"Hey."

The greeting voice of a figure who stands before you under the school's awning belonged to none other than the primary medic, Shoko Ieiri. Unbothered by the rather sunny weather, you can tell there were no happy tears streaming down her features or excitement strewn over the atmosphere but what she did respond was acknowledgement.

She continues flicking the accumulated ash from the butt of her cigarette. Her gaze settles upon the barren grounds, but it was obvious she keeps talking to you, judging the way how her cigarette dangled between her rouge-stained lips now pressed firmly.

She was a breath of fresh air—ironically speaking—but you meant it. She was the type to coax nonchalance and the simplicity of smiles, especially compared to Ijichi's high-strung attitude, Satoru's flippant demeanor, and Nanami's stoic indifference.

After all she was one of your best friends. Past tense, was.

The whole interaction starts to swathe in silence and the sole chirpings coming from blackbirds passing by, she just stares at you with her face impassive but an inexplicable weight piercing through her stomach like a torrent. How long has it been since she last spoke to you? Three years? Four? Maybe even five?—Who knew? Nevertheless it felt like a lifetime.

"You look.. Well," she murmurs, because it's true. You look good, older, more mature. It's odd imagining as though as you were in high school, when you were both inseparable students then. Unseemingly aware from what's going to happen later on before a permanent change.

"Heard you were back in Tokyo." she took a blow of her cigarette. "Sorry it took me so long to reach out. Been too busy." Of course she is. Curses had led to be increasing lately, it would be a miracle she doesn't see a lifeless body in more than a week.

After Suguru's defection, then graduation, life destined different plans for the two of you. Until now Shoko realizes how much she really missed your presence around here, it wouldn't be much the same without you yet she adapted to that lifestyle already. But it was natural to separate to each of your distinctive lives, at least that's what she thinks.