The afternoon sun was as intense as ever, beaming down on the withered grass by the school’s open area. Unsurprisingly, there were no people outside the school except for the occasional gardener who tried to save the grass by turning on the sprinkler. Still, that didn’t change the arid weather that enveloped the entire school, turning it into an open furnace wherein everything slowly dehydrated.
Every classroom had wall fans, but that didn’t help drive out the heat of the sumr weather. Quite frankly, all it did was turn the classrooms into an even hotter environnt.
"And that’s it for class," Eagerly waving her hand towards her face, Akamine-sensei dismissed the class, bearing the last few seconds of class before she could return to her airconditioned office.
"Stand up. Bow. Thank you so much, Akamine-sensei." gumi, as the class representative of their class, led her classmates to see their horoom teacher out. Akamine-sensei bowed towards them before exiting the classroom— she only heard half of their greeting.
Indistinct conversation erupted in the classroom when Akamine-sensei exited, most of them about how hot the weather was and generic stuff that high schoolers talk about. One of these cliched and most expected talks was about the school trip which was conveniently happening tomorrow. A majority started talking about what they’d bring to the two-days-one-night trip, or what they’d buy. In any case, there was a great buzz in the room.
An expression of indifference was clearly written on Haji’s face as he leaned in and absent-mindedly stared out of the window. Even though he took it upon himself to ditch the school trip altogether since he didn’t have any money, he had no choice but to go.
It was only yesterday when he heard about the assignnt. Well, he was kind of hoping that he would be excused from his bodyguarding duties during the entire trip so he could take a day off from work. But rather, he was specifically told by his boss, gumi’s dad, to be responsible for gumi. That’s right, those were his exact words. He didn’t just tell him to take care of gumi for him, or maybe look after her... He explicitly made it clear that he was responsible for gumi during the entire trip.
Of course, all your expenses will be paid for, and you’d get to have unlimited funds. In return, just promise that nothing will happen to my daughter, all right?— Those were the last instructions he gave Haji before he dismissed him from his office. He still vividly rembered the condescending gaze the secretary gave him as she led him out.
’I guess we’re both being worked to the bone, huh,’ Haji said to himself. ’Still, it feels a bit weird to get such a decent job with good pay at that. Of course, there will be tis wherein I have to go out of my comfort zone. That’s what my job calls for and I have to deliver... otherwise, I’ll miss this chance of earning money.’
It had been three weeks since he had ’the talk’ with his employer about the construction company he worked with. His employer, Takai Daichi of nlo Constructions, had mixed feelings about his resignation. For one, he was an efficient worker and he had the vitality of a young man. Those two alone are enough for him to get a fixed position however... he was still young, eighteen years old. While he is just above the minimum age requirent for working in hazardous occupations, it still is not acceptable since construction work is the subject here. Needless to say, Takai Daichi was also relieved when Haji resigned, not because he was a bad employee, but because having him as an employee is a risk to his business.
Currently, Haji had only one job left, his bodyguarding duties with gumi. Because of that, he had to take this school trip seriously, or else he’d be fired from his job. Mr. Kikuchi’s benevolence was great enough as it is, but in order to do that justice, he had to do an exceedingly good job at his, well, job.
’Tomorrow’s the real deal, huh,’ Haji said to himself. But at least, he’d get to experience being rich for once. He had unlimited money, and while he’s not planning to spend more than what he needed, at least he will have more than enough money. ’gumi’s dad sure knows what he’s doing.’
"What are you smiling around for, huh?" One of Haji’s classmates approached him, or rather, there were three of them. But only the first one spoke while the others were crouched right behind him.
"Kanai Kichiro." Honestly, Haji didn’t know how to respond to his comnt so he just called him by the na.
Kanai Kichiro is the blond hair of the bunch but that was not his natural hair color despite him forcefully admitting to everyone that it, in fact, is. While his behavior should have sent him ho, he wasn’t since he had good grades and good standing in school. Additionally, he was handso, and that was probably one of the deciding factors as to why he wasn’t told to dye his hair back to black. (These were just Haji’s assumptions so most of them were inaccurate.)
The second person who ekly stood behind Kanai Kichiro was Okamoto Shoichi. His family was well-off since both of his parents are businessn. In front of other students, he would’ve flaunted his power and money without reprieve but in front of Haji, he just couldn’t do it.
That’s because Haji beat him up once after he picked a fight with him. He was completely defeated and since then he learned not to ss with Haji ever again. It should be ntioned that Okamoto Shoichi was strong in the sense that he trained in martial arts and boxing. He was physically fit and his firm muscles were proof of that... but Haji just had more experience when it cos to streetfights so there was no way he’d lose against soone as prim and proper as Shoichi.
As for the third person, Mita Shinji, the reason why he was behind Kichiro was not that he was afraid of Haji. Unlike the brown-haired Shoichi, Shinji just didn’t care. He knew of Haji’s reputation and he could tell that his group mates hated him... but he couldn’t care less. The reason why he accompanied the three was that he had a reason— simple as that.
"Listen, you can do whatever you want during the school trip but don’t you go picking fights with the city boys over there, you hear?" Koichi stressed out, before putting the paper he was holding down in front of Haji.
"What is this?" Haji perplexedly asked.
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