Printouts

From the gap between his swollen eyes, Hajime could see the three debt collectors counting the fifteen thousand yen he had in his pockets.

'N-no, that's— ' Hajime screamed in his mind. It totally flew his mind that he had fifteen thousand yen with him.

"Would you look at that, the kid's got money." The third man laughed heartily. "I guess dinner's on me, you guys!"

"I'm getting a little bit hungry myself, this punching bag is tougher than it looks." The muscular man continued.

"All right, let's make a quick stop over at a nearby restaurant!" The third man continued, pointing towards the sky as if he had just done something incredible.

"And him?" Shelly asked, jerking a thumb towards Hajime who was on the verge of death.

"Leave him. Let this be a lesson to you, kid, pay up your debts or you'll end up in a worse state." The third man warned before turning around.

"He'll really die if we leave him." Shelly pursed her lips as an expression of concern filled her face.

Hajime couldn't tell whether she was genuinely concerned or was just showing off.

"He won't, look." The muscular man then pointed a few meters away where a policeman was doing his routine patrol around the park.

"Geh, let's get out of here," Shelly's reaction suddenly changed as the three of them left Hajime without saying another word.

Meanwhile, the policeman noticed the faint movements and the rustling of leaves by the edge of the park which prompted him to check the vicinity. "What's this?!" He exclaimed after seeing the beat-up Hajime tied to a tree.

.....

Three days later,

"Sasajima Hajime? Sasajima Hajime? Not here, huh," Akamine-sensei muttered the last three words under her breath since she didn't want her class to misunderstand her. It's not like she was partial towards Hajime, but rather she was worried. This was the first time Hajime missed out on classes for three consecutive days. This was the third time she had to mark Hajime absent on attendance.

For a moment, Akamine-sensei's gaze landed on Megumi. If anyone knows Hajime's whereabouts, it's Megumi, no one else. In response, however, Megumi just shook her head, implying that she doesn't know anything.

'I haven't seen him since then either. Hajime, what happened?' Megumi asked herself, crestfallen. She felt slightly guilty that she pushed him away three days ago. Had she known that that would be the probable last time they'll see each other, she wouldn't have done something so insensitive.

'All right, let's start our class, turn your textbooks to page— '

Try as she might, Akamine-sensei couldn't put the situation at the back of her mind. Based on what Megumi told her, she was aware that Hajime lives alone and his parents are probably residing in another city. 'If something happened to him... no, I shouldn't overthink too much. I'll visit him later.' Akamine-sensei shook her head as she tried to focus on the discussion.

One of the students, who was reading the textbook out loud as instructed, paused for a second because of Akamine-sensei's reaction of disapproval. 'Did I do something wrong?' He asked. The majority of students in Akamine-sensei's class asked the same question as well.

Realizing her mistake, Akamine-sensei quickly apologized. "I'm sorry, please continue reading." She repeated.

She wasn't the only one who couldn't focus in class. Even Megumi, the top student in class as well as the class representative, was spacing out as well. At one point, Akamine-sensei even had to call her three times to read the next paragraph.

.....

Lunchtime,

Natsumi was in high spirits. Yesterday, Hajime was nowhere to be found and she figured that she must've missed him. Right now, however, she headed straight to their classroom with another oversized bento on hand. She was planning to give it to Hajime as soon as lunch break began.

'Hajime always seemed hungry so I know he'll be pleased. Hehe~' Natsumi said to herself on her way to Hajime's classroom. She ran as if her legs had a spring on them, and there was a certain cheerfulness to her every step. It was obvious that she was more than excited to see Hajime again.

Her demeanor drastically changed, however, when she realized that Hajime was not in the classroom. 'What? He's not here? Why? Is he sick? What's going on?' Natsumi asked herself.

With a sigh, she stared at the bento and proceeded to go back to their classroom. It had been three days since she last saw Hajime, and right now, she was tempted to visit his place after class. If he was sick, then she'd take care of him, obviously.

"Kurumi Natsumi, was it?" Akamine-sensei who was passing by, smiled as she saw Natsumi walking away from her classroom. She glanced towards the bento, and then back at Natsumi. She giggled.

In return, Natsumi couldn't help but get flustered, realizing that Akamine-sensei saw through her. "Are you free this afternoon?"

Fidgeting, Natsumi averted her gaze from Akamine-sensei before she reluctantly nodded.

"Great! You're friends with Hajime, right? Can you hand these printouts to him?" Akamine-sensei continued, handing her the printouts.

"Eh, me?" Natsumi was surprised.

Usually, when someone is absent, the printouts would be given to another classmate so he or she would give them to the said classmate. And in the off-chance that no students are available, it is the homeroom teacher's job to do so.

"I am preoccupied with checking exam papers, and no one from my class is available at the moment. Think of it as doing Hajime a favor." Akamine-sensei pointed out before patting Natsumi on the shoulder. "I'm counting on y— oh, and you know where Hajime lives, right?"

"Ah, yes," Natsumi responded, perplexed as to why Akamine-sensei didn't assign the task to Megumi instead.

"I'll be off then... please check up on Hajime as well if you could. As you may as well know, he had been absent for three consecutive days. He might have the flu... or at least that's what my intuition tells me." Upon saying that, Akamine-sensei headed to her office, glad that she pushed off handing the printouts to someone else.

While walking away, Akamine-sensei heard her phone ring, as she got the phone from her pocket and read the notification message, she smiled. "Now I can work with ease." She muttered to herself.