Book One: Why Did Yuki Go Away?
Chapter 1: No Show
It had been a few months since the hectic winter vacation and things apparently remained the same as they were in the second Monday of March. Haruhi was still up and going about upcoming events, the beginning of spring break was near and the graduation ceremony was approaching soon. Kyon still felt worn out by Haruhi's antics and wished she had an off button so he could turn her off and rest. With Spring Break near, he knew Haruhi would have something for them to do during the break. On a scale of 1 to 100, relating to the disasters of the last breaks and vacations, he rated well above 150.
The end of class came by and it was time to go. "Come on, Kyon," said the girl who sat behind him. She was already near the door, heading to the clubroom for their typical meeting. Kyon grabbed his things and managed to catch up to Haruhi.
As they were walking to the clubroom, Haruhi was going on about what she would cover in the meeting and managed to compose some ideas to do during Spring Break. Kyon for the moment was starting to do better in his schoolwork but distractions like these typically caused him to fall behind. He was struggling in his schoolwork in the past but with the help of his mother, he was seeing a tutor and so far, he was doing well. However, he would have to put that tutor to the side if Haruhi dragged him into another event.
"So Kyon, what do you think of that?" said Haruhi. Apparently, he wasn't listening to what she said as he thought over about his schoolwork. Instead of having her repeat it over, he simply said with some enthusiasm, "I think it'll work."
"Great! Then we shall do that over the Spring Break!" she responded. He didn't know what she said but as long as it didn't involve Haruhi's mood to sour and put the world at an end, he was stuck participating in whatever event she was talking about.
They made it to the clubroom as Haruhi walked in first followed by Kyon. "Good afternoon! I've prepared tea." That came from Asahina, who was in her maid outfit. The sound of her voice lifted Kyon's spirit. Anytime with Asahina was an enjoyment but Kyon had to make sure not to get distracted by her. As always, Haruhi showed jealousy when Kyon stared at Asahina and questioned him over winter break about Nagato. Haruhi in the past didn't appear to target Nagato for Kyon observing her, but Mikuru had told Kyon not to get too close to her or bad things would happen. Otherwise, Haruhi would just blow it out of proportion and this would sour her mood, which would almost result in damaging consequences.
"Hello." said Koizumi who was already sitting at the table. At first, it looked like he had his typical smiling grin on his face, but today, he wasn't smiling. It didn't get Kyon's attention until he glanced at the corner by the room where Nagato typically sat. Nagato hadn't made it in yet. She would be the first in the clubroom before anyone else but she wasn't there. Maybe something came up or she was running late?
Haruhi sat down and didn't notice Nagato was missing until she glanced at the empty seat by the window. "Mikuru, where's Yuki?" she asked as she sipped her tea.
"I-I don't know," said Asahina, "she hasn't showed up yet."
After waiting for another 30 minutes and Nagato still hadn't shown up, Haruhi decided to go ahead with the meeting and penalize her later for being late. Kyon found out what Haruhi was talking about in the hallway was a list of things she planned to do over break. It was enough to cover the entire break but Kyon started to worry because Haruhi made a list regarding summer break last year and they repeated the same vacation over 15,000 times. And all of it was because Haruhi had never been in a study group and Kyon and the others didn't finish their homework. Kyon made sure his homework was finished ahead of time and later remind the others to finish theirs in case the list wasn't finished and it was déjà vu all over again.
After wrapping up the meeting, Haruhi left as she sought to gather more information and Kyon and Koizumi left so Asahina could change into her school outfit. As they were close to walking out of the school, Kyon noticed that Koizumi was still looking as if something was wrong. He managed to smile while Haruhi was covering her meeting, but his smile faded away again. "Okay, something is wrong and you're not speaking up. What is it?" Kyon said to Koizumi.
Koizumi chuckled. "No, nothing is wrong. I just wonder why Miss Nagato wasn't here today."
"Something may have came up," said Kyon, "It's not like she wouldn't show up tomorrow."
Koizumi didn't respond. That brought up Kyon to ask another question referring to Haruhi. "Have there been any Closed Spaces lately that I should know about?"
"Oh, no. Not for a while, no." said Koizumi. Despite his half smile, he still was looking gloomy. Kyon didn't let it get to him and began to think about Nagato. Nagato had been there last week. Since no one would be able to tell if anything was wrong with her, she wouldn't express it. Kyon recalled that she was with them during their paranormal search over the weekend and nothing was wrong with her then. Maybe she suddenly became sick. If something had came up, she would have told him, Haruhi, or anyone. Kyon shook his head and assumed that Nagato couldn't attend class for whatever reason and split from Koizumi to see the tutor for his schoolwork before going home. Kyon assumed that Nagato would show up tomorrow, as it wouldn't be a big deal to worry about her not showing up. However, nothing would prepare him for the next day of class, for he would later regret about whether Nagato would indeed show up the next day.
