A Book Can't Be Judged By The Cover Chapter 91: One Job

"Oi, wait!" Kichiro called out, surprised at Haji’s sudden outburst before he fled out of the room. He didn’t specify where he was going and that bothered Kichiro a bit. He was the leader of the bunch, after all, and the responsibility of keeping everyone in check falls heavily on his shoulders.

"He’s probably going to take a huge dump. Let him be," Shoichi brushed it off as they started another round of card gas. Apparently, Shinji was also interested in playing cards so he joined the next round without speaking another word.

It was still early in the afternoon so the orange glow in the surroundings still gave Haji the reassurance that no trouble had happened to gumi and whoever was in her group. Besides, gumi wasn’t your typical rich girl who doesn’t know how to take care of herself without her butler. As ntioned before, she wasn’t born a rich girl, but rather, her parents just beca successful later in life and that affected her social standing more than anything else.

So Haji wasn’t worried about gumi making poor decisions or accidentally offending soone while she was outside. What he’s worried about the most was gumi’s vulnerability as soone wealthy. Anyone could basically target her at any given mont and that possibility will only increase the longer she was outside.

The hottest part of the afternoon was about to ensue but Haji didn’t bother going back to the room to get his hoodie. Instead, he rushed out of Aoi Umi Dormitory with just his shirt, shorts, and slippers. He impulsively covered his face from the blazing heat of the sun that bore down on Tokyo and managed to pick up his pace into a sprint. Hot and arid heat blowing against his face, Haji went farther from the neighborhood and deeper into the streets of Tokyo.

"Ah, right," Haji said to himself, picking up his phone and dialing Franz’s number. Up until now, it’s still only Franz’s number which was saved on his phone so he didn’t have that much of an option.

A few seconds later, Haji’s phone began to ring. Instead of just replying with a ssage, Franz went out of his way to call him, which was rather unusual considering that he never called Haji in the past.

"Hello? Young sir?" Franz spoke on the other side of the line with a soothing voice. The faint sound of the car’s engine could be heard since he was driving the limousine.

"Franz-san?" Haji asked as he balked, stopping right by the center of the sidewalk which surprised a couple of passersby who were around him.

"You don’t have any idea where the young miss is right now?" Franz asked straightforwardly before Haji could ask his question.

This in turn gave Haji a sense of apprehensiveness since Franz didn’t answer the question in his ssage. And instead, he was confirming whether Haji was aware of the young miss’s location at that very mont.

As for Franz, the first thing that ca to his mind when he received the ssage was the fact that Haji couldn’t believe where gumi went. But now, after hearing Haji’s bated breaths through the phone, he confird that Haji actually didn’t know the young miss’s whereabouts. Either he lost her, or he simply didn’t follow her in the first place.

anwhile, Haji was wondering why Franz asked the question back. Of course, he didn’t know. If he did, then he wouldn’t have asked— or so that’s what he thought as if it was obvious. But after a couple of seconds, Haji’s face paled as he realized that Franz ant between the lines of what he said.

’You didn’t do your job properly and now you’re asking where she is?’— This was what Haji thought Franz ant.

"AH! I’m really sorry, Franz-san, I wasn’t expecting their group to go sowhere so I didn’t follow them. I’m a failure as a bodyguard." Haji bowed a perfect ninety-degree bow in the middle of the crowd while he apologized with earnestness.

"No, um," Franz wanted to say that he didn’t an anything when he asked the question.

After all, Franz was currently on his way back. He was specifically instructed by Mr. Kikuchi to leave gumi in Haji’s care and to take a few days off while they were on the school trip. The excitent of a few days off got the better of Franz that he forgot to tell Haji that he’d be looking after the young miss without his assistance.

In essence, both of them were at fault here, so Franz couldn’t possibly bla Haji even though he made a wrong move.

"Just... make up a reason and ask your horoom teacher about it. I’m sure she’ll give you her location without being suspicious. Tell her that you need to give her sothing, or sothing along those lines." Franz said. "I’m on my way back, so I can’t be of assistance right now. I apologize Haji, It slipped past my mind to tell you that I won’t be there. Please locate the young miss as soon as possible and ssage as soon as possible."

"I promise that this won’t reach her father. But make sure you act fast."

"Right!" Haji snapped back into a straight line after bowing down. He didn’t ask Franz any additional questions.

Click!

Franz hanging up was the signal that prompted Haji to retrace his footsteps back to Aoi Umi Dormitory. By now, five minutes had already passed. Haji put overthinking at the back of his mind. For now, his goal was to locate Akamine-sensei and ask her if she knew where gumi’s group went for that afternoon. He still had no idea what reason to tell sensei but he was confident he could co up with a valid one on the spot. That’s why he didn’t think that much about it. Besides, there were already a couple of things in his mind so he had no luxury to think of anything else.

His job was on the line here, and not only that, his reputation is as well.

Haji took a hard left, confident that he wouldn’t bump into anyone.

"Ouch!"

Just his luck, there was soone by the corner and he squarely bumped into her, falling right on top of her as he winced.