bit farther away. It looked like she was also in a car.

“If I can get a ticket.”

“You have to! Tell him, Mom!”

The phone turned toward the driver’s seat. Uzuki’s mom had her hands on the wheel. “I’m driving!” she yelled, pushing the phone away.

The video call cut out.

“Very Zukki.”

No consideration for his needs.

“Still, you gotta laugh,” Nodoka said, actively laughing.

“Too happy to stop?” Sakuta asked.

“I mean, hearingyoutalking about trending topics.”

Nodoka laughed even louder.

In the passenger seat, Kaede was nodding. “Very true,” she said, chuckling.

Nodoka got them to Kanazawa-hakkei Station a solid fifteen minutes before second period.

“Thanks, Nodoka!” Kaede said.

The car pulled away, and Sakuta and Kaede ambled off toward campus.

As they stepped through the main gates, they saw someone they recognized up ahead.

“Komi, hello!” Kaede called, and she ran to catch up.

Kaede’s childhood friend Kotomi Kano turned back at her name.

“Kae, hi. And Sakuta, too,” she added, seeing him and bobbing her head.

“Morning.”

The three of them moved down the tree-lined lane.

“Did you do your English homework, Komi?”

“Not yet. Wanna do it together?”

“Please!”

Chatting about classes, the two girls turned off toward the main building. Sakuta alone kept going down the lane, to the research building at the end of it.

“I’m going this way,” he said.

“Oh, right. Later!”

Kotomi bowed her head again, and they headed off, chattering away.

“You don’t have to be so tense around him.”

“I do.”

“What? Why?”

At the research building, he talked to his professor about his graduation thesis for an hour or so, then headed to the cafeteria.

Classes were in session, so it was fairly empty, and he planned to grab an early lunch.

Clearly, he was not the only one—he saw a familiar face just inside the door.

“Why you here, Azusagawa? Aren’t you student teaching?” It was Takumi Fukuyama, who shared his statistical science major.

“Day off,” he said. They moved on into the cafeteria.

“You had nothing better to do than come to campus?”

“I had to make sure my graduation-thesis theme was acceptable.”

At the rice-bowl counter, he ordered theyokoichi-don. “Same for me,” Takumi said.

This dish involved a poached egg on sweet-and-spicy ground chicken over rice. Armed with their meals, they found a table by the windows. Takumi sat across from him.

“So what is your thesis?”

“ ‘Regional Generalized Beliefs Derived from Social Media Postings.’ ”

“What’s the abstract going to be?”

“What exactly is ‘everyone’?”

“……That’s not gonna be easy to pin down.”

“That’s why the professor told me to narrow the scope.”

“Where would you even begin?” Takumi asked, scooping meat and rice into his mouth.

“I got an okay by narrowing it down to teenage beliefs.”

“Oh I see. Still sounds hard.”

“Why brings you here today, Fukuyama?”

“Also thesis related. I was in the computer lab, revising mine.”

They both made short work of their meals.

Sakuta grabbed two cups of tea from the drink bar.

He sat down and took a sip.

“Oh, right, Azusagawa,” Takumi said, looking unusually serious.

“What’s this? She dump you? Sorry to hear it.”

“She did not!”

“What is it, then?”

“I landed a job in Hokkaido.”

That sure was a reminder than they were both college seniors.

“Doing what, where?”

“Data management at a TV station. Liaising with other companies, ratings, consumer-satisfaction surveys.”

“Isn’t that risky?”

“How so?”

“I mean, your girlfriend’s an announcer at that same station. Since last year.”

“I was worried, so I ran it by Nene, and she said, ‘What? It’s not like I’m a news anchor in Tokyo. No one will care.’ ”

“Then congrats on your future employment.”

He lifted his teacup.

Takumi lifted his as well, and they tapped them together.

“So once I graduate, I won’t see much of you.”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s what graduation means.”

“Yeah, I guess it does.”

There was a stir at the door. Second period had ended, and the lunch rush was starting.

Without a word, both Sakuta and Takumi picked up their trays. They dropped them at the return counter and got out before it got too crowded.

“What’re you up to next?” Takumi asked.

“Gonna rummage through past theses, see if I can find anything that’ll help with mine.”

“Then we’re headed to the same place!”

They started walking toward the library.

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