章 43: Sick Day
Isako rushed quickly to the nurses office as soon as she heard the news. When she entered, she saw the girls sitting around Kouji's bed. Where the boy himself was lying in, asleep.
"What's the issue here?" She asked the nurse running everything. He had a high fever, and from what she could tell a lot of pain in the chest region. Being prompted for more answers, she would say that in her professional opinion, that stress mixed with a virus he caught led to this happening.
"Thankfully, we can help manage his symptoms. It's also a good thing that his illness will go away on its own." She concluded that his chest was unrelated to the heart. Which was fortunate, as she would've immediately transported him to the hospital if that were the case. How he got this way, she didn't know. Though Isako had an idea as to how it got to this point.
"Girls." She walked up to everyone, who looked on to Kouji with concern. "Please do not crowd him too much."
"Headmistress, will he be okay?" Anastasia asked. She got a nod for answer to give her some hope. That gave everyone there some relief over this situation.
"Now, I must ask you all to return to class now." He would be fine, so it shouldn't prevent them from paying attention to their studies. After all, that's what he would want anyway. There were some protests, but Isako was firm in her position as headmistress. So the girls did as she said, and left the room.
While she could've left with them. The freedom with her position during class time allowed her to stay, which is what she wanted to do. Isako sat down by his side on the bed. The boy hardly stirred, with exception to his shivers caused by the high fever.
The poor boy, she thought. As the nurse said, whatever stress he had was most likely the main cause of this. Along with his already low health standards. She ran her finger over his cheek, it was scorching hot.
To help keep him from overheating, she got a towel and wet it with cold water. Then placed it over his forehead, which did little to ease his pain.
In response to what she did, he winced in pain. Slowly, Kouji's eyes opened up and was greeted with her.
"Wha? Where… Where am I?" He was still a little out of it. She filled him in on the whole fainting ordeal that worried everyone. How Teru had to carry him the whole way here. The nurse having to deal with five girls that were much too curious as to what she was doing.
"What matters is that you'll be fine." She told him. All he had to do now, was to Just rest in bed for now. As much as his mind wanted to get back to class, his body was completely against it.
Isako place her hand over his chest, sensing his attempts to leave. It really was a pitiful display to watch him try and get up. That pride of his was going to be his death at this point.
"It's fine." She continued to talk, which got him to relax his body a little bit.
"I'm sorry." He said, closing his eyes in shame. "This is all my fault."
"While your poor health certainly doesn't help, you only started acting this way because of your uncle."
"I… Don't want to blame others… Not for my own actions." He struggled to get the words out, as the fever began to flare up again. In response, she got another cool towel to put on his head.
"I see." She understood where he was coming from. Having both parents taken away from such a young age, moving off to some unfamiliar town shortly after, dealing with whatever school his went too. A lot of people wouldn't blame him for turning out bad.
But… He would. She didn't know what he's been through, but he chose to change himself. Chose to take a harder route to become something of himself.
"Kouji." She leaned in closer to his face. His eyes were still closed, it appeared that he drifted off to sleep again. "I'm prouder of you, than you could possibly imagine." She took his hand. "But please, don't put so much on yourself. You have people here that care about you."
"…" His response to her words, his eyes slowly opened once more. However, what he said would've shocked pretty much everyone at school. "Auntie?"
"He's hallucinating." She said. The fever was beginning to take more of a hold onto him. Though, there was some truth in what he just said. Just that in his normal state, he apparently didn't remember her anymore. "Nurse, I'd like if you could check on him again."
Isako moved away from him, looking around to find the proper aid. It was then that Kouji tightened his grip onto her hand.
"Please don't leave." He continued to speak in his delusion. "I don't want to be alone."
"It's okay." She reassured him. "I promise, I won't let you go through this alone." Again, his eyes slowly closed. Kouji fell back asleep, allowing her to get the nurse.
***
It felt like a dream. As Kouji reawakened, he found himself on a bed. His body felt weak, but unlike before it wasn't in pain. His head still hurt a little, he rubbed on them as he heard the bell ringing. The noise almost made living too unbearable as it droned into his ears. His reaction to it, was to cover him as hard as he could.
This bell signaled the end of classes. The footsteps of girls walking by the room he was located in was heard. However, there was a pair that stood out from the rest.
"Kouji, I am here!" Anastasia slammed open the door, the first one here. She announced her arrival, despite believing that he was asleep. Surely if he wasn't awake now, he'd be getting a rude awakening here.
"H-hello." He barely was able to get a reply out to her. It was also a struggle to get himself just slightly up from laying down. In her excitement, she jumped on top of him, which hurt... A lot, by the way.
"I am so glad to see you are not sleeping." She yelled out. "I thought that you were… As they said, sleeping with fishes."
"Well I'm not dead. So I can feel all this!" He complained to her, this was far from helping his health situation.
Eventually, the rest of the girls came walking in. Himawari, Waa, Teru, with Yuma lagging behind the rest. Him being passed out, made their study group during second break rather awkward. Classwork was the last thing on all of their minds.
Everyone's arrival was exactly what Isako was expecting. Especially given what plan she had for them.
"I'm glad to see you're all here." She said to them. "Unfortunately, as we all are aware, your tutor has grown rather ill."
"I'm sure that all of us will not neglect our studies while he's out of commission." Himawari said so in a bragging manner. "At least I won't."
"I would expect no less from students at this academy." Isako commenced her. However, that isn't what I will be asking of all of you." Only she and the girls were aware of Kouji's living situation. That being that he lived on his own, without any parental figures that could be easily reached. He wasn't fully healed yet, and just to be safe, she felt that at least one person should be with him. In case he faints again or his condition gets worse.
"I suppose it's a good thing that tomorrow is a weekend then." Himawari realized that this would've been difficult to do if they also had to miss classes.
"Ugh, doesn't sound that great." Waa, on the other hand, lamented the fact that a perfectly good weekend was going to have to be spent doing lame care work.
"Of course, I don't expect just all of you to have to spend all day taking care of him." Isako clarified. Plus, Kouji's house was pretty tiny. Five other people being there would probably cause more problems for everyone involved.
"So… How will it be handled?" Yuma asked. The answer was simple. After school today, Isako said that she that she will take care of him for the rest of the day. Plus spend the night with him, just in case.
Unfortunately, as much as she would've liked to handle things for the next day. Work got in the way, as there were important things to take care of in seperate town. So tomorrow the girls were going to have to help, even if she felt that was asking a bit much.
She already had a schedule planned. Himawari, Yuma, Waa, Teru, and Anastasia in that order.
"I promise, that we will do a good job." Anastasia accepted the job graciously, looking forward to her role. Everyone else said similar things, and that was it.
***
While the girls were been fine with the arrangement. Kouji was a bit apprehensive. It was while he was walking back to his home that he wanted to take the opportunity to discuss his problems with this plan. But she spoke first, before he got the chance.
"I cannot believe that you were so against riding in my vehicle." She scolded him, while Kouji took a small break on this walk. "Honestly, what type of fool are you?"
"I just… Thought that maybe a little exercise might help me feel better." He came up with an excuse.
"If you work yourself too hard, then you'll just make it worse." She retorted, as they resumed walking. Even then, she allowed this walk instead of forcing him into her car. Mainly due to the fact, that she had an idea as to why he was not so keen of a short drive.
"Are you sure you can't get out of work?" He asked her. "I'd much rather you watch me instead of them." Kouji also believed that he'd be fine tomorrow. This precaution just seemed an overreaction to him.
"Honestly, I wish I could." However, it was a previously agreed upon arrangement. It was too late to back out for her, especially for a student like him. There was no way she could allow it to appear that she gave him special treatment. "But what's wrong with the girls? I thought that they were your friends?"
"Of course they are." It wasn't that he disliked them, that led to him not wanting them to be his caretakers.
It's just that things don't typically end well, when he's alone with any of them.
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