When everyone had finished bathing and lay down in the spread-out blankets, it was already past eleven.

"Turn off the lights?" Xiaoquan Aonai called out, and immediately the clubroom plunged into darkness.

The curtains were drawn, blocking the moonlight, and she used the light from her mobile phone's screen to find her way back to her bed.

The rectangular elm wood table had been moved aside; before, its wider side faced the window, but now its longer side did.

In the space where the table used to be, {window, Mayi Asuka, Xiaoquan Aonai, Ichiki Aoi, door}, the three of them slept in that order.

{Window, Kiyono Lin, Jiutiao Meijie, Dubian Che, wall by the door}, they lay in this order, on the low table where Jiutiao Meijie usually kept her snacks and on the couch's place.

The low table and couch had also been moved aside.

Jiutiao Meijie was willing to sleep head to head with Xiaoquan Aonai, which surprised Dubian Che, just as earlier when they bathed together.

"Staying over at school is a first for me. What about the teacher?" Ichiki Aoi turned to ask Xiaoquan Aonai.

"I stayed over once during high school," Xiaoquan Aonai replied softly, "because of an earthquake, the people in town took refuge at the high school I was attending."

"I've stayed over at school during middle school, because of heavy snow," Dubian Che added.

"It feels kind of exciting," Ichiki Aoi slightly wriggled in the blankets.

"It's time to sleep," Xiaoquan Aonai reminded.

The clubroom quieted down, and Dubian Che could clearly hear the different breathing sounds of the five people.

Some fell asleep quickly, while others took a long time, and even when everyone else was asleep, he still felt no drowsiness.

It must be around midnight, which was usually about his bedtime.

But after this Saturday and Sunday, it would be the long-planned play performance, and he intended to make the two reconcile during the show.

The more he imagined that day in his mind, the clearer his brain became, completely devoid of sleepiness.

Feeling that he would definitely not be able to sleep anytime soon, Dubian Che quietly lifted his blanket, planning to go to the skywalk and get some fresh air.

The night air felt much cleaner than during the day, though perhaps it was just psychological.

There weren't many stars visible in the sky, the brightest being the aviation lights of a plane, red and green, blinking intermittently.

Dubian Che rested his arms on the handrail of the walkway, gazing at the quiet yet lively Shinjuku District.

From the corridor near the club building, footsteps were heard. Dubian Che turned his head and saw a slender figure approaching.

Even in the darkness, the figure, whose poise was unspeakably beautiful, was undeniably Kiyono Lin without a need for a closer look.

She stepped out of the corridor, came outside, and the moonlight eagerly enveloped her, allowing Dubian Che to see her lovely face.

She wore a white T-shirt with a curled-up sleeping cat printed on it and short shorts like safety pants, revealing the world's most beautiful legs.

Her skin was snow-white, and under the moonlight, she seemed to glow softly.

"Did I wake you?" Dubian Che asked.

"Yes and no," Kiyono Lin elegantly folded her arms, standing beside him, gazing at the nighttime Shinjuku District, "It's my first time sleeping in a strange place, I have light sleep, and the slightest noise wakes me up."

"I remember you had this habit. I thought you were just not sleepy; turns out it's light sleep."

"What about you? Is it your first time sleeping with so many close female friends, are naughty thoughts keeping you awake?"

"Yeah, I thought of sneaking into your blanket, but Meiji was in the way, so it was a bit tricky."

"The moment you lifted the blanket, I was already awake."

"Does it matter whether I'm awake when you sneak into my blanket?" Dubian Che asked curiously.

"And after you sneak in?"

"I would gently lift your blanket, and see the round, snow-white shoulders—this isn't a joke or an exaggeration, it was as if I could truly smell the fragrance, just seeing that little bit, my body suddenly heated up."

"Am I not wearing clothes?"

"I lifted the blanket slightly higher to see your collarbone; my body temperature rose even higher, alarmingly so, at least forty degrees, maybe only thirty-nine since I haven't had a cold in a long while."

"Stop kidding around," Kiyono Lin sighed with an ear-pleasing voice.

"It was so hot, how could I stand it? So I put the blanket back down and came out for some air."

"You really like to tease," Kiyono Lin said with a faint smile in the moonlight.

Dubian Che turned his face and said to her, in the moonlight, her face even more ethereal, "I'm not teasing, I just want to talk to you about all sorts of things."

"Why?" Kiyono Lin turned her face, looking into his eyes.

Dubian Che didn't immediately answer.

His gaze shifted from Kiyono Lin to the night sky.

That airplane with blinking lights seemed to move very slowly through the night.

"We didn't see the fireworks festival this summer," he said.

"I was on a trip," Kiyono Lin responded.

"I wanted to see it with you, every year, and the festival too. I wanted to see you in a breezy yukata eating shaved ice, to go into any city's late-night restaurant that was still open in Nagoya or wherever else. What else? Right, mountain climbing."

"Mountain climbing in summer?"

"We climbed Takao Mountain last year," Dubian Che said with a laugh.

"I climbed a mountain this year too."

"Anyway," Dubian Che turned his head to look at Kiyono Lin, "I want to keep teasing you like I did tonight, to talk to you a lot, to do a lot of things with you."

In the clear night air, it was easy to speak one's heart.

One could open up involuntarily, to the person beside them, as though speaking to a distant twinkling star.

Gazing into her eyes, shimmering like the Milky Way, Dubian Che uttered his final sentence:

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