Swan's teary face felt familiar. I had definitely never seen this face before, but it felt strangely familiar.
"...please."
Even if Swan and I had been close before, it was still extremely strange for him to be crying just because I had lost consciousness just this once. Especially, especially because this was Swanhaden. I barely got my body to move. I raised my arm to pat him gently on the back. His worry-laden, drooping shoulders made me feel bad.
"As I said, I'm not in pain. I just slept for a bit."
I didn't remember it, but I guess we really had been close. But if we were close enough for him to shed tears like this, why couldn't I remember? I had questions, but I erased them from my mind.
When I told him that I was okay and flexed my arm muscles to prove it, Swan seemed to relax a bit more.
Swan let go of my hand still in his, then just stared at me without a single word. He seemed to be coming back to his senses. He looked at his hand that had dragged me towards him, then back at me. Then, he looked at me again and checked the distance between the two of us.
Then, all of a sudden, Swan shoved me away from him.
"....!"
Then he ran away. I felt a sense of deja vu. I couldn't help but laugh.
I noticed that my hands had been piled with vitamins and other things that were supposed to be healthy. When I looked back, Swan was just a small speck in my line of sight. I had heard that he was athletically gifted; turned out that he really was good at running.
Swan continued to run until he bumped into a group of students who were heading back to class after their afternoon classes had ended. He almost tripped, but regained his balance and continued to run. Although he had caused a ruckus behind him, his face was still serene. Even if it was burning red.
After a few moments had passed after Swan disappeared, the others began to come over to me with surprised expressions.
"Shushu!"
"Shuraina!"
"....!"
It was Hestia, Cory, then Hylli.
All three of them seemed to have rushed over here: they all looked a mess. Cory's clothes still had burn marks from the magic circle he had been working on. Hylli was covered head to toe with dirt. Hestia's hair had bits of flowers here and there, and was still holding a pair of flower arrangement scissors.
"Why did you pass out? Why is Shushu hurt? Are you still in pain right now? Are you sure you're okay? Are you hurt?"
When Hestia came closer with her scissor still held threateningly in her hand, I took a small step backwards and took them out of her hands. Then, Hestia hugged me, voice teary. I patted Hestia's back and looked at an angry Hylli.
Hylli scowled as he checked my face.
"If you're sick, why are you out here?!"
Cory's face seemed equally stiff.
"Swan can use healing magic. Where's Swan?"
If you're talking about Swan, he ran away just now.
Hylli said that Swan was outside of the building and was running laps around the training hall. Why was he running laps? The others, including me, were curious. We all had curious expressions on our faces. When Cory said to Hylli that they should catch Swan and drag him over, I stopped them. Seeing how great my current state was, that I thought Swan had already healed me.
Even when I said that I was okay, all of them still had worried expressions on their faces. Then, they said things like "It's because you always push yourself that you got sick like this," and "Even if you're not in pain right now it can always come back," then didn't seem to believe any of my words about me being fine.
And thus, I was dragged back into the nurse's office by the three of them once more.
The three of them asked the nurse to put me in the 'sick bay'.
To explain exactly what the 'sick bay' did, it was a room for students who were seriously sick. Students were forced to take at least two days off of school in order to rest.
If the nurse allowed you to stay in the 'sick bay', then you would basically be given permission to skip class regardless of grades and absences.
In other words, it was basically being admitted into a hospital room.
But my current self wasn't sick enough to enter the sick bay. Honestly, I was healthier than most people right now. My magic was fully recharged, and my strength felt like it was overflowing. I could run ten laps around the training hall right now and would probably barely be short of breath.
I was feeling absolutely healthy. I refused to step inside of the nurse's office.
Yves and Harun had also joined the three of them. Yves checked my condition with a twisted expression that I had never seen on his face before, and Harun, who had become quieter recently also threw a tantrum when he saw that I was slightly sick.
I ended up being dragged into rest by the five of them. I didn't know about the rest of them, but I didn't expect Hestia and Cory to drag me back into the room as well.
Cory wrapped me, still refusing to lay down on the bed, with the blanket.
"Don't do anything and just rest. Even if you're all better, you need to take this opportunity to rest."
"You're a money addict, study addict, magic addict, swordsmanship addict...the reason why you've been so sensitive recently is because you haven't been resting. Skip classes in the morning and get some good sleep in. Why else would a healthy person like you suddenly pass out? You just need a vacation."
It looked like everyone had suddenly come to the same conclusion without me. Hmph. They ignored my explanations of my current physical state.
Cory and Hylli seemed to be well-prepared to make my school hospital life as enjoyable as possible. Hylli placed a bunch of novels that he thought I woud like, and Cory brought dried vegetable and fruits and other assorted healthy snacks and shoved them into the drawers next to me.
He didn't bring them over because he didn't want to eat it himself, right?
But Cory and Hylli weren't the only ones fussing about in the room.
Yves had taken all of the different medicine that Swan had given me and organized it into what I should and should not take.
Hestia went to the girls' dorm and brought over two days worth of necessities. My older brother Harun stood by my side. Swan, who had returned from his run, was helping the others.
Everyone except me rushed around the room.
"Can I leave? I'm bored."
When I asked the busy crowd, everybody just said "No." without even a moment's hesitation.
Just like that, I was forced to be a patient for two days.
Life in the sick bay was better than I thought. I thought I would be bored, but my friends constantly came to play with me.
When I flippantly said that I wouldn't be able to sleep at night because I slept in for so long, Cory and Hylli had even sneaked in to play with me.
Even though the boys' dorm and girls' dorm were in two different buildings, there was a hallway that connected the two, and the health office was close to the boys' dorm. Because of that, when I left the room to get some water, I saw Hylli and Cory or other boys brushing their teeth in their pajamas.
Anyway, because Cory's dorm room was really close to the office, they were able to come visit me.
I suggested a scary story relay to Cory and Hylli. When they all accepted, I created a small ball of magic to float over us for light and turned off the lights in the room.
I had suggested it, but the winner of the relay was, surprisingly, Cory. Cory really had no fear. He listened to all of my scary stories with a smile. Moreover, Cory was so good at creating horror stories that by the end, Hylli and I were absolutely white with fear.
Like that, I played with whoever came in, and slept when I was alone. I didn't forget to occasionally read the novels that Cory had brought. I hadn't relaxed this much since break. I thought to myself that relaxing like this wouldn't be too bad.
Today, the swordsmanship students all rushed in to see me.
"Shuraina! We heard that you passed out!"
"Are you hurt? Are you okay?"
The students, who had just returned from their afternoon classes, reeked of sweat. They shoved their smelly bodies near me to ask how I was doing. I had to cover my nose, but I was grateful for their visit and handed each of them snacks.
I watched as a few students left immediately after getting a snack and once again remembered how the world worked.
In the midst of the students was Hylli and Swan.
Swan still couldn't seem to look me in the eye, but he had gotten better than before. If he couldn't meet my gaze at all before, now he could peek at me ever so often behind Hylli.
"What are you doing? You're giving me hives."
"...."
Hylli looked disgusted at Swan, who peeked at me with sparkly eyes from behind him.
"Shushu, if Swanhaden looks at you with sparkly eyes just like he is right now, you have to be carefu—Ack!"
Hylli, who had been whispering this to me, soon received a bump to the head from Swan.
Swan held up some napkins and began to shove one napkin at a time into Hylli's mouth. He had a fierce glare in his eyes, as if wordlessly telling Hylli to stop lying.
I looked at the active students around me and wanted to stand up and play with them. When I tried to stand up, they pitched a fit.
"...I said I was bored."
When I whined back on my bed, the swordsmanship students brought out a huge board game. But sadly, Yves came in the middle of the game and kicked out all of the smelly students. Hylli and Swan had already washed up, so they were able to stay.
As soon as Yves entered the room, he began to cough. He seemed extremely annoyed.
"Those dirty things were in Shushu's room..."
Yves opened the window for some fresh air. The fresh air entered the room and expelled the scent of puberty. Yves put on a mask and began to clean up the crumbs and dirt that the students left behind. Yves seemed to be extremely dedicated to cleaning.
Hylli looked at Yves and then asked Swan.
"Does he do that in the dorms too? He's a neat freak."
"He has different types of brooms in the room. He's a cleaning pervert."
"I do see how he looks suspicious."
When Hylli and Swan began to speak about him at his face, Yves threw the dust cleaner in his hand at Swan.
But Swan just ducked and easily avoided it. On the other hand, Hylli, who had lowered his guards, received the hit instead.
Then, Cory visited right after his afternoon classes.
Cory had taken notes for the morning classes. I was probably losing some knowledge based on the things I missed during my absence, and that seemed to be why he was helping. We were in the same grade, class or not.
I really needed this, so I thanked him
But the notes that Cory had brought me had one fatal flaw.
"What letter is this…..?"
Cory's handwriting was too messy.
The others decided to help and placed the notes in the middle of the bed and tried to find clues for which is why. I thought it was fun so I joined too. Cory told the students if their guesses were right or wrong.
Out of all of us, Swan was the best at figuring out Cory's writing.
After we put together all of the words we had guessed from Cory's notes, I was finally able to write my own notes.
Anyway, because of this group I could count the amount of times I got out of bed with my fingers. They got me water, fed me. Everything was basically done for me.
They made a huge deal whenever I tried to do something. Hestia seemed ecstatic to help me and was extremely supportive of this. She seemed to have lost her mind as she complimented every little thing I did.
When I read a novel and laughed,
"Shushu! Shushu laughed! That's incredible Shushu!"
When I put my hair up alone,
"Oh my goodness Shushu! You tied your hair! You're so cool, Shushu! But your arms might hurt, so leave it to me!"
Everybody treated me like a little kid. They wouldn't let me do anything alone.
They seemed to be trying to lessen my stress factors for me, but my stress levels were rising instead.
So I decided to kick them all out.
Two days later, I was told that I could go back to my normal life. I cheered loudly, finally freed.