Story:

Reika took out her phone. “Saturday, four o’clock. Shibuya. I’ll send you the meeting place.”

“Four,” Peach repeated. “Saturday.”

Violet inclined her head. Butterfly nodded a moment later.

“Good,” Reika said. “I’ll make the arrangements.”

Peach fastened her bag. “Then I need to ask them. And I have somewhere to be.”

She moved around the desk before Violet could offer to accompany her.

“Peach—”

“See you tomorrow!”

The classroom door slid open, then shut behind her. Violet watched it with an expression Butterfly found deeply suspicious.

Reika looked from the door to Violet.

“Did I interrupt something?”

“Yes,” Butterfly said. “No,” Violet said at precisely the same time.

A brief silence followed. Reika tucked her phone away. “I see.”

Butterfly waited until the class representative had stepped aside to answer another student’s question.

Then she caught Violet’s sleeve.

This time, there was nothing playful in her grip. “We need to talk.”

Violet glanced down at her hand. “About Peach?”

“About everyone.”

Her sister’s expression changed.

Butterfly released the sleeve and lifted her bag. “Somewhere outside school.”

Across the room, Reika was still speaking in the calm, helpful voice of a class representative organizing a weekend outing.

Butterfly kept that voice in her ears as she led Violet toward the door.