With the first-period class about to start, Himura enters the classroom. Even the most casual glance reveals swollen red eyelids and the trembling line of her mouth.

"Ohayo Go—" The site of Himura's face cuts Yamada's welcome short.

Himura ducks her head and hurries to her desk without responding.

The other girls exchange concerned looks while the boys have just enough awareness to puzzle over their strange quiet reactions.

"So it's true then?" Hanashita says loudly. "You did break up." Her shocking rudeness raises the eyebrows of most of the girls, though Hanashita's gang of friends only smirk.

Himura's long neck bends lower. Her short hair doesn't quite cover her sobbing or the tears falling on her desk.

"Was he two-timing you?"

"Shut up!" Yamada shouts back. "You're only making it worse."

Hanashita shrugs. "How can it get much worse than someone like her getting dumped? It's not like boys confess to her every day."

Himura bursts into loud sobs.

Shimura turns to her friend. "Don't listen to her."

"You tried to warn me not to lower my standards," Himura sputters. "I should have listened to you. You said it would be just like with Tachibana, but I didn't listen."

"That's not important right now."

"He told me I wasn't that pretty and that he could do better."

Yamada leaps toward her and kneels by her desk. "How horrible! Such a horrible person."

"You know that's not true," Shimura says softly.

Kyoko leans close and places her hands on Himura's shoulders in something like half a hug.

Himura wipes at her eyes with a long wet sniff. "Maybe he's right. I know I'm not that good looking, but I thought I could make it work if I tried hard enough to please him. I was so tired of being alone while everyone else was happy together. I did everything I could to be the type of girl he liked.

"No one should try to change themselves just to be with someone. If they can't appreciate you for who you are, then they never really liked the real you in the first place." Shimura looks across the group as if seeking confirmation. Her eyes settle on me.

"He was so sweet and kind and thoughtful at first, but I couldn't keep him happy. I went out of my way, I skipped clubs to be with him. I..." She covers her mouth as her face crumples. She tries to choke back her sobs, but it explodes out in a wet burst. "...even let him do things to me..."

The class reels back in shock. I know I never imagined Himura would let herself be used like that.

In that breathless moment, Takasagi-sensei steps into the room. The class president stands up and calls out, "Class rise!" but no one seems to notice.

A hand slaps a nearby desk with a smack like a gunshot. Shizuku shoots to her feet. Her chair slams back into the desk behind her. Her head slowly raises, her expression grim and her eyes blazing. Without a word, she marches across the room and out of the door.

"Why do people keep leaving at the beginning of class," Takasagi-sensei wonders aloud. "Do you not know how this is done?" He begins calling out names to take the role, but no one answers when called.

The door to the neighboring classroom slams open with a wooden crack. "Oi! What are you doing here?" The teacher's shout echoes down the hallway, sinking beneath a rising wave of student chatter. Their voices are silenced by a high piercing scream.

Everyone in our classroom stiffens and falls mute, staring out of the open classroom door with mouths agape. I count the seconds as an eerie silence stretches on. A long lone moan in a young male voice breaks the stillness. It is followed by the sound of something being dragged across the floor back toward our classroom.