"Is there sothing I can help you with, senpai?"
Hikigaya looked at the girl in front of him. The service station where he worked was basically a custor service center. Outside, it served tourists, but within the school, it was just for students. It provided information about the water park and handled various other matters.
"Well, after I changed clothes, I realized I lost sothing."
Asahina, the second-year student, looked troubled and uneasy as she ca to the service center for help.
The service center, of course, had a lost and found section. Although the changing rooms had built-in lockers, things still went missing from ti to ti. These situations usually fell into two categories.
"Senpai, did you lose sothing from your locker, or was it sothing you were carrying with you?"
Hikigaya asked.
The way they handled each case was completely different. If sothing was stolen from a locker, it was a much more serious issue, though it rarely happened since every locker ca with a wristband key that students could use for free.
On the other hand, losing personal belongings was far more common. Most of the ti, it was simply because the owner was careless. Every evening, when the park was cleared out, all sorts of forgotten items would turn up.
"It was a charm I always carry with ."
Asahina seed especially attached to the charm. "I bought it when I started school. It’s pretty common and not expensive, but... I don’t know, having it with just makes feel at ease."
"I get it. When did you notice it was missing? And where have you been? Let’s check the security footage first."
Hikigaya nodded. He could relate to what Asahina was feeling. He had a charm from Komachi that he always carried with him too. It only cost 250 yen from a roadside stall, but the sentint behind it was priceless.
Seeing how serious Hikigaya was, Asahina couldn’t help but take a closer look at him. Won were strange sotis—this was their first eting, yet she suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of goodwill toward him. Even she found it odd.
Hikigaya then took Asahina to check the security footage. The first step was to see if soone had picked it up.
After confirming several locations, they went out to search together. Unfortunately, they didn’t find anything.
"This is going to be a problem."
Hikigaya sighed. If it had been sothing with a bit of value, soone might have turned it in to the lost and found—or just kept it for themselves. That wouldn’t be ideal, but at least it would still exist sowhere.
But Asahina had lost a charm. To so people, things like that were more valuable than money, while to others, they were just useless trinkets. Worse yet, her charm was sothing anyone could buy from the school store. There was a good chance it had already been thrown away like trash.
It was obvious that Asahina had considered this possibility too. She looked really down, knowing that the chances of finding it weren’t great.
"...Anyway, thanks."
Even though she was clearly upset, Asahina still expressed her gratitude to Hikigaya. "It’s just a cheap charm that you can buy at any store, so I feel bad for wasting your ti and bothering you."
She sounded like she was ready to give up, but Hikigaya shook his head. "The value of sothing isn’t just about money. It shouldn’t be the only way we asure worth. So don’t give up—there has to be a way."
Asahina stared at him in surprise for a while before snapping out of it. Then, she let out a small, bitter smile. "I was ready to give up, but I didn’t expect you to be even more determined than ."
For so reason, she felt a faint sense of closeness to this underclassman in front of her. Just twenty minutes ago, they had been complete strangers.
"If you give up on sothing important to you, I think you’ll regret it later and feel terrible. I know because I’ve been through sothing similar myself."
Hikigaya let out a wry smile. "That’s why... I just don’t want you to go through the sa kind of regret. Even as an outsider, I can tell that charm ans a lot to you."
"But we’ve already checked everywhere we could think of..."
Even though Asahina was encouraged by his words, reality was still harsh.
"You’ve looked everywhere you’ve been, but you still haven’t found it... Wait a minute!"
Hikigaya suddenly seed to realize sothing. "Senpai, have you checked the locker room?"
Asahina shook her head. "I clearly rember putting it back on after changing..."
But as she said that, even she wasn’t entirely sure anymore. After all, most people who lose things tend to think, "There’s no way I could’ve..." and end up ignoring certain possibilities, or they start doubting their own mory.
"Let’s check the locker room just in case."
Hikigaya and Asahina headed toward the won’s locker room, but of course, Hikigaya couldn’t go inside. He could only wait outside.
While standing there with nothing to do, Hikigaya’s eyes drifted toward the n’s locker room. When they had checked the security footage earlier, he had noticed sothing strange—not about Asahina’s lost item, but about Ike, Yamauchi, and the others acting oddly near the locker room.
After thinking for a mont, Hikigaya stepped into the n’s locker room. Right away, he spotted Sudou, Yamauchi, and Ayanokouji. The three of them were holding up a big towel, forming a wall, and from a distance, it looked really suspicious.
The mont Hikigaya entered, Ayanokouji imdiately noticed him and quickly warned Ike, who was sweating nervously.
"Stop rushing ! It’s too dark in here... Alright, done!!!"
"What are you guys doing?"
Hikigaya walked over with a confused expression while glancing behind them.
"N-Nothing! I just don’t like changing in front of other people!"
Ike suddenly popped out from behind the towel wall, and Sudou and Yamauchi both let out relieved sighs. Only Ayanokouji remained expressionless.
Hikigaya peeked behind them but didn’t see anything strange.
"There’s nothing to see here. Just go already, you’re in the way—we’re trying to go play with the girls!" Ike said quickly.
"Yeah, Kanji was just changing. You’re not trying to peek, are you? Haha, I didn’t know you had that kind of hobby!"
Yamauchi started his usual ridiculous performance.
Hikigaya didn’t say anything. He just gave them all a long look before turning around and leaving. The others all sighed in relief.
But none of them noticed the dark expression on Hikigaya’s face as he walked away.
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