That makes no sense. "What... would a warning have looked like?"

"Tami-chan telling me that her boyfriend was acting kinda grumpy, and Ishiyo mentioning later that she'd seen him and Karato having an argument the other day. Naoko passing me a note in class. Taro stealing nervous glances between me and Takuo. Hōji yelling at me earlier, she's really not the kind to bottle things up and I have no idea how this managed to just suddenly explode."

How on Earth would that even be informative? "...dude you're kind of scary." He puffs deeply from the cigarette and blows it out. "Maybe she just kind of decided it in the heat of the moment?"

"Nah. Doesn't fit."

"What doesn't fit?"

He takes a deep breath and shrugs. "Dunno. Could try to think about it but a lot of this shit is kinda subconscious, you know? When stuff fits it clicks. When the little models of people I have in my head start saying the same things they said in real life, when everyone makes sense. Everyone doesn't make sense right now."

That... does, actually, make some sense, yeah. In retrospect he was surprised by how everyone was acting on Friday. Before he has a chance to say anything, though, the door out opens.

Two girls poke their heads through it—Tanaka Naoko and Inoue Tamiki—start walking towards the boys. "Hey," says Naoko.

"—hi, Naoko-chan, Tami-chan. What are you two doing here?"

"Vibe's off downstairs," says Naoko, sitting down on the floor. "Feels like someone's died."

"...dunno that I'd say that, but... yeah. Kinda."

Tōkan's smile wavers, then broadens. "Not gonna lie, I'm really happy the two of you are here."

"Why?" asks Tamiki.

"Kinda thought I'd have no one left in my corner other than Subaru."

"Bullcrap, Kokonoe," grumbles Naoko, opening her bag and grabbing two bentō boxes out of it. "You're not gonna find me kissing the ass of Hirune fucking Hōji and her cronies."

"She's got cronies, now?"

"Seems like it, yeah. Kind of funny that she used to be your crony. What even happened back then, you haven't been together in months and now there's the thing with Yamada and then Friday..."

"—she and Karato tried to rape a middle schooler having her first heat and Inori ran into them and beat them up, I was mad at them, they kept making excuses."

"You're... dating the guy who beat them up? Damn."

"Naoko—"

She lifts her hands in surrender. "I know, I know, that was shit of them, just, yeah, I can get why they'd be pissed off." She elbows Tamiki who blinks and also grabs a couple of bentō boxes from her bag.

"Do the two of you always have more than one of those? It's not even lunchtime."

"I like sharing," says Tamiki. "And Naoko does too even if she likes to pretend she doesn't. She's got an image to keep, see."

Naoko elbows her again.

She grins.