At three in the afternoon, Haizaki closed his book, stood up, and stretched, moving his body a little to relax.
"Let me go take a look."
Although his attention had been on reading and studying, the thought of whether the girl had eaten still surfaced from time to time.
Leaving his room, Haizaki looked toward the direction of her room.
The food on the tray in front of the door had gone cold and lay there quietly, unchanged.
Haizaki frowned. It was understandable to be upset after an argument, and losing one's appetite wasn't unusual, but in the end, this kind of behavior only harmed her own body.
"Knock, knock, knock…"
Haizaki moved the tray aside and stood in front of the girl's door.
"Kasumigaoka-san, could you open the door?"
"I have something to take care of. Please open the door."
Silence. Not even the slightest response.
This was going a bit too far.
"I'll count to three. If you don't respond, I'll come in with the spare key."
Spare keys for all the rooms were kept in a storage room on the second floor, just in case. Utaha had raised no objections when Haizaki had suggested keeping a unified set of spare keys.
"One."
"Two."
"Three…"
Still no response. Haizaki immediately rushed to the storage room, grabbed the spare key, and opened Utaha's door.
The dim room revealed the girl lying quietly on the bed. Her fair left hand hung down, and scattered pills lay on the floor beneath it.
Haizaki felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, his whole body frozen.
He couldn't believe it. Utaha had actually… actually…
Had the thing he feared most finally happened?
Over and over, he denied this possible "reality" in his heart.
She committed suicide because of what happened yesterday?
Impossible.
Haizaki's voice turned hoarse.
It felt as if a giant hand were gripping his heart, squeezing it until it was about to burst.
Clinging to a final shred of hope, Haizaki rushed over at full speed.
Heartbeat. Heartbeat.
As long as Utaha still had a heartbeat, she was alive.
At this moment, Haizaki didn't care about anything else. His right hand pressed against her chest, while his left reached for her neck.
His hands trembled, cold and numb, as if he had lost all sensation. For a moment, he seemed unable to feel anything at all…
"There's a heartbeat—thank goodness…"
Haizaki relaxed completely. His hands had failed him earlier due to sheer panic.
That had scared him to death.
"Thank goodness…"
He let out a long breath and wiped the cold sweat pouring from his forehead with the back of his left hand.
That scene just now was far too frightening—far too easy to associate with suicide.
A girl bearing pressure in a lonely apocalyptic environment, her pent-up frustration and suffocating emotions finally exploding after his "laying things bare" yesterday, leading her to lose hope and choose suicide.
That was entirely possible.
Everyone's mental resilience has its limits. Once those limits are exceeded and collapse occurs, people can do things others find incomprehensible.
Thankfully, this time it wasn't the worst-case scenario. He had been mistaken.
Feeling a little more at ease, Haizaki looked at the girl's face. Just then, the girl lying quietly with her eyes closed seemed to sense his gaze and slowly opened her eyes, confusion and drowsiness within them.
Haizaki noticed the unnatural flush on her cheeks.
A fever?
So it was a fever. She must have caught a chill from getting soaked in the rain yesterday.
"Yusuke-kun… you…"
Still groggy, Utaha hadn't fully reacted yet. Five seconds later, she finally noticed something off about her chest area—something like…
"What are you… doing?"
At that moment, Haizaki snapped back to his senses. His right hand was still resting on her left chest, and in order to feel her heartbeat, he had pressed down rather firmly…
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."
"Didn't mean to?"
Even in her dazed state, with her head muddled and her body extremely uncomfortable, speaking even a single sentence was exhausting.
"So just because you didn't mean to… you can… touch my chest… without my permission?"
"I'm sorry. I apologize. Once you're better, you can hold me accountable however you want. For now, get some rest."
Seeing the girl trying to sit up, Haizaki quickly pressed down on her shoulders, signaling that she should lie still.
"Don't touch me…"
She weakly flailed her arms, but didn't even manage to move his hands an inch.
"Alright, I won't touch you. Aside from the fever, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere else?"
"None of your business."
Turning her head away irritably, Utaha refused his help. In her groggy state, she didn't want to deal with Haizaki at all. Yesterday… yesterday…
Why was he still showing concern now?
"Being sick isn't a small matter. You need treatment and proper rest."
Haizaki understood that the girl's poor attitude toward him stemmed from both physical and psychological factors.
He could understand that.
He took a few steps back, dragged a chair over, and placed it beside the bed.
"I know you hate me, maybe you don't even want to see me. But your health still matters. You didn't eat breakfast or lunch, did you? If you don't eat, you won't even have the strength to scold me."
"How… could I not have?"
Utaha deliberately raised her voice, but she couldn't hide the weakness and lack of energy in her tone.
"Cough, cough… you bastard, I—"
"Grrr…"
The room fell silent.
Haizaki pretended he hadn't heard anything, his expression calm.
As for Utaha, who had been about to retort, she now wished she could crawl into a hole. Her stomach had chosen this exact moment to growl.
She cautiously glanced at Haizaki. Seeing that he looked normal, her heart finally relaxed.
"I'll take your temperature first."
There was also a medical kit in Utaha's room.
The fever-reducing medicine scattered on the floor was what she had taken from it.
Haizaki found the thermometer and also picked up the stethoscope.
He had noticed abnormal sounds in her speech, likely indicating a problem with her respiratory tract or lungs.
"Open your mouth."
Haizaki shook the thermometer in his left hand as he spoke.
The girl clearly hesitated, probably out of embarrassment.
"Kasumigaoka-san, be good, alright? Just think of me as a doctor."
"What kind of… doctor… doesn't even know medicine…"
Seeing this, Haizaki held the thermometer closer. Utaha reluctantly opened her mouth.
A stubborn mouth was fine—as long as the body complied.
"Do you feel like coughing? I'll listen to your lungs with the stethoscope later."
The girl merely shot him a glare in protest, but Haizaki ignored it.
If he didn't examine her carefully now, what would happen if things got worse later?
…