An hour earlier he pulled open the doors to their clubroom to swap radios and almost smashed into a girl standing by Ryu.

Yukio did swap radios in the end, but he also swapped places with Ryu. Thus it was he found himself on the ground helping guests leave through the service gates, with Kyoko holding his hand with one hand and waving frenetically with the other to the rooftop, where Ryu and that girl stood looking down.

The festival was all but over. The gym closed for the day, and the guests inside poured out onto the school grounds. Left inside half a dozen students prepared it for the closing ceremony, while Uniclo personnel dismantled their equipment.

This last rush with guests leaving the school was exactly what he needed to stop thinking of Urufu. To keep busy.

“Thinning out?” he asked Kyoko. Stupid question. She couldn't see anything more than he.

“No, I don't think so,” she said. Somehow she must have known he needed to keep the conversation running.

“Fine, I'll call it in.” Yukio did so for the umpteenth time and only received a tired 'OK' and 'over and out' from Noriko for his efforts.

Also with them was Rie-sempai, the student council president, who insisted on being on a first name basis with him. She stood a bit further away. The assault on Urufu shook her back to a reality where she no longer played the parody part of a love triangle, and she once more behaved like a person he could respect.

With most of the insanity quickly becoming a memory belonging to the past two days, the remaining work was of a kind the festival committee had planned thoroughly before the festival. With the help of the rooftop surveyors they closed off section after section of the school grounds, as the mass of guests thinned out.

On the other side of the gym Yukio saw students carrying chairs and tables. Probably the food plaza being dismantled.

That was what he saw, but not what he thought of. Only the presence of Kyoko by his side prevented him from running to wherever Urufu had been taken.

She pulled at his arm and he moved with her. A few steps later they came up to Rie-sempai, and together the three of them helped the security detail through the worst of the exodus.

Then the mass of people suddenly thinned out, and the school loudspeakers blared that the 2016 Himekaizen cultural festival was at an end, and all remaining guests should head for the gates. Last came the mandatory 'we hope you enjoyed your stay and welcome back next year' line that was empty of meaning just because it had to be said.

Yukio sighed and left the gates. Security could handle the last guests leaving through the back entrance, and close the gates when they were done. At the moment more people were needed for dismantling the outdoors café before the finishing ceremony, and after that classes and clubs gathered together for a short self-congratulatory celebration, until the traditional folk dance around the bonfire.

With the exception of the Himekaizen Cultural Exchange Club. He doubted there would be much in the way of celebration for them, which was grossly unfair.

“Yukio, we're done here,” Kyoko said.

She led him to the main school yard, en-route the confession stands, which made him grimace a little and her fidget, and they took up positions by the main entrance and directed people to the main gates.

In less than half an hour only Himekaizen students milled around, taking down parts of the stalls and everything inside. The festival committee finally had a chance to shine, and Yukio could focus on cleaning out the food plaza.

The grills would have to cool down before they could dismantle them, but stalls, tents, tables and chairs made their way indoors with stunning speed.

They were more or less done when a loud blare announced that both Uniclo trucks were ready to depart. Yukio called for the main gates to open again, and shortly afterwards he heard the heavy engines roar to life. Above the remaining stalls he saw the glittering trucks leave the school.

Yukio grabbed four chairs and watched Kyoko take another two.

“Let's get inside,” he said.

She nodded and followed him through the main entrance. Inside a festival committee member checked off six chairs on a list and told them to head for 5:1.

Yukio doubted that was coincidence. 5:1 was next door to their club room, and he suspected they were both deliberately let off a bit easier. A silent way to thank members of the club for doing work the last two days that in all fairness belonged to the student council and its attached festival committee.

Kyoko only nodded and carried her chairs to the left wing stairwell and started climbing the stairs. Yukio followed her a few steps below. He could see her up and ahead of him, and admired the view to the fullest.

“Perv,” she said without turning as she rounded the corner to the last half flight to the third floor.

“Indeed,” he answered. “Want me to stop peeking?”

Kyoko entered the floor and turned. “Don't you even dare! Peek at me, and me only!” With that she danced the first steps towards 5:1 so that her skirts lifted a bit.

Nice view, he thought and laughed. “Yeah, I'll peek.”

“Uhum.”

“Pink panties?”

“Uhum.”

You're less flustered these days. “Cute.”

“No. You're supposed to say sexy.”

“Fine, cute and sexy,” Yukio said. That August field trip sure got us closer. “I love you.”

Kyoko stopped and turned. The colour in her face wasn't as much a blush as a sign of anticipation. “How much?”

He didn't say anything, but when he came up beside her he let go of his chairs and pulled her face to him. The taste of kissing you. I'll never get enough. There was no need telling her. From the way she met his kiss he understood she knew.

***

After a lingering kiss Kyoko slid open the doors to 5:1. They had to get rid of the chairs after all. She dropped hers by the desks closest to the door and pushed them under their respective desk.

Two members of the literary club were busy cleaning the classroom, and nothing here told of the book store it had been for two days.

“Good festival?” Kyoko asked more out of politeness than any real want to know.

“Superb,” one of the girls said and turned her head. She ceased wiping the blackboard for a moment. “We sold out.”

Eight thousand guests simultaneously. Fifteen thousand in total. You'd better be sold out. “Good to hear,” Kyoko said and headed for the door.

Yukio dropped his chairs just inside the sliding doors and followed her to their clubroom.

Inside she saw how Midori-chan and Sango-chan had dismantled the walkie talkie stations and were busy packing everything up in the boxes they had arrived in.

Kenshin-sempai, and the three festival committee members she'd never bothered learning their names, were still there as well. Kyoko guessed they'd gotten used to sitting in their clubroom, and there really was no point in relocating for the clean-up.

With tired steps she shuffled away to the fridge and grabbed a can of soda. Just before popping it open she recalled Yukio following her into the room, and she peeped inside again.

Lemon squash. He likes the sour stuff. She stretched an arm inside and took the can. “Yukio, want one?” she asked and waved the can above her head.

“Sure, and one for Hiroyuki-kun as well.”

Kyoko looked at the sofa where Hiroyuki-kun sat waving at her. Fine, guess you deserve one as well. She took out a second can and beelined for the armchair closest to the fridge.

“Lemon squash for Yukio and Hiroyuki-kun, here you are,” she said.

“Thanks,” both boys answered simultaneously.

She barely had time to sink down in the armchair before she heard the dull clicks of two cans opening and the sizzling sound of pressurised air leaving the containers, allowing bubbles to form and rise. Seconds later both boys sucked foam from their cans.

Kids! Kyoko thought, broke open her can and tilted it to her mouth. The first sip was the best.

A quarter of an hour she spent in that chair. A quarter of an hour in blissful silence, when she allowed aching muscles to rest. A quarter of an hour before she began worrying about how Kuri-chan felt right now.

After that more and more club members left the room and headed for the gym. Clubs were of different sizes, most cultural ones too small for having a proper celebration, and for that reason the main evening activities centred on class and school. Clubs only gathered for a short time between cleaning up and ending ceremony.

When Yukio made company with the members recently transferred from Red Rose, she joined him together with Noriko and Ryu.

Too easy, too easy to forget there are more former Red Rose students than those in 9:1. The thought scared her a little. The thought and the secret she had been let in on. Most of her fellow students didn't know Urufu had been assaulted in the first place, and almost none knew Red Rose high school students were the perpetrators.

How are you keeping it together, Kuri-chan? Kyoko scowled and admitted to herself that she didn't even know where Kuri-chan was keeping things together. Principal Nakagawa somehow arranged for one of the helicopters suddenly arriving over the school to take Kuri-chan to whatever hospital Urufu had been brought to.

“Thank you,” Kyoko whispered to Yukio when she felt his fingers tighten around hers. Are you as worried as I am?

When they arrived at the gym she had to let go of his hand as they joined their respective classes. With Kuri-chan absent Kyoko gravitated towards the Wakayama twins, and she exchanged worried glances with Noriko before they lined up.

Ryu kept up his stupid antics and got told off by their class rep twice before a scowl from Noriko finally calmed him down.

They're afraid both of them. Just show it in different ways. Kyoko suspected Ryu only knew how to be hyperactive whenever he needed to process something beyond his control.

Around them students she didn't even know, smiled and showed her all kinds of approving hand signs. It feels strange, being a part of the admired group. Kuri-chan, you could have told me how to respond. Thinking of her friend had Kyoko's stomach in a tight knot again, but she forced herself to plaster a false smile to her face.

She noticed how a wave of sudden apprehension went through the crowd, and then the student council president entered the stage. Rie-sempai, or more properly Tamura-san for anyone outside the club, grabbed a microphone and served them all what Noriko would have called canned clichés. Kyoko even looked over her shoulder to catch Noriko's smirk.

A second serving of empty words rolled over them delivered by Principal Nakagawa, but in his case Kyoko knew it was all an act. She had no doubts who had called in helicopters and trucks after their frantic attempts at keeping the festival afloat failed, and the entire event cracked and broke apart around them.

When the last words fell silent, the student council president once more took the microphone and congratulated everyone. The entire gym erupted in cheers before the congregated students left for the soccer field, where the traditional bonfire folk dance was being prepared.

So it's been kept a secret after all, Kyoko thought. The jubilation had been too honest for anything else. Maybe it was the smart thing to do. Most certainly it was how Urufu would have handled it, had he been in charge. Still it left her with a bitter taste in her mouth.

Listlessly she followed Noriko to the field, and in the falling darkness Kyoko finally let go of her false smile. She'd save smiling for when she found Yukio again.