Shun entered the classroom, shaking from nervousness.
He quietly approached Riku, who was still fighting against the hard mark the teacher had left with the chalks.
"Hey, Riku." He called, straightening himself up.
Riku turned his face. "Mm."
Shun swallowed. This is it. My moment. Agent Bag Boy's first live mission.
Shun rubbed the back of his neck, the amusement park tickets crumpling slightly in his sweaty grip.
"So, uh… I accidentally bought, like, twenty tickets to that new amusement park downtown."
Riku blinked, chalk still in hand. "How do you accidentally do that?"
"it was a group discount! And—anyway—I'm thinking we should all go. Like, the whole class. You know. Bonding. Screaming together on roller coasters."
"The whole class? Hmm..." Riku rubbed his chin, looked down, then at Shun who looked confused at his own ideas.
"When?"
Shun immediately locked in, and replied. "Sunday, Tommorow, 4:00 pm."
"So, everyone means everyone right?" Riku asked.
Shun nodded quickly. "Of course! Everyone. You, me, daichi,yuto, vegetable looking guy, the guys in the back row, even the weird girl who talks to her eraser."
Riku's expression didn't change, but he paused. "So you're inviting Mei."
"Uh… yeah?" Shun tilted his head. "Why?"
"No reason." Riku casually turned back to the board, wiping the last bits of chalk. "Sounds fine."
Gulping, he turned towards mei, who seemed to not have a single care for the world, other than the stupid bubble gum some kid had stuck on the wall.
Shun approached her, then called her out.
"Hayasaka."
She didn't respond.
"Uh.. Hayasaka-san!" He increased his volume.
Still no response.
Riku, still near the board, was laughing silently at the sight of shun getting ignored.
"..."
"...Oi."
Shun poked at the desk near her lightly with a finger. "Hayasaka-san, I'm talking to you."
Finally, Mei blinked and turned her head—slowly, like someone just waking up from a dream. Her eyes met his with the intensity of someone who had absolutely not been paying attention.
"...What?" she said, voice dry and uninterested.
Shun forced a smile, holding out the tickets again like they were some kind of holy offering.
"I got tickets. Amusement park. Whole class. Tomorrow. You in?"
Mei stared at the tickets for a long second. Then at Shun.
"...You're the guy who brought a backpack full of rice crackers on the field trip, right?"
"That was strategic!" he defended instantly. "Energy food. Very responsible."
She ignored the excuse and narrowed her eyes slightly. "...Will there be cotton candy?"
"Uh... probably?"
Her eyes flicked to the gum on the wall, then back to Shun.
"I'll come," she said finally. "But if it's lame, I'm blaming you in my diary."
"That's fair," Shun said, relieved.
"Also," Mei added, "I get to pick the first ride."
"Sure."
"And I'm not sitting next to Daichi. He smells like sadness."
"...I think you meant Yuto."
"....I think I meant Murusaki." She fixed her mistake. Afterall, she wasn't good with names.
Yuto Murusaki, hmm..
"Here the ticket." He said as he plucked out a ticket from that inhumanely amount of tickets and handed it to her.
Mei took the ticket between two fingers like it was some strange museum artifact. She gave it a long look, turned it upside down, then sniffed it.
"...Smells like capitalism," she muttered.
"Why would you do that?" Shun questioned, her and himself, probably the ticket too.
Mei shrugged. "You can't trust things that come in bulk. Especially if they're fun."
Shun opened his mouth. Closed it. Decided he wasn't emotionally equipped to unpack whatever that meant and just nodded.
"Right. Totally. I'll, uh, see you tomorrow."
Mei didn't answer. She was already back to staring at the gum with the same eerie fascination as someone watching a horror movie where the monster was slowly crawling closer.
Shun made his tactical retreat.
He left the room.
Mission successful.
Bringing out his phone, he spoke.
"Heard that? Done."
Hana from the other side, along with Aika and Daichi who were still mumbling, spoke.
"Good job, baggy. But, really. How didst thou come by so great a number of tickets to the park of merriment?"
"That sounded horrible." Aika adviced Hana.
"Can you not speak like that, shakespeare? Also, it really was on group discount."
"You sure are getting comfortable talking with us. You were literally stuttering every word the other day." Hana teased him.
"That's because I had some respect for you people."
"So you don't anymore?" Daichi dramatically asked.
"Character development" Shun replied, and hung up. He knew if he hadn't, his eardrums would have busted from the complainants of Aika.
He put his phone in his pocket along with both his hands and quietly started walking.
'Amusement park with friends...' A faint smile was written on his face as he thought of going together with his "friends".
Afterall, he was a loner.
---
Shun opened the door to his house and slowly entered. On his left was a brown shoe holder with a flower pot on top. It was rose, just a single one, red and bright.
He turned his head a little to the right. Just at the height of his head was a big golden modern clock. Ticking and telling the time.
'5:16..' he thought to himself and sighed.
"I am home!" He shouted, just like usual.
"Welcome back!" a voice came from the kitchen, followed by the familiar clatter of a pan. It was his mother— Misaki Kurata, always cooking something, always humming something, always home.
Shun stepped further in, kicking off his shoes and lining them up neatly next to a worn pair of sneakers—his dad's.
"Smells like curry," he muttered, sniffing the air. His stomach growled in agreement.
"That's because it is curry!" his mom called out again, now peeking her head around the corner with a smile. Her hair was tied messily in a bun, and her apron had a little cartoon egg printed on it, the kind that looked eternally happy.
"Wash your hands before dinner. Your dad'll be home soon."
Shun nodded and made his way through the narrow hallway. He passed the living room—a small, comfy space with a squishy gray couch and a coffee table stacked with half-read magazines, a few loose manga, and a remote that only worked if you pressed the buttons like your life depended on it.
The walls were filled with small photo frames. Family vacations, birthdays, a blurry picture of Shun in a dinosaur costume from when he was six. He didn't like that one, but his mom loved it. So It stayed.
He reached the bathroom, washed his hands quickly, and just as he was drying them, he heard the unmistakable sound of chaos thundering down the stairs.
"SHUUUUN!"
A rocket in the shape of a small girl charged into him at full speed. He barely braced in time before she slammed into his stomach, hugging him like he was a prize she had just won.
"Ow—hey! Calm down, Kanna!"
Shun looked down at his little sister— Kanna Kurata, eight years old, wild hair tied in twin ponytails, and cheeks puffed in excitement.
"You said you'd play Games with me today!" she announced, as if this was a legally binding contract.
"I never said today."
"You didn't say not today!"
Shun sighed, defeated, as Kanna grinned in triumph. She had that same dangerous negotiation skill as their mom.
"Okay, after dinner," he said. "And I'm not going easy on you this time."
"You never go easy and still lose," she snickered, skipping off toward the living room.
Shun stared at the ceiling like a soldier bracing for war. "you didn't have to say it like that. The readers will think I am uncool."
He turned just as the front door clicked open again. In came his father, Tenka Kurata tired but smiling, still adjusting his tie with one hand and holding a convenience store bag in the other.
"Yo," his dad said casually, stepping in and locking eyes with him. "You survived school?"
"Barely," Shun replied.
His dad raised an eyebrow. "That's good. So, how's it going with your new friends?"
Shun smirked. "I will announce that on the dinner table."
His dad froze, dramatically dropping the plastic bag. "Look at this guy, he's just like his grandfather."
"Ha-ha." Shun rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a little proud and a little embarrassed.
His sister still hugging him like a sloth hugging a tree.
Dinner was warm. Loud. Curry was delicious. Kanna told a five-minute story about how she saw a cat with "the saddest eyes in the world." His dad complained about a coworker who microwaved fish again. His mom made sure no one's rice bowl stayed empty for more than thirty seconds.
And Shun, in the middle of it all, just quietly smiled.
"So, What were you going to tell me?" His dad asked, turning his head away from his mother.
"I am going to amusement park tommarow." Shun replied.
"Alone?" The three asked in union. They knew this shy kid was not the type to go any where near such a place.
Shun shook his head, lips curling into a small, victorious grin. "Nope. With my class."
Silence.
Total, absolute silence.
Even Kanna froze mid-sip of her juice box, straw still in her mouth. His mom blinked twice. His dad looked like he had just witnessed a live exorcism. The rice cooker beeped in the background, as if confused, too.
"…You were invited?" his mom finally asked, gently, like she didn't want to spook the miracle.
"No," Shun said, puffing out his chest slightly. "I invited them."
Silence—again, but somehow heavier this time. Like the universe itself paused to process the absurdity.
"You?" his dad repeated, slowly. "You invited your whole class?"
Shun nodded, grabbing a potato from the curry. "Twenty tickets. All gone. Agent Bag Boy has officially executed Operation Fun-Time."
Kanna raised her hand. "What's a Bag Boy?"
"Don't ask," Shun and his dad said at the same time.
His mom leaned in slightly, squinting at him like he was a shapeshifter wearing her son's skin. "Are you okay? Did you hit your head? Did a girl talk to you?"
"Two, actually."
His dad clutched his chest like he was having a heart attack.
Kanna gasped. "Is he dying?"
"Possibly," Shun's dad wheezed. "My son… actually has friends…"
"Mom, Dad, I think we're in an isekai," Kanna whispered, looking around in fear.
"Wait." His mom leaned closer again, eyes wide. "You talked to girls?"
"I invited, Mei Hayasaka, Riku Arai, Yuto Murusaki and Dai-"
"M-murusaki?! Don't you know his brother?"
His dad nearly choked on his water.
His mom's spoon clattered into her bowl.
Kanna gasped so hard her juice went up her nose.
"Yuto Murusaki?!" his dad sputtered. "The Murusaki? As in, the little brother of Rai 'Skullbreaker' Murusaki?!"
Shun blinked, fork halfway to his mouth. "…I mean, yeah? Yuto's in my class."
"You invited his brother?" his mom said, voice going up an octave. "The same guy who put three seniors in the nurse's office because they stepped on his shoes?"
"The same guy who has an entire wall of warning notes in the staff room?" his dad added.
"The same guy who once headbutted a vending machine until it gave him free drinks!" Kanna said, eyes wide with admiration.
"…Wait, how do you know that?" Shun asked, disturbed.
"I read things." She crossed her arms smugly. "Internet is free."
His mom leaned closer, gripping the edge of the table like she was about to faint. "Shun. Sweetie. Do you have a death wish?"
"Yuto's not like that," Shun said quickly. "He's quiet. Nice. He's just… kinda always anxious. Doesn't even raise his voice."
"But his brother is a demon in a school uniform!" his dad argued. "That guy once threatened a teacher for mispronouncing his name!"
"I heard he body-slammed a basketball hoop," Kanna chimed in. "While it was still ten feet high."
Shun scratched the back of his head. "…Yeah, I've heard all that too. but... Why on earth do you have access to all this information!?"
Kanna sipped her juice again—this time dramatically. "Because I'm the family's secret intelligence unit. Duh."
"Kanna, you're eight."
"And you still lost to me in Mario Kart last week."
"…Irrelevant," Shun muttered, defeated again.
His mom sighed, rubbing her temples. "Sweetheart. I'm happy you're making friends. Really. But inviting Yuto Murusaki… what if his brother shows up?"
Shun raised an eyebrow. "Why would his brother come to an amusement park hangout meant for high schoolers?"
"Becau..... nevermind, You are somehow right." His mom stopped the disagreement.
"What do you mean somehow !?" Shun furiously said.
---
Miracle Land Amusement Park.
One of the biggest in the whole city. No one really knew why someone would build an amusement park that massive in such a random downtown area. But no one questioned it.
They just came. They laughed. They screamed. They enjoyed.
And now, it was time.
Twenty high schoolers stood in front of the entrance, eyes wide, phones out, arguments already breaking out about which ride to go on first.
But not a single one of them was in school uniform.
Because this wasn't a school trip.
This was...
(Love) Mission Trip.