"Didn't you see her on your way here?" Yuigahama said. "I'm pretty sure she left not that long ago."

"Oh, Yuigahama-san. And Hikigaya-kun, too. I almost didn't see you there." Haruno slunk in through the doorway with all the well-meaning of a starving, drooling lion who had just chanced upon a herd of juicy zebras, and us zebras knew very well there was no worming our way out of this one. "But since the gang's all here, I think you guys can do something for me." She winked. "You have time to spare, right? It looks like you were all about to leave, anyway."

"I… guess?" If Isshiki had been holding her unease back behind a thin wall of geniality before the new challenger had wantonly roved into the student council room, she certainly wasn't doing so now. "Did you need her for something?"

Haruno shrugged nonchalantly. It went without saying, of course, that there was a purpose behind her visit to the school, though we would have our work cut out trying to figure out exactly what that was. "Do siblings of the same flesh and blood need a reason for being near each other?" she quipped. "I do so worry about her. She came home late yesterday, and I just had a feeling she might be late today as well. She won't answer her phone, either, which just pains me even more. It simply wouldn't do for her to become a delinquent at her tender age. I would know, having been of that age myself barely a few – a couple years ago."

"You know why she got back late yesterday, though," I noted, unable to keep my exasperation at her faux consternation over her sister's whereabouts out of my voice. "You were there, after all."

"Do I?" Haruno put a finger to her chin, in an uncanny imitation of Isshiki during her many plays of false innocence. "I don't really remember. I do recall you being there though, Hikigaya-kun, so you definitely have some sort of clue about where Yukino-chan is. You do, don't you?"

"I mean…" I unwittingly glanced over at the unfinished pile of forms – which, as it turned out, was a dangerous move in front of one as hawk-eyed as the elder Yukinoshita. She followed the direction in which my eyes were pointing and stared briefly at the paper, her head bobbing from side to side as the pieces of the puzzle began clicking into place inside her head. The proverbial lightbulb was suddenly lit, and she nodded to herself, evidently satisfied at what she had just deduced.

"I think you and President Isshiki should take responsibility for helping to find her," she suggested slyly. "Considering the two of you had a big part to play in her up and leaving in the first place."

Isshiki, who seemed as taken aback as I was, blinked furiously as she let out a barely audible chortle. "That's a weird thing to say, Yukinoshita-san. Why would you think that?"

"I'm by no means an esper, but I'd say it's not so difficult to put two and two together. After all, you were there yesterday as well, President." Haruno clapped her hands together. "Pretty please? I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine. Plus, I think making sure Yukino-chan is happy and healthy is in all our best interests."

"That's all fine and good, but I have something to do at home today," Isshiki said quickly, slinging her bag onto her arm and placing a hand on my shoulder. "Senpai, I'm leaving the rest to you. I'm sure you can handle her – I mean, it. Best of luck!" Before I could even begin to comprehend the depth of her imminent betrayal, she had slipped out of the room and vanished down the corridor without another word.

I could have sworn I'd seen her flash one last grin at me as she'd turned the corner, though whether that truly was the case was irrelevant in the face of more grave and pressing concerns – all of which could trace their origin to the whimsical, untrammeled entity who had, in her typically grand manner, invaded our private space and wreaked her trademark havoc upon it without barely having to lift a finger. With her initial target now having gone AWOL, Haruno now slowly turned to me, an expectant and almost officious look distorting her features as she bore down upon her hapless prey.

"I know for a fact that you have nothing to do, so…" Haruno smiled. "How about it? Will you give your Onee-san a hand?"

I knew full well I could have told her to sod off, in polite terms or otherwise. I had no real obligation to lend my aid to either of the Yukinoshita sisters, and Yukinoshita Haruno could scarcely have prevented me from walking out the door and ignoring her if I so desired. Yet the fearsome, irrepressible combination of the two usual suspects – social anxiety and guilt – precluded any tangible action on my part, staying my heavy feet, shackling my ankles to the wooden floorboards. As the seconds dragged on, that Atlassian aspect of me that yearned to take the Earth upon my brittle shoulders edged me ever closer to accepting her request, and before long I found myself sighing and nodding in resignation against my will.

"If you say so," I murmured. "Though she's probably at home right now, knowing her."

"Yay!" Haruno beamed exuberantly, basking happily in the glow of my miserable acquiescence. "Thanks, Hikigaya-kun. I knew I could count on you."

"Um…"

We turned to find Yuigahama – who had been watching on in uncomfortable, self-imposed wordlessness, her presence all but extinguished in the suffocating tension of the past few minutes – raising her hand awkwardly.

"I… can help out, too, if you want."


In a relatively well-to-do school such as ours, where the clusters of campus buildings overlooked wide, open expanses and an impressive array of courtyards, flower beds and garden paths, there were only a select few areas where one who sought temporary solitude might be able to see their desires truly granted. The buildings themselves contained myriad nooks and crannies where such people could earn some small reprieve from the blinding light, though those spots were invariably in close proximity to some busy hallway or oft-frequented classroom, meaning that there could never be any definite rest – not with the fear of curious, inquisitive eyes lurking about, ready to cast judgment upon any loners or stragglers at a moment's notice. As such, it was vital for those who walked the path of the teenage vagabond not to remain in one spot for too long, lest they become too ensconced in their surrounds and end up being caught unawares by the tendrils of the rose-tinted world around them.

One of these mysterious and transient locations was the roof of the school building, towards which I now headed. It was a familiar place to me, a setting where I had spent many days past, looking down upon my fellow students – who appeared as little more than tiny insects from my vantage point high above – as they scurried about, rushing from one appointment to another, living their lives to the fullest without really knowing what that actually meant or entailed. Once in a while, my personal space would be intruded upon by a free-spirited group of never-do-wells or a pair of lovebirds looking for more private environs to carry on expressing their fleeting love to each other – and given that the average high-school relationship rarely seems to last longer than a year, they must not have been doing a very good job of it – but I was, thankfully, largely left to my own devices up on this most grandiose yet most empty of stages.

And, as much as Yukinoshita Yukino and I might both hate to admit it, we were almost kindred spirits in this regard – we both knew well the value of being alone, and of having one's own time to oneself. Meaning that I would not be surprised to find her standing next to the metal fence that separated land from sky, just as I did now, her forlorn expression coming into view as she stared out into the ebbing dusk. She turned upon hearing my approaching footsteps, her brow furrowing as she realized who it was that had disturbed her peace.

"Don't tell me you've come to apologize for upsetting me, or whatever stupid thing it is you're thinking of doing to try and appease me," she snapped. "Because I'm not falling for it."

"Not really." I came to a stop beside her, far enough for her not to feel repulsed by whatever repellent aura it was that I apparently emitted, but not so far that I would have to literally shout to converse with her. "Apologizing when I haven't done anything wrong isn't really my style."

The younger Yukinoshita snorted. "That's a relief. Good thing there's a fence here, or I might've had to take a leap of faith if you genuinely started babbling about how sorry you were."

"Please don't do that – I'd have to live with the guilt for the rest of my days. Plus…" I followed Yukinoshita in gazing out at the clouds which dotted the horizon. "I'd probably rather follow you down there than have you haunting me 24/7."

"Only one of us is going 'down there', and it won't be me. I'm not the one whose existence offends the gods, after all."

"If you say so."

The breeze picked up slightly, and Yukinoshita lifted a hand to quell the agitated flurry of hair that prised itself from the back of her shirt and fluttered softly in the air. Once again, I was minded to wonder just how popular amongst the normie crowd she might have been if she had only learned to keep her tongue firmly behind her teeth, instead of lashing it at anything and anyone that offended her – which, to my knowledge, comprised a long, long list indeed. "Well?" she said impatiently. "What are you doing up here? Surely you weren't trying to find me, or something as mindlessly patronizing as that. I can manage just fine on my own."

"I mean…" I was unsure how to break the news to her, though as always, I decided that the best way would simply be to give it to her straight without any bells or whistles attached. "I was looking for you. Or rather… your sister was."

"My-" Yukinoshita's eyes widened, and she marched over to me and grabbed my shoulders, shaking them as though attempting to jostle the truth of the matter out of my feeble body. "My sister's here? At school?"

"Yeah, she said she was trying to reach you. Also, please stop shaking me; I'm getting dizzy."

She let go and immediately bit onto her thumb, pacing briskly to and fro on the spot as she consumed herself in deep contemplation. "I didn't think she'd come all the way here… But if she's here, that means my mother… No, that can't be right… She must have done something…"

Without warning, she stopped in her tracks and looked up at me.

"I need you to do me a favor."

That was certainly new, though I had an inkling of what she was going to ask. "You want me to tell your sister that I couldn't find you, right?"

"Pretty much."

"You do know that I'm a horrible liar, don't you? Especially in front of someone like her."

"That's true, you absolutely suck at it. I can read you like an open picture book even on the worst of days." She returned to her thoughts, muttering to herself as she deliberated over her options. "You know what, never mind. Just stay here with me."

Now that was a favor I didn't anticipate. "You really want me to?"

Yukinoshita scowled. "No, of course not. However, I don't particularly have a choice. It's either that or go back down and take my chances with her, which I don't exactly fancy doing."

"I guess. Though Yuigahama is looking for you as well, so I don't think we can be up here for that long in any case."

"I'm not worried about Yuigahama-san. She wouldn't let the cat out of the bag so easily, unlike a certain someone."

For a while, we stood in silence, listening to the wind whistling past our ears and mingling with the faint hum of the waking city as night swooped in on the coattails of day, watching the streetlights starting to flicker on one by one in the distant urban sprawl. I momentarily pondered the utility of staying here to Yukinoshita's satisfaction, though as I soon discovered, I had a tremendously difficult time disobeying either of the Yukinoshita siblings' orders. Instead, I allowed the silence to go on, waiting for Yukinoshita to say whatever it is that she wanted to say. Which, eventually, she did.

"Hikigaya-kun, I…" She hesitated, a conspicuous rarity that promptly set off a few internal alarm bells in my head. "I didn't really mean to eavesdrop on the two of you today; it just kind of happened. I guess I should apologize for that. It was rude of me."

Never in a million years would I have imagined that I would hear those words out of the proud, self-assured Yukinoshita's mouth. Such was my obvious and unbridled surprise that Yukinoshita, noting just how stunned I currently was, clicked her tongue and added, "On second thoughts, I take that back. Trash like you doesn't deserve to be apologized to."

"That's more like it," I replied dryly.

"That's how it is." After a brief pause, she continued. "Honestly, though, as much as it's not my place to pry, I have to wonder whether you and Isshiki… you know. The two of you just look… comfortable… with each other, for lack of a better word. More so than I'd ever seen you with me or Yuigahama-san."

"That's, well…" I had noticed that, though I had never really properly given voice to that observation. Why exactly that was, however, was remarkably harder to discern. "She's like me, in a lot of ways. We both have a lot to hide."

"So do I, and you don't see me acting coy or cutesy around you like some, well, high-school girl."

"I guess not."

Another passing moment of silence. Then, "You know, this might seem a tad sudden, but… I've been thinking about the future of the Service Club."

"What about it?"

Yukinoshita puckered her lips as she considered what to say next. "Hiratsuka-sensei had me establish the club not just to help other people, but to help me as well. By extension, that purpose was extended to you, and to Yuigahama-san. Yet if the club isn't serving its intended function well enough, then I don't see a real need for it to continue in its current form. I certainly feel obliged to keep it running, and Yuigahama-san is… well, you know her – she'll do whatever she likes, in whatever way she likes. But if you're not deriving any substantial merit from sticking around with us, then I can hardly keep you from searching for whatever it is that you want to find, genuine or otherwise."

She chuckled quietly. "It sounds a bit odd for me to say this, but seeing you and Isshiki-san talking to each other – over the past couple of weeks, and not just today – just convinced me that it might be for the best. For you, for me, for Yuigahama-san… and for Isshiki-san, too. I'd hate to feel like I'm holding you back for no good reason, even if that's really just selfishness on my own part."

I could just about guess what Yukinoshita was getting at, though my heart refused to acknowledge that whatever I thought might happen would actually end up being the case. "You mean…"

"What I'm saying is, if you don't want to come to the Service Club, you don't have to. I'll talk to Hiratsuka-sensei about it, but either way…"

Yukinoshita turned to me. For only the second time in as many weeks, I saw a face that, for once, bore me no ill will, though that did not ease the lump rapidly growing in my chest in any way whatsoever.

"Maybe your place just isn't with us, Hikigaya-kun. That's all I'm saying."