"...okay, so why are you telling me this?" YES YES YESSSSSSSSSSSS

"Just, you know, wanted to give you a heads up and tell you to be careful? People spread awful rumours, and they might..."

...ah.

"They might?"

"...start saying you're gay, too. If you hang out with him too much."

"Might they. Gosh. Well, I wouldn't want people to have the wrong impression about me, would I?"

She nods. "Right! That's why I thought I ought to tell you."

"Well, thank you, that's very useful information to know. Yamada-san, was it?"

"Yeah. But, um, you can just call me Ichino," she says, blushing a bit. "If you want."

"Ichino-san, let me give you something in exchange for this bit of information. It's a little bit of advice.

"You shouldn't make assumptions about other people, especially people you've just met."

"...uh."

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to my next class, which apparently has at least one but possibly multiple gay boys in it. It was nice to chat!"

...bwuh?

But Suwan-san is not in that next class.

If Yutaka asks the translation club people Haru usually sits with at lunch, they say he fell down the stairs "again" and has probably already been taken to the hospital.

...he fell down the stairs badly enough to be taken to a hospital??? Is he okay??????

"Oh, he's always been fine before. He owes me money now though, he was betting it'd be the ice next."

"He... falls down the stairs and slips on ice badly enough to need to go to the hospital often enough that it's unremarkable?"

"He doesn't always need the hospital. But yeah, he falls down a lot."

"Yeah that does sound like a lot. Uh. Alright. Thank you for letting me know, I guess?" Damnit, he kicked his own closet's door wide open and for what?

Well, that's alright. He's got other options. And maybe once it's sufficiently out in the open there'll be the closeted guys who want to do some experimentation on the DL texting him quietly, those are always fun.

"Iwasaki! Over here!"

Who—oh, Fujioka from the journalism club. He walks over to his table where a couple of other kids from the club with his tray and takes a seat. "Hello, senpai."

"Hey."

"Hi."

"How's it going?"

"Good, good, and you?"

"Doing alright, too. The same can't be said about this guy I know, though, who apparently fell down the stairs badly enough to need to go to the hospital? And apparently that happens to him like all the time?"