"Since your mind seems clear, let me just ask you one thing. No injuries, and your body's fine. Can't recall why you collapsed. Do you know anything about it?"
Kang Sihyun, speaking as if summarizing the situation, looked at Hamin. Hamin, narrowing his eyebrows in confusion at the mention of not remembering, shrugged his shoulders when his gaze, focused on me, felt slightly puzzling. It was a gesture of not knowing. This time, Sihyun wore a puzzled expression.
"If you don't know, who would?"
"Then why don't you know?"
"Because I can't remember."
"I just helped you up when you suddenly collapsed on the stairs. After that, Kang Haewoon came down, and we were able to escape. What more is there to say?"
His voice, sounding irritated as if continuously harping on the same thing, either annoyed by my constant questioning or wondering why he was getting worked up, Haeun intervened, urging both of them to calm down.
"Sihyun, why are you fighting again right after waking up? Both of you, just calm down!"
"We weren't fighting."
"We were totally fighting!"
Unable to hold back the injustice of being treated as if he couldn't be stopped, Haeun shouted that I was being foolish. It echoed loudly in the infirmary. In hindsight, I was definitely not experiencing any tranquility.
If there had been another student in the infirmary, so what? Anticipating Haeun's scolding, I refrained from saying that I provided the reason for Sihyun, who was about to criticize, to stop. When the noisy infirmary finally quieted down, the thought of the end-of-month evaluation crossed my mind.
"By the way, how did our evaluation go?"
"You're asking so soon. We all got A."
"No S?"
"Did you expect that?"
"This time, A is the highest score!"
Haeun, responding to Hamin's provocation, spoke cheerfully. If A was the maximum, it meant that everyone on Team B had received perfect scores. A sense of relief washed over me, and the tension eased. I felt the absence of a backrest on the chair, and my back started to ache. When I tried to stand up to find a place to lie down, several hands grabbed me, preventing me from moving. It was clear they were using strong force to keep me firmly seated in the chair.
"My back hurts, and it's uncomfortable."
When I complained about the excessive force, my body suddenly lifted. I was puzzled about what was happening, but it turned out that Gunwoo had suddenly picked me up. It wasn't like he was carrying heavy bags of rice; he effortlessly lifted me, supporting my waist and legs, and walked towards the medical office. Sihyun turned his head and glared at me with a resentful look. The ease with which he moved made me feel embarrassed.
Being carried like a burden in front of everyone, how could I not be embarrassed? I wasn't unconscious; did I lose my legs or something? Feeling unjustly treated, I patted Gunwoo's back with my palm, signaling him to put me down. Despite tapping him several times, I couldn't touch the ground and was instead transported to a bed. Then, with great care, I was laid down as if handling something precious. It was an embarrassing sight that made even onlookers feel uncomfortable.
"I can walk..."
Sihyun, covering his face with his hands, muttered with a sigh. Baek Geonwoo, nonchalant, only responded with an "uh" after moving me. What's the point of answering now? Sihyun, swallowing the words that almost reached his throat, did not speak further. It was obvious he would just nod with that indifferent expression if he answered now.
"Endure the embarrassment, Sihyun! Gunwoo is just worried that you might collapse again!"
Yeah, who wouldn't know that?
Stirring up trouble in a burning house. However, Haeun didn't stop at just stirring up trouble.
"Should I ask Gunwoo to carry you when we go back to the dorm?"
Squish, he even poured oil on the fire.
With a cheerful face, Haeun, who was bothering me, was met with a displeased expression from Sihyun. Sihyun, rising from the bed, frowned as dizziness quickly struck when he got up. Geonwoo, who grabbed my shoulders, promptly laid me back down on the bed when he noticed the furrowed brows, covering me with the blanket up to my neck. It was truly meticulous care.
The care seemed even more elaborate than before.
Although I had expected this would happen from the moment I regained consciousness after fainting, what difference was there between me and a newborn kitten at this rate? I couldn't walk on my own, and I couldn't move freely. It seemed like they were even considering feeding me. At this rate, they might even take care of me in the bathroom.
Surely they wouldn't actually do that.
Sihyun, who was silently expressing his frustration, made me pale as I felt a sense that with these guys, they might actually do it. Each time I fainted, one more thing was added to their care routine. By now, I was beginning to fear what the fifth one would be.
Did I faint because I wanted to?
Sihyun muttered incomprehensible words as if making an excuse. Knowing it would be pointless to speak, I couldn't retort confidently.
"What about the teachers?"
"They kept watching you until we went to eat, then went for a meeting. They asked us to keep you in the infirmary until they come back."
"Oh..."
Whether I liked it or not, I couldn't leave the infirmary anyway. Hearing that, I felt a bit relieved, and Sihyun buried himself in the soft blanket. As I had felt before, the infirmary's blanket was smooth and had a comforting feeling when pressed, making it pleasant to be covered by.
"Come to think of it, Sihyun, you seem to have lost some weight, don't you think?"
Suddenly, Haeun brought up something I had forgotten. Just this morning, Sihyun was happy about gaining weight, but now, the weight he had gained seemed to have disappeared within half a day. Sihyun wanted to believe it was due to muscle loss from sleeping for a long time. If not...
"Then I should increase the amount of food."
Such words would come from him.
Sihyun looked at Seowoo, who mentioned increasing the food before I could make any excuses. Unnoticed, Seowoo had walked all the way to the infirmary and, while wetting the curtain, smiled gently. He showed an attitude of withdrawing a step, saying, "Shall I just make it the same as last time?" with satisfaction. In conclusion, it meant that nothing would change from before.
I was glad to think that he had learned to stop eating when he gained weight.
Eating delicious food continuously would lead to getting tired of it, and continuously eating something tiring would become disgusting. Doing every meal like that seemed a bit too much. When I tried to appeal a bit more, the door suddenly opened, and the teachers came in.
I missed the timing to talk about the meal quantity.
Answering the inquiry about my condition with an "I'm fine" and the question about my memory with as much as I knew, the interrogation-like Q&A session ended, and then a physical examination followed. After being thoroughly examined by the school nurse, the announcement came that I could now go back to the dormitory to rest. Unbeknownst to me, it was already past 9 o'clock, and outside the window, it was dim.
"Are you sure Geonwoo doesn't need to carry you?"
"I've told you it's okay several times. I didn't want it in the first place."
"Do you dislike it?"
"...It's not that I dislike you."
In the health room, it was even more chaotic than when the teachers were questioning me. Trying to shut up Haeun, who kept babbling, comforting the darkened Geonwoo, and holding onto Haru's hand, who seemed reluctant to let go even after another fainting spell – it felt like there was no separate kindergarten teacher for this. It felt like I was walking around with an average mental age of 6.5 years, dealing with kids.
"Sihyun."
"Yes."
"...By any chance, do you have a serious illness?"
In a worst-case scenario, Haru had now gone so far as to make me a major character with some hidden story in this small-scale drama. When asked if there was something wrong with my health, with my head lowered, I vehemently denied it. Despite that, Haru, still not at ease, brought up even frightening diseases in the discussion.
Finally, Sihyun, justifying that the probability of getting cancer at this age is very low, and even if it happens, he promised to get treatment, breathed a sigh of relief.
"...Or maybe it's another illness."
No, it didn't seem like he was relieved.
Sihyun, after the fourth fainting episode, had come to realize that being treated like a patient wasn't fair. As he thought about it, it seemed a bit unjust. It wasn't like he fainted because he was physically weak, and each fainting had a reason. The first fainting was due to suffocation, making it inevitable, and the second was due to trauma. The third was caused by imprinting three times with the dual body, and the reason for the fourth fainting was unknown.
...Isn't this a bit dangerous?
Only now did the thought cross his mind that his condition might be serious. Since the memories before fainting were completely gone, he might really have an illness. Thinking that he should get a health checkup when the summer vacation comes soon, Sihyun parted ways with Seowoo's group and returned to his room.
"Puff puff!"
Opening the door and entering the room was a round creature that looked frighteningly like a life form, flying towards me and hitting my chest with its head. Whether it hurt where I was hit or not, I burst into tears. Sihyun hugged Pia, who had stopped crying, as if comforting her with a slightly fierce welcome. Only then did Pia stop crying and playfully bumped into Sihyun.
"Pia was worried too!"
"Worried even by the birdbrain. Isn't it quite a skill?"
"It's not a bird, it's a fantasy paper."
Responding to Hamin's teasing with a furrowed brow, Sihyun, holding Pia, walked towards the bed. It was fine until he walked, but as soon as he looked at the bed, tension seemed to loosen, and fatigue set in. Holding Pia in his arms was also a proper way to heal. Sihyun, contemplating shower and sleep, remembered that the health teacher had used the Clean skill and buried his head in the pillow.
"Puff puff puff puff puff, puff puff."
Pia, as if singing in a good mood, emitted sounds. Sihyun, turning that into a lullaby, closed his eyes, entrusting himself to exhaustion. It was very pleasing that the room became quiet after Haeun went in to shower. The tranquility gently embraced him like a blanket. Falling asleep within it happened quickly.
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