Luna hovered in front of the entrance among groups of people going in and out of the entrance.
In the midst of this flow of people, Luna felt a stroke of uneasiness.
'Is it even ok for me to visit her?'
'I mean I've only known her for a few weeks.'
'Is that enough for me to visit her?'
'Will they even allow me in the first place?'
'...I'm not in the right mind as well....'
'I guess I shouldn't,' Luna finally concluded after a slew of thoughts. All though she had seemingly made up her mind, her gaze remained trained on the entrance, and her feet refused to move from her spot.
Luna stayed like this until she felt a tap on her shoulder.
'Oh...I should apologize-'
"..." Luna psyched herself up as much as possible only to get stuck when she actually turned around. The older lady frowned slightly seeing Luna's reaction.
"Children nowadays..." the woman muttered to herself while walking past Luna, just loud enough for Luna to hear.
'Haahh,' Luna sighed internally. Her face had reset back to its usual default.
Lowering her head in dejection, Luna started to walk away from the entrance and somehow right into Sefir.
"Oh sorry, I was trying to move out of the way, and I accidentally- Luna?" Sefir started off rambling and finally cut himself off seeing that it was Luna.
"....hi..." Luna managed to eke out while backing away an appropriate distance.
"What are you doing here?" Sefir asked curiously.
'She must have rushed here straight from the academy or she's just wearing that as street clothes.' Sefir thought to himself as he eyed Luna's training outfit.
"....I....was just...." Luna started slowly trying to think what should she say in this situation.
"...taking a stroll...." Luna finished.
'There, that should be an answer that doesn't sound suspicious,' Luna thought, proud of her reasoning.
"...I see," Sefir replied while raising his eyebrow.
"Well, I'm going to see Emmia right now, you wanna join?" Sefir asked while scratching the side of her face.
At that, Luna jerked her head up with her eyes wide.
"...I can come too?"
"Sure, I don't see why not. In fact, I think that Emmia would've wanted you to visit her at least once," Sefir answered Luna.
"....is it allowed?" Luna asked while dipping her head a little.
'What if he'll get in trouble because of me...'
"It is? I mean anyone related to the patient can visit at least during daylight hours. Anyways, Emmia's big sister is there too, so there shouldn't be any problems."
'..Big sister!' Luna thought while her eyes widened slightly.
'Emmia talked about her so much. I finally get to meet her!'
Suddenly a wave of nervousness flowed over Luna as she felt anxiety gripped her once more.
"So?" Sefir prompted after seeing Luna freeze up for a longer than usual time frame. Which he had deduced to be about 7 to 8 seconds of pause before Luna answered anything.
".....so?" Luna repeated the question unable to remember what Sefir had asked her in the first place.
"Will you come along?" Sefir reiterated the question while suppressing a sigh.
"...yes," Luna finally gave her answer after a pause. Sefir exercising his patience nodded in relief.
"Great, then come along," Seifr told Luna and led the way into the hospital.
Luna followed behind Sefir while thinking of what she would say and do when she saw Emmia's sister.
'Does she know about me?'
'I hope so or else it'll be really awkward.'
'I should introduce myself anyways just in case.'
'Alright, I'll just say "Hello, my name is Luna. I'm a friend of Emmia."'
'.....easier said than done....'
'Arghhh, I should've just left when I had the chance. Why did I have to agree.'
As Luna felt herself drift into a spiral of intrusive thoughts, her gaze landed on a bag that Sefir was carrying.
"I've bought some stuff for Seril in here," Sefir suddenly spoke up after feeling Luna's eyes on the bag.
"..." Startled, Luna almost felt like yelping in surprise. But that wasn't possible and Luna knew that. Luna nodded hastily to show Sefir that she heard him the first time when she saw his confused face.
Sefir closed his half-open mouth and shrugged slightly to play it off.
'Ahhh, why do I always get stuck with such weird characters,' Sefir droned on internally. It seemed like all the weirdos just gravitated toward him somehow.
By the time Luna and Sefir reached Emmia's hospital ward, Luna felt jittery and clammy. On the inside that is. On the outside, she still had that same expressionless look that continued to drill a hole into Sefir's back.
'She's just staring, she doesn't want to ask you anything,' Poor Sefir repeatedly told himself to resist the urge to turn around and shake Luna until she talked.
Knocking on the door, Sefir called out, "Seril, it's me Sefir. I've come to bring your things."
After a momentary pause behind the door, a mature voice came out from behind the door, "Come in."
Luna followed Sefir into the ward.
All thoughts of introducing herself to Seril went up in smoke as soon as she saw Emmia lying down in the bed.
Pale would be the accurate description of how Emmia was looking. After more than a week of hospitalization, Emmia had become extremely pale, almost matching Luna's skin color.
Seeing Luna's silence, Sefir sighed to himself.
"Hey Seril, this is Luna, the new transfer student at school. Well, not so new anymore," Sefir introduced Luna to help her out.
Luna snapped to attention after hearing Sefir introduce her.
"Hello Luna, I've heard a lot about you from Emmia," Seril greeted her with a smile.
Opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish for five seconds, Luna shut it and decided to just bow.
Seeing Luna bow instead of responding, Seril felt an amused smile crawl onto her face.
'She's just as awkward as Mia described.' Seril thought feeling the overwhelming urge to mess with Luna.
Alas, the moment her eyes shifted away from Luna, all that playfulness vanished after eyeing her still-sleeping sister.
"Here's your stuff," Sefir told Seril as he laid the bag next to her seat.
"Thank you..." Seril thanked him with a trace of sadness in her voice.
Scratching his head, Sefir decided to tell her. "I brought your stuff here because you know how Ica is...."
"Yes, I figured after seeing you here." Seril sighed with regret. Initially, she had requested Icarth to bring her the stuff she required from their home in the residential district, but Icarth must've pawned it off to Sefir the first chance he got.
"How is Mia?" Sefir asked after a moment's pause.
"Still the same. No change," Seril answered Sefir while shifting her attention to her sister.
"I see..." Sefir trailed not knowing how to continue the conversation. To make matters worse, Luna wasn't saying anything and was just gazing at Emmia while standing next to him.
'Arhhhhh, I have to get out of here.'
"Alright Seril, I'll get going. I hope Emmia gets better soon," Saying his goodbyes, Sefir turned to Luna as if that was their cue to leave.
In contradiction to his action, Luna continued to watch over Emmia, not paying him any attention.
"Ahem," Sefir cleared his throat.
"...ah..I'll stay here for a while longer," Luna finally answered after Sefir's prompt.
"..Alright then. See you in class then," Sefir waved his goodbyes and escaped the room as fast as possible.
'Finally, I'm free!' Sefir thought to himself as he sidestepped a nurse who tripped on her own feet.
Catching the nurse, Sefir asked her, "Are you okay?"
"Ah! Thank you!" The nurse replied flustered.
Repositioning the nurse to her feet, Sefir gave her some obvious advice, "You should watch where you're going."
Immediately after saying that, Sefir kicked himself mentally. 'She obviously knows that.'
"Ah yes, I will," The nurse timidly accepted his advice.
Not knowing what else to say, Sefir nodded and headed off not before catching which room the rattled nurse was walking into.
'Ahh, I see. Good luck,' Sefir wished her well as the nurse stepped into Emmia's ward.