Chapter 2: The Sinking Numbers

"Damn it, keep calm. I'm in public." Suzuki said to himself as he raged on in his head. "Oh no, I'm going broke. My investments are slowly sinking to the bottom of the investor's ocean." He cried inside of his head.

Ding!

A notification came through his cell phone once again. "A message? From whom?" He questioned himself as his hand began sweating. Then, opening his phone slowly, he flipped and tapped his messages app. Opening up the news, it was from an unknown number asking him for a favor.

[Hello, Suzuki. Its professor Tora. I got your cell phone number through our records, I'm sorry to bother you, but I have a favor for you to ask. Can you please come in early tomorrow for class? Maybe around an hour earlier than the rest?]

Suzuki read the message nervously. He then built the courage to reply to the teacher.

Tap! Tap!

[Mmm, will do.]

That was all he typed in the text bar, nervous he looked away and sent the message. He took a deep breath and took a sip of his coffee, and questioned why his teacher wanted him in so early. "What favor? and why me?" Unable to come to an answer, he looked back down his computer. "What the hell? Have the numbers dropped even further? I'm going broke ." He cried out to himself as he spat coffee out his mouth. Then, cleaning up his mess, he felt embarrassed and took off home.

"Eh, what a day. I'm exhausted from all the interactions I had." He said to himself as he walked towards his apartments. His daily routine had nothing going on for him. It is the same as usual, wake up, go to school, eat, come back home, maybe go to work, eat, finish homework, study some ideas for his tech company, coffee at home or StarCafe, play video games, watch anime, sleep, and repeat. Suzuki is this way due to the treatment his foster families dealt him. He was constantly picked on and beaten by his foster families at two foster homes and treated as an object. Thrown into dark rooms, Suzuki never saw the light till school days. Then, expected to never speak to anyone, he would return home, eat, study, and sleep. If not, then both homes he fostered within would beat him up until he couldn't move, utter a word, or get knocked out cold.

But thankfully, due to a successful investigation that took three years to crack the first and second families, Suzuki was freed but thrown back into the orphanage until the age of 18, where he was released with a considerable sum of money to support himself. Though he experienced all of this, Suzuki remained humble and kind. Suzuki is sweet, loving, and quiet. He is good-looking, with his long black hair and dark green eyes. His skinny built and long legs attracted many girls. So many have had fair shares in crushing on him, but he is always too dense to notice anything.

Click!

He slowly opened his front door and announced, "I'm home." To an empty apartment. He looked down to take off his shoes and headed straight for his bed, "eh, I'm going to sleep." So he said to himself as he laid straight onto his stomach, exhausted he fell asleep within minutes.

Suzuki rushed out of bed early and started his morning routine in the morning. Heading towards his school, he had a few eyes set him by some girls, "oh look, it's that tall guy."

"The weird one, huh?"

"Yeah, he can't even speak straight."

"What a loss. He sure is attractive."

As the voices kept pointing their opinions and thoughts at him, he tilted his head and hid his face into his hoodie. Then, he started walking faster, and with that, he had enough human interactions for the day.

He slowly slid the door to his class open, only to find his teacher waiting patiently. "Hey, welcome. Glad you made it on time." Said the teacher with excitement. "Hmm." The only reply came out of his mouth, and it almost sounded like he scoffed at his teacher. "Okay, anyway, I called you here because I need your help to grade some papers. Down to do it with me?" Tora tried to force a repose from Suzuki, but he again responded with "hmm."