After declining the help of Tatsuki and Naoto, Hiro began to chase after Imai.
“Senior Imai wait for me.” Shouted Hiro while chasing Imai who was heading towards the restroom.
Hearing Hiro’s voice, Imai paused all of a sudden. Turning back towards Hiro, Imai spoke politely, “Oh!! Are you heading to the restroom as well?”
Without replying anything, Hiro simply nodded his head.
After walking few steps, the two of them arrived at the restroom. With several compartments, the neatly organised modern restroom was quite empty as well and besides the two of them, there weren’t any other people present in the restroom at that moment.
But even so, Hiro still had absolutely no idea on how to disclose his real intention to Imai without angering him.
Either he’d have to speak the truth or else he’ll have to make some reasonable excuses to get Imai’s help.
But either way he’d have to disclose his true purpose to get his help.
“Hmm… Senior Imai have you ever gotten bullied?” Asked Hiro meekly while trying to start a conversation with Imai.
“Well not really.” Shaking his head, Imai started to walk towards one of the compartment to finish his business.
“Although if you can count the abusive training of my coaches as bullying then yes I’ve been bullied.” Spoke Imai sarcastically before entering one of the compartment.
Although Hiro really had no actual business to attend in the restroom, he still entered one of the compartment to not make him seem suspicious.
However little did he knew, Imai was somewhat suspicious of him from the moment he mentioned about his made-up story to Imai.
“Were there not any bullies in your school?” Asked Hiro while forcing his pee.
“Well… There were a few of them in my elementary school. And it’s the same in the middle school as well.” Casually replied Imai while urinating.
Although Imai didn’t mind Hiro asking about such stuffs while he was peeing, his suspicions towards Hiro was growing even further after hearing Hiro’s repeatedly asked questions.
“But why are you asking me about bullies all of a sudden? If you’re worried about the bullies in your school, then I’ve already told you that I’ll help you with it.” Mumbled Imai while zipping his pant. “But then again, do you really need my help? Like just by observing you, I could tell that you’re pretty strong. And since you’re already playing professional football despite being only twelve years old, I doubt if anybody would actually dare to bully you.”
Hearing Imai’s response, Hiro went silent all of a sudden. He knew that Imai was getting suspicious of him. Afterall his whole story sounded extremely ridiculous.
‘Was he suspicious of me all along?’ Pondered Hiro while staring blankly at the lock of the door of the compartment. ‘May be I should tell him the truth.’
And just as he came out of the compartment, Imai mumbled casually while washing his hands, “From the very beginning when you told me about your story, I found it really hard to believe it. And after following me to the restroom, you keep on asking about bullies.”
‘Yup!! He’s suspicious of me.’ Thought Hiro after hearing Imai’s words.
However Hiro didn’t reply anything at all and kept on listening.
After turning off the tap, Imai walked towards the hand dryer to dry his hands. And as he finished drying his wet hands, he walked towards Hiro.
Squinting his eye and furrowing his brows, he looked extremely serious.
“Just tell me about your true intention already.” Spoke Imai in his deep voice. “My patience’s running out.”
Noticing Imai’s facial expression, he decided to tell him the truth regardless of the consequences.
“I’m doing this for a friend of mine. He had been bullied by some bullies.” Hiro then elaborated everything he knew about Masao to Imai.
Although he didn’t mention much about Shotaro, Hiro still told Imai about the generosity of Masao, the tragedy he faced, the bullying he indured.
Almost everything which he knew about Masao, Hiro revealed to Imai without mixing any lies, just as it is.
“So that friend of yours was bullied for no reason. And you’re seeking for my help because you want to help him regain his confidence and make those bullies realise their mistake and apologise to your friend?” Mumbled Imai while trying to process the information he just received at that moment.
“Yes!! I want to help him to open up. Because if he continues to lives like this, I’m sure somewhere in near future he might even consider ending his life. So I just want him to muster some courage to face his fears.” Spoke Hiro after revealing his true plans to Imai.
At first he was doing all those things for the sake of quest. But as he dived deeper into the story of Masao, he felt sincerely sorry for Masao. Afterall in his previous life, he also had ended his life because of some similar reasons.
After listening to Hiro’s elaboration, Imai paused for a while. Standing infront of hiro, as if he was in some kind of deep thinking, Imai looked lost in his own thoughts.
Upon seeing the expression on Imai’s face, Hiro too kept his mouth shut. In order to not disturb him, he kept his lips tightly sealed.
**** ****
Outside the coffee shop, Tatsuki and Naoto had been waiting for Hiro and Imai. And since the moment the two of them left for the restroom, 15 minutes had already passed.
Continuously tapping his right foot against the floor, Tatsuki was trying his best to hold him back from exploding.
Naoto who was standing right beside him was simply browsing through his phone without reacting.
Finally as Tatsuki’s patience ran out, he abruptly stopped his leg, scrunched his brows and cussed, “F**k!!! What’s taking them this long?”
Tatsuki’s sudden cussing startled Naoto and he nearly dropped his phone from his hands.
“Jeez!! Did a demon possess you?” Sounding somewhat irritated, Naoto mumbled.
Paying no attention to Naoto, Tatsuki shrugged and mumbled, “Just how long are they gonna take?”
**** ****
Finally after thinking for a while, Imai opened his mouth, “Since you’re doing this for your friend, I’ll help you.”
Hearing Imai’s response, Hiro’s lips curled up and a smile appeared in his face. With his eyes gleaming, Hiro mumbled sounding all excited, “Really!! You’re really gonna help me?”
“Since I value friendship very much. I’m doing this for the sake of your friendship.” Imai replied in a calm manner.
“Although I don’t like hitting or scaring kids. I’ll make use of those useless bunch of delinquent bastards from my class.” Continued Imai with a sinister smile on his face.
One could tell just by looking at his smile that he was planning something really sinister. However at that moment, the only thing Hiro cared about was Imai’s willingness to help him. And thus the feeling of gratitude clouded his vision.
“Thank you” Hiro lowered his head, “Thank you very much.”
With the help of Imai, he was sure that he could humble those bullies and make them apologize to Masao and also complete part of his quest at the same time.
Although just by humbling those bullies and making them apologize to Masao, Hiro wouldn’t solve his problem in it’s entirety. However by doing that Hiro could drastically reduce the chance of Masao skipping the classes. And it could also help Masao to have a better school life.
Afterall regaining once lost confidence and overcoming from a painful experience required quite a bit of time and the scar left by such incidents wouldn’t heal overnight, Hiro didn’t want to hurry. He was in no rush.
“But for now we should head out. We’ve stayed in the restroom for way too long. And also you didn’t forget about Naoto and Tatsuki, right? They’re still waiting for us.” Saying such, Imai began to walk out of the restroom.
But before Imai could leave the restroom, Hiro stopped him, “Ahh wait!!”
Hearing him, Imai slightly nodded his head.
“Please don’t tell about this to Naoto and Tatsuki.” Hiro requested.
With a smile on his face, Imai nodded his head and waved his hand, gesturing Hiro to follow him.
But just as they exited the restroom, they witnessed Tatsuki’s angry face. His mask tucked inside his pocket, his bare face was looking somewhat red.
His brows were scrunched and there was visible anger in his face. Flaring his nostrils, Tatsuki spoke while staring at them with his cold eyes, “What took you two so long? Were you guys perhaps sleeping inside the restroom.”
Quickly thinking of an excuse, Hiro mumbled, “While coming out of the restroom, I saw few girls from my class. So we were hiding inside the restroom.”
With an awkward smile on his face, Imai nodded his head, “Yeah!! Haha… They were really crazy.”
Squinting his eyes, Tatsuki was somewhat skeptical about Hiro’s reasons for being late.
“If so, where are they right now??” Sounding somewhat skeptical, Tatsuki questioned.
“Well they just went downstairs. So may be they’re in one of the woman’s fashion store.” Replied Hiro without any delay.
While making their way towards the coffee shop, Hiro had memorized the location of different stores present inside the mall.
Having memorized the location of several stores, that information came really handy at that moment.