At dusk, a girl stirred from sleep and squinted blearily up at the clock mounted at the front of the classroom.
The second hand swept forward. 5:32.
Shiina Taki's head was swimming — but she was fully awake now. She stretched her stiff, aching body, wincing at the pins and needles that had seized her legs from the prolonged pressure.
"That can't be right…"
She eyed the clock with suspicion. She remembered — that thing ran three minutes slow.
"Right. So it's actually 5:35."
She'd fallen asleep around three, when classes let out. With no one to wake her, she'd slept straight through to past five.
The dying light of the bewitching hour stained her Haizuka Middle School uniform a deep, burning red. The neat fringe of bangs trimmed across her forehead did little to conceal the faint irritation in her eyes.
Today, her older sister Shiina Maki would be leading the concert band in the national competition. The whole family was supposed to go and cheer her on.
Taki didn't want to go. Not even a little.
It wasn't the petty stubbornness of a younger sibling.
She was happy for her sister — genuinely. But every time something like this happened, people would swarm around her and say things like:
[That's your sister, isn't it! She's incredible!]
[You'll be just like her someday, Shiina!]
[How lucky you are, getting to be Maki's little sister!]
Not a single one of them meant any harm.
And yet every word landed like a needle.
"Question."
A voice drifted in from behind her — gossamer-light, like something that didn't quite belong to the living world.
"Wha—?!"
Taki lurched in fright, numb legs forgotten, and toppled straight off her chair.
"Let's play a riddle game! I can only fly once in my life. My death holds more value than my birth. I bear invisible pressure because of you. What am I?"
"…Who are you?"
"Hm? The rules are perfectly simple, aren't they? The 'what am I' refers to the thing I'm asking you to guess — it's narrated in first person, you see. If you can't even figure that out, you really might be a small fry!"
Shiina Taki stared in frantic bewilderment at the white-haired, crimson-eyed beauty who had apparently materialized out of nowhere behind her.
What is this person's deal?!
"Hah? I meant — who are you? What kind of weird question is that? What do you even want?"
"Hm-hm, now that is a wonderfully interesting question… I am who I am, and right now I am right here answering who I am."
Yoshiiro Chiose feigned deep contemplation before delivering that answer with complete sincerity — though Taki seemed less than charmed by it.
"Hah? Do you want something? If not, I'm leaving." Taki had already slung her bag over her shoulder.
"Hold on. I have something to ask you."
"What."
"Are you really, truly, honestly Shiina Taki?"
"No. You've got the wrong person. There's no Shiina Taki here, and I don't know any Shiina Taki."
Taki denied it flatly. The girl in front of her seemed, to put it charitably, not entirely right in the head.
"What a shame. I was hoping to return this notebook to a Shiina Taki. Looks like that little small fry won't be getting her book back after all~ ✈️"
Chiose waggled a notebook in her hand. Its cover was printed with an adorable cartoon panda.
"Where did you find that? …Fine. I'm Shiina Taki. Can I have my things back now?"
Taki grabbed Chiose by the wrist. The skin was smooth — like something precious left behind on earth by God himself.
"Nope! But if you answer a few simple questions for me, I'll give it back~ How about it? How about it?"
"..."
"…Fine. Ask already."
What does she even want?!
Taki screamed internally, already half-planning to snatch the notebook and bolt.
"My, youngsters are so impatient," Chiose said, eyeing Taki's growing restlessness without the slightest concern, narrowing her eyes as she turned away.
"First question! A mule and a piano — which costs more?"
Yoshiiro Chiose stepped forward, her lips parting lightly.
"A piano, obviously."
What kind of question even is that.
"Very good! Then — a piano versus a book of poetry. Which costs more?"
Chiose took another step forward.
"Depends on the items. Some poetry collections can be quite expensive."
Where did you crawl out of, you riddle goblin?!
"Then a book of poetry versus spring. Which costs more?"
Chiose kept advancing. She was getting close enough now that Taki found herself backing away step by step to maintain the distance.
"Spring, of course. Seasons are a luxury."
"And then…"
Chiose's slender frame tilted forward until the tip of her nose touched Taki's.
Taki's back hit the edge of the teacher's podium. A small tremor ran through her.
"…Which costs more — spring, or love?"
"You're too close— um… love? Not that many people compare the two."
"Pay attention. My final question."
Chiose leaned in just a little further, her slight frame pressing Taki back until she was nearly bent over the podium.
"And also — the question I most wanted to ask."
Taki was completely pinned against the podium now.
"Love and tears. Which one costs more?"
"..."
"…Tears."
A brief silence fell over the empty classroom. Yoshiiro Chiose stared hard at Shiina Taki, whose cheeks had gone a telling shade of pink.
Hm-hm. Middle schoolers really are adorable. She's blushing just from a little nuzzle, is she.
"Ha— hahahahaha!"
"That is such a — such a small fry answer~ ✈️!"
Chiose burst out laughing and spun back around, dropping into the chair she'd been sitting in earlier, pulling out that well-thumbed panda notebook.
"Tears… your answer really was tears!"
She shoved the notebook into the thoroughly bewildered Taki's arms.
"I knew it. You really are exactly the kind of small fry I thought you'd be~ ✈️"
"Um… why do you keep calling me a small fry…"
Taki couldn't help cutting in — though she had the sense that right now it was better not to interrupt the delicate beauty in front of her while she was on a roll.
"Small fry, and I'll keep calling you small fry! Shiina Taki is a great! Big! Small fry!"
Yoshiiro Chiose planted her hands on her hips and unleashed her most withering smirk.
"Small fry! Be honest — did you write the lyrics in this notebook?"
"…Yes. But don't say anything else about it." Taki's voice shrank to almost nothing.
She'd originally planned to write her own songs, make something of herself, and then use her results to prove her worth to her sister and parents.
But she simply wasn't cut out for it.
Arranging music — she could learn that, bit by bit. But writing lyrics? Completely hopeless.
"It's terrible! This stuff is so bad even a hopeless small fry couldn't have written it! ✈️ All flash and no substance — nothing but gaudy words piled on top of each other, with no living soul anywhere in sight."
"!!!"
"But! Guess what I spotted?"
"…What?"
"Tears!"
"Tears?"
"Right here — look. The very last line of this song: [Tears are worth more than love]."
"I think this one line captures everything you were actually trying to say."
"What was I… trying to say?"
Chiose let the smile drop from her face.
"The hollow stillness that lives beneath your empty soul."
In that moment, Taki saw her own reflection in Chiose's deep wine-red eyes.
"I love it. Shiina Taki." Chiose's voice dropped to something quieter, more certain. "Your lyrics — I fell for them the moment I saw them."
"Hah?"
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