Chapter - 4
*A few hours earlier*
The movie had ended and Ryota & company just came out of the movie theater. "Aah! That was so good, the climax was satisfying too." Aikawa was full of Ebullience. "It sure was, truly awesome. I was on edge throughout the whole movie and I thought that it would have a depressing ending though, it didn't" the movie was just fine for Ryota but he was trying to match Aikawa's vibe, trying to strike a conversation. "Me too, but it turned out quite contrary to it! I really like these types of movies.." her reaction was genuine, unlike a certain someone.
"I didn't like it much though." Suguru asserted, "What!? Why didn't you like it even when it was this good" Aikawa was quite unwelcoming of Suguru's opinion. "Uh, it's not that it wasn't good, it was just not of my taste." Suguru said this with an expression on his face which clearly emitted an 'I have the superior taste' aura, "So that just means that you have a lame taste" Aikawa affirmed this with a completely straight face.
Suguru : Huh? How could you say that to ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ me
Aikawa : Well, it is what it is.
Suguru : Nah it could only mean that you ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ have a lame taste in movies!
Aikawa : Looks like Mr. Lame can't come ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ to terms with the fact.
You would think that the argument was heated but it really wasn't anything serious. Though Suguru was annoyed, Aikawa was only trolling.
Yumeko was laughing over the two quarreling like little children, but for Ryota; "Suguru you dickhead. Just talk to your girl, why the fuck are you snatching my chance to strike a conversation with Kei-san" - he was frustrated.
"Now now, you two stop fighting over 'whose taste is superior', taste is totally subjective, you can't expect the other person to like something as much as you do" Yumeko spoke up to stop them from fighting over it any longer.
"There you go Yumeko-san! Well done. She is so mature, totally not like Suguru."
The two of them stopped their argument and later Aikawa suggested everyone come to her house so they all could play MMORPG games together, everyone agreed. This could result in a great opportunity for Ryota to get close to Aikawa and so, he was on high horses.
Ryota confidentially thought; "Whoa she also plays MMORPG games, I haven't played that kinda game for more than a year so I'm outta practice but I'm sure that I still have my OG skills" [We all know how good Ryota's "OG game skills" are]
They all went to Aikawa's home, both of her parents are on a high post at a multinational bank and they were on a business trip currently.
Her house was pretty big and expensive looking from inside out including the furnitures, housewares and other stuff.
Ryota : Are your parents at home ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ Aikawa-san?
Aikawa : No, they are on a business trip, ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ they won't be coming home today.
Ryota : So it's only us people here right ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ now hn?
Aikawa : Yea, there's a maid too, but she's ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ on a leave today.
Afterwards, Aikawa brought her gaming set from her room upstairs. They all went into the living room and played games for an hour straight. Ryota unfortunately got demolished by the others, as expected of his "OG skills".
Suguru got a call in between the game from his mother and had to go home, Yumeko also had work so she went with Suguru.
Now, It was only Ryota, Aikawa and a period of serenity and disconnection between them. Ryota had apprehended that Suguru and Yumeko were kind of like a bridge connecting Ryota and Aikawa but now when they are not here, the atmosphere had suddenly become awkward for Ryota (and probably Aikawa too). Usually, the other person would also get up and go home but Ryota's leg seemed to be frozen and one with the ground while his head was simultaneously processing an array of thoughts trying to find out the perfect thing to say in this situation. Nonetheless, he couldn't come up with anything 'perfect' and his mouth was still shut.
Then suddenly, something came into his mind as a beacon of hope. Surprisingly, this should have been the first thing for him to think of in this situation but whatever. "Say, Aikawa-san, do you like books?" - He already knew the answer - "yes! I absolutely do, how did you guess!?" Ryota then answered her with a clever look on his face; "I seem to have the ability to know about people just by looking at them" - a clear and lame bluff - though Aikawa just took it as sarcasm and chuckled a bit on it, her laugh was a bubbling brook for Ryota which cleared his tension and boosted his confidence; "alright, the attempt was a success!" he thought.
Aikawa : Do you like books too ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ Kimura-san?
"Here comes my chance!!" thought Ryota.
Ryota : Yes, I read books alot.
Aikawa : ohh! What's your favorite book, in ㅤㅤㅤㅤ literature?
Ryota : My favorite book, hmm…I would ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ have to say "Beyond Good and Evil".
Aikawa : Ohh! It's one of Nietzsche's ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤ works, if I'm not wrong.
Ryota : Yes you're right ! I strongly ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ recommend it to you if you haven't ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ read it yet.
Aikawa : sure! I'll try to read it soon ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ enough.
Ryota : I'm glad! So, what's the last book ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ you read, Aikawa-san?
Aikawa : I don't know if you would know ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤabout it or not but it's a book ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤcalled "the prophet".
Ryota : whoa! What a coincidence, That's ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤthe last book I read too!
[He Lied with a straight face, currently in his mind, he was picturing himself as a mastermind-highschooler-anime-protagonist]
The conversation flowed smoothly from there between the two book nerds. It was almost evening. Aikawa asked Ryota if he needed something to eat; Ryota was quite hungry so he accepted the offer.
Aikawa went into the kitchen, which was quite far from the living room, to bring some snacks. It has already been some time since she went in. Ryota was wondering why she's taking so much time while sitting on the sofa. He thought of calling out to her but then thought that it would make him look hasty and rude.
After a bit more time passed "Maybe I should just call out to her" Ryota called out Aikawa's name a couple of times but there was no response so he decided to go and check on her.
"Where is the kitchen again?...oh! There it is" "Aikaw-!" What Ryota saw made his heart beat intense, Aikawa was lying unconscious on the floor and the snacks had fallen in front of her. Ryota rushed to Aikawa and held her to check her temperature, she was burning hot. Ryota ought to get her to her bed as she shouldn't lay on the ground in this situation any longer and since she was unconscious, he had no option but to lift her up in his arms.
Ryota lifted Aikawa in his arms and rushed to her bedroom, laid her on the bed and quickly started searching for a first aid box to get a thermometer and medicines, if there were any. It was luckily just in the drawer attached to her bed, Ryota found some specific medicines in there along with a medical report. By reading the medical report a bit, he knew that it was Aikawa's so he guessed that Aikawa was already suffering from a high fever.
Ryota tried to wake Aikawa up by rubbing her hands slowly and calling out her name but she was still unconscious after many tries. Thus, Ryota decided to feed her the medicines as it is, by opening her mouth with his hands, putting the medicines in and then water.
Ryota then hurried to call on an emergency number (of hospital) but just when he was about to dial it, he heard the sound of the glass falling off from the bed which Ryota left beside Aikawa after feeding her by it. It was none other than Aikawa herself who was the reason for the fallen glass, she was gaining her consciousness slowly and tried to sit up during which, her hand hit the glass and it fell off.
Ryota pulled back his plan of calling to the emergency number and rushed to see how Aikawa was doing. Ryota asked Aikawa with a worried look "hey!! Are you alright!?"Aikawa was back to her senses but she was still not feeling well and seemed a bit weakened out "um, yes" she was still in the middle of processing the situation. "You went unconscious all of a sudden when you went to the kitchen to get snacks, I was worried as hell!" Aikawa had gotten the picture of what has happened and told Ryota "I'm sorry for causing you this problem all because of my carelessness" she continued "I'm suffering from typhoid from a few days and I forgot to take medicines today neither did I drink much water causing me dehydration along with the sudden rise of fever, I felt dizziness and the next thing I remember is waking up in my bedroom".
Ryota understood the situation and thus tried to ease Aikawa, he also told her that he already fed her the medicines. Ryota brought food and water for Aikawa. The fever was going down gradually after a while but Aikawa was still not feeling much well so Ryota suggested her to sleep and get some rest while he would look both after her and the house, she denied at first saying that it would only cause further inconvenience for Ryota but he was persisted so she had to give up at last.
2hr later [around 8:30 pm]
Aikawa was still sound asleep, Ryota sitting beside her. It had started raining outside, the curtains were opened and the rain was clearly visible from the window along with the constant droplets of water falling on it. This was the second time today that the house was filled with silence even in the presence of both Ryota and Aikawa but the notable difference was that this time it was a period of halcyon rather than awkwardness.
Ryota had just realized that he held Aikawa in his arms and also touched her lips - opened it - by his hands in the heat of the moment, all while she wasn't conscious of anything. Though he didn't have any other thoughts back then other than helping Aikawa, he's now feeling an ocean of emotions swirling inside of him along with an equivalent amount of thoughts (not any perverted ones though).
He thought of waking Aikawa up but a look at her changed his mind, "I should just let her rest as long as she likes and then I'll go home when she wakes up, I have already informed mom about this so I guess it's fine." he whispered to himself.
"I feared that she could be an egoistic or unfriendly person but I'm glad that Aikawa-san turned out to be a friendly, straightforward and caring person. Not to mention her exquisite beauty"
Standing in front of the window, on the other side of the rain. He looked at her ethereal self with a gentle smile on his face, devoid of any unethical or ulterior thoughts.
Under the velvet cloak of the rainy night, the two were together in the same room, and Ryota wished for this moment to last forever.
To be continued…