Chapter 213: Misaki Naomi
“Naomi, it’s been a long time since school ended, aren’t you going home?” After delivering all the materials the teacher assigned him to collect today to the office, the Class President of Class 1-B rubbed his sore arms and returned to the classroom, finally finishing a day’s work as Class President. He now just wanted to go home and eat a curry made by his mom, but when he returned to the class, he found one of his female classmates sitting in her original seat with a bad facial expression, staring at the table without moving, and couldn’t help but speak up to remind her.
“……Oh, it’s this late already, I, I’ll leave now.” The female classmate shuddered all over, finally snapping back to her senses as if startled awake from a nightmare, suddenly breaking out in a cold sweat. She hurriedly grabbed her schoolbag from the hook beside the table, stammering as she stood up to prepare to leave.
“Naomi, are you really okay?” Seeing the female classmate like this, the Class President couldn’t help but walk closer with some worry.
As Class President, he paid good attention to the usual performance of his classmates, and Misaki Naomi had been out of sorts all day today, absent-minded.
“I’m fine, thank you, Kudou-kun, I’ll head back first.” The other didn’t give the Class President a chance to approach, grabbed her schoolbag, and left the classroom.
Seeing this, the Class President stood in place with his arms crossed, his face showing confusion, his gaze glancing toward the neighboring desk to the left of Misaki Naomi’s, muttering: “Could it be that Kurosawa didn’t come to school today, making her feel uneasy? Yeah, the two of them usually have a good relationship, always inseparable…”
Misaki Naomi ran down the stairs, until she hurriedly ran a hundred meters out of the school gate and nearly got hit by a speeding truck, then she abruptly stopped. The intense feeling of being so close to death gradually dispelled the numbness in her brain and body, and the sharp pain in her heart and lungs from running too hard finally forced her true emotions to surface, her reason collapsing as she squatted in place and cried loudly.
“That was very dangerous just now, little girl.” He Jia’an had just arrived in time and pulled back Misaki Naomi who was nearly hit by the car and killed. Now looking at the female high school student crying loudly in front of him, he felt a bit awkward and at a loss, originally wanting to say some stern words, but suddenly they all vanished.
Misaki Naomi cried for a long time, He Jia’an stood awkwardly beside her for a long time. Fortunately, there weren’t many pedestrians nearby, so he didn’t get arrested by law enforcement officers.
“Thank you.” Misaki Naomi lifted her red and swollen eyes to thank He Jia’an. Her entire face and arms were wet with tears.
He Jia’an was somewhat silent, silently reaching into his pocket to pull out a paper towel he had swiped from the hotel and gave it to her: “Wipe it off.”
Misaki Naomi thanked him again and wiped her face clean, but then found the paper wasn’t enough, and silently looked at He Jia’an again.
He Jia’an understood her meaning, narrowing his eyes and saying seriously: “Sorry, that’s the only one.”
Misaki Naomi was somewhat speechless, taking out her own handkerchief from her skirt pocket to wipe her face.
Perhaps because her emotions had finally been vented, Misaki Naomi slowly regained some thinking ability. She looked at He Jia’an’s outfit and felt it seemed somewhat familiar, then stared at He Jia’an’s face for a long time before finally seeing some clue, pointing at He Jia’an’s face in surprise: “You’re… that uncle from the convenience store yesterday!? How do you have long hair now?”
“……Wig……And if possible, don’t call me uncle.”
“Then what should I call you?”
“Call me He Jia’an.”
“Uncle is from Shenzhou?” Misaki Naomi immediately guessed He Jia’an’s hometown upon hearing the pronunciation of the name.
He Jia’an nodded, lying: “I’m here on vacation.”
“Then can I call you Mr. He?” Misaki Naomi thought for a moment and probed.
He Jia’an nodded in silent agreement, then put on a serious expression and said again: “That was really thrilling just now. How are you now? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
“I’m fine now.” Misaki Naomi was still shaken, forcing a smile. “Thank you so much, I’m Misaki Naomi, you can call me Naomi.”
“Where’s that female classmate who was with you yesterday?” He Jia’an asked knowingly, the bad uncle straight-up poking at her heart.
Sure enough, Misaki Naomi immediately pursed her lips, looking like she might cry again at any moment, holding back her sadness, lowering her head, wanting to speak, but the first sound she made nearly broke the dam holding back her tears, her entire throat sour and hot, as if the sadness was about to erupt.
He Jia’an felt it was about enough and simply said: “Sorry, actually… this morning while taking a walk, I heard the news of a first-year female student from Kisaragi High School committing suicide, and out of curiosity I went over to look, and it turned out the dead one was that friend who was with you yesterday.”
Misaki Naomi broke down again, sitting terrified on the ground, crying with her face covered while stammering out the truth of the matter: “It’s all… Miyako’s phone call… It’s all because of Miyako’s phone call… that Kana died!”
“Miyako?” He Jia’an blinked, silently noting down this name. Could it be that urban legend was real?
The strange woman mentioned in that urban legend was called Miyako?
He Jia’an saw that the sky was about to get dark again, so he said to the crying Misaki Naomi: “Naomi, the sun is about to set now, I’ll walk you home. It’s not safe staying here.” This was still the roadside after all, better not to linger as much as possible.
Who knew, Misaki Naomi directly shook her head and refused, flustered: “I don’t want to go home… If I go home, I’ll be alone, I’m scared.”
Are female high school students these days so lacking in vigilance… He Jia’an felt somewhat speechless hearing the other directly tell her entire situation to a strange uncle like him without reservation.
Of course, He Jia’an could also see that this timid little girl was probably really scared, to the point of being desperate enough to seek help from anyone nearby.
“Then… let’s go eat. I’m hungry too anyway.” He Jia’an thought for a moment and suggested, patting his empty stomach, then suddenly thinking of something and adding, “Right, you treat, consider it repaying me for saving your life just now.”
The female high school student sniffed, looking at He Jia’an in some shock, but seeing He Jia’an, who had disguised his face as thick as a copper wall, gradually unable to keep up the act with his changing facial expression, she couldn’t help but smile at his reddening ears.
“That’s fine, right.” He Jia’an scratched his face.
“Okay.” Misaki Naomi agreed immediately, then led this nearly-forty handsome uncle to KM at the nearby station to eat a meal of hamburgers and fried chicken.
He Jia’an ate heartily, somewhat wildly, like a starving ghost reincarnated, devouring a half-face-sized hamburger in three bites.
He Jia’an let loose eating because when Misaki Naomi paid, he discovered she paid directly by card, seemingly her own card, and within seconds of swiping, he received a deduction text notification showing a balance in the five figures of world currency.
Seeing He Jia’an eating happily, Misaki Naomi’s mood improved a bit too, her mouth corners unconsciously turning up. “How is it, satisfied with this meal?”
“Great choice. If you were treating me to Western food or something, I probably wouldn’t have eaten as satisfyingly.” He Jia’an praised. “Thanks for the treat.”
“No need to be polite.” With her mood slightly relaxed, Misaki Naomi finally began to size up He Jia’an from top to bottom. She discovered that his outfit actually didn’t fit well, and from head to toe he didn’t really look like a tourist, more like…
Misaki Naomi elegantly nibbled on her hamburger, while He Jia’an wolfed down his food.
Suddenly, Misaki Naomi said to He Jia’an out of the blue: “Uncle doesn’t have a place to stay, right? Want to stay at my house?”
“Huh?” He Jia’an nearly spat out the cola he had drunk to his throat.
The writing style will follow the theme and background of each volume’s story. This time the stage is Japanese style, so it has a bit of Japanese novel style. The character names appearing in this chapter have homage elements; if you’ve seen some Japanese horror anime or live-action works, you should be able to spot some clues （lol）.
