Blackmailing a Government Employee

Hugo slid the classroom door open. Just like always, no one even blinked in his direction. The background chatter didn't dip, and not a single head turned.

He walked to his desk, quietly pulled out his chair, and opened his notebook.

Then, he paused.

What now?

Normally, this was the exact moment he would zone out. He would stare at a fixed spot on the wall, tune out the noise, and let the school day wash over him until the final bell rang. But today, that familiar numbness just wasn't kicking in. It felt like his usual autopilot had been abruptly turned off.

He tried to identify the cause of the restlessness. Nothing came to mind. He had walked in the same way. He was sitting in the same chair.

For the first time in months, Hugo actually looked around the classroom. Everyone else was busy with their usual morning routines—copying homework, gossiping about weekend shows, crowding around each other's desks. Everything was perfectly normal. And yet, a strange, uneasy feeling kept creeping in.

He stared at a dried ink stain on his desk, trying to brush off the weird mood. Soon enough, the teacher walked in, and the day went on exactly as it always did.

A life without a single worry. Hugo briefly wondered what that would actually look like.

If people just understood how to endure things, there wouldn't be so much frantic running around. Every bad situation has an expiration date. You don't have to fix it; you just have to tough it out while it's happening. Once it's over, it's like it was never there to begin with.

Hours later, sitting in the school library, Hugo really wished he could explain that simple concept to the girl currently having a meltdown across the table.

"How are we supposed to complete this in a week?" Yuri demanded, rubbing her temples to fight off a headache.

"Don't worry, Yuri! We'll do it," Mina reassured her, patting her shoulder with completely unhelpful optimism.

Yuri shot her an exhausted glare. "How, Mina? We have to gather all the official city records first, compare them with the raw data we collected yesterday, develop an actual solution, and put it all in a report. And don't even get me started on the speaking part."

Hugo watched the panic unfold in silence. Yuri was right; there was a lot of work. But there were also four of them at the table. Manpower wasn't the real issue.

The actual problem, as they had just realized five minutes ago, was the city government. They had assumed all the official bus schedules and rider logs would be easy to find online, but they were wrong.

"We have to go through official procedures to get the exact records we need," Yuri said, letting out a heavy, frustrated sigh. "It takes more than a week to process the request, and our presentation is in exactly seven days."

Across the wooden table, Yuri’s pen tapped a slow, rhythmic beat. She didn't say a word about whose idea it was to pursue the evening routes problem, but the heavy, unblinking glare directed at Hugo’s chair did the talking for her.

Hugo shifted his weight. The collar of his uniform suddenly felt a fraction too tight.

"Just staple the pending request form to the back," Hugo offered, staring at the wood grain. "It shows the delay is the city's fault. Proves we did the legwork."

Shira let out a soft, elegant sigh. "They grade the rubric, Narakami-kun. Not our excuses."

Yuri completely collapsed, letting her forehead hit her open binder with a dull thud. "Automatic point deduction for missing data sets," her muffled voice came from the desk. "We're dead."

"I mean..."

Mina’s hand crept up, hovering just a few inches above the table. She pulled nervously at a loose thread on the cuff of her school blazer.

Yuri didn't lift her head. "What, Mina?"

"My friend's uncle kind of... works at the transportation office?"

Yuri’s head snapped up. Her chair scraped sharply against the linoleum. "Excuse me? And you're just telling us now?"

Mina shrank back, putting both hands up in defense. "I didn't want to say anything! What if he says no? I can't just force him to give us government stuff!"

"I don't care, beg him if you have to," Yuri snapped, tapping her pen aggressively against the table. "Text him right now. We need the passenger volume for the evening blocks."

Mina fumbled for her phone, grumbling under her breath, while Yuri immediately pivoted to the rest of the group.

"Shira, start filtering the raw interviews we got yesterday. Group them by route numbers," Yuri ordered, sliding a stack of blank index cards across the wood. "Narakami. Format the bibliography and the title slides. Do not mess up the margins."

For the next hour and a half, the table dissolved into a tense, chaotic assembly line.

Their localized stress completely drowned out the library's quiet hum. Yuri practically tore pages out of her notebook, cross-referencing data with ruthless efficiency. Shira gracefully sorted through Hugo's notes, translating his clinical bullet points into actual human sentences for the slides. Hugo was handed the tedious, mind-numbing job of formatting citations—a task that required zero talking, which suited his operating system perfectly.

Outside the tall library windows, the afternoon sky slowly bled into a hazy, bruised orange.

Finally, Mina dropped her phone face down on the table with a loud smack.

"Okay, I'm done. My brain is officially melting," Mina whined. She dragged her hands down her face, then reached over and grabbed Yuri firmly by the arm. "Crepes. Right now. Or I'm going to pass out."

"Mina, wait, we haven't finished mapping the residential zones—" Yuri tried to protest, grasping mindlessly for her pencil case.

"I literally just blackmailed a government employee for you. We are getting sugar," Mina declared, already standing up and physically dragging Yuri out of her chair and toward the library exit.

Hugo stood up quietly, closing his laptop and slinging his bag over his shoulder. He watched the chaotic pair stumble out into the hallway, Yuri still trying to shout about saving the document.

He turned to leave, but paused. Across the table, Shira was still standing there, carefully aligning the zipper of her canvas tote bag.

"Aren't you going with them?" Hugo asked.

Shira’s hand paused on the zipper. She looked up. Her pale eyes locked onto his.

"You don't have any friends, do you?"

Hugo’s fingers tightened around his bag strap. The silence stretched between them. A cold prickle crawled up the back of his neck. He forced his jaw to unclench.

"Is that a problem?" Hugo asked.

Shira didn't look away. The corners of her mouth tipped upward just a millimeter. Slowly, she shook her head.

Without a word, she turned on her heel. The dark, pleated fabric of her uniform skirt caught the air as she jogged lightly toward the double doors, seamlessly catching up to the loud, fading voices of Mina and Yuri in the corridor.

Hugo didn't move. He stood in the empty aisle, the silence of the library rushing back in to fill the space she left behind. He stared at the swinging wooden doors. Slowly, his hand rose, pressing flat against the center of his chest where a strange, unfamiliar tightness had suddenly taken root.