I woke up with a brutal headache, coughing, and a heavy malaise.
“Don’t tell me this is a cold…”
I dragged the thermometer out of the drawer and slid it under my arm.
“37.8?”
Well above my normal. Yeah — caught a cold. Definitely from being soaked in the rain yesterday.
”…School’s not happening today.”
In this state I couldn’t possibly focus in class. I’d take a sick day. (This was absolutely not about not wanting to see Suzuno’s face.) I put on a mask and went to the dining room.
“Morning, Yuito — Yuito, your face is bright red?!”
“Yeah — close to 38, so not great.”
“That’s what happens when you walk home without an umbrella in a downpour.”
She sounded part exasperated, part worried. She was right; I had no counter.
“By the way — where’s my brother?”
“Ayato? He had breakfast and went to morning practice.”
“He didn’t catch it.”
He’d been just as soaked as me — I’d thought he might be sick too. Apparently fine.
(For what it’s worth, I’d showered second — if the order had been reversed, he might have been the sick one.)
“Anyway, I’m out today. Could you call the school?”
“Sure. I’ll handle it. Get some rest.”
“Thanks.”
I grabbed a sports drink from the fridge and went back to my room.
“Oh — should let Kano-san know too.”
She sometimes camped at the school gate to ambush me, and if she did that today she’d be standing there for hours. I didn’t think she’d come today specifically, but on the chance, it’d be rude.
I LIMEd her. The message went to read instantly.
“That was way under a second…”
Maybe she happened to have my chat open? As I was wondering, my phone started vibrating with an incoming call. Yuki Kano on the screen.
“Hello, Kano-san?”
“Yuito, how are you feeling?”
“Almost 38, body like lead — honestly, not great…”
I was sprawled in bed even taking the call, because of the malaise.
“That bad? Definitely need rest.”
“As I said in the message, I’m out today, so don’t camp at the gate.”
“Aw — you sad you can’t see big sister today?”
“Yeah.”
The fever had me foggy and I just answered automatically. Normally I’d shoot back, but I had no energy.
“With your usual snap gone — you really are sick.”
“So I’m hanging up.”
”…Yeah. Talk later.”
She’d said something odd at the end but I was too sick to parse it.
After messaging friends I’d be out, I set my phone by the pillow and closed my eyes. I’d have liked to text Suzuno, but Kano deleted her contact and I can’t.
I’d tried a few times to add her back, but Suzuno — who Kano had clearly been feeding things to — refused.
“Suzuno’s always been totally compliant with anything Kano-san says…”
So that contact was a lost cause. Drifting in and out, I heard the doorbell.
A delivery, maybe? Then I heard footsteps outside my room. A bit different from Mom’s tread. Who?
For a moment I wondered if my brother had forgotten something — but he wouldn’t have rung the bell. The identity became clear immediately.
“Sorry to keep you — your big sister is here to nurse you back to health.”
“Don’t you have class right now?”
“Self-imposed day off, all good.”
It was Kano. German class, I think. Was it really okay to skip?
“All right, step one — drop the pants and underwear.”
”…What?!”
The request blindsided me. I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Or would you prefer I peel them off for you?”
“First explain why exactly I need to be exposing my lower half.”
“Sorry, sorry — incomplete explanation. I stopped at the drugstore and found these.”
She pulled something from a plastic bag. A rectangular box clearly labeled suppositories.
“That is absolutely not happening.”
“But you want to get better quickly, right? Suppositories work better than oral meds.”
She was deadly serious.