"What class are you in now?" asked Saori Kobayashi involuntarily apathetically, looking back at the two boys.

"In the last grade," replied Ryou, noticing in himself the man's interest in their lives. "But, for what did you want to know?"

"Last year, I remember in the winter, I met a desperate guy your age in front of me," Saori enlightened, remembering that day as he sat on a bench in one of Tokyo's bustling streets, covered by the light of glowing garlands. The evening, which would have had no effect on his life, was remembered by the arrival of a dark-haired guy whose face was covered by a warm scarf.

"Who is this guy?" the man asked then, to his companion sitting discreetly beside him, who smiled with feminine lips.

The guy from Saori's memory blindly approached the two individuals and looked up. Then, Saori skewered the guy's deadpan gaze, which had no emotion.

"Like who?" smiled slyly at the mysterious woman, whose competent tone rose as the guy appeared before them. "Suicide."

Saori slowly turned his head toward the boys, who were staring at him with weary interest.

"Kind of like you might know him. The eyes are dark, like untouched wilderness in the fog. In his eyes I noticed the horrified cries of suffering people. How could such a teenager still walk on his feet with his weight on his shoulders?"

"What weight? Who are you talking about?"

"Glenn Zaliman," the man replied. The presence of any sound around them froze. It subsided, as if time had cooled in the blink of an eye. The boys could not believe their ears that the man by his cryptic words meant their mutual acquaintance. As the boys sat with their mouths open, Saori looked forward again.

"Ryou-kun, to have an answer like yours at your age is commendable," Saori added, and the stunned faces of Ryou and Tomoyuki changed abruptly. Ryou, remembering the purpose for which he had earlier called Saori to this place, began to worry about his answer.

There was a questionnaire at stake. With slow movements of his lips, Saori revealed his opinion of the young man's answer.

"Exactly your answer I heard a long time ago, from two other people. I decided to rack my brain again and touch my memories from ten years ago. One of them was a young man, at one time a little younger than you. Genial in everything, his literate speech always amazed me. At every meeting, he said sensible things, which was uncharacteristic of his age, and constantly asked for my advice."

"Who was the other one?" confused Ryou, and waved his hand sharply to the side, showing a surge of emotion in a time of stress.

"Don't worry," Saori replied, not moving a finger, and Ryou dropped the weight from his body. "The second personality, on the other hand, in truth, was the exact opposite of the guy. Furious, energetic, didn't follow her words, yet she was the first to make me comprehend her response."

The man fell silent, as if remembering a meaningful memory of his past. Barely lifting his head, his gaze was dazzled by the warm, evening sky. Millions of stars beneath the shroud of the dark universe illuminated Saori's brown eyes.

"She also worked in social services when she was young."

The next noisy day at school, after the end of second period, a hurried Ryou headed for the chemistry lab. Screaming schoolchildren walking down the hallway went unnoticed by the boy, who with steady steps eagerly looked around study after study.

At the same time, a young man with blue eyes and side-styled thin hair ran intensely into the literary club room. It was Tomoyuki, whose keen eyes screamed like a hurricane in a storm.

Ryou entered the chemistry room, and saw the front of the room's open window, from where a draught flew in and ploughed the rustling white curtains. From the window Masumi, dressed in a white long jacket, looked out with a resigned smile. The sunset was visible through the open window, which succeeded in boring the young man, but Ryou only motioned toward the young thirty-year-old woman.

"Masumi-sempai."

Masumi used her hands to fix her ventilated long hair and looked back at the boy nonchalantly. "How did you know I was here?" she asked playfully, knowing the guy's answer beforehand.

"It's not the first time I've relied on intuition."

"Well, you guessed right, then," the woman said coquettishly, in a soft voice. "And I, too, like you, prefer to act directly."

"I'm done with doing the questionnaire."

"I already have. Saori-san told me about it."

"Huh... So you two really know each other?"

"That depends."

Masumi looked back at the sun falling from the horizon, and with a gulp, she continued to admire the beauty.

"I love looking at the views. Whether it's a sunset, a sunrise, or the stars in the night sky, I get an inner inspiration when I freeze to look at them for just a few minutes. You know, that's how I was able to inspire Saori-san, too."

"Saori Kobayashi..." confused Ryou in his speculation. "He knows you, Masumi-sempai... The choice of this questionnaire, was it really pre-arranged and rigged? But why?!"

"Who knows," muttered the teacher. "It wasn't my idea at all."

Last night, the man idly continued to stare up at the starry sky.

"Once upon a time, this unceremonious schoolgirl imposed herself on me. She was silent only on occasion when she looked at the celestial vistas. Maybe it was with her help that I began to pay attention to seemingly ordinary things."

"What schoolgirl are you talking about, Kobayashi-san?" asked Ryou then, himself having some inkling of her identity. In response, the young man only saw a previously unseen lively smile on the man's face.

Ryou realized the identity of this person when he decided to test his hunches by coming to an empty chemistry class the day after school.

"Whose idea was it, then?" asked Ryou to Masumi.

"I only put my trust in a man whose decisions I consider infallible."

"Who is that?"

With a smirk, Masumi crossed her fingers and looked back at the sun again. "Who knows. My answer won't do you any good. So, Ryou-kun, open yourself up to your friends first, and the answer itself will appear in the palm of your hand."

"Friends..." lowered Ryou's eyes, in a thoughtful voice. He found it hard to believe that the questionnaire provided by Glenn had some thought in it. The young man thought it was someone's way of getting him closer, either to Saori or to Tomoyuki. The right answer he could not know for sure.

Tomoyuki entered the study of the literary circle and nervously locked the door. It was as if he knew that there was someone in the study with whom he wanted to have a serious conversation. From the other end of the study near the window appeared Glenn, humbly reading a book.

"You have to knock on the door before you come in, or you might have a heart attack," Glenn said with a frozen smile, and Tomoyuki flinched like a child who has had his ball taken away.

"I wasn't the least bit worried about jokes!"

"It's the man who comes to the rescue when he's not even asked. He's always on time. Well, you should be happy for Ryou. He forgave himself."

"Bastard," Tomoyuki's teeth gritted with anger, and his fists clenched like stone. "Why are you in my way?! What the hell do I care about Saori Kobayashi?! What the hell are you up to?"

"You should consider that I helped you with your questionnaire," Glenn continued to bark, getting on the young man's nerves with his casual and gentle voice.

"You're only playing with me. You're not going to stop... What's the point of making this whole farce?"

Tomoyuki was suddenly stunned when Glenn lifted his grim gaze to him. Such a sense of inner fear the young man had never experienced before. The hollowed dark eyes and pale skin suddenly introduced great seriousness into the heated atmosphere. The young man's smile no longer expressed naïve amusement, but changed to a different direction.

"All this for friends," Glenn's voice sounded slow and low, and there was not an ounce of tenderness in it. "Our relationship," he added without looking back, "will become real, no matter what happens. Whether you make me disappear or not."

Tomoyuki thought Glenn was crazy in that moment, but he couldn't get what he said out of his head. All for his friends. What could that mean, Tomoyuki asked mentally, frowning.

"All my fears... blended together," Tomoyuki repeated to himself in front of the mirror. His wet hair, which the young man had washed minutes earlier, was tucked back in a full pile, and his eyes were dilated. "I'm moving, for what it's worth. But I'm scared..."

Memories of his first interaction with the club members invaded his thoughts. Their faces, which the young man thought were pretend, seemed to him to be masks that hid the truth. He remembered what made him have a bad opinion of Glenn and Ryou, and something in his mind twitched.

"Bastards...!"

Atonement. Tomoyuki wished he could retaliate, including Akiko, for their duplicity and hypocrisy. Akiko in particular annoyed the young man the most. He remembered an episode many years ago, when he looked at Akiko dead-eyed at the entrance to a karaoke club near a certain street. That was a long time ago, but Tomoyuki couldn't forget her compassionate face for the guy.

"I'll teach you all a lesson," he lowered his back convulsively. "You'll pay! You will definitely pay..." repeated Tomoyuki in an animal-like tone, as if distraught with negative thoughts.

The next school day, there were loud rumors that Ryou and Yumiko had suddenly broken up.