Stop It Shinnosuke!

Chapter 20

"Where's he?", The huffing boy asked around him, breathlessly looking at his classmates.

"I haven't seen him on campus. I wonder if the tests got the best of him.", A girl said, snickering afterwards while other girls tried to hush her down.

It was Hikari who was panting. The winter break was already over, and the last weekly test of the year before the upcoming finals had just ended. Many students were happy that the year was finally going to be over while others fretted over the finals. Hikari, on the other hand, was frantically running around to search for Kazama.

Kazama had been studying hard for the last set of weekly tests, but fell sick right before the tests. Before that week, he had been performing averagely on the previous tests for some months, as he had been too busy with many other activities, including sports and art. He felt the need to not be too hard on himself and try everything he could at that school before he would have to devote his last 2 years at high school to his studies.

But little did he know that fortune was not gonna be on his side, as the last weekly tests were important, so much that his poor performance on the tests could affect his final result, and it did. He could barely take the tests without headaches and a hazy mind. All the stuff he studied would leave his mind as soon as the test sheet would arrive at his desk. And this didn't happen only once, or twice, but for every single test.

Now, Kazama had been missing school for a few days, despite getting better from his cold, and that was very unlike him. So, when Hikari heard from someone that he was seen in the staff room, he couldn't help but rush to meet him. But he couldn't find him there, hence the running around asking about his friend's whereabouts.

"Hikari!", a voice called out to him.

He turned around to see Diana waving at him.

"Diana, have you seen-"

"Kazama-kun? I know where he is.", she said, seeming like an angel to the boy who had been searching for Kazama.

"Where is he?", Hikari asked impatiently.

Instead of speaking, Diana rummaged through her pocket and took out her phone. "Look at this.", she showed a text conversation between her and Mineko, Kazama's mom, to Hikari.

It went along the lines of Diana asking about Kazama to Mineko only to know that he was so upset that he would even refuse to leave his room, let alone go to school. Mineko had asked Diana for help in cheering him up.

"I suppose you should go to his house.", Diana suggested, "You can cheer him up. I know only you can."

Hikari felt a bit offended. He had also texted Kazama, but he never opened it, let alone reply. It never crossed his mind to contact Mineko, but then again he didn't have her number.

"Wait, why do you have his mom's contact info?"

"Does it really matter? Just hurry up and go. Be thankful I even told you this.", Diana replied, and started to walk away.