Uncomfortable

Niiya quickly walked down the hallway towards the direction she saw Meguru. It didn’t take her long to spot him once more, fortunately alone as he was not a person anyone at a hospital would need to take special attention to. This was a prime opportunity as a wide grin grew on her face.

She had already seen firsthand how he stood up against those thugs before in the alley. But she also believed it to only be for show considering the circumstances they were in. Based on appearances alone, she knew she could use some of her trademarked attitude to intimidate him into giving her the information she wanted.

“What’s wrong? Got lost from the rest of your crew?” She announced herself to him, standing proud with arms crossed as he turned his head towards hers.

“Oh, it’s you.” His response indicated that she was far from the first person he would’ve liked to see. “Whatever, I don’t care to say anything to you.” Meguru was ready to continue walking wherever it was he had been originally walking towards. Insulted by his cold attitude upon seeing her, Niiya quickly moved to cut him off.

“Look, I don’t take too kindly to being ignored.” Using her size advantage over him, she grabbed him and pushed the boy against the wall. “And I want to talk to you about some-”

“I said leave me alone!” Before she was able to finish her sentence, Meguru suddenly yelled and pushed her hard. Caught off guard by his uncharacteristically bold action, she fell backwards, tripping over herself as she tumbled to the floor.

“Ow.” She muttered to herself, though her pride took more damage from him. “Geez, what was that for?” Despite being the one to start it, she immediately blamed him for her fall as she rubbed her bottom. He didn’t respond for a few seconds. The only noise coming from him was his heavy breathing as he glared at her. Then as if returning from a trance, Meguru’s eyes widened as he realized the scene before him.

“I…” He took a step back, as if trying to pretend the situation wasn’t happening before him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.” He took a step towards her, as if going to offer a hand. Then, without explanation, he began walking away, apologizing continuously. “I’m sorry, but I can’t stick around.”

“What’s up with you?” She picked herself up from the ground, looking at him with a mix of fury and confusion on her face. “Hey, you don’t get to do that and get away with it that easily.” Without thinking, she began to chase after him.

Meguru exited the hospital through the front automatic doors, taking a deep sigh of relief as if he had escaped from a prison.

“Man, I thought I could handle it by now.” He muttered to himself, taking off his glasses to wipe his face.

“Yo, what’s going on with you?” It didn’t take for Niiya to catch up to him as she ran out of the hospital, calling out to him. “I know you Monta’s are jerks, but don’t you think it’s a bit much to be shoving a girl?”

“I told you to leave me alone, didn’t I?” He responded, putting back on his glasses. Meguru glared at her, as if his aura alone would be enough to intimidate her to leave. Of course, hers was stronger, so that wasn’t going to happen. “I swear, you Capas are always so nosy.”

Even though he spoke to her as he normally was, which was being disrespectful, Niiya couldn’t help but notice something else seemed to be off about him. There seemed to be a level of discomfort to this normally confident boy. “So are you going to leave now, or do I have to get the staff to remove you?”

She knew it was an obvious bluff. He was too prideful to have someone else do that after all the time she had known him. All their bitter verbal arguments made her know him better than she knew some of her own classmates. At the same time, she also could tell something was troubling him. Considering the circumstances, she figured it might be information that would be highly useful for Jurie in her negotiations with the Monta president.

“Relax, I just wanted to ask you about what you learned about the incident.” She played it cool, appealing to this boy’s need for rational conversation. Surely there was no way he’d decline that. “It’s a pretty touchy subject, right?

“And one I doubt you have much to tell me about.” He responded with a snide remark. “You probably want to come and steal my homework, so to speak.” While he talked a big game, she could tell he was still hiding something. “Not that it matters anyway, I don’t have anything that you’d want to hear about anyway. I haven’t talked to any of the Monta students caught up in this.”

“Really? Why?” She didn’t believe him. Why would she have seen him leaving the hospital without doing what he came here for? “What’s wrong? All the needles and blood got you feeling queasy?” Without thinking, she decided to turn it on him with a casual insult.

“I don’t need to explain myself to a Capa.” His response wasn’t how she’d imagine it. He didn’t appear even slightly embarrassed about it, obviously indicating he knew it to be untrue. “I swear, you all are the same. Here we are, dealing with a very serious situation, and you’re just going about like it’s the same old same old. But you know what? For the people who have to come here for the proper reasons aren’t exactly having a good day, now aren’t they? So why don’t you do us all a favor and leave?”

Meguru blew up at her, as if she had broke the last straw. After his short tirade ended, the pair stood still in near silence. The only sound being a result of his deep breathing, his body trying to keep up with the actions of his mind.

“I’m… Sorry?” She didn’t know how to react other than to give a cautious apology. This was a far cry from the nerdy boy she had known to hate after all this time.

“Look, I just don’t like being in a hospital, okay? Go ahead and make fun of me, but quit bugging me.” He said, turning around as if to leave. Though there wasn’t a place for him to go until the rest of his classmates were done with their questioning. For a moment, it seemed this was the end of their conversation. She was frozen in place, as if the shock of seeing him this way was too much for her brain to process.

“You know, I’m not a fan of hospitals either.” Before he could walk away, she finally spoke up in a manner different than the way she normally spoke to him.

“How so?” Somehow this was enough to get him back into conversing with her, despite their obvious feud and differences.

“Brings back a lot of bad memories, you know?” She went on to explain further what she meant to him. Back when she was younger, before she even attended Capa academy, she was a junior high student that had already fallen into a bad crowd.

Much of her younger days was spent being a thug. This meant skipping class, harassing others, and getting into fights. So she’d find herself in a hospital to take care of the numerous bruises and cuts she’d received as a result.

But it wasn’t just a matter of her regretful past that she hated the most about this place. There was also one time, after she would end up having a falling out with her old gang shortly after becoming a Capa student, that badly hurt her. Due to disagreements with them about being a student for the Capas, they ended up beating her up and leaving her to be found in an alley.

The one who found her happened to be Jurie, who immediately called for help and brought her to this very hospital. This was the first time the pair met, and she was told by that girl that she didn’t have to live her life like this.

“You know, how about we hang out sometime?” She remembered Jurie wanting to be her friend. She couldn’t believe someone like her existed. Someone so sweet, so kind, and someone who despite being such an upright individual would still want to be friends with a delinquent like her.

“I’m glad to hear you eventually got onto the mostly right path.” He said after she finished her story. “As much as I may not care for you as a Capa. At least you aren’t a troublemaker anymore.”

“I’ll just accept the compliment, even if it’s coming from a Monta like you.” She chuckled, waiting for him to now tell her his side of the story. When it didn’t come, she had to speak up again to ask. “So, why are hospitals a sore spot for you?”

“Why would I tell you that?” His response made her jaw drop from the sheer audacity. “We’re not friends and I’m not going to be emotionally blackmailed by you.”

“What!?” She was exasperated by him as he pulled out his phone to check on his messages. It seemed it was time to regroup with the others now that they were finished. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m never telling you Montas anything about me ever again. You are one ungrateful-”

“I’ve had someone important to me come here before.” He cut her off as he put away his phone.

“Huh?” She was taken aback by his sudden decision to make mention of his issues.

“That’s all I’ll tell you. That’s honestly more than you deserve, but at least if it’ll get you off my back.” He explained himself. “Now, your friends are probably wondering where you are. We should get back to what we’re actually here for.” With that, he went back inside.

“Why you…” She clenched her fists in frustration from his hot and cold responses to her. “You really are a piece of work, you know that!” She yelled out before also following him in to rejoin the Capas, while he went to the Montas.