9 A Reunion

"Hajime, Hajime!" Akamine-sensei repeated. "Are you listening? Hajime?"

Snapping back to reality, Hajime bit his lips, trying to suppress the ever-growing emotions deep within. He didn't reply though, instead, he just bowed and slung his bag on his shoulder. The first thing that Akamine-sensei noticed wasn't the fact that Hajime just opened the door and was about to leave, but the fact that his gaze seemed distant, almost ethereal. She was speechless, instantly forgetting that she just asked Hajime about his parents.

When she heard the door shut, she flinched, realizing that Hajime just left. "Did something happen to his parents? No, maybe he just doesn't get along with them. Figures, he's had a bad record ever since, maybe his parents are disappointed." Akamine-sensei told herself, shaking her head before pulling out a bunch of papers from her desk drawer. She still had unfinished papers to check before she clocks out for the day.

.....

A few minutes ago,

'As usual, he's been called back to the teacher's office. How many days has it been, huh? Did he want to get called every day until graduation comes? Wait— maybe he's interested in sensei so he's purposefully causing trouble? No, that shouldn't be the case. Hajime's too stupid to be that cunning.' Megumi shook her head, her thoughts running rampant once again.

If Hajime could just hear Megumi's thoughts, he would've singled her out as a weird person.

With a slight crouch, Megumi followed Hajime to the teacher's office. She quickly improved in her tailing skills, taking quiet steps and following him from a greater distance. Once Hajime entered Akamine-sensei's office, she sneakily went towards the door and slightly opened it. To her relief, Akamine-sensei didn't notice the door moving, nor did she notice it when it was already slightly ajar.

Megumi didn't have a hard time eavesdropping after that. She was quite proud of herself, but then again, she wondered why she had to go that far just to listen in on their conversation. "Wait, what if I get in trouble because of this?"

"You mean, you can't tell me about your construction work?"

"H-how did you... how did you know?"

"Now, why were you working as a construction worker instead of going to school and attending your morning classes?"

"T-that... I can't tell you sensei."

'He's working instead of attending school? Does he need money that much? Why would he do that?' Megumi asked herself, puzzled. She couldn't quite wrap her finger around what Hajime was doing. And since he doesn't fully explain his actions to their homeroom teacher, Megumi was forced to fill in the blanks but even then there was only so much she could assume based on what Hajime was saying.

When the topic of his parents came up, Megumi didn't expect Hajime to just walk away like that. In an instant, she stood up and ran as fast as she could in the hallway, hoping that Hajime wouldn't notice her once he got out.

'Strange, didn't I close the door on the way in?' Hajime wondered.

Click!

.....

Hajime tried so hard to avoid them by going through the school grounds and coming out of the main entrance, but who would've thought that he would run into them right then and there.

Right when Hajime was having a rough day, and his emotions were a bit unstable, they just had to show up. Hajime didn't even notice them since his guard was down and before he knew it, a bat hit him squarely on the back, then at his stomach. He wheezed in pain as saliva escaped his mouth. Then he was forced to kneel, his breathing becoming ragged as the pain shot to his head.

"Yo, we meet again." There was a group of slightly older young men and the one nearest to Hajime spoke. He wore a scarf on his head, causing his black hair to spike up. There was a horseshoe ring on his nose, and his left eyebrow was cut in the middle. He totally nailed the delinquent look, but Hajime was only weirded out because of it.

From the looks of it, they look like college students, based on their uniforms.

"Ah, you're the guy I beat up when you were trying to harass some schoolmates of mine, right?" Hajime confirmed. He could still vividly remember the guy two months ago, he and his friend were trying to hit on two of his schoolmates and he decided to step in. Giving them both a broken nose and breaking the guy's rib. He didn't bother asking what the names of his schoolmates were, he just decided to step in since they looked really displeased.

"Where's your friend? Looks like he's not with you. And I see you brought a few of your subordinates with you? How much is he paying you? Or is he bullying all of you as well? Man, what a pathetic life you guys lead." Hajime stood up, putting up false bravado as if his back and his stomach didn't hurt at all. In fact, it was excruciatingly painful but he decided to bear with it.

"Shut up, we have an old grudge to settle, right? These men would be more than enough, right?" The guy said, swinging his bat back and forth as if to intimidate Hajime even further.

Click!

'Those clicking sounds again?' Hajime asked, scratching his head. Right now, he had more problems on his plate aside from the anonymous clicking sounds he heard. He ignored them. "Look, I'm not really in the mood right now, so if you could scoot off? Please? I don't want to get involved with you guys."

The guy had no intention of backing down even though Hajime specifically told him that he was not in the mood. Before Hajime could react, the guy brought down the bat toward his head. Although Hajime was as defenseless as a newborn mouse, the guy still hit him on the head with full force.

Bam!

Then everything went black. Hajime could've sworn he heard a gasp coming from somewhere, though, and something shiny caught the corner of his eyes before he lost consciousness.

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