The din of the evening crowd flowed around me; busy people returning from work or going off to another spot filled the roads lit by the streetlights.

Quite a few people turned to look my way, their eyes on my tattoos or the piercings on my ears, sometimes at the ponytail.

"What should I make for dinner?" I wondered as I made my way closer to my home. As I checked the time, my eyes fell on the date.

"Thursday..."

School... had to be missed today. There was something more important. A voice flashed in my mind.

[When are you coming to the restaurant?]

[We have good western cuisine too!]

Really. This was really troublesome. It was the first time I felt like I was making a friend, getting close to someone, since *that* day. The idea hadn't even entered my mind.

But now...

"I feel like noodles."

***

The Bamboo Shoot was a fairly well-off establishment. It was located on a comparatively posh street and was big enough to attract people from all walks of life without any ruckus. A kind of restaurant that some families would visit regularly in the name of 'going out' to eat.

I entered the restaurant and was guided to a seat by one of the waitstaff. The interior was just like the exterior, with pale yellow lights setting a beautiful atmosphere against the ivory walls. Fake paintings and plastic bamboo plants decorated the place.

"Can I take your order?" one of the waitstaff, a girl this time, approached. I expected to see a familiar face, but it was someone else.

"Right, actually, is Anna here?" I asked. The girl here to take my order immediately narrowed her eyes; she was focused on my sleeve tattoos. "I am a friend of hers; she told me about this place, so I dropped by."

Her eyes softened a little when I mentioned being a friend.

"Are you? That's strange. Anna hasn't come to work today... did she invite you here?"

Though she hadn't, I nodded. "She said today would be good."

The girl placed a worried hand on her cheek. "Anna doesn't miss work; I wonder if she is sick."

I pursed my lips. So she hadn't shown up.

Normally, it would be safe for anyone to assume that she might be sick or maybe some other plans came up, but I couldn't let that pass.

My own paranoia mixed with the fact that I had helped her from a rough encounter just a few days ago. One of those loan shark bastards seemed quite thick-headed too...

This really didn't sit well.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Can I get a glass of water first? I'll look over the menu until then."

"Sure!" the girl said and turned around. As soon as she left my sight, I quietly stood up from my seat and made my way out of the restaurant.

Even though I had decided not to get too involved, that was just impossible now. I clutched my fist and cursed myself, stepping out of the restaurant.

"Just this once. I am going to be a fool just this once."

My eyes narrowed on their own. I reached into my pockets and pulled out a cigarette. Lighting it, I ran through the streets toward my home.

Damn this.

I quickly rushed to the top of the building and entered my flat. Before turning on any lights, I grabbed some keys and burst into my room. The papers and the threads on the floor were pressed under my feet as I opened the drawer and then pulled up the hidden bottom.

My hands froze for a second...

"Hah. I don't need anything else for idiots."

I grabbed a bag and stuffed the items inside it. The knife and a pouch went into my pockets, while the rest went into the bag, before running down again. This time straight to the parking lot.

At the back of the parking lot was a single black bike, a modified model with a helmet hanging from one side. I rushed on top of it and grabbed the helmet, putting it on my head.

The engine revved with a twist of the keys; the clutch clicked, and the gears changed.

With a bam, the bike shot out of the spot and straight out of the place.

My eyes were trained on the road, the cars and the road turning into lines behind me as I pulled the accelerator back. I didn't have a way of finding Anna, nor did I have her contact information or any way to locate her phone.

Even her address was not in my hands, and there was no one I could ask about her location. The thought of asking that Eric guy came to mind, but I had no way of contacting him either. In the end, the best way was through the school.

The motorbike twisted and turned through the roads, turning onto sparsely walked roads as I made my way to the school much faster. It barely took 15 minutes on the bike, but that was still precious time.

It drifted to a stop. I quickly put it on its stand and looked at the gate. The guards were still here. Instead, I ran toward another side of the campus; our school was quite big, and there were enough unmonitored walls. In a swift move, I kicked the wall down and grabbed the top of the fence, pulling myself up into the campus.

With trained movements, I hid next to the walls and, without making a sound, made my way inside the buildings. Every step on the dark stairs felt long today; they took time I didn't have.

On the third floor, where our classrooms were located, I turned again and made my way to the teachers' office. The door was locked here, but that didn't matter.

"Stupid locks." I reached into my pockets and pulled out a pouch; from within, I grabbed a pair of pins and drove them into the keyhole. The door opened within a minute of tinkering with it.

There was no time to consider my actions right now. The moment my hands fell on our class teacher's desk, I started rummaging through it wildly but also made sure to put things back as they were.

Finally, I found it. Anna's address. It was about 20 minutes from here, a five-minute distance from my home in a very run-down street that was mostly filled with shanties.

It was easy to leave the same way I came in. This time, lighting another cigarette, I got on the bike and set navigation on my phone before driving off.

Driving as fast as I could, I reached the place mentioned in the documents as Anna's home. A completely broken house, no better than the shanties around. Mold filled the cracked walls, and spider webs and dirt were all around the place.

The door was open too, left ajar. I pushed it and stepped inside.

"Who are you?"

"How the fuck did this guy..."

There was no sign of Anna inside; both her parents were sprawled on the floor. Bottles of alcohol were laid all over the place, and on the table was a single document.

I ignored her parents and grabbed the paper.

[Parent approval for work—]

—CRUSH.

The document scrunched in my fists.

These bastards... They had sold off their daughter.