Book 6: Chapter 1: December 11th (Friday) – Asamura Yuuta
The sound of the final bell ringing came from the speakers inside the classroom. The teacher swiftly disappeared out into the hallway, and as joyful voices filled the classroom, my classmates moved their chairs and desks out of the way to simply have fun. Now that we had received our end-of-term exam results, most of them seemed refreshed and relieved. The boy with the large back in front of me towered up and grabbed the back of the desk. He’s probably heading over to baseball practice like always—Or so I thought.
“One more thing, Asamura.”
I was surprised when he spoke to me. Normally, Maru would just give me a brief goodbye and dash off to his practice.
“What’s up?”
“I’ve got a club meeting now, but do you mind tagging along until we get to the clubroom?”
“Huh? The clubroom? Why?”
“There’s something I wanna give you.”
“Well… sure?”
It’s not like I have to get home early or anything. With that thought in mind, I tagged along with Maru, grabbing my bag so I could go home right after talking to him. When I glanced outside the hallway windows, I could see all the trees in the courtyard with their barren branches, no leaves in sight. It really made me realize that winter had come. With no more leaves to obscure the view, I could see the courtyard below quite clearly. A slight breeze was blowing a few lonely leaves along like the last remains of fall.