Absent Student | KomaHina

Chapter 2

At first, the phenomenon of the desk next to me being empty didn't matter much to me. Yes, I considered it as intriguing from the very beginning, but.. it was actually after two weeks of me attending this school when my interest towards the case started getting out of my control.

In the meantime, I got along quite well with the people from my class so I decided to use the fact in order to get as much information about 'the absent classmate' as I only could.. yeah. I was a dick and I was well aware of it. It was funny how I was risking my freshly made friendships with them for the sake of feeding my curiosity.

The first thing that felt off was.. the fact of no one actually mentioning the absent student in any conversation. ANY at all. Normally you would mention someone's absence once or twice (at least girls should've been talking about this and being all-worried). I thought it was disturbing—especially if someone really used to be sitting at that desk—that everyone acted as if the absent student has never existed in the first place.

So.. Trying to overhear any information about the person was useless. I decided to risk and ask my classmates directly.

In the worst scenario.. they will just stop liking me, right?

That didn't matter to me at all, to be honest. The absent student's mystery seemed far more thrilling and exciting than getting along with my classmates. They were indeed very nice, but.. something inside me was craving for a thrill that would shake my boring life. It's not like I forgot about my wish from two weeks ago to be a normal kid and stuff, however, I just had to uncover that mystery. Or more like.. I wanted to be uncovering it. I didn't just want to know the truth. It was more like if.. I wanted this mystery to entertain me. Yes.. I think I wanted at first to play a role of a detective of some sorts as childish as it sounds.

I firstly asked Mioda Ibuki about this matter. She seemed like the most cheerful person in the whole class.. so what could possibly go wrong? If I stepped on some kind of a border I could always laugh everything off and turn into a joke or something.

"Ibuki, can I ask you a question..?" I smiled as nicely as I only could. I've heard somewhere that smiling is the key in communicating with others. That would mean.. that I could get more information from them, right?

"Sure!" she jumped a bit. She for sure looked excited. "Ibuki loves questions!!" she grinned. "Do you want to ask me about my favourite band, singer, playlist, song, instrument, or maybe you want to ask Ibuki out on some con- mmnhh." I shut her with my hand. She for sure can talk a lot.

"No. Any of those." I tried to not seem annoyed nor pissed off. After all, I was the one who approached her. "I was just wondering.. you know... about this empty desk right there.." I took my hand away from her mouth and pointed at it. "Is like.. anyone sitting there or something?" I tried to sound uninterested. I was well aware of that there must've been a good reason to why no one mentioned this person.

Ibuki's face darkened slightly. "Why are you asking?" her voice was quite cold. It was a shock to see a bright person of her kind acting in that way, not mentioning the chills I got from her sudden change of expression and tone of voice. "Ahh, for no particular reason, really~" I faked a careless smile. "Just, y'know.. I'm feeling lonely. Don't you think it's damn unfair that I have a one deskmate less? Haha." it was an obvious lie. But she didn't question it, furthermore, my statement made her concerned about my well-being. "OHH! Ibuki can spend more time with you then..!" she laughed cheerfully, while taking a step closer to me, but I instinctually distanced myself from her shaking my hands energetically. "No, no.. there's no need to, though, I appreciate your intentions." oh my God, please no. I don't like people clinging to me. Especially not people of her likes. It wasn't like I didn't like her in particular, but she really wasn't my type. "As you wish, Hinata-chan~" I cringed. God. I smiled back at her sucking up my pride.