Although it had only been thirty minutes since Ryu had left the room and Yuki came in to report that Megu-nee had accepted our field trip, Rii-san had asked me to go check up on him. She didn’t specify why, although we both knew why.

  He’s been disappearing a lot lately.

  I don’t mean disappearing as in just leaving the rooms quietly while Rii-san was busy lecturing Yuki over something. Rather he just stops appearing around the second and third floors. Only appearing when it’s either time for lunch or the afternoon meetings.

  It’s only been a daily occurrence since a few days back. But we never managed to ask him about what’s up.

  “Where are you going Kurumi?” A voice called over from across the hallway, “Preparing for the field trip already?”

  “Oh Yuki” I turned over, resting the shovel close to my shoulder, “Nah, just looking for Ryu-kun right now”

  “Ryu?” She leaned forward in curiosity, “Perhaps by the club garden again?”

  “Hopefully…” I glanced over at the stairs leading up to the third floor, “Although if you do see him, can you let me know?”

  “Well can I come with you then? It’ll be quicker”

  Well… I can’t really convince her not to. But at the same time I don’t want her to wander close to the barriers nor get bored under Rii-san.

  “Sure, but we don’t want Megu-nee nor Rii-san to worry about us for too long. So let’s just look around for him for about… 10 minutes. How about that?”

  “Yay!” Yuki hugged onto my back, almost making me fall onto the floor in the process, “Let’s go find him!”

  “Jeez… can you get off my back real quick?”

  “Heh, sorry” Yuki now got off my back, “To the garden?”

  “Sure!”

  We walked up the stairs towards the garden, with Yuki sprinting ahead of me towards the stairs in her usual cheerful manner. We didn’t find much at the rooftop, although I had noticed that the rake was gone.

  Have Ryu been using this lately?

  “Alright! To the third floor!” Yuki called out, already walking down the stairs, “You coming Kurumi?”

  “Yea… yea… coming” I turned around, following her, “You did talk with Ryu yesterday… right?”

  “How’d you know?”

  “Ryu did mention it to me yesterday… So what'd you talk about?”

  “Ah nothing that important” She waved dismissively, “Just some typical school things before class started!”

  “Is that so?” I shrugged, sliding the class doors open before scanning inside, “He was present in Sensei’s class today, right? Not like… wandering off or pretending to have a stomach ache of any kind?”

  “Of course not! But I’m sure Ryu’s stomach aches were real back in middle school in some cases. Didn't you see how he looked back then?”

  “I wasn’t in his classes back then”

  “Oh right…” Yuki scratched her head, “Pretty much routine for the class”

  “Heh… although I reckon that was so he can talk with Hano-chan considering how boring Middle School was”

  “Hano-chan?” She stopped for a second, “Who’s that?”

  Eh?

  “Just a friend of his. Don’t you remember?”

  “Eeeh… nope” Yuki smiled.

  “You don’t remember anybody nowadays” I grumbled, “The one who always sat in the corner close to Ryu!”

  “Nope… don’t remember”

  I stopped for a moment, annoyed, yet decided to shrug in response. Yuki’s an oddball but I can’t really stop her. If she forgets an entire apocalypse then so be it. She can forget a random girl from middle school.

  Why do I feel like Yuki was lying for a reason?

  “Ryuuuuuuuuu” I called out again, sliding open the last classroom door on the third floor, “Where in the world are you?”

  “He could just be bored for some reason. Or just sulking over something…”

  “Well did something happen to him?” I looked over at Yuki.

  “Not really!” Yuki panicked a bit, “He just had these really small mood swings sometimes you know? But it only lasts for a few minutes”

  “You’re not the best at lying” I slid the door open, “But hey, if it’s a secret between you two then I don’t mind”

  “Are you saying that because you used to keep secrets with–”

  I whacked Yuki in the head.

  “Shovel-kun…” Yuki finished her sentence, deflated, “Ow…”

  “Of course” I chuckled, “Anyways, let’s go”

  We continued our patrol down through the second floor. Later on, Yuki had to run back to class for obvious reasons.

  I don’t often throw myself into crazy scenarios. Or I believe I don’t do such nowadays. But perhaps standing in a hallway filled with zombies on both sides with nothing but a rake was an exception.

  Screw it. I had planned it out all in my mind. With the music playing by the other side and a few glowlights scattered, I can’t lose this.

  “Hey!” I called out to the horde while sliding the door open, “Hey!”

  With the only zombie inside the classroom being a single first year student, I managed to repeatedly slam the stick into her temple before shoving her out into the hallway.

  Covering the back door glass with a roll of magazine before pulling the front door open.

  “Hey!” I called out again, watching as the horde all moved through the front entrance, “Right through there!”

  As the horde slowly swarmed into the classroom, I stepped over to the backdoor, sliding it open to find the hallway now empty. To my luck, the entire horde had fallen for my bait. I slammed both doors closed before running towards the hallway.

  With one horde now trapped inside the classroom, clearing through the rest of the floors should be easy… hopefully.

  Before I could even continue however, another horde of students had already amassed at the path in front of me.

  “Again?” I muttered to myself.

  Although the exit remained open, it was only a matter of time until the classroom doors were knocked over by the horde. Although such a plan relied on the fact that I wasn’t physically inferior compared to Kurumi. Which obviously wasn’t the case.

  As the first zombie trudged its way towards me, I stepped over to the side, drawing my knife to strike the second through the neck repeatedly before pushing the corpse towards the crowd.

  I then stepped over, kicking the first one by the knee before following it up with another kick towards its gut, sending it towards the window.

  Despite the minor success, with the huge horde I would’ve lost this battle either way. Speed was of the essence.

  With the crowd converging on me, I gripped onto my knife while backing away from the group. There’s no doubt about it. I had to withdraw. Before I could grab onto the fire extinguisher, a series of footsteps followed behind me in quick succession.

  “Whatcha doin’ here?” Kurumi crouched over beside me, planting the shovel close to the ground, “How’d you get into this situation Ryu?”

  “Don’t ask” I stepped up while raising my fire extinguisher, taking out the lock, “Move real quick”

  I blasted straight into the massive horde, with Kurumi watching from afar. A plume of white smoke filled the hallways for a brief moment.

  “Let’s run”

  “Now? Seriously Ryu” Kurumi grabs onto my shoulder, “You obviously wanted something. What’s stopping us?”

  “... Fine”

  Not the most ideal but I should be able to work around it some way. Just needed Kurumi to keep quiet once we met Yuki and Yuuri. Especially since I don’t want Yuki to know.

  “Oh yea, watch out for that classroom on your left–”

  Kurumi had already sprinted past me, her shovel striking down a zombie in the neck within seconds. I followed in hot pursuit, only needing to jump over the few bodies she had already struck.

  “Catch up!” Kurumi called out, her cheek slightly filled with blood.

  For some reason I thought she’d get herself into another bad situation and I had to come in with the few tennis balls I had stuffed in my pockets. But before I could tell her to be careful upon approaching the horde, she pulled out a few marbles, throwing it right over the heads of every zombie.

  From there, all she needed to do was thrust her shovel forward into the oblivious crowd.

  Even saying that she improved was an understatement.

  “What’s the holdup!?” Kurumi called out, finishing off the last zombie.

  “You’ll attract more if you keep shouting at me” I pointed forward at the sign, “There”

  The both of us had sped past the entrance, reaching the storage room right in front of us.

  “We got a limited amount of time Kurumi. I’ll clear out these shelves and you check that corner over there. Remember, we’re looking for some food. I’ll tell you when they’re coming.”

  As the both of us looted through the rooms, my head started to count down to ten. Each of my actions was placed under a timeline where every second meant I had to have finished something.

  “Any progress?”

  “Plenty!”

  By the time I had counted down to three, I had managed to garner everything around the store.

  By the time my countdown had reached one, I turned over to the door.

  “Kurumi! I need you over here quickly! They’ll be here any moment!”

  “Coming!” Kurumi ran over, only for the door beside her to instantly fall over and pin her close to the ground, “What the–”

  I managed to rush over towards the door, kicking off the first zombie through the jaw and sending it rolling across the ground.

  As another one crawled over to me, I raised my foot and slammed my heel towards the back of it’s skull, limited only by the school pants I wore. It stopped for a moment, before I finished it off with a few repeated kicks to the face although almost getting bitten in the process.

  Kurumi managed to push the door and the piling zombies out, reaching for her shovel and shoving the remaining few back into the hallway.

  “Where to?”

  “Right there” I rushed forward, jumping over the zombie I had kicked away earlier before sliding the door open for Kurumi to run in.

  We both had reached the stairs to the second floor, before collapsing onto the ground in exhaustion, our free hand dropping the bags of supplies we garnered.

  “Geez Ryu! Couldn’t you have at least let me know you’re making a run for the storage site?”

  “I didn’t want to bother you”

  “And what if you didn’t? Rii-san and Yuki would be worried sick if you didn’t come back!”

  “High risk, high reward” I wiped the sweat off my forehead, “At least we got some food for the next few days” I panted, eyeing over at my bag only to realise it wasn’t exactly worth the ‘high reward’.

  “Did you get much? I didn’t find a lot of supplies” Kurumi revealed her bag at the same time.

  “Best it can do is three days.”

  “We’re going on that field trip anyway. It’ll be fine”

  “Yeah…”

  “But seriously though I thought Rii-san said we had enough supplies until the field trip. Why risk yourself for that?”

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  “You’ll find out later” I stood up, almost cringing at how I sounded, “Hopefully by tomorrow if not tonight. I’ll be in the kitchen”

  “Alright… try not to run off tomorrow. You’ve been doing this a lot lately and we’ve been all worried about you”

  I stopped for a moment, turning over to Kurumi.

  “Don’t worry about it”

  “I mean it this time!”

  “I know”

  To be fair, I expected Kurumi to be the first one to notice my absences. But Yuuri and Yuki knowing also sparked concern out of if my future plans would need a bit more thought out of it.

  For now though, I didn’t mind. After all, her performance surprised me.

  With the Kitchen free of use for the evening, I had found the evening atmosphere of a school marked by almost complete silence outside of the microwave whirring right in front of me.

  It was one of those moments where I could stare and admire something without the judgment of others.

  Although said moments don’t last long. As evident when Yuuri pulled onto my ear.

  “Ow!”

  “What’d I tell you Ryu? Don’t sneak off the barricades! Or if you’re gonna do it at least let us know in advance!”

  “I won’t this time. Promise!”

  Yuuri released her grip over my ear, releasing a quick sigh.

  “Besides, I appreciate the gesture but we have plenty of food to last for the next few days”

  “Yes but I’ll admit, I was just doing this for Yuki.”

  “Yuki-chan? You want to ask her out or something?” Yuuri raised an eyebrow, giving out a smirk.

  “I’m not into romance”

  “Do you even have any interests? Other than the violin”

  “Staring at the news and art”

  “You could paint something? Yuki would love it”

  “I’d rather not. I used to run a few projects with Hano before highschool. Besides, I was less talented than her”

  Yuuri stopped, before staring at the microwave right in front of me.

  “Are you trying to make Mochi?”

  “Yep”

  I was sure she had almost pieced the entire thing together through the little cooking notes I’ve scattered around the kitchen. But even if she knew, it was almost impossible for her to realise the purpose of such.

  “So… you almost risked your life over a dessert?” She looked at me rather annoyed, “Are you insane? We have plenty of food for a few days!”

  “If I wanted to, I could wait for our Mall trip. Grab all the dessert I wanted to… but perhaps I’ve had quite the sugar craving”

  “You should talk more with Kurumi or get back into the habit of class with Yuki… even though I don’t know how you can keep a strong face in such a situation”

  She gave a sigh in response, before walking towards the door.

  “Don’t stay up too long” Yuuri slid the door open, “And don’t sneak off! I mean it! If you’re bored, just play Uno with Yuki”

  “Don’t worry about it Rii-san”

  “Goodnight”

  Once she had left, I continued to stare at the microwave.

  She’ll understand. No doubt about it. Everyone in the School Living Club believes the apocalypse had made me bored to death. Doing the most random things such as physically working out or learning how to cook. I’m sure that’s how they perceive it.

  But I should admit it. I’ve never been bored. Although I hated the effort of trying to perceive her world, I’ve come to smile at the fact that Yuki had started to understand me in a certain way.

  A way where if I asked her to describe me, it’d be different in a good way. Have I ever felt like this before? Once but it felt more like a nostalgic feeling. A feeling that I used to dislike but held deep into my mind.

  It’s the sort of reason why I regretted not stopping by at class today.

  That’s why I’ve been doing all of this.

  I woke up early in the morning believing today was special although I didn’t know why. As if I was missing something. When I got off my mattress, I had rushed myself towards the classroom expecting something to be laid right on my table for me to read and smile at.

  Perhaps the best thing to do was to wait until Rii-san had finished up with breakfast.

  She always wakes up early before me, even today. Although considering that Ryu’s door was open, I’m sure they’re both out with some business.

  Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rii-san was dragging Ryu by the ear to tend to the garden.

  “Oh, you’re up bright and early today Takeya-san” Megu-nee entered the classroom, carrying her usual pile of books, “Special day today?”

  “Yeah… although I can’t seem to remember why. Perhaps some homework or project by Kamiyama-san…”

  “Hm, you could try asking Ryu or Rii-san. I saw them run up to the garden earlier”

  “Are they dating or something?”

  “Hopefully not”

  “Yea, me too…” I rested my face on the wooden table, “I’ll find it out later”

  “I’m sure you would, Yuki-chan” Megu-nee walked over to the front of the board, “Since you’re here would you like to clean the board with me?”

  “Sure!”

  As we both erased the markings and small drawings placed across the board by a few delinquents, Megu-nee managed to wipe the entirety of Kamiyama’s writings from yesterday while I had only wiped the date. After going through her half, she leaned over, finishing off my side.

  “Why the mood? Yuki-chan?” Megu-nee looked over, placing the eraser down.

  “Nothing really…”

  “Was it because you felt bad that I had to finish everything up for you?”

  “No… it’s just… I feel weird for some reason. As if what I’m forgetting was that important”

  Megu-nee paused for a moment, before patting on the top of my hat.

  “Don’t worry about it Yuki! Sometimes our minds tend to fool us. Make us forget things, even the ones that we treasured a lot. But when you forget, that doesn’t mean it’s gone. It’ll come back into your mind soon. One way or another”

  She crouched down to my level, gently rubbing her hand over my hat while I stared at the ground.

  “How about this? Let’s go ask Ryu! He should have some idea of what you might be forgetting!”

  “Are you sure? What about Rii-san or Kurumi?”

  “Rii-san is busy cooking and Kurumi is probably asleep or talking with her friends. Just because Ryu is the Council President doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be willing to lend an ear and help, right?”

  I gave a quick nod.

  “Alright, let’s go–” As Megu-nee and I turned towards the hallway, we both noticed Ryu staring at the window leading to the forests, “Oh Tanaka-kun!”

  After a short pause, he turned over to us.

  “Oh Yuki! Sensei!” He gave a short smile, “Funny seeing you two in class today”

  “Whatcha doing here?” I leaned forward, “I thought you’d be with Rii-san”

  “She’s busy in the Clubroom right now. But as a matter of fact, you should come with us. We’re about to have breakfast” Ryu gave a short and simple smile, almost pacing around left and right.

  “Breakfast? At this time?”

  “Yeah! Sensei can come over since she’s the supervisor of the Club. It’d be rude not to let her in with the Club activities”

  “I’m excited with what you have in mind, Ryu,” Megu-nee smiles, leaving her books at the table, “One moment!”

  “Alright!” Ryu motioned, “Let’s all go then”

  “Hey wait up!” Megu-nee called out.

  As the three of us made our way to the clubroom, Ryu speed walked towards the door, sliding it open as he whispered something off my vision. After a short nod, he runs back to the two of us, getting behind me.

  Once we got close to the entrance of the Club, Ryu placed his hands over my eyes.

  “Hm? What are you doing Ryu?”

  “Do you trust me Yuki?”

  “Of course!”

  “One second”

  With the incoming surprise, my heart raced for a moment. Whether it’d be a new renovation or the introduction of a new classmate, I didn’t know how I’d react. Ryu had never done this before, so this would’ve been big.

  We both walked into the classroom, my eyes still blocked by Ryu’s hands. After a short pause, I heard a few whispers and doors sliding, followed by Megu-nee giving out a short gasp.

  Eventually, he releases his hands over my eyes, revealing to the table a small plate with some mochi and a singular candle placed on top.

  “Happy Birthday, Takeya-san”

  My eyes lit up almost instantly.

  “Happy Birthday, Yuki-chan” Rii-san stepped over, wearing a party hat with her usual apron.

  I felt a sudden arm wrap over my neck, as Kurumi pulled my head close to her as she roughly rubbed onto my hat.

  “Happy Birthday Yuki!” She pats onto my back, “You’re now 18 eh?”

  With my head dazed by Kurumi’s pulling and confusion, I felt my head spin around continuously, unable to respond. Although as I looked around to see Kurumi and Rii-san surrounding me, I eventually mustered myself to ask a single question.

  “How’d you know it was my birthday?” I said, still almost stunned.

  Kurumi and Yuuri turned over to Ryu, who stood by the corner scratching the back of his head while giving a short chuckle.

  Within seconds, I had managed to blitz past the table, leaping towards Ryu with both arms wrapping him tightly. He stood there for a moment, almost unable to respond for a few seconds before hugging back at me.

  “Thank you, Ryu”

  “It’s… it’s nothing, Yuki” He patted on my hat, “After all, it felt unfair that you never had a birthday in a long time. Just because you’re getting close to graduate doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt trying such childish things, right?”

  “Yeah… you’re right” I mumbled while my face was still planted on his shirt, “Thank you Ryu”

  Kurumi ran over with a polaroid, snapping a picture at the two of us.

  “Seriously Kurumi?” Ryu looked over.

  “Sorry, couldn’t help it” Kurumi chuckled, grabbing the photo out as she waved it across the air, “Anyways, you wanna sing a birthday song for Yuki?”

  “No way!” Ryu turned over, “What are we, 12?”

  “I mean… you are celebrating a–”

  “No”

  “Fine…” Kurumi chuckled, leaving her shovel at the opposite corner of the room, “Your loss”

  “Anyways Yuki” Ryu placed his hand over my shoulder, “Candle’s melting a bit too fast. Do you have a wish?”

  “A wish?” I looked over.

  “Of course! When you have a birthday, wouldn’t you blow out the candle wishing for something? Or for someone?”

  “Do… Do you have an example, Ryu?”

  “Well uh… let’s say hypothetically I wanted a good life. During my birthday, I’d blow out the candle wishing for it”

  “Does it usually work Ryu? Or sometimes it doesn’t happen as you expected” I looked over.

  “It’s a wish, Yuki. Although it doesn’t come instantly, it could come anytime before you expected it. Heck, it could even come true in a few months. Although you can’t wish for a billion Yen though”

  “Aw really?”

  “We’d have a billion millionaires running round the place throwing money around the place” Ryu turned over at the window with a smirk, “Although that wouldn’t hurt…”

  “Anyways! Make a wish, Yuki-chan! Kurumi is already anxious to ask you the dreaded question” Rii-san leaned over, rubbing my hat before placing a party hat on top.

  “Sure!” I walked over towards the table, with Kurumi, Ryu, Yuuri and Megu-nee anxiously watching as I stood by the pink Mochi. Clearly crafted by Ryu due to how coarse it seemed on some parts, “So uh, I wish for–”

  “Don’t say the wish!” The entire group responded back almost simultaneously, “Or else it won’t come true!”

  “I won’t” I gave a short laugh, before blowing off the candle

  “Anyways” Ryu stepped over, reaching for a pile of papers on a box “So uh, who’s up for a little origami competition?”

  My eyes lit up in excitement at that moment, my smile continuing.

  Despite the fact that school often ran even when something happens to someone, it felt as if the world was focused only on me. Or rather the people I cherished and cared for. Because I knew they felt the same for me if not more.

  Especially Ryu. I’ve never seen him so jittery and smiling all the time. Had he been planning this for a long time? Perhaps all that effort had finally paid off? Was that why he had to leave class over time under specific excuses?

  Despite the fact the candle was close to melting and I hadn’t blown it, I wanted to hug Ryu again. But also to rope in Rii-san and Kurumi. After all, he needed their help. He couldn’t have done it solo, even if he was provided all the instruments.

  I looked over at Ryu, who had already prepared both hands waiting for me to blow the candle off. After a brief pause, we both exchanged smiles, before I blew off at the candle.

  The room erupted in applause, with Kurumi snapping a picture of me.

  “Hold up! Let’s get the entire group together for one pic!” Kurumi motioned over, extending the polaroid over in a selfie like manner, “Everybody say cheese!”

  “Cheese!”

  “Lemme see! Lemme see!” I ran over, trying to snatch the picture from Kurumi.

  “You have to wait for a bit!”

  “Now now, you two” Rii-san stepped over, gently pulling me back, “You wouldn’t want to ruin the Mochi hm?”

  While the three of us were fighting over a polaroid, I glanced over at Megu-nee and Ryu who watched us with rather amused smiles over their faces. I’m sure she was proud of him. And I was too. He couldn’t have done it without having to ask for help from Yuuri and Kurumi.

  Although we were all in the same club, he had always been distant in some way. I only talked with him because we were in the same class. Yet for some reason, I always knew he had a sense of kindness within him. A kindness that he often didn’t know how to express until now.

  I wanted to hug him tightly over it, but I didn’t want Kurumi to take a picture. So for now, all I could’ve really done was just exchange smiles as a sign of appreciation.

  For the rest of the morning, we spent much of our time playing a wide assortment of card and children games. Most of the time, Kurumi or I would win, although eventually it would end with Kurumi chasing me around the room upon my close victory in a game of Uno.

  By late afternoon, we were almost too tired to do anything. I had fallen asleep to a point where I almost skipped dinner.

  For the rest of the day, that feeling of joy continued to linger across my head, extending to even the next day when I almost got distracted while in class. I wanted to hug Ryu almost everyday, yet I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.

  Perhaps I just wanted to say more than thank you to him.