Found

For a moment, Yuta thought he was still asleep. When he realized he was awake, he jumped back in the bed, accidentally hitting the back of his head against the wall, causing him to flinch. “Ms. Sasaki? W-What are you doing?”

Her eyes hardened and she glared down at him with a frightening intensity. “Ichikawa… you just had a dirty thought, didn’t you?”

“N-No ma’am!”

She narrowed her eyes. “Really?”

Yuta was inwardly panicking. “Really! Just… what are you doing on the bed?”

The nurse leaned back. “You were tossing and turning a lot in your sleep. I held you down so you would get a better rest.”

“Is that so?” Yuta took a minute to calm down. “What time is it?”

“It’s half past two.” Ms. Sasaki got off the bed. “You were asleep for a long time.”

“Half past two!? You mean I slept through every class!?”

“Yes. If I let you roll around, you probably would have woken up a little before lunch.”

“I would have preferred that!” He groaned.

“So, what was your nightmare about?”

“Nightmare?”

“You must have had a nightmare to be moving around that much in your sleep.” She stepped back from the bed.

Yuta sat up. “I didn’t have a nightmare. I must have been trying to figure out what happened to Ozaki’s book and how to find it.”

“Oh, so that was her book…”

Yuta jumped to his feet. “You mean you’ve seen it?”

The nurse nodded. “I saw a girl with purple hair pass by holding it. She’s never been to my office, so I don’t know her name. She was with another girl I don’t know.”

“Were they saying anything?” Yuta wanted any information he could find. The more information he had, the quicker he would get to Shiori’s book. Once the book was back in her possession, she wouldn’t be upset.

“Yes. They were talking about returning it at the end of the day.”

“Oh, really?” A spark of hope lit in Yuta’s chest. ‘Maybe it’s not her bullies after all…’ “Thanks, Ms. Sasaki. I have to go.” He ran past the nurse and out of her office.

“Wait!” He heard Ms. Sasaki call behind him.

He turned around and waited for her to get closer. “They also said something about removing a few pages. I got after them for it since I thought it was a library book, so I don’t think they’ll actually go through with it, but it seems that they took the book for malicious intent.”

A weight dropped in Yuta’s chest, his hope destroyed. “Thanks for letting me know. I have to find her book, and quick.” He speedily walked away, knowing he would get in trouble if he ran in the halls.

It pained Yuta to skip class, especially since the class that was in session was math. He internally yelled at himself for wasting so much time to help Ozaki when he never gave anyone but family his free time. It was unclear to him why he wanted to help her so much when she was only his student.

…

The final bell sounded, and Yuta still hadn’t found any more clues. A few minutes later, he entered the classroom. Most students had already left, but Hitomura, Kurosawa, Ozaki, and a few others remained in the class.

Hitomura noticed Yuta enter and waved. “Guess what I found?”

Only then did Yuta notice that Shiori was holding her book. Relief washed over him, the same feeling that Shiori was experiencing. “How did you find it?”

He ran a hand through his hair and smirked. “I’m glad you asked. Basically, a guy in the chess club talked to a friend, who talked to one of his friends, who talked to his girlfriend, who talked to one of her friends, who talked to one of her friends who happened to see the thief. She talked to one of her friends, who talked to her boyfriend, and her boyfriend knew the identity of the thief. Believe it or not, but our thief was the student council president’s girlfriend.”

“The student council president’s girlfriend?”

“Yes, so the information made it down the line until it got back to me and I went with Kurosawa to confront the student council president about it. He got the book back from her and gave it to me before the final class started.”

Kurosawa nodded in agreement. “He rejected the idea that his girlfriend would do something like that, but we convinced him to check.”

“Only because you threatened him.” Hitomura gave her a pat on the back.

“How else were we going to get him to do it?”

Shiori hugged her book tightly. “Thank you… for getting it back…”

“I told you my information network was vast.” Hitomura threw his head back with a hand on his forehead, looking at Yuta through the corner of his eye. “I have eyes all over the school.”

“Yuta!” Kotori’s voice came from the doorway. “Let’s walk home together!”

He turned around and saw her head poking into the classroom. “Not today, Kotori. I have something to do here.”

“That’s okay, I can wait!” She strolled into the room and sat down on the nearest desk, kicking her legs out.

Yuta sighed and turned back to Shiori and the others. “Sorry about her.”

Kurosawa got on her knees and put her arms on Shiori’s desk. “Would you like to go to the library with me tomorrow, Ozaki?”

Shiori looked at Yuta, who gave a quick nod. She returned her attention to Kurosawa and dipped her head.

Kurosawa smiled. “Great! I’ve been needing to go for a while, but I haven’t had the time until now. It’ll be fun going with a friend.”

“Friend…” Shiori stared at the desk in silence.

“Ah, sorry. I know we’re not actually friends yet.” Kurosawa stood up and wiped the dust off her legs.

Kotori ran up to the group and stood next to Yuta. “Are these your friends, Yuta?”

“Yuta’s too cool for friends,” Hitomura joked. “We’re simply the associates he spends the most time with.”

“Only because I’m forced to,” Yuta muttered.

Shiori picked up her bag and rose to her feet. “I need to get home…” She pushed past Kotori and exited the room.