Hoshinomiya didn't even bother wiping the liquor off her wrist. She stared at the glass in front of her as if she could see her own reflection in the surface, and let out a bitter little snort.
"Bastards… wasn't it sealed away? Why the hell are they dragging it back out again?!"
Chabashira said nothing. She simply lifted her foot, set it down, and precisely stepped on the fallen ladies' cigarette. Then she ground it out hard, killing the ember completely—her expression complicated.
Mashima looked at the two women—old classmates, now coworkers—and let out a long sigh.
"Yeah… looks like this special exam is going to be a headache again."
"It's like neither of you have ever truly moved on from what happened eleven years ago."
That sigh about the past seemed to stab Hoshinomiya right where it hurt. She turned and stared at Chabashira.
"Sae? How long are you going to sit there in silence? You really not going to say a single word?"
"Don't you have anything you want to say? About this exam… or…" Her eyes narrowed. "About me."
Chabashira looked at Hoshinomiya deeply. The amber in her eyes carried a sharpness completely different from her usual cold calm.
"Chie. It's complicated," she said slowly. "And it's been too long."
"But no matter what… I have to atone."
"This year's class probably doesn't have much hope. But the next class. And the one after that. I will—I will—take Class D to Class A."
For the first time, Chabashira said it openly in front of others: her obsession with climbing classes, her fixation on reaching Class A.
Even Hoshinomiya and Mashima—who'd known her for years—were startled.
Was this really the same Sae Chabashira who'd come back to this school and started phoning it in?
What had happened to make her change this much?
Hoshinomiya blinked, gripping her glass tighter.
"T-That's… not what I expected, Sae-chan. You actually sound… determined."
"I thought you'd do what you always do—go quiet, say nothing, and walk away."
Chabashira shook her head. She pulled out her cigarette case like she meant to light another one… then paused, thought better of it, and slipped it away again.
"Because I finally figured it out."
"If I keep staying quiet… if I keep guarding myself against you… then every Class D I teach will stay quiet too. And nothing will ever change."
"I won't—I don't want to—make that mistake again."
"Chie, I know you've always tried to block me. You've always tried to stop Class D from reaching Class A."
Her gaze didn't waver.
"But this is the one thing I will never give up."
Hoshinomiya was shaken.
In eleven years, when had she ever seen Chabashira this unshakable?
For years, dealing with the Chabashira who'd been giving up, Hoshinomiya had still kept her guard up—she'd never once relaxed, never allowed Chabashira even the smallest chance to climb into Class A.
They both understood each other's fixations.
One wanted to atone by taking Class D to Class A.
The other wanted to stop her out of resentment.
So no matter how much Chabashira looked like she'd checked out, Hoshinomiya never stopped watching her.
But she never imagined Chabashira would actually lay it all out like this.
Hoshinomiya immediately realized Chabashira had gone through some kind of transformation—something had changed her. And if that was true, Hoshinomiya needed to probe it. She needed to find out what had done it.
"Hmph! Pretty words!" she snapped, voice rising.
"Back then, if it weren't for you, we would've graduated from Class A already! We would've walked straight into a brighter future!"
"We wouldn't have come crawling back here, killing ourselves every day teaching at this damn school!"
She was shouting now—loud enough that the bartender froze, wide-eyed.
"Do you even know how old we are now?! Twenty-nine! We're pushing thirty!"
"You—stuck in high school for three years—only your age keeps going up, your body keeps getting older, while you keep dragging yourself back to overlap with these kids, chasing a ghost from the past!"
"When are you going to grow up?!"
The bartender was so startled she didn't dare stay behind the counter. Using "bathroom break" as an excuse, she hurried away—though she didn't actually leave. She just hid nearby to watch the drama.
Mashima looked stuck in the middle and tried to stop it. "Hoshinomiya…"
"Mashima, shut up!" she barked.
Mashima could only sigh and shake his head. He couldn't force himself into this fight between the two of them.
"Chie." Chabashira stared at her seriously, then asked one brutal question.
"Do you regret coming back to teach here?"
"..."
Hoshinomiya's fire went out instantly.
She had resented it. She had regretted it. Compared to teaching here, she'd wanted an easier job, better pay, a nicer life.
But when she thought of that sometimes awful, sometimes unexpectedly sweet younger man…
She couldn't say she regretted coming back. She just couldn't.
Because if she regretted it—if she'd never returned to ANHS—then she never would've met Cheng Yukio.
That was her one comfort in eleven years. Her one undeniable happiness.
And she couldn't deny it.
Chabashira's voice stayed steady, as if she'd seized the initiative without even raising it.
"Chie—whatever you're thinking, compete with me."
"Let's see whether you can stop me from reaching Class A… or whether I finally atone and take Class D to Class A."
"..."
This time, it was Hoshinomiya who had nothing to say.
Keep blocking her?
She didn't have the heart for it anymore.
Very few people could cling to an obsession forever without wavering. And there was that classic piece of poisonous "wisdom," wasn't there?
Hard work doesn't guarantee success… but quitting is always easy.
Yukio had once marveled at Chabashira's ability to cling to her obsession for ten years—now eleven. But Hoshinomiya wasn't built like Chabashira. She didn't have that crushing sense of responsibility, and she'd never treated this as her "life's mission."
She returned to this school partly because she needed a job—and partly because she wanted to suppress Chabashira, to get revenge.
But after eleven years of suppressing her, that resentment had long since faded.
And honestly… she and Chabashira had been real friends in high school. Close friends. If it wasn't for that exam eleven years ago—if it hadn't torn them apart so completely—how could she have hated Chabashira in the first place?
And now she'd met Yukio.
He hadn't said it outright, but she'd heard enough between the lines. That younger man could take her away. He could give her the life she wanted.
So why stay here?
Work herself to the bone?
No. What she wanted was a life with him.
So when Chabashira finally spoke openly like this—laid it all out—Hoshinomiya couldn't answer, because Chabashira's next Class D meant the new cohort two years from now.
By then, Hoshinomiya knew she'd probably already be gone—gone from this school, following Yukio.
Looking at Chabashira's unwavering face, Hoshinomiya's heart softened despite herself.
Her brows loosened. She picked up her drink again and held it out toward Chabashira.
"Forget it. I've been clinging to you for eleven years… if you're not sick of me, I'm sick of myself…"
"Chie!" Chabashira looked genuinely stunned.
She couldn't believe she'd just heard that.
Was this… forgiveness?
Joy surged through Chabashira, light bursting in her eyes. She quickly lifted her own glass and clinked it against Hoshinomiya's.
She was about to say something—
But Hoshinomiya waved her off, downed her drink, and stood up to leave.
As she walked away, Hoshinomiya thought, Whatever. I'm done, I'm done. Tonight I'm just going to go ask Yukio-kun for a hug.
And Sae-chan… can do whatever she wants.