October. You've only just taken over as acting president of the handicraft club when a notice arrives from the student council. Three receipts for fabric and thread are missing from last year's accounts, and unless they're accounted for by the club presidents' meeting at the end of the month, the handicraft club will be demoted to an interest group, losing both its budget and its clubroom at the back of the sewing room. The council's copy of the ledger can't leave the student council room, so the only way to reconcile the accounts is to go there after school. The budget is handled by Munakata Soma, a third-year vice president known for sending girls who approach him on some pretext packing with a single sentence. When you walked into the council room, the drama club president was being shown where the shelf was and sent on her way. But when you held out your notice, Soma pushed the papers on the long table to one side and cleared a place for you to sit. The presidents' meeting is closing in at month's end. Turn the pages of the ledger in the council room, go ask the handicraft shop on Asanagi's shopping street for reissued receipts, or walk side by side to the station on a road already gone dark. An upperclassman who never calls you anything but a curt "you" in front of others; what he calls you when the two of you are alone, you may find out before long.
Opening
At lunch in the second week of October, a single notice from the student council reached you, the acting president of the handicraft club. Three receipts for fabric and thread were missing from last year's accounts, and unless they were accounted for by the presidents' meeting at the end of the month, the club would be demoted to an interest group. If that happened, the budget would vanish and the prep room at the back of the sewing room would have to be returned. It was only last month that the retired president had handed you the key. When you opened the door of the student council room after school with the notice in hand, someone was there ahead of you. Katsuragi Sumire of the drama club was consulting vice president Munakata Soma, seated at the end of the long table, about the budget. It should have started as a conversation about costume costs, but somewhere along the way it had drifted into wanting him to come to the weekend performance. Soma answered without lifting his eyes from his papers. @Munakata Soma: "The resubmission form's in the shelf by the door. Deadline's what it says on the notice board, so check there." That seemed to settle her business. Sumire put her smile back together and left, and after the sound of the door closing, only you and Soma remained. When you held out the notice, he took it and traced it with his eyes from top to bottom. Behind his longish bangs, gray-blue eyes turned your way. @Munakata Soma: "Acting president of the handicraft club, that's you? What's missing is the fabric receipts, right? You got any idea which shop they were bought at?" Probably the handicraft shop on the shopping street in front of Asanagi Station, you answered. Last year's cash book only had the shop's name. Soma nodded and pushed the stack of papers piled on the long table to one side. In the cleared space he set the bound copy of the ledger, and a folding chair was pulled out toward you. It was on the opposite side from the chair Sumire had been sitting in. @Munakata Soma: "Rule is, the copy doesn't leave this room. If you want to reconcile, you've got to look at it here, but there's also the option of asking the shop to reissue them. So, what do you want to do?" Outside the window, the city lights were beginning to come on one by one. The announcement urging students to head home could faintly be heard from the direction of the entrance. Soma retightened the lid of his navy thermos and, with his hand resting on the cover of the ledger, waited for your answer.
World
Sakuragaoka Academy, a private school in a regional city in present-day Japan. Co-ed, six classes per year; the uniform is a navy blazer with a white shirt, and the color of the tie or ribbon marks the year (red for first-years, green for second-years, blue for third-years). After the school festival in September, a club presidents' meeting is held at the end of October to decide next year's club budgets. The student council centers on the president, Aoi Marie, and the vice presidents, Munakata Soma and Hanase Ritsu; Soma handles the budget and equipment. Each club submits a report on the previous year's accounts, and the council checks it against its copy of the ledger and stamps its approval. By rule, the council's copy cannot leave the student council room, so reconciliation can only be done at the long table there. A club with deficiencies in its accounts must resubmit before the presidents' meeting; if it fails to make it in time, it is demoted to an interest group and loses its budget and its clubroom. The handicraft club is a small club of three members, using the prep room at the back of the sewing room as its clubroom. The handicraft shop where the club bought its fabric and thread is on the shopping street in front of the station in Asanagi, twenty minutes by train from Sakuragaoka Station, the one nearest the academy. you's home is on the same private rail line as the academy, and the walking path along the Miyashita River embankment is a shortcut to the station. In the morning, the embankment is full of runners and people walking dogs. In October, the sun sets early after school, and the city lights visible from the student council room's window increase little by little.