I opened the windows, but all they let in was heat and the cries of the cicadas.

"...It's too hot..."

"...It really is..."

It was break time between classes, but we couldn't really get any rest.

Mion and I leaned on our desks, exhausted by the heat.

The younger kids sure are tough, considering how the heat wasn't bothering them at all.

They were running around the classroom despite the temperature.

"...Do schools in the cities have air conditioning in their classrooms?"

"No, they don't...

Only the teachers' office gets to have air conditioning..."

"Wow... That's better than nothing...

If I were a student at a school like that, I'd attack the teachers and take over their office."

"......You'd be the first student ever to do that...

Wa ha ha ha...

haaaah......"

I didn't even have the energy to laugh.

...Mion and I stopped talking and used our notebooks to fan ourselves.

I looked at the empty seat nearby.

......It was Rena's.

Rena didn't come to school today.

She called and told Chie-sensei she couldn't come because she's sick.

"...Rena

seems to be feeling down

these days."

"...Yeah.

...She probably got tired from the heat."

"...Do you really think that's the reason?"

"...Yeah, why?"

"...I think it's the incident..."

"...Maybe.

...It's probably both that and the summer heat."

I can't even imagine how distressing it was for her to commit a murder, dismember the bodies, and get caught by her friends.

We took each other's hands at that place, and we united.

All of us believed that we had closed the case there, and had regained our peace.

But... was that as easy for Rena as it was for us...?

She must have not quite recovered yet...

"...This ol' man thought she'd get over it if she played along with us.

...But I guess her pain ran deeper than I thought."

"What should we do...

to cheer her up?"

"...It's best just to leave her alone, I think."

"Hey... are you sure about that?

We're her friends, you know?"

"Well, it's like homesickness, you know?

You get lonely, and you want to call home just to hear your mom's voice. But that actually makes your homesickness worse.

When you're feeling lonely, the best thing to do is to devote yourself to sports or something like that for a change."

"...I want her to do club activities with us, but... she doesn't want to."

"I don't know about her,

but people usually have a desire to depend on somebody.

You want to depend on somebody who supports you and sympathizes with you.

...Haven't you ever experienced that feeling? When you can't stop depending on somebody when they try to cheer you up?"

"...Well... I don't know."

"Completely depending on someone means trying to earn even deeper sympathy from them.

At that point, even though you're trying to comfort them, they just slip further and further into depression.

By finding initial success through relying on someone and receiving comfort, they grow addicted to indulging in misfortune.

...I think Rena knows that, too. That's why she wants to be alone right now.

If she wanted to depend on us or get comfort from us, all she'd have to do is to stay with us and cry all the time."

"So, how can we cheer her up...?"

"I think she'd appreciate it more if you tried to help her forget her pain than if you tried to cheer her up."

"Don't comfort her and don't cheer her up...

...There's nothing I can do, is there?"

"That's a golden rule for psychologists, did you know?

Mental trauma can only be healed by the person who has it.

If someone else helps a person out of their mental trauma, even if they succeeded, that person wouldn't be completely healed.

So, all we can do now is wait until Rena heals on her own."

"...I understand the idea, but... I just don't like how cold it sounds..."

I clasped my hands behind the back of my head, looking at the ceiling.

Mion laughed.

"Rena will be fine as long as she has someone like you to worry about her.

I'm sure she can pull herself together."

"So, all I need to do is to be close to her?

...I dunno about that."

"......There is something you can do, Keiichi."

Rika-chan spoke up.

...I wonder how long she'd been listening to our conversation.

"What is it...?"

"...You can listen to her when she wants to talk to somebody."

"Is that all?

I just listen, and I don't need to make her feel better?"

"Kei-chan, people feel better just by talking to somebody.

Sometimes, all they need is someone who does nothing but listen quietly."

"......Just like Mii said,

I think it's important for us, as her friends, to be there for her whenever she wants to talk to somebody."

Mion and Rika-chan were absolutely right.

I was going to pat Rena on her shoulder and tell her to cheer up when I saw her next, but...

Now I know that would have been one-sided on my part.

Rena doesn't want to feel down herself.

She wants to cheer up if at all possible.

If I cheered her up irresponsibly,

she'd be very disappointed, because she'd think that I didn't understand her pain...

"............You're right.

...I guess I wasn't even trying to understand how she felt.

...I wanted to cheer her up, but I now know that's just what I want to do, not what she wants me to do.

Thanks, you two.

I think I finally understand."

On that day... I thought I cheered her up.

...But I started to doubt if I had reached her heart.

I might've just been dragging her someplace where I wanted her to go.

I wasn't on her side in the real sense of the term...

All of a sudden, Rika-chan patted my head.

"...Don't worry.

We all know that you're on her side."

"What? What?

Did I say something out loud again...?"

"It did reach her heart.

Kei-chan, you really did give her great strength on that day.

...Well... now that I think about it, what you said on that day was more than a little theatrical!

Heh heh heh heh!!"

We heard footsteps from the hallway, and everybody started to head back to their desks.

"Take your seats, everyone.

President, if you would."

"All rise!!"

We didn't have a club meeting that day because Rena wasn't around.

That worked out for me

because I had an errand to run.

It wasn't a big errand.

My mom wanted me to use her point card to get some detergent.

I didn't see the point of going all the way to the store just to get detergent, but my mom told me to go because she's busy helping my dad with his work.

I started walking towards the shopping center.

I noticed someone was watching me, hiding behind a distant tree.

...I wonder who would do such a mischievous thing. I stared at them to find out who it was, at which point they emerged.

"Oh,

Rena."

Are you feeling better now?

...I was about to say that, but I swallowed the words.

Somehow, Rena looked very serious.

"...Wh-What's going on?"

"Shh!"

Rena put her index finger to her lips, told me to be quiet, looked around carefully, and beckoned for me to come over.

I had no idea what was going on, but I followed her instructions, shut my mouth, and ran to her.

Rena gestured for me to squat down to hide in the shadow of the bush.

I didn't know why I had to do that, but I could ask her the question later.

I just followed her orders for now.

Rena looked like she was making sure no one was following her.

...If it was Mion, she'd do something like this just to fool me, as a joke... but I know Rena doesn't do things like this for fun.

I had no idea what kind of situation I had gotten myself into... but I could feel how tense it was, and I made myself as small as I could.