Arc 1 – Ch.1: Getting hit by a truck
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I'm currently being punished by having to tend to the vegetable gardens at our school together with another student.

*Sigh*

“An entire week of this…”
I quietly murmur a complaint.

“Your fault loser.”

“Shut up and water your side of the garden Jake.”

Jake scoffs back at me
“Dickhead.”

The skinny idiot talking back at me is Jake.
We first bumped into each other during a game of tag in kindergarten.
It’s been 10 years since, and one thing hasn’t changed in all those years… 

I hate this guy's guts.

I get along with most of the other guys in my class, but just imagining being friendly with him makes me shudder.

Today’s daily disagreement with Jake on the schoolyard turned into a shouting match and just naturally transitioned into a fistfight. 

Unfortunately one of the sternest teachers happened to immediately catch us before we even did anything overtly violent. And now we’re here.
(This sucks… I didn’t even get to land a punch on Jake this time…)

(I can’t believe I’ve got after school gardening duty with this prick for an entire week.)

(I could be reading light novels right now…)

(Do the teachers seriously believe we’re just magically going to become friends after tending a garden together for a week?)

I continue lazily ripping weeds out of the garden.

◇◆◇

 

After ripping out weeds and watering crops in silence for what feels like an hour we’re nearly done. It’s nearing sundown and starting to get dark.

“Catch this asshole.”
Jake launches something at my face.

I reluctantly turn around, not wanting to answer Jake’s call.
I failed to react to the particularly girthy carrot flying right at me.
It hits me straight in the face.

“JAKE YOU SON OF A B-”

I hastily grab the carrot off the ground and start running at Jake, holding the carrot like a blunt weapon.
I’m not sure what kind of damage I even plan to do with it, but I’m too mad to think about it right now.

“Haha, they’re good for your eyesight! Why are you so mad-”
Jake giddily hides behind the shoddy old scarecrow in the vegetable garden.

I push the flimsy-looking scarecrow into Jake, causing the wood base to snap in half. The scarecrow falls over. 

Jake starts running out of the vegetable garden. I try to give chase but I’m so out of shape I immediately lose track of him 5 minutes in…

“I’ll get him *panting* tomorrow.”
Ugh, this is what I get for never working out and just sitting on my butt reading and playing games at home… 
I can barely run a couple of minutes without getting out of breath… 

I eventually catch my breath and suddenly recall the scarecrow I broke.

◇◆◇

 

“If the teacher sees this mess tomorrow I’m going to get punished again for sure…”

I've made my way back to the vegetable garden.
2 crows are casually pecking at vegetables in the garden.
There’s a snapped-off piece of rotting wood sticking out the mud and a flimsy-looking scarecrow laying in the dirt looking towards the sky.

I try to shoo the crows away.
“Go on! Get out of here!”

The crows continue pecking at the garden unperturbed.

“SHOO!”

I timidly keep approaching the crows.
They finally decide to reluctantly fly away when I get in arm's length. 

The crows perched on one of the trees surrounding the garden and began angrily cawing at me.

*Sigh*
I go pick up the scarecrow and shove the remaining piece of wood it’s attached to back into the mud.

“It looks like it’s sitting down in the mud now…”
(It looks ridiculous. Hopefully, I won’t get punished for this tomorrow…)

I leave the garden and go pick up my bike in the school’s bike shed. 

(Huh? Why is that idiot’s bike still here?)
I briefly entertain the fantasy that Jake might be cowering in fear somewhere, scared that I’m still chasing him!
Unfortunately, I can barely scare a couple of crows, let alone kids my age.

I jump on my bike and cycle through the school’s exit and onto the road.

 

As I turned the corner on the road, I spotted Jake in the corner of my eye, he was hiding behind a thick bush with his hands out in front of him. It looks like he’s ready to push someon-

Jake shoves my bike, causing me to fall onto the road.
(Wha- Is he insane?!)

My thoughts are interrupted by the large scrape on my arm that sends a sharp pain through my body.
“Argh!”

I grunt as I clumsily try to untangle myself.

As I prepare to angrily turn my head towards the sound of Jake’s stupid voice laughing at me, I spot a truck barreling towards me right in front of me.

 

Time slows down as several thoughts enter my brain at once.

I forget about Jake’s presence and suddenly recall getting scolded by my father time and time again for my bad habit of neglecting to turn on my bicycle’s lights when it’s already dark out.

I recall my mom’s idle chatter about the street corner I’m on near the school.
She mentioned all the housewives in the neighbourhood had been complaining about the broken street light here for weeks… it was just idle chat that didn’t seem important at the time since it didn’t concern me.

I think about On* P**ce and how I was looking forward to seeing how the series ends before I die.

I try to get up in a hurry, but I'm fatigued from all the gardening work. 

The truck reaches me before I manage to move out of the way. 

Just as the truck is about to hit me, I catch a new facial expression of dread on Jake’s face in the corner of my eye.
(Oh~ that’s a new one-)

“Guuu-”

My thoughts are cut short as a weird sound comes out of my mouth.

I hear the sound of screeching tires.

The truck hit me dead on.

 

Everything goes black.

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