That absolute disconnect shattered Yui completely.
She turned and ran, sobbing, stumbling down the corridor.
Inside the room, Seiji heard everything. He grinned.
He looked down at Yukino, now trembling violently.
"Yukino, it seems your friend saw everything."
"Saw you... like this."
Yukino's composure collapsed. Paper white.
Yui... saw...
"No... please..." Tears spilling.
"Perfect. That's the expression I wanted."
Half an hour later, lunch ended. Seiji tossed the skirt onto Yukino.
"After school. Wait for me at the gate."
He walked out without looking back at the girl collapsed on the floor.
...
Yui ran crying to her classroom. Buried her face in her arms. The images looped endlessly.
The entire afternoon, she was a walking corpse.
...
After school. At the gate, Yui saw her mother waiting by the car.
"Mama? What are you doing here?"
"Got off early. Thought I'd pick up my cute daughter."
Warmth. Yui almost broke down right there.
Then her gaze drifted to the other side of the gate.
Yukino walked out alone. Steps unsteady. Faint redness around her eyes.
A sedan glided to her. Seiji stepped out. Took her bag. Flicked her nose. Guided her into the car.
Students erupted in whispers. "That's Fujiwara-sensei!" "Is he Yukinoshita-san's boyfriend?"
Yui went white.
But worse was her mother's reaction.
Mrs. Yuigahama's smile froze. As an adult, she understood instantly.
Kept woman.
She looked at her daughter, then at the car pulling away, and terror gripped her.
Her daughter was too close to this. She'd stumbled into a secret that could destroy them.
...
In the car, Yukino pressed against the door, maximizing distance. Seiji took her hand. She tried to pull free. He held tighter. Laced their fingers together.
"Get used to it, Yukino. Your body, your time, everything... belongs to me."
She turned away. He smiled.
...
At home, Mrs. Yuigahama locked the door. Still pale.
"Mama, Yukinon, is she..." Yui started, voice breaking.
"Yui!" Her mother cut her off, harsher than ever. "Starting today, you are never to say that name again! Never to have any contact with her!"
"Why?! Yukinon's in danger! We should help her!"
"How? You think police can touch someone like him?"
"Yui, we're ordinary people! Some things, when you see them, you pretend you didn't! Otherwise it'll destroy us!"
She gripped Yui's shoulders, eyes full of adult terror.
"Promise me. Stay away from her."
The first real rift between mother and daughter.
...
And Seiji, the architect of that rift, was already planning.
He dialed his secretary. "Look into Yui Yuigahama's family. Her mother's job, their address. Everything."
Time to pay the Yuigahama women a visit.
A witnessed secret couldn't be solved with "just stay away."
...
Night fell. The Yuigahama apartment was suffocating.
Mrs. Yuigahama prepared dinner with shaking hands. The knife nearly took her fingertips twice.
Yui hugged Sable in the living room, face buried in fur, silent.
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