A Book Can't Be Judged By The Cover Chapter 72: Printouts

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

’N-no, that’s— ’ Haji scread 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 , 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 sothing incredible.

"And him?" Shelly asked, jerking a thumb towards Haji 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.

Haji couldn’t tell whether she was genuinely concerned or was just showing off.

"He won’t, look." The muscular man then pointed a few ters 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 Haji without saying another word.

anwhile, the policeman noticed the faint movents and the rustling of leaves by the edge of the park which prompted him to check the vicinity. "What’s this?!" He exclaid after seeing the beat-up Haji tied to a tree.

.....

Three days later,

"Sasajima Haji? Sasajima Haji? 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 Haji, but rather she was worried. This was the first ti Haji missed out on classes for three consecutive days. This was the third ti she had to mark Haji absent on attendance.

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

’I haven’t seen him since then either. Haji, what happened?’ gumi 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 ti they’ll see each other, she wouldn’t have done sothing 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 gumi told her, she was aware that Haji lives alone and his parents are probably residing in another city. ’If sothing 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 sothing wrong?’ He asked. The majority of students in Akamine-sensei’s class asked the sa 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 gumi, 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 tis to read the next paragraph.

.....

Lunchti,

Natsumi was in high spirits. Yesterday, Haji 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 Haji as soon as lunch break began.

’Haji always seed hungry so I know he’ll be pleased. Hehe~’ Natsumi said to herself on her way to Haji’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 Haji again.

Her deanor drastically changed, however, when she realized that Haji 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 Haji, 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 Haji, right? Can you hand these printouts to him?" Akamine-sensei continued, handing her the printouts.

"Eh, ?" Natsumi was surprised.

Usually, when soone 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 horoom teacher’s job to do so.

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

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

"I’ll be off then... please check up on Haji 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 ." Upon saying that, Akamine-sensei headed to her office, glad that she pushed off handing the printouts to soone else.

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