There was sothing off.
Or rather, Kuro figured it out during lunchti.
At first, he failed to understand why.
The room was full of people.
Akari was fighting with soone.
Rika was drawing in her notebook.
Mina was talking with friends.
Aoi was reading a book.
There was nothing strange in those facts.
However, there seed to be sothing lacking.
Suddenly, Kuro got it.
There had been no chaos in the morning.
No weird interruptions or unexpected guests.
No comnts which made everybody question their sanity.
No Yui.
It been a long ti without a call.
Kuro checked his phone.
Nothing.
That had been very unusual.
Normally Yui would send him at least three ssages until now.
Most likely, for no particular reason.
And if it annoyed him.
Mainly him.
On the opposite side of the room, Akari suddenly glanced around.
"Hey, wait."
"What?" Mina blinked.
"Where’s Yui?"
There were only so silent seconds in the room.
Since it was obvious that gang had just realized the sa thing.
No Yui.
Once more, Mina checked her cell phone.
"Huh." "What?" Kuro repeated.
"She didn’t reply to any of my ssages."
"Since when?"
"For three days."
Kuro could feel a wave of silence around them.
Even Akari seed surprised.
"For three days?"
"For three days."
And that definitely seed strange.
Because Yui loved sending ssages.
Always at inconvenient hours.
And always with so questionable reasons behind it.
Always resulting in problems.
Yui had never ignored ssages for three days in a row.
That was simply uncharacteristic of her.
Crossing her hands, Akari asked.
"Has sobody kidnapped her?" "Aliens." Aoi flipped a new page in her book.
"Who would do such a thing willingly?"
Kuro leaned back in his chair.
And considered what she had said.
Because there was sothing really off about Yui’s disappearance.
It simply wasn’t her.
The conversation continued for the rest of the lunch break.
But underneath the humor.
Everybody knew there was so concern.
Because Yui wasn’t rely absent.
She was missing.
There hadn’t been any ssages from her or calls.
Nor had she appeared anywhere for three whole days.
After classes ended.
Kuro and friends went to the place where the missing girl would likely be found.
Naly, to the library.
Surprisingly enough.
Which was precisely where Yui would eventually be discovered.
Though at this mont.
There was no trace of her in there.
Checking her phone once more.
Akari said. "Now I’m starting to worry." " too." Mina agreed.
Even Aoi looked a bit thoughtful.
"Her ssaging is noticeably lower in this month."
"Really?" "Yes, I pay attention to many things."
It didn’t seem so comforting.
But most likely true.
Reclining in his chair.
Kuro could only sigh.
This situation clearly wasn’t improving.
Quite the opposite.
So he rose to his feet.
"Going to search for her." "Good idea," Akari imdiately replied.
"Find anything, let know about it." "Sure." Mina looked relieved.
"Reasonable," Aoi simply agreed.
While Rika wrote sothing in her notebook again.
Adding one line to previous notes.
Search Operation Begins
Kuro decided to ignore it.
It was pointless.
After so minutes, he found himself in the dical building.
This place had its unique mood among other buildings of the university.
Quiet.
Serious.
Focused.
Rows of study rooms occupied hallways here.
Students of the dicine faculty moved along corridors with piles of books.
Nobody laughed.
Nobody scread.
Nobody created problems here and there.
Which excluded Yui’s presence from this place automatically.
So Kuro continued his search.
Until finally reaching a part of the library used by students of dicine.
It was enormous.
Nurous bookshelves stretched as far as the eye could see.
All other students had already left for ho.
Here, several of them remained.
Quietly studying.
Evening sunlight shone through windows.
Everything looked peaceful.
However, then Kuro spotted sothing familiar.
Not a bag.
Not a coat.
But an unbelievable number of books spread across the table.
Kuro stopped.
At the corner of the library.
Sitting there.
She slept.
Completely asleep.
Her face rested against a book open at her desk.
Several notebooks surrounded her.
Practice exams.
dicine journals.
Handbooks.
Notes.
Everything looked almost insane.
This looked like battlefield.
A battlefield where education waged wars.
And Yui had to fight for survival here.
Energy drinks took half of her place at the table.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
---
Kuro stopped counting.
---
It looked unhealthy.
---
Probably.
---
Certainly.
---
Well,
---
When looking at Yui like that.
Not even close.
---
For a mont.
Kuro just stared.
---
This sight was strange.
---
Because this wasn’t how he knew Yui.
---
That girl never stayed still.
---
She laughed.
She teased others.
She created problems.
But this Yui looked exhausted.
Absolutely exhausted.
Dark rings ford under her eyes.
Multiple pages had frantic notes on them.
Sections were highlighted dozens of tis.
So pages even had corrections to the previous corrections.
It looked like she had studied all day long.
No, it looked like weeks long.
Picking up one of practice tests.
Kuro gasped.
Its rating looked impressive.
Approaching a perfect score.
Taking another test.
Similar results again.
And yet another one.
Perfect score.
Strange.
---
Very strange.
---
If she had such great scores.
---
Then why worked herself like a mad woman?
---
Suddenly.
Kuro spotted sothing else.
---
A crumpled paper under a pile of books.
---
Partially visible.
---
Gently lifting it.
Kuro got confused.
dical licensing examination.
Previous result.
Failed.
---
Silence.
---
Kuro couldn’t stop staring.
---
Looking at another paper.
---
Failed again.
---
Everything began falling together.
---
Yui’s absence.
Her exhausted appearance.
Isolation.
---
Pressure.
---
She hadn’t run away from everybody.
---
She was trying to hide.
---
In that mont.
Everything changed.
Yui slightly moved.
And a book fell off the table.
Kuro grabbed it right before it could touch the floor.
But of course, it woke Yui up.
She slowly opened an eye.
---
Then another.
---
For several seconds.
She looked quite confused.
Then she saw Kuro.
And imdiately tried to rise up.
Unfortunately for her.
She nearly fell out of her chair.
Kuro grabbed her shoulder.
"Careful."
"You ca." Yui mumbled.
Her voice was weaker than usually.
Almost sleepy.
Almost vulnerable.
---
Nothing similar to the usual tone.
For the first ti in his life.
Yui seed defeated.
---
Not annoyed.
Not playing with him.
Not teasing.
---
Defeated.
---
She glanced at books around her.
---
And at practice tests.
---
Then at floor again.
---
A heavy silence appeared between them.
---
After that, Kuro said.
---
"You were hiding."
Yui faintly chuckled.
---
Tiredly.
---
"Perhaps."
The words didn’t convince him.
---
Neither did her smile.
---
For the first ti.
It didn’t reach her eyes.
---
Evening sunlight gradually disappeared from library window.
---
Massive pile of books.
Mountain of energy drinks.
Exhaustion.
---
And sitting there.
Middle of all that.
Yui.
The Yui nobody had ever seen.
Defeated.
Afraid.
Overweighted with sothing far heavier than all this.
Looking at her.
Kuro sighed again.
Then he slowly sat down in the opposite chair.
"What are you doing here?" Yui asked.
---
"Watching you."
This question made Yui look quite surprised.
---
Then she avoided his gaze again.
---
However, in this mont.
Defeated smile disappeared from her face completely.
Silence had settled into the library, but now it felt oppressive rather than comforting.
Yui took longer than expected to answer Kuro.
"...I don’t know."
Her tone sounded drained. Flat. She didn’t have the energy for teasing anymore.
Kuro leaned toward her slightly.
"That’s not like you."
Faintly, an attempt at a smile ford across her lips but quickly faded.
"Yeah... people keep telling that."
With slow chanical movents, she turned another page.
No longer was it studying; she just needed sothing to occupy her hands to prevent thinking from catching up.
Kuro noted the nurous cans of energy drinks on the table once more.
Five of them lined up to serve as silent witnesses to the endless struggle.
"You haven’t been sleeping well," he comnted.
She hesitated before shrugging offhandedly.
"Sleep won’t do anything before the exam."
"That’s an excuse."
"Probably."
Again, the blunt honesty was shocking. Usually, she would make jokes or deflect. Anything, really, as long as she didn’t have to admit.
But she didn’t.
Looking around, Kuro saw all those high scores on the scattered sheets of paper. And he knew that none of those helped now.
"You’re not failing because you lack knowledge," he stated quietly.
She stopped.
Her hands were no longer moving.
A mont passed.
Then she closed the textbook halfway.
"...That’s the thing."
Even quieter, now.
"I know I could do it."
Reaching back, she pushed her chair away from him, turning her attention away by looking at the ceiling.
"But when I sit here... everything becos blurry, and I can’t think anymore."
She allowed herself a weak laugh.
Nothing funny about it.
rely helpless in the face of this strange feeling.
"It’s stupid, isn’t it? A ’genius’ who can’t even get good results where it counts."
Kuro shook his head.
"That’s not stupid."
Again, this caught her attention.
Now, she actually seed to want to retort in so manner. Sothing sarcastic maybe, to shift focus from that statent. Or maybe just tease in order to hide her surprise.
But in the end, all she did was sigh again.
"...I didn’t want anyone to know."
After a beat of silence, her voice beca even more subdued.
"Especially you guys."
Another one followed, but not in the sa oppressive way.
Because now, it contained an elent of relief.
It seed that, for once, Yui was done pretending to be okay.
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