The heavy, oppressive silence of the classroom was finally shattered by the long, high-pitched ring of the final bell.
For the students of Shunji High, it was the sound of a prisoner's shackles being struck off.
As the crowd poured out of the main building and toward the school gates, the air was immediately shrouded with a mixture of hysterical relief and the hushed, anxious post-mortem of tricky algebra questions.
"EXAM DAY IS OVER!" Renji and Sakai screamed in unison the moment their feet hit the pavement outside the gates.
They threw their arms into the air, looking like two men who had just survived a shipwreck.
"Let's party at Seijirou's house! I want meat! I want games! I want to forget that the quadratic formula exists!" Yukina cheered, her usual sharp energy returning now that she wasn't forced to stare at a test paper.
"Ooooh." Emi cheered, although with her monotone voice, it sounded as if she was forced to do it after tiring herself out.
