Sakura looked at the two empty desks of Okazaki and Sunohara behind her. It was just sometime before homeroom was about to start for the afternoon. "Where are they?"
"Hey, have you seen them?" A voice asked. Sakura turned to face the front of her desk to see her class rep, Ryou.
"I was just wondering that." She replies.
"It's actually weird. They've been here all day, but now they're gone." Ryou said in awe, "Did something happen?"
"They're probably just skipping." Sakura mutters, turning back to the empty seats. "...I wonder what it is they're doing..."
"How did this happen?" Okazaki asks in disbelief. He was outside the Reference Room, looking at Sunohara and Yu, who was wearing the Hikarizaka Summer uniform. With Yu being the small boy he is, the uniform seemed rather big for him.
"Yu wants to follow me to learn about how to be a man. He's got real guts to skip school for it."
"Thank you for taking me in!" Yu says.
"Yes. Follow me and you'll learn how a man should be."
They then went to the Reference Room where they sat down at the table. Yu read some child book, Sunohara was reading a charm book, and Okazaki was reading manga. As the time passed by, the chime played.
"The bell rang." Said Yu.
"Yeah it did." Sunohara says.
"Didn't classes start?" He asks.
"It sure did. But we don't need to, Yu. As long as you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, attending classes aren't needed. That's law of society."
"That's really something you shouldn't be saying." Tomoya scorns.
"Does he do what he's supposed to do?" Yu asked Tomoya.
"Not at all." He replies.
"You don't either!" Sunohara exclaims.
"I've been attending classes regularly these days. I'm only here because of you guys."
"Could you two be bums?" Yu asked.
"I aren't, but Kazuto is." Tomoya replied.
"Why aren't you supporting the teacher?" Sunohara retorted.
"You expect this to be a lesson?"
"That's right. Have you heard of teachers who are abominable role models, right? I'm trying to be like them." Sunohara declares.
"Do you even know what that means?" Tomoya asks with a sigh.
"Not at all, but the word sounds cool doesn't it?"
Sounds of walking was heard outside the room. And it came closer. Tomoya warned the others. "Sounds like someone is coming here." He says, and heads to the back with Yu while Sunohara went and his under the table.
"Is someone here?" The door opened and a teacher walked in. It was the homeroom teacher of Class A. She sees Sunohara hiding under the table. "Hey, you," she calls him out.
"Hm? A-Ah...Sensei, hello..." Sunohara slowly crawled out from the desk he hid.
"Sunohara, classes have started already, you know?"
"My bad, I lost track of time since I was placing hide and seek."
"Hide and seek so there are others hiding?"
"That's right." Sunohara nods and turns to the back of the Reference Room, "Okazaki, come on out."
"Ugh..." Okazaki groans, "This sucks."
The bell chimed as classes ended at 3:00. As other students began to leave or stay to chat in the classroom, Sakura turned back to the two empty seats that remained empty for the entire homeroom.
"Excuse me." Nagisa says, entering through the doors of Class D from the back side of the room. "Hello guys..." Nagisa notices the empty desks of Okazaki and Sunohara "Where did they go?" she ask, walking into the classroom.
"I'm not sure. They've been gone since before homeroom."
"Hey guys," Ryou walked into the back. "I've just heard from our teacher just now about Okazaki-kun and Sunohara-kun."
"Eh?" Nagisa responds in worry, "Did something happen?"
"They're at the Faculty Office with a young boy after being caught skipping classes." Ryou explains.
"So they were skipping." Sakura said folding her arms. "Wait, did you say young boy?"
"Yes."
"Let's go, Nagisa." Sakura took Sunohara's bag from his desk, and Nagisa takes Okazaki's. "Thanks, Class Rep, we'll be going now." The two girls leave and to the offices in their school. There they see Okazaki, Yu, Sunohara, and Yukine, who was using one of the school phones.
"You guys." Nagisa called out the two as she approached them. She hands Tomoya his bag and Sakura hands Sunohara his bag.
"So..." Sakura looks at Yu, "Just what did you do?"
"It's nothing, really." Okazaki replies, "This guy just decided to bring Yu here."
"And then what happened?" Nagisa asks.
"We hung out in the Reference Room, got caught along with him got lectured like crazy."
"It's unfair just for me to get caught." Sunohara utters.
"You wouldn't be having that problem if you just attended classes." Sakura chided.
"Don't worry." Sunohara reassures, "It wasn't in vein. It was all to teach Yu how to be a man."
"...And how are you doing that? It's not a good example." Sakura turns to the kid, "Yu, didn't you have school?"
"Yes."
"But he skipped classes just so he can learn." Sunohara says.
"So is this when I start learning?" Yu asks.
"You sure are." Tomoya said, bending to his level, "As an abominable teacher, he's doing great."
"Thanks a lot, Okazaki!" Sunohara beamed.
"...I thought you said it was just for one day, Kazuto."
"It's fine. Nothing's happening so far, right?"
"Great news, everyone." Yukine hung up the phone she was using, she turns to Yu and smiled. "Your sister. We've found her."
"Yay, thanks, Yukine-nee." Yu says.
"Don't mention it." Yukine took Yu by his hand and turned to the others, "Let's all go."
Yukine lead the way out of the school to where Yu's sister was supposedly at. As they kept on walking, they got closer to the much shady part of Hikarizaka.
"Why did we have to go?" Sunohara questions as the group stopped at a red light at a crosswalk. "It's not like it's any of our business, right?"
"What are you talking about?" Tomoya turns to the blonde, "You're the leader of the gang, aren't you?"
"Uh..." Sunohara grew nervous. He looked down to Yu.
"If there are any bad guys, then you'll take care of them, right, Kazuto-san?" Yu said, looking at him.
"I don't think you should be relying on me too much..." Sunohara nervously replies.
They continue walking down and either the shady area. They head down an alleyway and then finally arriving at a door.
"So this the place?" Nagisa pondered. "It's my first time being in a place like this."
"Don't worry, they're all nice people." Yukine states.
Sakura looks to Youhei and realizes that he's shaking. "Hey, what's wrong? Are you scared of something?"
"I-If I go in there, won't it prove that I'm not really Yukine-chan's brother...?"
"You only realize that now?" Sakura sighs and holds his hand."It's too late to back off now, come in with us." They entered the interior and saw a bunch of people who Yukine greeted and was seemingly friendly with. Yu's older sister was present.
"Sis!" Yu runs up and greets his sister and hugged her. "You made me worried, you know?"
"I'm sorry for worrying you, but I'm fine."
"Miyazawa's quite popular isn't she?" Tomoya says to his friends.
"Yuki-nee's always taking care of people after fights." A guy who was apart of the gang appears on the side of Tomoya. Sunohara went and his behind Okazaki. "She even takes care of people who aren't in this gang."
"Sorry for coming here like this.'' Nagisa says.
"Don't worry about it. You're Yukine's friends after all." The man notices Sunohara hiding behind Tomoya. "Oh, you got another guy here?"
"Eek! I-I'm not worthy of introducing myself..." Sunohara utters in fear.
"What are you doing, Kazuto-san?" Yu asks, noticing him hide behind Okazaki. Everyone in the gang gasped and stared at Sunohara.
"M-Me-eek?!" The guy grabs and picks Sunohara up by his collar and lifts him up. "Who do you think you are?!"
"S-Sorry! I'm just Yukine-chan's friend!" He yells as he was shaken furiously.
"So you're not Kazuto-san?" Yu asks.
The man sets Sunohara down on the chairs and he begins explaining. The other guys of the gang were all glaring at him, which just made even more scared than he already was. "L-Look...I'm not Miyazawa Kazuto. It was all a lie..."
"Eh? So you lied to me?'' The kid gasps.
"I-I'm in the Drama Club, so I was trying to practice my acting..."
"To impersonate him of all people...you piece of shit." A guy sitting next to him says.
"If you weren't Yuki-nee's friend then you'd be dead."
"He did take care of my brother, so could you let him off the hook?" Yu's sister proclaims.
"Are you sure you won't do it again?" Asked yu.
"I swear! I swear I won't do it again!" Youhei's voice went around the whole place. He got up from where he was sitting and sat next to the others at the counter. "I won't do it again...I swear."
"I'm sure you've learned your lesson for once. Here." She moves a cup of orange juice in front of him, complete with a bendy straw.
"Thanks..."
"I heard from Yu-kun the other day." Yukine began to speak. Okazaki, Nagisa and Sakura began to listen in. "His family is having a problem between parent and child. The other day, his sister left as a result of having a fight with her mother. Many of those who are here aren't on good terms with their parents. They don't have a place at home so they come here."
"So to them, this is like their home." Nagisa said.
"It was the same with my brother. He didn't get along with my parents very well."
"You know, I was once told when there's a family-like group, people don't stray too much. Apparently her family had a bad parents child relationship, and the house was cold."
"What happened to her?" Yukine asks.
"A lot has happened, but they're doing fine now."
"I see. That's good to hear.
A few minutes later, the guys of the gang turned up a karoke machine they had. Nagisa and Yukine went up and prepared to sing. "Hey, they're going up there." Sunohara stated.
"So what about it?"
"Go sing with them." Sunohara says.
"Eh? W-Why...I've never sang before..."
"Which is why I want you to sing. Besides, your voice sounds good." Sakura got up with the two other girls sang in unison with them, they all sounded good together, but as they were singing, Sunohara went up to have some fun but ended up getting scared by the guys due to him ruining it.
After all the fun, Sakura joined Okazaki and Nagisa back at the counter while Sunohara was talking to the other guys. "They think he's really interesting."
"So they say." Tomoya responds.
"Here you go." Yukine comes to the counter with three plates of fried rice.
"Thanks you very much." Nagisa says.
"Thank you." Tomoya says.
"Thanks." Sakura says as well.
"Um, your brother won't be coming here today?" Nagisa wondered, looking around.
"My brother?" Yukine responds.
"Kazuto-san's in the hospital." Sudou replies. "He saved a buddy and got in a car accident."
"Car accident?" Tomoya turns to the man. Next to Sudou, was Tajima, the guy who compromised Sunohara.
"He was an employee here, but now a group of us take care of the place." says Tajima.
"I'm helping when I can, too." Yukine says.
"Your brother really does sound like a really nice person." Nagisa articulated, smiling.
"That's right," Sudou added in, "Thanks to him we can keep ourselves together."
"Is there a picture of him or anything?" Tomoya questions, "I'd like to know what he looks like."
"I don't have a picture of him, but everyone says I look like him." Yukine replies.
"You do?"
"Yes."
"But he also has blonde hair, doesn't he?" Sakura said, looking back at Sunohara who was still talking to the other guys. "Otherwise Yu wouldn't have mistaken him for your brother."
"He does." Yukine nodded.
After eating their dinner served by Yukine, they leave the room. It was already past 7:00PM, and it was dark. Yukine heads out with them, planning to lead them out.
"That was fun." Nagisa comments.
"I think my life just got shortened a bit..." He says under his breath.
"You should be happy since you got to play the boss." Okazaki remarked. He notice three figures running towards them. Coming closer, one of them shouts as they approached. "You're Miyazawa Kazuto, right?"
"M-Me?!" Youhei points to himself in shock.
"We finally meet! I didn't know you were out of the hospital!"
"We'll settle this today once and for all!"
"Y-You're making a mistake!"
"Wait, he's-" Yukine tries to explain but they cut her off.
"Yukine-san, please don't get in our way." One of them says, pointing to Sunohara and Okazaki. "Get the other guy, but leave Yukine-san and the other two girls alone." The three guys charge towards them.
"Quick! Run!" Okazaki shouts, running into the nearby dark tunnel, with the others following him. In the midst of the tunnel, as the three gang members approached them, they were suddenly flew out as a familiar blue light flashed in the tunnel.
"W-what was that...?" One whispers them says, in pain.
"Was that the power of...Miyazawa Kazuto...?"
"I-it wasn't human..."
"You're the ones who came running at me, and what a rude thing to say." Tomoyo says to the unconscious men.
"Tomoyo-san. Thank you for helping us." Thanked Nagisa.
"What are you doing in a place like this?" Tomoya asks.
"I've heard that a lot of fights have happened here. So I'm on patrol to make sure that students of our school weren't involved. What about you guys? Why are you involved with them?"
"It's a long story..." Nagisa says.
Sunohara stares at the three on the ground, "These guys really have the wrong idea..."