The time when Althea was absent from school in a year could be counted in one hand. In fact, she never took leave from school due to sickness.
If it's just a slight fever, runny nose, cough, and other such flu, then she would not take leave and nor will her mother let her.
But that is also why she always wonder about the need to take vaccine injection she didn't even know what for at school.
Well, she heard what it was for, but the thought of the needle made her forgot its purpose.
Althea looked outside of the class' window where she could see some people in medical attire walked together as the one leading the group talked with the headmaster of the school.
It was break time, a time where students would usually be so happy they could jump and run to the canteen while chattering, but today they seemed to lose their appetites.
Althea swiped open her phone, clicked on Ray's chat which last message was telling her to study well at school and typed, "Today we will get a health check and injection."
Althea scrolled their talk for randomly. It has been a few days since they resolved their conflict and they have been doing well ever since. Althea would chat Ray anytime she could and as Ray they have agreed before, Ray would reply when he's free.
"Wahh, I don't want to get an injection." Althea's focus was distracted with the voice of a girl with blue ribbon tying her dark brown hair whined in one of the front seats, surrounded by three or four other girls with different expressions.
'Injection, huh.'
Althea felt wary even by imagining how the pointy needle would pierce through her skin. She has been bad with such thing and Karin mocked her for labeling such thing as 'gore'.
Listening to the girl whining some more to her classmates, Althea could only nod in understanding.
Althea moved her sight to the other girls before turning to see Karin also watching the girl, only with a restrained grin on her face.
"Don't make fun of other's misery." Karin smacked her friend's head and Karin made an exaggerated, "Oww" while rubbing her head.
"Come on, there's no need to do this. I'm just..." Karin's eyes turned to look at the ceiling, searching for the correct word, "Sympathizing." She nodded seriously.
"I can see how big of a heart you have there, baby." Althea rolled her eyes. There are more antics in this girl than she knows in Ray, or maybe it's the same, only that Ray is the dark version of it.
"Hehe, but still. It's not like it's the first time we will get an injection." Karin defended.
"Doesn't make it better." Althea scrunched up her nose and turned to see her phone again. Still no reply.
"Thea, is that robot ignoring you?" Karin poked Althea's side as she peeked on her phone.
"Hands off, Karin." Althea glared at her friend's mischievousness and Karin giggled at the response.
Althea was about to poke Karin back before she felt her phone vibrated, "I hope you're healthy. Also, are you perhaps afraid of injection?" Ray replied.
Althea turned from her friend, to the message, and to Karin again, "Could it be that your antics are giving me the luck?" Althea asked jokingly.
Karin pursed her lips and let Althea took her time to reply before she turned to watch the corner to 'sympathize' with others again.
"Not really. It just looks..." Althea was searching for a word less than scary but more than not scary but couldn't find any.
"It's not scary, dear."
'Yeah, the sixth-sense-like intuition.' Althea kept on wondering how this man always know what she thought.
"My bite would hurt you more."
Althea had to read it twice before she was sure she didn't misread anything.
"What are you talking about?" Althea felt heat rising up her cheeks.
Lately, she felt like Ray took his time to tease her more. After asking for a kiss which she ignored that night, he kept on coming up with new strange things to say.
"Don't think that I don't bite, baby." another reply came.
Althea swiftly took a book and fanned herself as she tried to keep her composure. The motion making Karin turned to her, "What is it, Thea?"
"Nothing." She shook her head fiercely as if to deny something bad.
"Could it be... you guys are talking about pervert stuff?" Karin was smiling so wide that it seemed like she would burst from today's list of fun-things-to-tease.
Althea wanted to argue back but the medical staff had arrived and the atmosphere abruptly tensed, taking the two's attention away.
"Alright, everyone. Today we will give you an injection on this table and afterward you can come to the second table to get your health checked." The teacher pointed to the teacher's table in front and another table close to the door where one of the medical staff set herself down.
Soon the students lined up one by one despite their fears, though one of them really cried endlessly throughout the injection process.
'High-schoolers.' Althea thought.
Well, she's afraid too but she has somehow mastered keeping a poker face during hard times and the thought of being a Vice-President who needs to be a role model kept her from whining. She even volunteered herself to be the first one to get shot, followed by Karin who was not the least bit afraid of it.
And of course, the thought of a bite helped to keep her mind occupied, too.
"You're anemic." The doctor told her.
"Yes?" Althea repeated. Karin was standing close to her to see the result of the blood test.
"Did you not eat vegetables?" the doctor asked again.
"Yes, not that much."
The doctor frowned and Althea thought she heard him grumbled, "youngsters these days" before telling Althea what to do to recover from it.
"Hmm, you really eat too few veggies." Karin chirped.
"They're yucky."
Althea ignored Karin's rambling on how good it is and checked her phone. Ray had asked her what the result is before the test even started.
"I'm healthy. Just slightly anemic." Althea left out the fact that her hemoglobin concentration is the least compared to the rest of the class.
"You should eat more vegetables and fruits." Ray started.
'Here we go again,' Althea sighed as Ray gave a long explanation on how bad anemia can be for her and what food she could eat to improve it.
"It's just that it doesn't taste good. And my family rarely cook it." Althea sulked.
"You can search for a good recipe on the internet and try to cook it, dear." Ray patiently advised.
"Yeah... But still..."
"Now, be good and try to eat as best as you can. When we meet I'll cook for you, okay?"
Althea smiled as she thought how would Ray's cooking taste like.
As someone who had been living alone, it was only normal for him to be able to cook. Before Ray was busy with his studies, he used to cook some dishes originally from his country and sent the pictures to Althea.
Althea might not know much of its taste, but all of them looked mouth-watering.
"Hihi, okay. Deal." she agreed readily.