Editing HanTsuki:Volume 2 Chapter 1 (section)

===== 2 =====

“It’s likely a fever.”

Lying on my bed, I heard Akiko’s voice. She didn’t have to tell me: I knew I was having a fever. My whole body was hot. IF you put a water bottle on my forehead, the water would boil in one minute. All the joints in my body was in great pain, my throat being even in worse pain. Snivel kept flowing out. Sucking with my nose, I said, “What’s the degree?”

“38.7 degrees.” <ref>Celsius</ref>

“What? That can’t be!”

“You should have caught a cold. Let’s leave the inspection for the doctor. It’ll be troubling if it’s hepatitis.” 

I was sent to hospital because of hepatitis. Its symptoms are very similar to a cold, so we couldn’t rashly conclude that it was a cold. If the hepatitis worsened, relevant counteractive measures would be taken, for example: a two-hour drop every day, a check-up in every three days, prohibition from visiting, and even postponement of leaving the hospital.

While swinging the thermometer, Akiko asked me, “Yuiichi, why were you on the rooftop? Is this a new way of suicide? Or do you want to freeze yourself to death on the rooftop to place fault on us?”

“N-No.”

“You’ll really die if this continues.”

She was right. I was ‘saved’ at eleven in the night, having been trapped in the rooftop for a total eight hours. The chilly wind blew, lowering the temperature of the rooftop to somewhere like a fridge. I sat leaning on the water tank, my body curled like a tortoise to act against the cold weather. I was prepared to be frozen to death. Would I die in this place? Would this make Rika guilty? Would she cry for me? These things ran in my mind.

Thanks to the security guard, Edogawa, in his patrol to the rooftop, I was saved. The security guard almost bald, Edogawa, was forty-two years old, married, with two children. When he discovered me...

“Wuaghh!”

He exclaimed dismally like a woman, probably because he saw a spirit. Originally I wanted to stand up, but my body was frozen for a long time, so my pace was slow, my hands unable to lift, hence sticking to the sides of my body. My actions certainly resemble those of a spirit.

“Ahhh!”

Still screaming like a woman, Edogawa rushed down the stairs. Till now I still remember vividly the glow of Edogawa’s baldhead, like a florescent lamp, but this was all I remembered.

When I came back to my senses, I had already been lying on the bed. 

“I was locked up there,” I said, frankly.

Akiko’s brows furrowed.

“Locked? By who? It couldn’t be Rika, could it?”

“Yes, it’s Rika.”

“Why?”

“Because...discovered.”

“Discovered? What is discovered?”

Lying on my bed, I pointed at the stuff under my bed. Dubious, Akiko looked at the place my fingers were pointing at.

Contemplation.

And then she looked under the bed.

Contemplation again.

Laughing sounds erupted, continuing for about seven seconds.

“Discovered! She’s of course infuriated. That’s certain! Haha, so that’s why you’re locked in the rooftop. Hahahaha. My stomach hurts from laughing.”

Holding her abdomen, Akiko broke into endless and unrestrained laughter. I knew she thought it funny, but laughter didn’t suffice, for she also knocked on my bed fanatically.

Deeply wounded, I said, “You don’t have to laugh so crazily...”

“But, but that’s...”

“I almost died.”

“Die!” Akiko exclaimed while cracking up, “Just die, will you?”

“You’re a nurse. What the heck are you saying?” 

Rats! I was in shame, tears at the verge of flowing out.

It was depressing to be neglected by Rika. Everything looked like illusions. Food tasted bad; watching television was boring—I now knew what a gray life was. It was a remorseful to let a girl bear so much hate to you. If this was someone else’s affair, I might be laughing my head out like Akiko. But when this was mine, it was extremely painful. When I began to think that Rika might not be talking with me any longer, I had a rush to cry.

“Wuaghh...”

“Are you crying, Yuuichi?”

“No.”

I sucked with my mose.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t know it would bother you so much.”

“Enough. Leave me alone!”

“I can’t believe she have discovered it. Girls of her age hated this stuff; making matters worse, Rika had been living in the hospital for most of her life. She must be infuriated. You should bear some responsibility too for hiding this.”

Everything is your fault. Akiko repeated again and again for confirmation. I knew it, so you don’t have to accentuate on that. The question to be asked was how to let Rika forgive me.

I suddenly thought of something: Akiko was a girl as well, the same as Rika, though more mature. She should be clear about this stuff. She might give me constructive suggestions. Although still bothered by how she laughed at me, I knew I had to grasp the last straws. If Akiko could teach me some tricks to let Rika forgive me, I might even kneel down in request.

Cautiously, I asked, “Akiko, what should I do?”

“What should you do?”

“Rika is still angry, unwilling to forgive me. Please tell me what I should do to make her forgive me.”

“There’s no way,” she said briskly.

Everything in front of my eyes turned pitch black.

“How could that be...”

“Girls are cruel. I have a friend whose boyfriend didn’t comply to their promise and kick off the habit of smoking. So she instantly broke up with him and married another man.”

“Tell me it’s not true!” 

“It is! It might look trivial to others but pivotal to an individual. There’s a old song like this...”Akiko started to sing by the whim:

“I want to embrace you tightly

But you’re not by my side

Don’t leave me

For such a thing

I miss you”

Her particularly crisp sound reverberated in my cramped ward, as well as my heart.

“Wuaghh...”

Snivel flowed out profusely.

It was snivel!

“Yuuichi, don’t cry if you’re a man. Oh, if you’re that troubled, I can introduce you to another adorable girl. Rika’s not the only girl in the world anyway.”

“Wuaghhh...”

To me, Rika was the only girl in the world. I didn’t want other girls.

Looking at my incessant flowing of snivel, Akiko shook her head because there wasn’t a better offer she could provide.

“Looks like you contracted a serious illness.”

“A serious illness?”

I suddenly heard another voice. Lifting my head up, I saw a man standing at the door of the ward. He looked like a university student, though, with further inspection, he looked older, around thirty. His hair was tousled, his beard unshaved, his clothes ruffled. He looked like unhygienic.

“Didn’t I say it’s a cold?”

Akiko said in panic, “Ah, Doctor Natsume, I’m joking about the serious illness...”

Doctor Natsume? Who’s that?

Noticing my surprise, Akiko explained to me, “Don’t you know him? He’s a surgery doctor, Doctor Natsume. When you entered the hospital, he had a long holiday. So you’re returning to your work today, right?”

“Yesterday,” said Doctor Natsume, stiffly. It was a deep voice.

“Yes. I’m starting work yesterday. Today I’m on duty, so I’m paying you a visit.”

“Ah?”

While I was dazed, Doctor Natsume had come to my side and took my hand carefully to take my pulse.

“How’s your body? Does your throat ache?”

“It aches.” 

“I heard you were locked in the rooftop.”

“What?”

“Were you casually counting stars there?” said Doctor Natsume, with a smile.

Although having a bearded face, he gave off a gentle feeling. Probably because I had lived in the hospital for some time, I could tell a good doctor from a bad one. Good doctors could get along with patients immediately, which said, specifically, was opening their hearts to patients and being all ears. 

Doctor Natsume’s eyes were like a young child, eyes filled with curiosity.

“Yes. It’s about it,” he said, in a relieving tone.

This was difficult to be talked about with people you first met.

Standing behind Doctor Natsume, Akiko did her best to hold onto herself, her hands covering her stomach, restricting herself from bursting into laughter.

Rats, how misfortunate!