How Haneoka's affairs developed later is a story for another time; for now, let us pan our camera over to the newly started term at Hanasakigawa Girls' High School.
Taki Shiina stood neatly alongside her classmates. Changing seats and packing away textbooks should have been a quick affair, but waiting for Umiri and Uika—both tied up with work—to arrive made the process agonizing.
Regardless of anything else, on the first day of term, even if you were a global superstar on the scale of Michael Jackson, you were expected to show your face if you intended to keep studying at this school. True to form, Uika and Umiri had contacted the head teacher to assure them they would arrive before ten o'clock this morning.
Chapter 181