Thank You Officer Tamura

Daichi-san

Daichi stood at the gates of the school and swallowed thickly. He wasn't the one who usually did this and he had no idea about what the expect. Where was he supposed to go when the gates open? He didn't know where the main reception was, there was no map anywhere and he'd basically been kicked out the precinct without a second thought. Daichi suddenly cursed Officer Tamura for being sick and himself for still being friends with Asahi.

Asahi was still working in fashion but helped out at the local schools with textile classes and art shows. He said he was doing it as a favour to a friend and he couldn't do it as often as he wanted but he would always call Daichi to tell him how cute all the kids were. Daichi was sure that the friend Asahi was helping was Sugawara but he was always too scared to ask. The last time he'd seen Sugawara, was when they were 23 and they were both approaching 30 now so it really had been a while. They hadn't meant to grow apart but life got in the way and as ashamed as Daichi was to admit it, he'd just sort of forgotten about his friends. Sure, Asahi had insisted on staying close and called him up every five minutes, especially when Noya was travelling but everyone else had sort of drifted into the background. He always heard from them on his birthday and he did the same for them, occasionally they'd even have drinks but it wasn't regular. He wasn't sure why, but Sugawara just stopped making the effort one year. Daichi had wished him a happy birthday when he turned 25 and had expected the same for himself but it never came. Then the already rare "hope you're good!" texts stopped and soon enough, Sugawara had changed his number and never gave him the new one.

It took a long time for Daichi to stop feeling hurt over it and he was finally in a place where, when Asahi said "my teacher friend", he'd just smile, nod and picture a stranger in his head. He wasn't sure if Sugawara was still a teacher, hell he didn't know if he was even still alive but the slim chance that he worked at the school was enough to make Daichi squirm. The gate buzzing and finally opening was enough to snap him out of his thoughts as he adjusted his shirt and headed inside the campus.

His clothing felt stiff and stuffy as he was in the official uniform rather than his usual shirt and trousers which he wore whilst working as a detective. He suddenly had a lot of respect for the men he worked with but he was still pissed at Tamura for getting sick the one day of the year where there was nobody to cover him. A couple other officers would join Daichi later in the day but he'd gone ahead, before school hours to begin setting things up. It was part of a fairly new initiative where police would go into elementary schools to speak to kids about the importance of staying away from strangers and remaining on the right path in life. It was all bullshit because the kids never listened but there wasn't much anyone could do, he just had to suck it up.

Daichi stood just in the entrance of the gate, quickly scanning to see if there was a sign that told him anything about where he was supposed to go when he heard someone clear their throat behind him. He spun round quickly and came face to face with a young woman, possibly around 24, who had long brown hair scraped into a ponytail and a bright smile.

"Hi! Do you need help?" She grinned up at the tall man in front of her.

"Ah- yes please, I have no idea where the reception is." Daichi responded sheepishly.

"Oh, don't worry love, I used to get lost here all the time, just follow me."

"Thank you so much. I'm Detective Sawamura but you can call me Daichi." He smiled, stretching a hand out.

"I'm Miss Kobayashi but you can call me Sara." She replied, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze, before letting go and leading them towards the right. "So, you're a detective? Don't get many of those in Elementary schools. I'm sure whatever the kid did, they're really sorry."