One Worry After Another

Yuta ate his lunch in the library, as usual. However, the textbook in front of him was closed. He stared at it blankly. Thoughts of the culture festival filled his head, distracting him from studying. ‘Why do I have to be a butler? I mean, I know being a waiter is something I do fairly often, but I also cook. Besides, I’ve never roleplayed as a servant before… I doubt anyone would actually want me serving them like that…’

“Too worried about the culture festival to study?”

He looked up to see Kurosawa taking a seat across from him. She set her own textbook on the table with an apple on top. “How’d you know?”

“Not just anything will keep your mind occupied from studying, and our activity was just decided today. What else could there be?”

“I wanted to be a chef. Rather, I wanted to be anything but a server.”

“You got unlucky. It happens. I’m glad I was able to get out of that. Just imagine how many stares I’d get from the boys if I dressed up as a maid…” She shuddered. “Yeah, no thanks.”

“Do you really hate guys that much?”

“I don’t hate guys, per say. I only hate that they are obsessed with me.”

“Well, you can rest easy. I don’t have any intention of fawning over you.”

“Which is why I felt safe asking you to help me study.”

Yuta shook away his concerns about the culture festival and opened his textbook. “Should we get started?”

Kurosawa nodded and opened her book. “The exams are a month away, correct?”

“A little more than that, but yes. We have two weeks until the culture festival, and exams are three weeks after that.”

“And then the trip to the beach…” She sighed, longing for the sandy shore and calming ocean waves.

“I don’t understand why you want to go so badly.”

“It’s the beach! What normal person wouldn’t want to go?”

“...Are you calling me unusual?”

“Face it, nothing about you is normal. No normal person would spend every minute of their free time studying.”

“Ouch.”

“It’s the truth. If you can’t take it, that’s your problem.”

“You do realize that was sarcasm, right?”

“Of course I realized that!” She crossed her arms and leaned back. “You’re not a very fun person to mess with, you know.”

“Maybe you should tell that to Ichinose and her friends…” Fortunately, they still hadn’t done anything to him yet. Either they stopped targeting him after Shiori agreed to help the student council with their preparations, or they were currently planning their next move.

Her face softened with concern. “Are they bullying you? I still haven’t forgotten what they did to Ozaki…”

“Well… I told Ichinose to leave Shiori alone, and her friends got mad. They said they would bully me, but they haven’t done anything as of yet.”

“Tell me if they try anything. I’ll go teach them a lesson.”

“As long as you don’t get into a fight…”

“Oh, they wouldn’t want to fight me, believe me.”

“I wouldn’t put it past them…”

Kurosawa leaned forward, resting her arms on the table. “So, when did you start calling Ozaki by her given name?”

“I knew you’d ask about that…”

“What? I’m just curious. I won’t tease you about it or anything.”

“Could we get to studying, please? We don’t have a lot of time.”

“Studying can wait for a few minutes, don’t you think?”

Yuta glanced at the clock. Only ten minutes of lunch remained. “Not really, no.”

“Why did I even ask?” She sat back and turned her textbook to the correct page.

As he flipped to the same page as Kurosawa, Yuta couldn’t help but wonder where Shiori was. She always joined them during lunch.

…

To Yuta’s concern, Shiori didn’t return to class after lunch. As soon as the final bell dismissed the class, he texted her.

‘What happened? Are you okay?’

After waiting a few minutes with no response, he decided to leave the school building. ‘There’s not much I can do at this point. I could try to see if she’s home, but if she’s not…’

Right before he walked out of the school, his phone buzzed. A message from Shiori appeared on the screen.

‘Sorry, I woke up in the nurse’s office about half an hour ago. Apparently, I collapsed during lunch.’

‘Do you know what caused it?’

‘No.’

‘Are you still there?’

‘Yes. I’m about to leave.’

‘Wait there. I’ll be there soon.’

Yuta turned around and headed straight for the nurse’s office. ‘Was it her condition, or something else?’

Shiori was waiting in front of the nurse’s office, holding her bag in front of her knees. She saw Yuta coming and waved.

“Did Ms. Sasaki give you any instructions?”

“She said not to exercise… for the next few days…”

“I’m not certain what caused it.” Ms. Sasaki exited her office, turning to Yuta and Shiori. “She just needs to take it easy for a while. It might be beneficial to talk to a neurologist, though.”

“A neurologist? You think her brain injury is the cause?”

“It’s possible.” She narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure you two aren’t dating? Everywhere I see you, you’re together.”

Shiori blushed and covered her face.

“As I’ve already said, we’re not a thing.”

“If you’re only her tutor, you wouldn’t be worrying about her as much as you do. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” She turned her back to them and started down the hall.

Yuta focused his attention on Shiori. “I’ll walk you home in case something happens.”

Shiori nodded and silently followed him out of the school. It took a while for the blush to disappear from her cheeks.

On the way to her house, Yuta kept a careful eye on Shiori. ‘Was her collapse really caused by her brain injury? And if so… was that the reason she fell down the stairs?’

“Um… Y-Yuta…”

“Yes?”

“W-Were you really worried about me…?”