A Book Can't Be Judged By The Cover Chapter 120: A Familiar Face

"What are they doing?"

Unbeknownst to the two, Natsumi actually found out that Haji and gumi went out together for the last day of the school trip, but she didn’t think much of it since she knew they were friends, to begin with. While most of the students in Dai Yama High School had no idea how close Haji and gumi actually are, Natsumi could more or less already sense the chemistry between them. Even before they ’accidentally’ visited Haji at ho, she had already known that they were close.

After briefly letting everyone in their group know that she’d be separating from the group, she imdiately started tailing the group, assuming gumi’s usual job of stalking.

Since Natsumi was a step too late, she caught up to the two just when they finished eating by the crepe stand. Natsumi could plainly see that they slowly walked together, matching each other’s pace as they took their ti through the street lined up with stalls. They would stop by here and there, buying sothing to eat, and they’d get into their usual argunt about who would pay for the al and such. Soti after, Natsumi started questioning herself since she had been following the two for a while. There was no way what she was doing was morally right, and that plagued her mind as she indecisively continued following the two.

Pretty soon, it was ti for the end of the school trip and Natsumi wasted the entire day following Haji and gumi around. Nothing really happened in that ti fra so Natsumi felt a bit disappointed that she just wasted her ti. But then again, at least she was assured that Haji and gumi were just friends, nothing more.

...

The flickering of night lights marked the end of the school trip. As the noise in the city llowed down while the sky transitioned into a purplish hue for the night, Haji and gumi headed back to the et-up point, keeping in mind that they shouldn’t go together since others would start talking about it. Even after spending a huge chunk of ti together, Haji and gumi still felt oddly awkward around each other’s presence. That’s why they just had to separate before they got to the et-up point.

Natsumi took their separation as the signal to head back as well. Miraculously, she got back to the et-up point first before Haji and gumi even got there.

Then it was ti to head back to the Aoi Umi Dorm.

"Hey, what are you holding, gumi?" Kaori leaned on her shoulders and asked just when they were heading back inside Aoi Umi Dorm.

"Um, nothing?" gumi vaguely responded as she pocketed the item she was holding onto. The way Kaori saw it, it seed like gumi was really cherishing whatever she was holding, looking at it with her face turning a nice shade of red.

"Co on, let see." Kaori insisted, but gumi wasn’t having it.

Quickening her pace, gumi imdiately headed toward their group’s room. She didn’t even bother stealing a glance towards Haji who was responsible for giving her ’that’ item.

"And where did you go off to, lover boy?" Shoichi whispered, elbowing Haji by the side as he wrapped his other arm around his neck.

"What are you talking about?" Haji asked back with a flat tone, not even bothering to deny that he really went sowhere with soone.

"You don’t have to deny it, man, we saw you... we followed you a bit, you know." Shoichi said with a smirk as he continuously elbowed Haji’s side.

"Wow, that’s pretty proactive of you. But no, whatever you’re thinking you have the wrong idea." Haji muttered to himself.

"Oh really, do I really have the wrong idea?" A smile appeared on Shoichi’s face as he continued teasing Haji. Unbeknownst to Haji, Shoichi and the entire group (including Keiichi) actually followed him and Shoichi wasn’t joking.

All this ti, Haji assud that Shoichi was just kidding. Nevertheless, such wasn’t the case at all, and they really did witness Haji and gumi together, on a date, touring Tokyo together without anyone else near them. Well, there was soone else who was following the two aside from Shoichi and the others but they had no idea who she was. They concluded that she was probably soone from another class since she seed familiar (they were referring to Natsumi though)

"You were smiling and all, I felt like I was watching a rom-com." Shinji expressionlessly added as he walked on Haji’s free side. "You filming a movie back there at the crepe stall?"

"You guys, seriously?" Haji didn’t know what to say. Based on what Shinji said, he could tell that they really stalked him. "Can’t I have a little bit of privacy?"

Then there was Keiichi who simply walked up to Haji and patted him on the shoulder. Haji had no idea why he did it but sohow he felt a little bit insulted.

Just when Haji and his group were about to enter their room, a man ca out from it, wearing all-black, a mask, and a cap. The others stopped short when they noticed the man since he seed weirdly suspicious but as for Haji who didn’t see the man at all, he continued walking, accidentally bumping into him, shoulder to shoulder.

Bump!

"Sorry about that," Haji absent-mindedly muttered, still preoccupied with the thought of Shoichi and the others stalking him. As he opened the door to their room, Haji briefly caught a glimpse of the man as he hesitantly turned around. For a split second, the two of them had eye contact, and the suspicious man quickly averted his gaze from him.

For so reason, Haji felt like he had t the man before. It was a very disturbing familiar feeling that subconsciously sent chills up and down his spine. A mory then resurfaced in his mind— a mory that he so wanted to forget but couldn’t.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Haji scread as the man started running away. If his hunch was right, it was none other than the masked man he saw jump out of the truck when the accident happened last year.