Disclaimer- see first chapter, nothing has changed. I haven't won the lottery even once still. :( I'm much closer to being flat out broke than I'd want to admit, really… I don't even have the money for clothes for school… which isn't good…
Hideki slowly trudged down the sidewalk, his head hanging down in defeat and worry. No matter what Minoru and he had tried, no one had apparently seen Chii anywhere, nor had Minoru and he been able to track her before Hideki had had to leave for school. It appeared that Chii had disappeared completely from the face of the Earth.
Minoru had promised him he'd continue searching for her with the help of Sumomo, whom Hideki had wisely brought with him from his apartment. He'd considered stopping off at his landlady's apartment on his way to Minoru's, but then remembered that she had gone out of town for the week, so there was no way of reaching her or even a point in troubling her on this one. It was his problem now, his responsibility. And he did not relish the idea of having to tell her that he had lost her daughter yet again.
Hideki gradually made it to school, his mind still plagued with worry and distress. And although he was already late, he still went anyways, believing that as much as he wanted to, he could not afford to miss another day of cram school. However, between the disappearance of Chii and the death of his mother, it quickly became apparent that he was in now mood or mental shape to comprehend half of what he normally understood of Takako Shimizu's lessons. He kept staring out of the window, and wasn't even aware that she had called on him twice. Shinbo, who was sitting next to him as usual, jabbed him in the stomach to get his attention.
"Motosuwa-kun," Shimizu reprimanded him gently as he turned to face her with an embarrassed look on his face. "If you keep looking out the window I'm going to be forced to hang you out of it by your ankles until promise to pay attention." The class chuckled at her joke, but Hideki just bowed his and said very softly. "Hai…"
Shimizu turned on her heel and called on someone else for the answer, frowning slightly. Usually she got at least some sort of blush or chuckle out of him, but today he was looking unusually pale and preoccupied. She glanced at him again in a few minutes and found him spaced out and watching his book with unmoving eyes, hardly an improvement.
Hideki tried to stay focused for the rest of the lesson, but found that when he tried to concentrate on his book, all he could see were random words that blurred in and out of focus. Simply just listening to Shimizu was quite possibly worse, as his mind refused to think of anything other than where Chii could have run off to, entwined with worry for how his father was coping with the death of his wife, something Hideki was certain he was struggling through. He had planned on going back home for the weekend, but that was a little less than three days away, as it was only Wednesday.
Hideki groaned and let his head sink into the pages of his book, unable to contemplate anything at this point. Why had he even bothered to come to school anyways? Between the death of his mother and the disappearance of Chii, he was in no shape to try and learn his lessons, something he usually did poorly at even when he could manage to pay attention to what Shimizu was saying.
The bell finally rang after what seemed like weeks, signaling the end of the session, but Hideki was not listening to a single word Shimizu spoke about the homework assignment due the following week. He wasn't even paying attention to the fact that Shinbo had called his name twice before resorting to waving his hand in front of his face. Only then did Hideki snap out of his trance-like state and turn to his close friend.
"Eh? Did you want something Shinbo?" he asked him, and Shinbo sweat dropped.
"Man, you are really out of it today. What have you been up to that you're this tired at only 1 in the afternoon?" Shinbo gave him a half-serious grin. "Are you keeping busy late at night with your magazine models again? Is that it?"
But rather than Hideki maneuvering him into a headlock, he simply just shook his head, went back to his spaced-out look as he stood up and headed towards the door. It took another five minutes for Shinbo to get his attention, the two of them walking down the street towards the bus stop to head home.
"Come to think of it, you've looked dead on your feet for the past two weeks or so. Maybe I should lend you Sumomo… she'll get you into a better sleeping routine."
"No thanks…" came a murmured response. Shinbo stopped dead in his tracks and spun Hideki around, startling him.
"What is eating you?" he asked, placing both of his hand on Hideki's shoulders. "Something's not right; you don't act this way even when you're out of it. Usually you're more alive once we get out of the building at least. Chii's not broken or missing again, is she?"
At Chii's name, Hideki's head snapped up. It had suddenly occurred to him that he'd made a promise to stop by Minoru's to see if he'd had any luck in finding Chii. He glanced at his watch. Oh no, he was already a half an hour late!
"Sorry Shinbo! I've got to run! See you later!" he called before sprinting off down the street, leaving a very surprised and rattled Shinbo behind.
"What's got into him all of a sudden?"
A/N: Sorry it took so long to up the next chapter, and sorry it's a bit of a filler, but my muse just isn't cooperating like it should. kicks broken muse to shop to have it fixed I'll try and put up a non-filler chapter soon! In the meantime, feel free to review! Thanks!
