Chapter 2

As the first bell rang, Yumi hastily entered the classroom.

The fifth period math teacher Shimonoseki-sensei, an old man, would come to class precisely on the second bell. Everyday, the students would wait quietly with their textbooks, notes, and copying utilities on their desk and would wait for the teacher to arrive.

But, seeming as if the students had forgotten their normal routine, the students were deep in talk, as if it was a remnant from lunch break.

``Why is everyone talking?''

The close-by diagonally one desk back Oyamada Miyuki-san cried. As if protecting Miyuki-san, one person from her intimate group said ``It's nothing'' and wiped her own eyes.

(Contagious crying ......?)

She tried looking around, and realized that all the girls were somewhat refraimed and all their eyes were cloudy. As one person cried, so did everyone in the area, as if no-one had noticed the first bell, everyone kept saying ``It's nothing'' but to seemingly no effect.

``Ah, sorry. I'll leave now.''

While not fully giving up her chair, Yumi stood up and slightly retreated by herself. Then, without thinking, she sat herself in another seat, brought along her book, and began worrying about what had occured behind her.

Shimako-san came in through that direction.

``Was it a good harvest?''

As Shimako-san came up next to her desk, Ymui asked her, and Shimako-san laughed happily in reply. If you heard her, it seemed like her laugh was unrefined, while she wore an enjoyable facial expression.

Right before she had left, she had brought a vinyl bag with her in which chopsticks could not be seen. Her harvest seemed to be hidden in places around the school. With various folds in the vinyl bag, the opening was tightly tied, and a smell assaulted out from it.

``It's like this.''

Shimako-san lowered her voice slightly and talked into Yumi's ear.

``Because of what happened between Rei-sama and Yoshino-san, an awful trend has started.''

``Awful trend?''

``People have started breaking their soeur relationships. And it's not just one or two soeurs.''

(Ehhh ?!)

Because she called shouted this out loudly, Shimako-san hurriedly covered Yumi's mouth because she had guessed this would happen. Already Shimako-san had to cover Yumi's mouth twice before, so that her loud voice would not carry the information to others.

``W, why?!''

All of a sudden the reason Miyuki-san who sat behind her was crying made sense. Being clever, Yumi was not a person who would turn her head without delicacy to recognize Miyuki-san. She wanted to hear about the revolutions but, Shimako-san added more.

``Of course there was an effect to the affair between Rei-san and Yoshino-san.''

Just as she said this, the second bell rang, and at the same time, Shimonoseki-sensei entered the room, and Shimako-san had to go back with her stuff, not being able to give a detailed report. Miyuki-san cried with a voice completely unbefitting a voice used in the middle of math class. Whether one put up the English reader or a Japanese book, any textbook was enough, and it seemed that it was quite helpful for Miyuki to currently be in math class. Because of Shimonoseki-sensei's old age, he would not pay much attention to what the students did in class.

In the quiet room the sound of the teacher's chalk echoed throughout the room.

When Rosa Chinesis and Rosa Gigantea had talked about being worried about the effects, this is what they had meant by effects.

It was sarcastic.

Were Rei-sama and Yoshino-san not the center of the school's admiration and had the Newspaper Club not embellished the account of their splitting up into a moving tale, then this sort of flying sparks would not have occured.

Yumi, while hiding behind her textbook, took out the B5 size paper, she folded it into the same size as a note and began to read it again. ``Yellow Rose Revolution'' the newspaper extra was titled in big letters, at first they only wrote about the simple truth that Yoshino-san had given back Rei-sama's rosary in front of Maria-sama's statue.

After this, because it was not known why they had severed their soeur relationship, everything written from here on was different from what was different before. Up till now, the power had resided in the older sister. By custom, the older soeur would propose to the younger soeur when requesting a soeur relationship. And that's why the split and the rosary return was given to the older sister, which was nothing but unbelievable.

(Wellll, because the younger sister must show absolute obedience towards the older sister, the younger sister should not be able to rebel.)

But also, Rosa Foetida en Bouton Rei-sama was also a friend. And there weren't really going to be ten or twenty students who wanted to become Rei-sama's soeur.

(...Also, this is a pretty weird thing for Yoshino-san.)

``So, Number 5. Come and solve this example problem.''

Because she did not hear it very well, for a second she thought that the teacher had called out number 35, which was herself, and her heart skipped a bit. Then, after a while, she heard a small noise from the seat diagonally behind her, and in a very small voice she heard ``Yes.''.

As the girl stood up, Yumi saw that it was Miyuki-san. Miyuki-san had just stopped using her handkerchief, and uneasily walked with a feeble gait to the front of the classroom, and to the platform. The same year as Yumi, this girl was the type of person who did not stand out. Now, for some reason, a sort of fleeting dependance was seemed emphasized in her.

``Miyuki-san, ......that's awful.''

Because all of Yumi's classmates knew the situation, they all whispered together. Even though he was close to the students, the old teacher, as expected, did not hear the small mumbling. Seeing Miyuki-san's swollen eyes and red nose, the teacher said ``Hay fever, huh?''.

``I'm sorry but, I cannot solve this.''

Holding the chalk in hand with a heavy feeling she had ascended the platform to the blackboard, and now she decended it with her chest downtrodden. This was a problem that if one had listened in class one would be able to solve, but Miyuki-san could not solve it. It was because she was crying in the middle of the explanation.

``Return to your seat. Alright then, number 15.''

Passing Miyki-san on the way to the platform was Tsutako-san, who walked with a face that obviously said ``Huh, me?'', but also showed that she had been paying attention in class. She answered the question perfectly with the white chalk on the blackboard according to the teacher's method.

As Tsutako-san was returning to her seat, she turned slightly towards Yumi, pointed to her, and gave the message ``Be careful.''. Hearing this, she realized the pattern in the calling of the student IDs. First number 5, then number 15, the numbers increased by ten. So naturally, the next student would be number 25 and after that number 35, which was Yumi's student ID number. Finally she finished reading the headline, and she returned back to her textbook.

There were 20 minutes left in the period, and they felt long. In the beginning of the period, she was somewhat happy.

By the end of fifth period, Miyki-san's tears had dried up, but she fell into a sort of dejected state. It seemed like someone strange now sat in the seat diagonally behind Yumi.

It was break time. Shortly after, Miyuki-san's classmates came, surrounded her, and began to talk to her. While she did not listen to what her friends said to Miyuki-san, she could at least recognize that Miyuki-san was now without an Onee-sama.

``It's terrible.''

One of Miyuki-san's surrounded friends said. But, why? To Yumi, the girls, speaking in such a dramatic way, seemed to be seperated from reality in another dimension.

``Nothing can be done. This is the cost.''

As Miyuki-san was being comforted, her tears began to flow again. As this was happening, the chime for sixth period rang, and the students once more returned to their respective seats.

Yumi whispered to her heart ``I must continue.''.