Classroom of the Elite: Alter - Solace

Vol. 4.5: Chapter 7.1 - Mysterious Trouble

It was 6:00 PM on the 26th of August. My phone silently vibrated with strength. This kind of vibration could only be triggered by the school, much like the loud ringtone that they used for extremely important instructions.

I tapped the notification and read the message.

[Due to an emergency repair work, the Water Department will be temporarily disabling all water systems in the school dormitories.

Because of this, the school will be providing enough water supply for the students, giving out 2-5 liters of drinking water in the cafeteria. Please be warned that the cafeteria will be extremely crowded because of this. The convenience stores are also temporarily unavailable due to overlapping maintenance work, but Keyaki Mall would provide free drinking water. However, bottling the water and taking it back to the dormitories is prohibited.

Regarding sanitation, please be reminded that the current water supply inside the water tank would only allow for a single flush in each room.

We sincerely apologize to our dear students for this untimely inconvenience.]

It sounds like the repair work wouldn't finish until early morning. I turned the faucet to confirm said message, and as expected, nothing came out.

Personally, I won't have much trouble with this sudden development. The remaining tea in my fridge should be enough for a single cup. If I save it for dinner, one cup could get me through the day. Speaking of dinner, I just have to make something that doesn't require any water. My only real problem would be the toilet since we can only flush once.

"Alright, let's go with fried rice," I thought.

While I was prepping everything, my phone suddenly rang. This time, it was a call from someone. I washed my hands to answer the call, but the ringing already stopped before I had the chance to do it.

"Horikita?" I reflexively read the name of the caller.

If it was anything important, then it would be rude if I didn't call back. Contrary to my expectations, however, she didn't answer at all. After calling a bunch of times, I decided to give up. It was weird that she didn't answer back given that she was the one who called first.

I simply went back to making my dinner. The rice was all ready and finally added the egg. After that was settled, all I needed to do was put on some finishing touches to it.

*Ring*

And that's when my phone rang again. I turned off the burner to answer the call, but the ringing already stopped by the time I managed to grab my phone.

As expected, it was Horikita who called me again. This was starting to become a questionable situation. Did she start getting busy right after trying to make a call? Is that why she didn't answer my return calls? That shouldn't be the case given her personality. Horikita was the type of person who calls when she's calm. Even if something happened, ending the call twice in a row and not picking up afterward was strange, to say the least.

"Yeah, right..." I muttered.

I internally scoffed at myself for thinking too deeply into Horikita's calls. Before finishing up my cooking, I decided to send her a message instead.

(18:37) [Hey, looks like you tried calling me twice.]
(18:37) [Did something happen?]

I can see that the message was instantly received, and then it was labeled as read right after. However, after waiting for a bit, it didn't seem like Horikita was planning to give me a reply.

(18:38) [I'm cooking right now, so I might not respond right away.]
(18:38) [Just text me, and I'll get back to you.] 

The same thing happened-- Horikita did receive and read the message, but she didn't reply. Seeing this, I decided to go back to making my dinner.