He reached for his locker and pulled out his shoes. Kasumi opened her mouth to speak, closed it, then tried again.

"Ah, uhm," she said, forcing a smile. "Uuhmuhm! With the concert coming up in a few weeks, we have to practice really hard."

"Oh," he said, noticing that she seemed a little flustered. "You ok, Kasumi? You look kinda upset."

She shuddered a little. "Hm? Oh! No, not at all! I'm just late! I need to get going! I just wanted to get home earlier, I ... have a lot of homework to do!" She grabbed her bag and her shoes, darted to the end of the platform and slipped them on.




. high resolution image . preliminary sketch . japanese version .