A Beautiful Smile...

Three weeks later— Kokura Castle, Kitakyushu.

In the distance, a large building stands atop large stones, its five stories soaring through the sky. However, its exterior is filled with cracks all over the building, and the white paint has taken on a grayish hue with moss plastered all around the building.

“Yuiko!” Alice looks back as she points towards something, “There’s a castle there!”

“Ohh… That’s cool…” I replied, letting my shoulders hang.

“Can you at least pretend to sound excited?” Alice grumpily asks.

“Oh, no… It’s not that I’m not excited…” I bring my hands up, keeping my gaze away from her.

“Then…?” Alice leans in closer, inspecting every inch of my face.

“F-For now, let’s look at the castle! I’ve never visited these kinds before, so I’m curious!” I let out a stiff laugh, walking on ahead of her as I fix my glasses.

“…?”

…

…..

……

---

After a few minutes of walking, we eventually arrived at the entryway of the castle. Standing this close to it, we’re starting to feel the scale of this building as it requires both of us to bend our necks back just to be able to see the top of it.

“Woaah!” Alice looks up with sparkles in her eyes, “Yuiko! Let’s go in there!”

“…”

“Yuiko?” Alice leans forward, her figure landing in front of my eyes.

“Eh?” I accidentally blurted, and my shoulders jerked. “S-Sorry, what were you saying?”

“…Hey, are you okay? Your face looks kind of red…” Alice asks, furrowing her brows as she comes closer to me.

“Y-Yeah… I’m fine…” I wave my hand around, letting out a smile.

“…Let’s take a break…” Alice walks up next to me, taking my bags off my shoulders.

“Eh?” I stood dumbfoundedly as all of my bags were taken down, making my shoulders feel lighter, “W-What are you doing?”

“Lightening your burdens?” Alice tilts her head.

“Why the questioning tone?” I ask, my shoulders drooping.

“Point is, you have a fever, so let’s rest in that area…” Alice says, pointing towards an inconspicuous building.

The building has a sign on top of it that says ‘ticket booth,’ but its writing is so worn out that it’s really difficult to discern it at first glance. Regardless, Alice took a few steps forward towards it, before looking back to ask me a question,

“Can you walk on your own?” She asks, looking back towards me.

“Y-Yeah… I think so…”

I take one step forward, yet that one step is enough to throw my whole balance off, sending the entire world into a spiral.

“Yuiko—” Alice stretches her hand towards me.

“…!”

I take a step back, prompting Alice to freeze in place for a brief moment.

“Ah…”

“…At least stay close to me…” Alice walks over towards me, standing beside me.

“…Sorry…”

Thankfully, the building is only a few steps away, so we walked side-by-side to get into the building.

Upon entering, our attention was immediately drawn to an area partitioned by a glass wall, next to which stood a defunct machine. Next to the ticket booth, we saw a room labeled "infirmary," which led Alice to carry us in that direction. Inside, the room was surprisingly spacious and held two beds that were reasonably clean. Alice cleared the dust from one of them with her hands and carefully guided me towards it.

“…Haah… haah…”

“I’ll prepare some food, so wait a bit, okay?” Alice quickly opened the portable stove and took out a small bag of rice.

Alice turned the stove on, then carefully poured water into the saucepan, letting the water boil before pouring all of the rice we got into it.

“Ahhh…”

The world is spinning…

Crap…

My head hurts a lot…

“…”

Darkness slowly envelopes my vision.

Cutting off my consciousness…

…

….

…...

---

“—ko…”

“Hrnghh…”

“Hey, Yuiko…”

“Five more minutes…”

“Wake up already, you lazy idiot!”

*SLAP*

“Ow!” I raise my body up, rubbing my left cheek from the sting.

“You can sleep after you eat this, okay?” Alice said as she handed over a saucepan in front of me.

“…”

“We don’t have many ingredients, so the taste is going to be bland…” Alice said, looking away from me.

“…Okay…” I grabbed the saucepan away from her, then I scooped up a spoonful using the wooden spoon we got from the home improvement store.

“…”

As I look up, I notice that Alice has walked towards a nearby desk. She sits herself down, reading the instruction labels that are plastered on the back of the medicine pack, her face gradually being lit with confidence the more she reads through it.

“…Hey Alice, are you not gonna eat anything?” I ask.

“We have some rations, so I’ll just eat that…” She placed the medicine on top of a wooden table.

“We can share this, you know?” I extend the saucepan towards her.

“If I were to eat with you, then I’m gonna get infected, and both of us would end up sick…” Alice opened the bag and scrounged up some small bars. “I’m happy for your concern, but it’ll be a problem if both of us get sick…” Alice explained as she aggressively bit into her energy bar.

“…”

Conceding to her thoughts, I took a spoonful into my mouth, letting it easily go down my throat. It was a bit hot, but I’m glad she made porridge of all things, given how much my throat was hurting.

“…How is it?” Alice asks.

“…Bland,” I replied.

“Of course it is…” Alice looks away, taking the last bite of her energy bar.

“But… It’s easy to swallow, so… thanks…” I scratch my cheek.

“…”

“…”

“…O-Once you're done, make sure you drink this, okay?” Alice walks towards me, handing me a pack of medicines.

“T-Thanks…” I awkwardly grab it from her.

“It’s getting late anyway, so let’s go to sleep after you've eaten your medicine, okay?” Alice sat herself down on the bed across from me.

“…”

“…What are you looking at?” Alice asks, her face growing flushed.

“No… I was just wondering if you have any siblings or not…” I muttered.

“Where did that come from?” Alice brought her legs up to the bed, crossing them together, “I do have a little brother, though…”

“Ohh… where is he now?” I ask.

“…He moved to Tokyo with my dad…” Alice gazed downwards.

“If that’s the case, then—!”

“…”

Alice lowered her head, her eyes drifting and unfocused as she clasped her hands together.

“…I’m sorry…” I muttered, stopping my hands from grabbing another scoop.

“Well… we weren’t that close, so it’s not that big of a deal!” Alice said, letting out a stiff smile.

“…”

“W-What about you?” Alice raises her head towards me.

“I’m an only child, but I wish I could have a sibling…” I look at the half-eaten porridge, clutching it in my hands.

“Having siblings is a pain, you know?” Alice suddenly replied. She continues, “You have to share with them, the way you’re treated always feels different, and if one is better than the other, you’d always be compared to them…”

“But isn’t it nice to have company at home?” I ask.

“If anything, all we do is fight all day!” Alice shrugs her shoulders, “It’s people that don’t have… siblings that I find…”

“…”

Alice grips onto her pants, her eyes glistening with water, yet she lowers her head even more, hiding her face with her hair, making it harder for me to see.

“…”

What can I say to her?

It feels like voicing the things that come into my mind would just backfire instead…

What is the right decision?

Saying things to her would be bad, yet saying nothing will broaden our distance…

“…Sorry about that!” Alice suddenly raised her face, giving me a stiff smile.

“…”

…No…

“It’s getting late, so let’s get some sleep—”

“Alice.” I firmly replied, cutting her off.

There is one important thing I should say to her…

After everything she’s done for me, saying this is nothing more than common sense…

“…Yuiko?”

“…Thanks for taking care of me…” I said, softening my cheeks as I bow my head.

“…No… It’s nothing…” Alice’s words trail off, her shoulders start trembling.

As she said so, tears started swelling within her eyes, letting them streak through her cheeks, accompanied by snorting sounds, trying her absolute best to keep the mucus from leaking out of her nose.

“A-Alice?!” I placed the saucepan on the bed and rushed to sit next to her, “I-I’m sorry… did I say something weird?”

I stretch my left arm out to touch Alice’s shoulders.

“…”

Before it made contact, my hand stopped midway and slowly pulled it away—

“No, that’s not it…” Alice grabbed my left hand, placing it on her shoulder as she kept hold of it.

“…!”

Alice tightened her grip on my hand, yet it still feels soft and warm…

“I’m just relieved!” Alice exclaimed, raising her head towards me.

“…”

Despite her crying face.

Despite how messy she looks.

Alice can produce a beautiful smile through all of that…

…

….

……