Chapter 330.


    <strong>Chapter 330. Troubling Developments: Giving my Co-worker a Ride. (3/3)</strong>


    <span style="font-weight:400">She snapped her fingers and one of herckeys hugged her arm while pulling up the leader''s skirt a bit to reveal her leg.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She pointed down with her index finger and said, “Dumbass, look down.” It seemed that was how she referred to the guy in front of Yuna.


    <span style="font-weight:400">When his gazended on the bare skin of her thigh beneath her half-raised-up skirt, the bulge in his pants grew more prominent.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“See, Yuna? This is all men amount to? That boyfriend of yours isn’t any different, so dispose of him. He’s unnecessary.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s my choice who I date. Whether they’re trash or not, I’ll decide for myself.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then, it can’t be helped. I guess you’ll have to experience something a bit bad before you see men for what they are. Dumbass, go ahead. You can use her a bit, but don’t even think about going too far.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Heheheh, sure, sure. Whatever you say.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The four girls formed a wall around them to obstruct anyone who might enter the hallway from seeing. Before Yuna could call out for help, her mouth was forcibly covered by the man in front of her.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Huh? What the hell? Shit, seriously? Just like that? I hadn’t seriously expected it to proceed this way at all. Based on the direction of their conversation, I initially thought he was just here to scare or intimidate her a little. But shit had suddenly hit the fan without warning. I’d never seen this sort of thing happen in real life. I knew stuff like this happened in the real world, but it always felt like somethingpletely foreign and unrted to me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Was it just because I never looked for it, always had my head down, and averted my eyes away to avoid seeing it happen? If it was a stranger in this situation, I wouldn’t give a damn and I’d just ignore it. It wasn’t my problem and I wasn’t some sort of superhero with superhuman strength who’d show up to save the day. I doubt I’d be able to do anything about that guy using force.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Logically, getting the cops involved would be the right call here, but by then it’d be toote. Even if I called them as soon as I came across this, nothing had actually happened yet. There wasn’t much time.


    <span style="font-weight:400">What do I do then?


    <span style="font-weight:400">What can I really do?


    <span style="font-weight:400">I’m not some assassin like Rosa or Wisteria.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I’m just a little author working part-time at a convenience store without any sort of magical hand-waving powers.


    <span style="font-weight:400">What am I good at?


    <span style="font-weight:400">There’s really only one thing.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Running, right?


    <span style="font-weight:400">But even if I step out there right now to intervene, all that will happen is me getting a can of whoop-ass. They’d snatch my phone and break it. If I uploaded the video somewhere secure online, they might beat the shit out of me until I delete it. Hell, worst case they may just outright kill me. I couldn’t be sure the extent to which these girls would go. Their hatred of men, just from what I heard, sounded like the real deal. To a psychotic degree even.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Seriously, what the hell does someone go through to have such a deep hatred?


    <span style="font-weight:400">No, forget that… there’s no time to think about it. Either I intervene or I sit back, watch from a distance, record everything in secret, and hand it over to the authorities after the fact. Yuna might have to suffer through something unpleasant, but her problem could at least be resolved this way. That would be the best oue for her. Yes… that is… no doubt... the best solution. Doing nothing.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Despite knowing it was the best solution, it left a sour taste in my mouth. Bitterness toward how weak and powerless I was.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I shouldn’t do anything irrational. My little thoughtless action from earlier today was what resulted in this situation. I was gued by guilt. How could I know something that seemed so minor would be such a big deal?


    <span style="font-weight:400">Is there… anything? Anything at all? Anything I can use to help her escape right now?


    <span style="font-weight:400">I finally turned my attention to my surroundings. My eyes darted about rapidly at what was close by when my eyes suddenly froze in ce.


    <span style="font-weight:400">That’s it! Of course that would be here by the stairs.


    <span style="font-weight:400">A fire hydrant and the fire rm were right next to each other. I picked up the fire extinguisher and hit the fire rm. The second it went off, I sted the fire extinguisher waving it up and down as it rounded the corner and headed for the group in the hallway.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What the hell is going on?” The leader in their group freaked out and asked.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Chaos. Pure unbridled chaos was the answer. Within the chaos, there would be an opening to escape. That was the solution I came up with at thest minute.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The group waspletely shocked when the rm went off. They were dumbstruck and caught off guard by the white smoke quickly filling up their vision and the entirety of the hallway as it closed in on them. Because of all the smoke, they didn’t even see meing.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I had my helmet on still so the smoke didn’t affect me at all. But it did affect them. When I arrived in front of them, I sprayed it directly in their faces. The guy backed up and released Yuna as he shielded his eyes with his right arm and blocked his mouth with his left arm as he coughed into it.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I took the chance to grab Yuna’s wrist and ran back down the hall.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Run.” One word. It was enough for Yuna to understand.


    <span style="font-weight:400">They didn’t see me. No, they couldn’t see me. Even without the smoke, they wouldn’t know who showed up because of the helmet I had on. But the smoke was required to act as a deterrent and put distance between us in the confusion.


    <span style="font-weight:400">As I pulled Yuna along, the doors to other units started opening up as people exited their units. I dropped and hid the fire hydrant amidst the smoke that remained. Thankfully, there wouldn’t be any fingerprints left behind since I still had my motorcycle gloves on.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The security footage was the only problem, but at least my face wasn’t caught on camera. As long as Yuna didn’t sell me out and exined what happened here, I should be able to stay out of this and avoid cops hounding me over this little incident.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Well, that was probably wishful thinking. People rted to her, including coworkers, might be questioned or looked into to find the one responsible for this little incident. I really didn’t want to get fined for pulling it. There was no fire and even if it was to help someone, breaking aw was still breaking aw. I was nowyer though.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The two of us ran down the stairs at full speed when Yuna finally voiced herints, “You’re crazy! Have you lost your mind? What are you even doing here, are you stalking me or something?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Are you dumb? I just had a gut feeling that something was amiss, that’s all. This was purely by chance.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, I’ll thank you I guess. But this waspletely unnecessary.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What? You were fine with that guy doing whatever he wanted to you? If it was my misunderstanding and you were actually enjoying that situation just now because you have some weird fetish and want to go back there, you’re free to do so.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her hand as I dragged her along trembled a bit.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What? Scared?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m not scared.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Why’s your hand trembling then?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s not. It’s your imagination. Please don’t make unpleasant assumptions.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re not cute at all.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">We stopped talking when people began to enter from other floors on our way down.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Once we reached ground level, we made a run for my motorcycle. I tossed the passenger helmet over to her, hopped onto the seat, put the key in the ignition, and revved the engine as she climbed on the back.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Block the te while we’re driving.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“How?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“With one hand behind you, I guess.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“There’s no way I can do that.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Do it or I’ll just ditch you here.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Ugh. Okay, I get it. I get it. I just need to block it. I’ll try.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She wrapped her left arm around my waist and sat down sideways behind me. She was able to hold onto the bottom of the license te in this position and block most of it by holding her handbag between her right arm and the license te.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’ll haunt you if I fall off and die, you better drive carefully and be gentle.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Gentle? I’m not the type to be gentle though. I’m much more of an asshole than a gentleman.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Just shut up and drive.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaah. You sure are demanding.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I slowly picked up speed and drove off. As we started to move I nced to the side and noticed the group we’d fled from outside. The girl who’d been calling the shots was in front of the door. Despite having my helmet on and her being unable to see my facial features, our eyes coincidentally locked for a brief moment.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She was furious. That much I could tell. She naturally didn’t fail to notice Yuna on the back of my motorcycle facing her. There was no need to question whether Yuna saw her. She definitely did.