“Practice is over for today. I’ll see you boys Monday.” The coach yelled.

Hashimoto Eizan slowly left the soccer field drenched in sweat. He had just finished a long practice after school. He and his teammates were talking and joking jovially on their way to the locker room.

"I’ll see you guys’ Monday." Hashimoto yelled and waved to the rest of his teammates. Walking Past the bike rack of the school he saw a disappointed looking girl staring at her bike. She was looking at her tire which seemed to have gone flat during the school day.

“You look like you’ve got a problem there.” Hashimoto said with a slight smile on his face.

“….”

The girl had beautiful blue eyes hidden behind a pair of black rimmed glasses, she stared at him for a few seconds. Before nodding her head up and down.

“Do you want some help?”

“Ah…I don’t know.” She replied softly.

Hashimoto thought, "It seems like she is pretty shy huh. Well, that doesn’t really matter. She seems like she is at a loss for what to do. I was always taught to recognize when someone needs help. Helping someone with no expectation of reward is a reward in itself. It’s good karma as the say. It never seems to benefit me though."

“I can get the air pump from the storage room and air it up for you. It will only take a minute. But I don’t guarantee the tire will make it to your house.”

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She seemed lost in thought for a second.

“I’ll be in your care then”

“Just wait here for a minute”

Hashimoto left his backpack on the ground and ran towards the gym.

The girl stared as he ran away with a weird look on her face. She whispered to herself. “I guess the rumors about him aren’t entirely true.”

"What was her name again." Hashimoto thought as he was walking back from the gym with the air pump in his hand. "Oh, that’s right it’s Sakurai Mio. I think she’s in my class. Damnit I really need to stay awake in class."

“See that didn’t take that long. This will only take a second.”

She shyly replied “…. Thank you.”

He smiled softly “Don’t worry about it. Everyone needs a little help sometimes.”

Hashimoto got down on his hands and knees and connected the pump up to the tire. With just over a dozen pumps from the hand air pump, that was mainly used to fill sports balls up for the sports teams, the tire was full.

“Well, it looks good to me but you might want to get a new tire”

“Thank you. I’ll ask my father to replace it tonight.”

Hashimoto stood up put his backpack on and picked up the pump. He smiled wryly at the girl standing there looking down at the ground. He thought "I guess she’s nervous. Well, that’s to be expected from my reputation."

“I’ll see you later Sakurai” Hashimoto said as he turned around to leave. He gave a slight wave with the back of his hand as he walked away.

She curiously thought "He knows my name. I didn’t think anyone actually knew who I was. I’m surprised I never talk to anyone besides Ren. All I ever do is read books in class. I guess he just knows everyone’s name in class." She stared at her bike and then back at the man who was some distance away. She smiled softly as she got onto her bike. "I guess there really are kind people in this world. Granted, I didn’t think the person who everyone says is a violent delinquent would be kind to me."