"Oi, Hajime!"
The voice came from none other than Megumi, who unexpectedly rushed into Akamine-sensei's office with someone in tow. Her countenance plainly relayed that she was slightly irritated or somewhere between those lines. Her eyes were directly aimed at Hajime, who was sitting by the corner of the room. She didn't even notice the people who were in the room with Hajime— the parents, the college students, and even the principal.
"Why didn't you wake me up? I missed all my morning classes because of you," Megumi sighed before drowsily scratching her neck. She yawned, then her eyes suddenly shot wide open after she realized what she had just done.
"Hey, kid!" One of the dads interrupted. "I told you to take responsibility!" He didn't dare attack Hajime though, since he knew that either his homeroom teacher or the principal would gladly step out to block him. Besides, he was also afraid that what their children recounted was wrong, and they might be digging their own holes themselves during the meeting.
"I tried waking you up, you were sleeping really deeply though," Hajime whispered under his breath as Megumi's sleepiness seemed to slightly disappear. She gasped, realizing that Hajime wasn't alone in the room and that she just interrupted a meeting. Embarrassment kicked in, and Megumi had the urge to shield her face and run away.
However, she immediately recognized the college students who were in the room and she instantaneously pieced the entire situation together. The meeting was likely about the incident three days ago, where they attacked Hajime due to some grudge they harbored against him... or maybe they just wanted a little bit of fun. Either way, Megumi knew that she was a key witness to the entire situation so she wanted to sit in on the meeting.
A commotion ensued once again, however, as the parents started blabbering to Megumi about how Hajime attacked their children and beat them to a pulp. Megumi was dumbfounded as she had witnessed the entire thing, and that their accusations were through the roof. Akamine-sensei also noticed that the parents were getting out of hand. What started as a meeting for both parties to reach the middle ground became one-sided harassment aimed solely at Hajime who composedly kept quiet despite their biting remarks.
The biting remarks then transitioned to insults as if their tongues were wild animals on a rampage. They began by telling Megumi not to associate with someone as trashy as Hajime, and to always be careful around him due to his violent nature. She badly wanted to deny that she was an acquaintance of Hajime but doing so would only fan the flames of their hatred. As much as she hated all their useless ridicule, she kept quiet, waiting for Akamine-sensei to speak up and rein in the situation.
Hajime, on the other hand, enjoyed the momentary peace as all the attention converged on Megumi whose only mistake was entering the homeroom teacher's office at the wrong time. "And why are you calling me by my first name?" Hajime even went as far as to tease her, disregarding the parents who were directing all their anger at Hajime.
"And there's no way I'll be dating you, stupid," Megumi hissed.
"Enough." For the second time, the Principal once again called for everyone's attention. "If you're all going to disrupt the meeting in an orderly manner, then we can take this to the police station." He continued, eyeing every parent, indirectly conveying that their misbehavior will not be tolerated anymore.
Just those calm yet threatening words were enough to shut their vocal cords up, and finally, quiet descended on the room once again.
"As mentioned before, there's proof that you lot attacked one of my students in this school while you don't have definitive proof that he attacked you. For all we know, your injuries may be a result of another scuffle, something that Hajime wasn't even a part of." After saying that, the Principal nodded to Akamine-sensei.
Receiving the signal, Akamine-sensei then pointed at Megumi. "She witnessed the whole thing. Megumi, can you tell us in full detail what transpired between these guys three days ago?"
Megumi gulped, she knew what would come out of the parents' mouths as soon as Akamine-sensei said that.
"How could we believe her? She's lovey-dovey with that troublemaker student!"
"That's right, there's no way we'd believe her!"
"You don't want to believe our side, and you want us to believe hers?"
"What kind of nonsense is this?"
Megumi kept quiet. As expected, the parents stole the words from her mouth. And also, even though Hajime was clearly the victim here, she didn't want to go out of her way to defend her. All she wanted was to give Hajime an earful as to why she left her asleep. Then again, she somehow got herself involved without wanting to.
"Wait, you really did see what happened back then?" Hajime asked, hoping that Megumi didn't witness the entire thing. After all, he could vaguely remember that he beat everyone to a pulp after he was severely batted down.
Megumi nodded.
"Um," Somebody called out, causing everyone to glance at her. She was the girl who introvertedly followed Megumi inside Akamine-sensei's office. Finally, she had the courage to speak up.
"Who is she?" Hajime whispered to Megumi.
"I don't know, she said she had something to give to Akamine-sensei and she followed behind me. I couldn't care less."
"Aren't you... Kurumi Natsumi of the Photography Club? What brings you here?" Akamine-sensei asked. Although she felt slightly uncomfortable that someone else had to notice the trouble that Hajime got himself into, she was grateful that another presence interrupted the chaos in the room.
"I uh... " Kurumi Natsumi hung her head down low as she received a glare from the delinquent-looking college student. There was a trace of shock in that glare though, and that made Kurumi Natsumi flinch before going to Akamine-sensei and handing her the camera she carried.
"Hoh, you're that girl!" Hajime exclaimed. She was the one who called out to him before he entered Akamine-sensei's office. 'I guess she couldn't ask me for help so she approached Megumi. Do I really look that scary? Was it because of my bangs... my eye bags?' Hajime wondered.
Natsumi slightly bowed down towards Hajime before going out of the room. The moment she did so, Hajime finally remembered who she was.
She was one of those girls back then— whom the college student was hitting on before he came to her rescue.