Akikawa Yayoi noticed the abrupt change in Air Groove's expression. Her gaze followed—straight to the stack of applications in the corner of the desk—and her stomach dropped.
No…!
She reached out instinctively to snatch the papers away, but Air Groove moved faster—an arrow loosed from the bow. In one clean motion, she slid a single sheet free from the pile.
Akikawa could only press a hand to her forehead, her smile turning bitter.
A misstep… The one person the student council must not learn about, and of course it had to be the vice president who saw it.
Air Groove's eyes locked onto the "Trainer" field.
That familiar handwriting stabbed into her vision. She raised a hand, fingertips brushing lightly over the name—yet her slender fingers trembled uncontrollably.
Her teeth sank into her lower lip. Blue eyes shimmered like water.
So… you're back.
In the blur of her vision, a figure she had forced herself not to chase appeared again—sharp, clear, painfully vivid.
The one she had once wanted to stand beside, only to miss.
The one she had once tried to keep, only to watch walk away.
The one she had never—could never—forget.
"Wu You… It really is you…"
The words slipped out as a whisper, carrying a faint hitch she couldn't fully hide.
Seeing her like this, the chairwoman sighed.
Akikawa knew the history between Air Groove and Wu You. Back then, Wu You had carved marks into the hearts of far too many Umamusume—so deep that calling him a "white moonlight" in their memories would hardly be an exaggeration.
"Chairwoman… is it really him?" Air Groove looked up, voice strained tight with restraint. "Is it really him?"
"It is," Akikawa admitted at last. "It's Wu You himself."
At this point, there was no hiding it.
Still—there was someone else she desperately didn't want to find out yet: Rudolf Symbol.
Sooner or later, Wu You's return would spread through the entire academy. Like Air Groove, there were many Umamusume at Tracen who had been wounded by his departure.
For now, the waters were still—partly because he hadn't drawn widespread attention yet, partly because Chiemi Representative had unintentionally absorbed some of the spotlight.
But Akikawa could already see the future: once the news truly broke, the emotions those girls had forced down for two years would surge like a quake.
And yet…
Compared to Rudolf learning right now, Akikawa would almost rather announce Wu You's return to the entire school.
Other girls might act extreme, but their extremes were at least… predictable. Containable.
Rudolf Symbol was different.
Akikawa wouldn't be the least surprised if Rudolf, upon learning the truth, did something as outrageous as secretly abducting Wu You and locking him away in some basement.
So her resolve hardened: Rudolf must not know. Not yet.
Akikawa weighed her words carefully, trying to sound casual—almost negotiating.
"Proposal, Air Groove… could you refrain from telling Rudolf for the time being—"
"This absolutely cannot reach the president's ears."
"Huh?"
Akikawa and Air Groove spoke at nearly the same time.
Air Groove slammed the application down on the desk with a sharp crack.
"Chairwoman—this must be kept from her. If the president finds out, she will definitely do something out of line to Wu You."
After a brief stunned silence, relief flickered through Akikawa's eyes. She nodded rapidly.
"Understood. Then I'm counting on you, Air Groove."
After asking a few terse questions about Wu You's current status, Air Groove left the chairman's office.
When the door shut, Akikawa exhaled hard.
As expected—student council vice president, through and through.
She'd been genuinely afraid Air Groove would march straight to Rudolf and report it immediately.
But Air Groove had no selfishness, no hesitation—someone who understood the greater good.
…Right?
"Am I being selfish?"
Air Groove didn't return to the student council room. Instead, she turned into an empty restroom and locked herself inside.
She stared down at her hands.
Her fingertips were still shaking, as if her body remained trapped in the moment she saw that name—trapped in that overwhelming shock of something lost… returning.
Two years.
Who could truly understand what those two years had felt like?
Air Groove had always believed her regret—her guilt for failing to keep Wu You—ran deeper than that of most who had known him.
But none of that mattered now.
Wu You had come back.
He had returned to Tracen.
Returned to a place within her reach.
"Hah… hahahaha…"
She laughed—and as she laughed, she cried.
There had been countless nights she'd turned over in bed, thinking of him, tears spilling into the dark.
But this time was different.
These tears weren't bitter. They weren't grief.
They were joy—fierce, surging, almost violent in how it threatened to drown her.
Now she could be closer to Wu You again.
And yet, when Rudolf Symbol's image surfaced in her mind, something tangled into her joy—unease, conflict, a tightening at the chest.
Air Groove wasn't ignorant of what the president felt.
Longing. Obsession. And a guilt so heavy it could hollow a person out.
If throwing everything away would bring her face-to-face with Wu You again, Rudolf wouldn't hesitate for even a second.
She would consider it the best bargain in the world.
Just moments ago, when Air Groove first saw Wu You's name, her first impulse had been to tell Rudolf immediately.
But what had burst out of her mouth instead was—
"She absolutely cannot know."
Words once spoken were spilled water. You couldn't scoop them back up.
Even now, Air Groove couldn't fully explain why she had said it.
Guilt, embarrassment, confusion—emotions churned and collided inside her until she could barely breathe.
And yet—
among all of it, there was not a shred of regret.
Air Groove took a slow breath. With a crisp motion, she swept the loose strands of hair from her forehead back behind her ear.
She had once abandoned her chance at happiness.
This time, even if it meant being unfair—even if it meant being ugly—
she would not let go.
"Sorry… President…"
-------
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