: Nuclear weapons are no longer permitted!

Even after the office door closed, a faint, indescribable odor lingered in the hallway—

Although the mop had been stuffed back into the sanitation corner, its "soul" seemed to linger in the fourth-grade corridor, unwilling to dissipate for a long time.

Two homeroom teachers were sitting in the office. Mr. Tanaka, the teacher of Class 1, Grade 4, was a tall, thin man in his forties, wearing silver-rimmed glasses, and his expression was always somewhere between "very sleepy" and "very annoyed".

Ms. Sasaki, the teacher of Class 2, Grade 4, is a young female teacher who has recently graduated. She has a round face and looks more like a student than the students themselves. At this moment, she is nervously looking back and forth between the three girls in her class and the boy opposite her with blood on his lips.

Xia Mo stood next to the desk. The wound on the corner of her mouth had been stopped bleeding, but the bruise on her left cheekbone looked shocking.

Standing next to him was Asuka, and next to Asuka stood Sato, Tanaka, Yamamoto, and Watanabe—

Watanabe's expression was still not good, as if he had just ridden ten roller coasters. His eyes kept darting around to a corner of the office, as if a terrifying mop was crouching there.

"Who wants to speak first?" Mr. Tanaka's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a lot of weight in the quiet office.

There was a three-second silence.

"Teacher, it's our fault."

It was Sato who spoke.

Mr. Tanaka raised an eyebrow, clearly somewhat surprised.

Sasaki-sensei's eyes widened in disbelief, as if she had witnessed something incredible—

She knew Sato Misaki in her class all too well. This girl had been the class bully since first grade and had never admitted to any mistakes.

Sato lowered his head, his voice barely audible, "We... said some bad things to Saito-kun in the hallway. Then Watanabe-kun hit Natsume-kun."

Watanabe's face twitched.

He opened his mouth, as if he wanted to refute something, but his gaze swept over the corner of the office—wait, there's a mop in the corner too?

His expression twisted again, and in the end he just gave a muffled "hmm".

"They called Saito-san..." Xia Mo began, her voice not loud, "saying she only looks good with makeup, and that she has a problem with her smile lines."

Feiniao twisted her fingers together, lowered her head, and remained silent.

Ms. Sasaki's face darkened. She looked at the three girls in her class, her tone much harsher than before: "Did you say those things?"

Tanaka's eyes reddened, and Yamamoto began to sob softly. Sato bit his lip, neither denying nor admitting, but his silence itself was an answer.

"And also," Mr. Tanaka adjusted his glasses, his gaze falling on Watanabe, "did you hit someone?"

Watanabe shrank back: "...He only hit me twice."

"Two times?" Xia Mo touched the corner of her mouth. "Are you not very good at math?"

Ms. Tanaka glared at him, and Xia Mo shut her mouth.

The office was quiet for a while, with only Yamamoto's intermittent sobs and the ticking of the clock on the wall.

Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Sasaki exchanged a glance, then huddled together and whispered a few words to each other.

Teacher Sasaki spoke first: "Regardless of the cause of today's incident, resorting to violence is wrong. Watanabe, go back and write a self-criticism, and hand it in to me next Monday."

Watanabe's lips moved, but in the end he could only manage to utter a single "Yes."

"Sato, Tanaka, Yamamoto," Mr. Sasaki's tone softened somewhat, but he was still very serious, "Whatever your purpose was in saying those things to Saito, you hurt her feelings. You should apologize to Saito."

The three girls bowed their heads and bowed in unison towards the direction of the bird, their voices rising in unison: "I'm sorry."

The bird looked at them, remained silent for a few seconds, and then nodded gently.

Ms. Tanaka turned to Natsume, her expression becoming subtle.

He looked at the wound on Xia Mo's lip and the bruises on his face, then at the missing button on his school uniform, and his chin twitched slightly—as if he was trying to suppress a laugh.

"Late summer."

"exist."

"You were the victim in being hit, and I understand your situation at the time." Mr. Tanaka paused, and his gaze behind his glasses suddenly became sharp.

"But—attacking your classmate with a mop is extremely dangerous. What if the mop handle hits someone? What if something from the mop gets into their eyes? Have you thought about the consequences?"

Xia Mo lowered her head: "...I've thought about it."

"Have you thought about it?"

"I thought about it for a moment." His voice was a little softer.

Ms. Tanaka took a deep breath and continued with an expression that said, "I really want to laugh, but I have to be serious."

"No matter how many times you think about it—this must never happen again. If a similar situation occurs again, what you should do is immediately report it to the teacher, not go to the toilet to get a mop. Do you understand?"

Xia Mo nodded obediently: "I understand."

"And that mop—" Tanaka-sensei finally couldn't help but twitch her lips, "that mop... never mind, I'm retiring it."

The atmosphere in the office suddenly became subtle. Xia Mo's shoulders trembled slightly, Asuka lowered her head but her ears turned red, Sato's lips twitched, and Watanabe completely broke down and covered her face.

"...Pfft." Yamamoto couldn't hold back and let out a small, interrupted laugh.

Sasaki-sensei cleared his throat, trying to steer the situation back on track: "Well, then, let's shake hands and make peace."

A handshake. Peace is reached.

Summer and Watanabe exchanged a glance.

Watanabe's eyes were filled with "I don't want to get close to you." Natsume's eyes were filled with "Do you think I want to get close to you?"

Like two magnets with the same poles facing each other, the two people moved together extremely slowly and reluctantly, under the watchful eyes of everyone in the office.

Watanabe reached out his hand.

Even at the end of summer, a hand is reached out.

He clasped his hands together, shook them for half a second, then released them simultaneously, put his hands behind his back, and rubbed them vigorously on his pants.

Mr. Tanaka nodded in satisfaction, though he didn't know what he was satisfied with.

"Alright, everyone go back to the classroom and pack your bags. The school bell has already rung."

Several people filed out of the office.

Sato walked in front, paused for a moment when he passed Asuka, his lips moved, but he didn't say anything in the end, and walked away quickly with his head down.

Tanaka and Yamamoto followed behind, like two little animals with their tails between their legs.

Watanabe walked at the back, keeping a distance of about three meters from Natsume.

This distance was roughly the safe distance he had repeatedly calculated in his mind—outside the effective attack range of the mop.