It seemed that Kobayashi-kun was true to her word, and no one approached Hideki in the days to follow.  Hideki also figured that the fact he went everywhere with Fumi and Suu was probably also off-putting to a girl who might want to approach him.  Though his routine of lunch and leaving school together with Fumi and Suu had become comfortable, something continued to bother Hideki; he had noticed as the week continued that the desk behind him remained empty.  He couldn't claim any sort of friendship with Takahashi Kazuo, as they had only really spoken once, and even then, Kazuo’s friend did most of the talking.  Still, it concerned Hideki.

On Friday afternoon, Fumi was delayed when Nara-sensei gathered a package of homework and notes to be taken to Kazuo's address and dropped off for him, as one of Fumi's many class representative duties.   As they were walking to the shoe lockers afterwards, Hideki brought it up again; “I think it just bothers me that no one else is concerned.”

“I wouldn't say 'no one’,” replied Fumi, “Nara-sensei has taken note, but there's little she can do besides scold him when he returns.”

“Like I said, he was gone for a week or two around this time last year,” said Suu, “It's possible that he's traveling, maybe for the anniversary of a family member's death.”

“If that were true, his family would've notified the school,” said Fumi, “But according to Nara-sensei, Takahashi-kun is simply ‘missing’.”

“Even if nobody talks to Kazuo-kun,” Hideki said while opening his locker, “It just bugs me that someone can go missing for four days and everybody just shrugs their shoulders.”

From the locker beside his, Madoka chimed in, “Have you tried asking his scumbag friend?”

“Scumbag friend?” Hideki asked, surprised by her wording.

Suu and Fumi were really surprised by the interjection.   Fumi recovered a bit more quickly and said, “Good afternoon, Tomo-senpai.”

“Senpai?” Hideki asked

“I'm in class 2-B, directly above yours,” Madoka said with a smile, “I also unfortunately share that class with that weird guy.”

“Weird guy?” Hideki asked, thinking back to when he last spoke to Kazuo, “Mineta? Mini… Mino…”

“Minoru,” Madoka corrected him.

“What makes him ‘weird’?” Suu asked, “Is he… Is he a creeper or something?”

“No, it's not exactly like that,” Madoka mused, “Guys leering doesn't really phase me, but the way he looks at people is different.   It's more like… he's always got this jackass smile on his face, like he knows something you don't.   It's so annoying!”

“Well, I have seen him hanging out with Kazuo-kun,” said Suu, “But I feel weird just approaching him out of the blue.”

“First and foremost, I have to deliver his missed schoolwork,” said Fumi, “If we knock on his door and find out he’s just been home with a cold and neglected to call the school, or he’s just been skipping to play video games, then all of this will have been for nothing.”

Hideki looked at Fumi a moment, and paused.  He remembered the sight of Suu’s empty desk in front of him.  He recalled the girls she called ‘friends’ making jokes about her vanishing, and the sight of Suu crying.  He weakly smirked for a moment before saying, “Yeah, I’m probably just being paranoid.”

Suu smiled softly at him, as she realized what was getting to him.  She said, “I think you’re a good person, with a big heart, to worry about others so much.”

“He does seem like a good person,” Madoka said with a small smile as she finished slipping her loafers on, before she began to walk away.  Fumi watched Madoka leave, before looking at Hideki.

“What was that about?” Fumi asked.

“What was what?” Hideki asked.

“The ‘idol’ of our school just struck up a random, casual conversation with you,” said Fumi, “and you paid it no mind at all.”

“Idol?” Hideki asked, blinking vacantly at Fumi.

“She’s the captain of the swim team,” Suu said excitedly, “She put Fuurin Gakuen on the map for sports.  No one had ever heard of our school before, but she lead the team to regionals last year, and probably nationals this year!”

“A second-year student is a team captain?” Hideki asked, raising an eyebrow, “How does that even happen?”

“It happens when you’re the best swimmer in the entire school,” said Fumi, “It also helps that she keeps good grades, is pretty, and is lusted after by every boy in school, and probably half of the girls.  They either want to be with her or they want to be her.”

“I didn’t realize she was such a big deal,” Hideki muttered, before he recalled the sight of a stack of envelopes falling out of Madoka’s locker. He nodded a bit and said, “I guess it makes sense, though…”

After putting Takahashi Kazuo’s address into Fumi’s GPS, Hideki and Suu insisted on travelling with her to drop off the schoolwork.   The bus ride took them half an hour out of the way of their usual route home, and dropped them off in a rather poor neighborhood.  Two blocks from the bus stop, they ascended the stairs of a brick walk-up to the second floor.

“This should be the place,” said Fumi, as she stopped in front of a door.  She double-checked the address written on her packet of papers, before knocking.

Silence.

Hideki looked at Fumi, then reached over and knocked, saying, “Let me try.”

“Because you’re so much better at knocking on a door than me,” Fumi muttered.

“My hands are bigger!” Hideki grumbled, pounding again with the side of his fist.

“I don’t think he’s home,” said Suu.

From the stairwell, they heard a voice ask, “You checking up on Kazuo-kun too?”

When they looked back, they saw Minoru ascending the stairs, smiling pleasantly and waving at them.

‘It really is kind of an asinine smile,’ Hideki thought as he waved back.

Suu leaned in and whispered, “That's Kazuo-kun’s scumbag friend that Tomo-senpai mentioned, isn't he?”

Hideki froze awkwardly, hoping Minoru didn’t hear her, though it was difficult to tell with that unflinching smile.

“Do you have any idea where he is?” asked Fumi, “I need to drop off his school work.”

“No idea,” said Minoru, shrugging, “Haven’t heard from him in days.”

“And you’re not worried?” Hideki asked, looking at Minoru suspiciously.

Minoru shrugged again, and said, “To be honest, I think he’s got some kind of heavy personal stuff going on right now.  An anniversary, I think, of someone close to him.”

Suu looked at Hideki, a briefly excited look of ‘I was right!’, before it faded upon the realization that she didn’t want to be right about that sort of thing. She looked at Minoru and asked quietly, “So he’s out of town then?”

“I’m not sure about that,” said Minoru, “Maybe he went and called that ‘Zero Line’ or something.”

“Zero Line?” Hideki questioned, eyes narrowing.

“You know, that haunted phone line I told you about?” Minoru asked with a grin, “The one where you dial ‘zero’ at midnight?”

“Yeah, yeah, and talk to a ghost from Old Kibitani,” Hideki said sharply, “But why would Kazuo-kun want to talk to a fifty-year-old ghost?”

“Well I heard this rumor the other day,” Minoru said, rubbing the back of his head, “I know the thing about the ghosts from fifty years ago is ridiculous, but someone said you can use it to call and talk to someone you really miss who’s passed on.”

Hideki tenses, the hairs on the back of his neck rising.  He stormed toward Minoru, fists clenched, and asked, “You told him that?!”

Minoru looked at Hideki curiously, before smirking and asking, “Is there some reason why I shouldn’t have?”

Hideki suddenly grabbed Minoru by the collar, and moments later, both Suu and Fumi were grabbing ahold of Hideki’s arms.

“Hideki-kun, let go of him,” Fumi said.

“D-Don’t!” said Suu, “It’s not worth it!”

“How can you be so casual and still call yourself his friend?!” Hideki shouted.

Minoru just smiled a bit and asked, “Isn’t the ‘haunted payphone’ thing just a rumor?”

Hideki stared at him, before slowly letting him go, though his arms still shook in his grasp of his friends.