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Sakuta got the rental car back to Ofuna before five. He returned the car, got on the Tokaido Line, and rode back to Fujisawa.

That took less than five minutes.

He followed other passengers out onto the platform, went up the stairs, and tapped his pass on the gates. His feet took him to the north exit, but rather than go home, he headed for the cram school near the station.

Sakuta didn’t have any classes today, but at this hour on a Saturday, he figured Rio would be there. He wanted to ask her about Miori.

As he neared the building, he found someone very tall by the elevators.

Toranosuke Kasai.

This boy was nearly six foot three.

“Self-study?” Sakuta asked.

“Mm? Oh, Azusagawa-sensei. Basically, yeah. I wanted to review the mock test.”

The elevator arrived, and they got on.

Toranosuke hit the button. The elevator started moving, and he let out a long sigh.

“Not feeling it?”

“I’m doing all right.”

“Test results not so good?”

“Pretty bad.”

“So the dream came true,” Sakuta muttered.

“……?” Toranosuke frowned at him.

Like Tomoe and Sara, he didn’t remember the dreaming hashtag.

“Well, the real thing’s still almost a year off. Don’t let it get to you. Spring of my third year, my mock exam was straight-up awful.”

“Right…”

Clearly, he wasn’t doing okay. He seemed barely there at all.

One step inside the cram school, and it became obvious this wasn’t just about the mock test.

As the doors opened, Toranosuke called a greeting to the teachers’ area.

Sakuta followed after him, but the boy pulled up short, and he nearly ran into him.

“Erp…what?”

He leaned around, getting a look at Toranosuke’s face. His eyes were locked on something between the free space and the teachers’ area.

Sara was at the counter, asking Rio a question. She was diligently answering, pointing at something in their notes. Toranosuke’s eyes were on Rio, and he seemed even more serious than she was.

“Must be tough falling for the girlfriend of a senpai from your basketball team.”

Reality had been rewritten, but Toranosuke’s feelings for her had not changed. If anything, the changes to Rio and Yuuma’s relationship had made things quite a bit messier.

“I don’t… Futaba-sensei’s just…”

He stammered a denial, but there wasn’t much force behind it.

“Thanks so much, Rio-sensei!” Sara said, snapping her notes closed. At this point they both noticed Sakuta and Toranosuke.

“I’m off to the self-study rooms,” the latter said, and he made himself scarce.

A moment later, Sara came over.

“Sakuta-sensei, do you even have a class? Yamada and Yoshiwa were talking about hitting Kamakura today.”

“I’m here for Futaba.”

“I’m about to teach Himeji.”

Rio stepped out of the teachers’ area, unperturbed.

“I’ll wait till you’re done.”

“Once it’s over, I’m meeting Kunimi for dinner.”

“What time?”

“Eight.”

It was six. Classes were eighty minutes, so she’d wrap up at 7:20.

“Gimme those forty minutes.”

“……I’ll hear you out, at least.”

She didn’t seem particularly motivated. The polar opposite of that.

He could guess why.

“Thanks,” he said.

Sara watched with interest, but Sakuta pretended not to notice.