Absent Student | KomaHina

Chapter 9

"Ehh.. so boring." I yawned. It still was Monday and what's more just my first class—homeroom. I'd sell my soul to be able to skip all the days and finally reach the Friday. Through those past three weeks Friday was a day I was really looking forward to. Not because it meant the end of classes for time being but rather because I could see him. His face. His smile. Talk with him.. I just fucking needed him and since I'd started meeting him on daily basics, I felt ecstasy—it often could be seen as suspicious smile printed on my face—overflowing from me on that day, before we would meet.

"...ata-san. Hinata-san!" I heard our teacher's annoyed voice. "I see that you're not interested in the lesson, but you could at least pretend to be.." she said with reproach and sighed. I quickly snapped out of my trance. "What was I saying.. ahh! Yes!" she clapped her hands and fixed her apron. I still couldn't understand why she was wearing one despite us not having cooking classes very often. "I wanted to ask you, my dearest students if any of you was willing to volunteer." silence followed her question. "Uhm.. no one?" she repeated. "Fine." a pout showed up on her face. "I will pick three of you by myself then." she announced and started walking between our desks tapping each one and giving us chills by that, since no one, obviously, was into volunteering in who-knows-what Yukizome-sensei came up yet again.

She was genuine and usually it was fun to be a part of the voluntary work, one time I heard that Nanami, Sonia, Souda, Ibuki and few other of my classmates were playing games together with some kids from primary school, other time looking for an owner of a lost puppy or organizing a concert for the whole school, but... slowly it became quite hard to keep up with all the ideas that our teacher was expecting us to fulfill.

"Then... Nanami-san." the pink haired girl looked up at her from her console giving her that look. "Why it always has to be me..." The teacher pretended that she hadn't heard nor seen anything and continued walking around the class cheerfully. "Souda-san." he fell onto his desk. "Oh man..." he sobbed. "And...~" she suddenly turned to me. Oh shit. "You!" she flashed a smile at me. I wanted to protest, but she instantly walked towards her own desk and continued. "I want you three to stay after classes and then you will go somewhere..." she said, her expression was serious. I wondered what kind of 'volunteer' work she had prepared for us this time...

After classes the three of us stayed behind and Yukizome-sensei told us to have a seat, while she closed the door. She also sat down and took a deep breath. "S-so.." she looked on side. "I didn't pick you up randomly." her eyes wandered through our faces, she was frowning and I could somehow grasp that this time wasn't anything like all the other ones. "Before you will call me nuts I want you to understand that my request is necessary for bringing hope back to our class." she smiled weakly. I looked at the others; Souda had his arms crossed over his chest and seemed confused, and Nanami was playing with the buttons of her turned off the console, while I.. tried to read through our teacher.

"It's about Nagito Komaeda." we all, excluding the teacher, flinched. I, because hearing his name had taken me aback, I wasn't prepared for this meeting being connected with the person I was missing so much at the moment. Nanami, because she had considered Nagito's case as closed and thought that we were supposed to forget about the white-haired boy and move on and finally Souda, because well.. he was Souda.

Soon I saw consternation in Nanami's eyes. "Yukizome-sensei.." she placed her console down. "W-we.. suffered enough. Why do you still hope that everything will go back to normal?" she looked at the teacher with the eyes of someone who had seen enough in life and wasn't willing to go through even more.

She looked at me and I couldn't not grow a slight blush on my cheeks from embarrassment. She had smiled at me knowingly before she wandered with her gaze outside a window. "It's just a hunch.. but I feel that Hinata-san is able to fix everything." her voice had a hint of something unreadable. "You see... his presence here may be just a coincidence, but.. this coincidence is able to change everything. I swear on my housekeeper talent!" she said with excessive seriousness.