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Chikasugiru Karera no, Juunanasai no Tooi Kankei [LN] V1 Chapter 4.6

Chapter 4 - Inside her room




When I entered the living room the next morning, I found Izumi sitting on the sofa, still in her pajamas. She was wearing a thin, long-sleeved hoodie over her shirt. My mother was standing in front of Izumi, bending down a bit to talk with her about something.


I immediately felt uncomfortable when I saw her. At this time before school, Izumi was usually already dressed in her school uniform and eating breakfast with her bag by her side.


"What's wrong?"


When I asked both of them, I heard a small electronic sound. Izumi put one hand on the chest of her T-shirt and took something out of her clothes. It was a thermometer.


"I think I caught a cold......," Izumi said, looking at it.


"Oh no, you have a fever, too. You should take a rest today. I'll call your school."


My mother said, looking at the thermometer she had received from Izumi. "I'm sorry," Izumi replied.


"Are you all right?" I asked her.


"Yes. When I woke up in the morning, my body felt heavy. I was fine until last night......I was sweating a lot last night, so maybe that wasn't a good thing......."


She replied with a small cough. Her throat did not seem to be in good condition, and her voice sounded a bit wetter than usual. The cheeks were also somewhat reddish.


"I'm sorry if I'm passing on my cold......"


"No, I'm probably fine......"


I'm not feeling sick anywhere, and I've never been sick this time of year before.


"Rina-chan, give me your school phone number."


Our conversation was interrupted when my mother, holding the telephone, asked Izumi from beside me. When Izumi looked at her cell phone and gave her the number, my mother informed them of her absence from school.


Izumi then ate only half a loaf of bread with honey and hot milk and took some cold medicine we had at home. Then she walked back to her room with a staggering gait. When I called out to her back, "Get well soon," she coughed a few times, holding her mouth with a hand that pulled her sleeve down to her fingertips, and said, "Thanks. Do your best in school," lifting her reddened cheeks gently and forming a smile.


A little later than usual, my mother went to work, and I cleaned up the dishes and went outside. It was cloudy and dark outside. I put my bicycle out on the street and straddle it. When I looked back at the window of Izumi's room, I saw that the thick curtains were closed.


The gray clouds gradually became darker and darker, and by midday, it began to rain. Looking out from the fluorescent-lit classroom, it looked terribly dim. Even after six classes, the rain showed no sign of stopping.


Since the club could not use the field because of the rain, we had to do muscle training in the hallway, as is customary in the event of rainy weather. We formed a line and did push-ups, sit-ups, back-ups, and squats for three sets of 20 times, with the first person who finished reporting back to Yuriko.


I changed into my soccer wear and took my breaks in the fifth-floor hallway on the top floor of the school building, where there were few students around. While the other members of the club were moving their bodies languidly in single file, Yuriko was the only one with a nonchalant look on her face, holding a ballpoint pen and clipboard in her hand and looking at us as if she were a watcher.


The temperature was not so high, rather chilly in short sleeves, but the humidity was high and I started to sweat lightly after the second set.


After finishing push-ups and sit-ups, I sat with my back leaning against the wall. Next to me, for some reason, Tachibana was doing muscle training with me. She was currently doing sit-ups, but her arm holding the back of her head had been trembling since a while ago, and there was no movement at all. This state continued for a while, and then, "Guu," I heard a groan.


"I'm giving up......"


Tachibana muttered to herself, broke her posture, and leaned against the wall just as I did.


"Sigh. I'm tired."


"Why are you doing muscle training too?"


When I asked her, Tachibana replied, "I want to be slimmer for the summer."


She was not fat by any means, but perhaps because she looked like a little girl, her stomach seemed rather pudgy.


"I feel like my stomach is getting slightly smaller."


She said as she patted her belly over her gym clothes.


"Hmmm. That's great."


"Ah, it went badly. Thinking about it normally, there is no way it would have had an effect in such a short period of time, right? Even though I made it easy for you to respond to my words. Sakamoto-senpai, as usual, you don't seem to care about other people."


"That's not true."


I said and moved my body to start back-ups. Then Tachibana let out a dumbfounded voice.


"Muu. That's what makes you seem cold. Let's go with a more friendly character."


Unconsciously, my body stopped moving. Tachibana's murmur echoed slightly.


"......Do I look cold to you?"


"A bit."


I got an immediate answer. It was unexpected, but I felt less tense when she affirmed it.


And I felt uncomfortable with myself.


I had been told the same thing by Yuriko many times before. But this was the first time I had felt so bothered by something like this. Before I knew it, I felt that something was slowly changing in me.


"Hey, don't talk among yourselves in there!"


Yuriko, wearing a blue jersey underneath and a gym shirt on top, called out to us. 


"Mori-senpai, I'm going back to work as a manager."


After saying this, Tachibana stood up and walked to Yuriko's side.




After club activities, I went home with Yuriko and the other club members. It was raining, so we left our bicycle and took the bus.


It was already dark because the sky was covered with rain clouds, and the cars on the street had their lights on. As I sat in my seat and looked out the raindrop-stained window at the gray, wet city, I somehow remembered the day I first met Izumi. Looking back, I was quite nervous at the time, but now I feel that Izumi's presence in our home has become a normal part of my life. Neither of us talks that much in the house, but the silence hardly bothers me these days.


But what about Izumi's? I have no experience of living in a relative's house for a long period of time, so I don't know what that would actually be like. It's hard to imagine.


Suddenly, Tachibana's voice echoed in my head, "That's what makes you seem cold,"


It was the same when she said it directly to me, but for some reason, it made me feel a little uneasy. The way Tachibana said it was obviously just a casual remark.


The bus soon approached the residential area where we lived and I got off at the same stop as Yuriko. Yuriko opened her umbrella and took a step forward, and I called out to her back.


"Hmm. What?" she looked back.


"I'm going to stop by the supermarket. You can go home first."


"Ah, then I'll go with you. I was just about to run out of loose-leaf paper."


Yuriko replied, and together we went to a medium-sized, two-story supermarket on the outskirts of the residential area.


Thinking that porridge would be good for Izumi, who had a cold, for dinner tonight, I went into the store and bought some eggs, chicken, and other ingredients that I thought would be useful. At this time of the evening, there were many ladies in the store. Yuriko and I went around the store, did some quick shopping, and then headed for the drugstore that was attached to the store.


"What? Are you still going to buy something?" Yuriko, who was walking beside me, asked.


"Cold medicine."


When I replied as I walked over to the shelf by the doorway, she gave me a puzzled look.


"Are you getting a cold?"


"No, it wasn't me. It was Izumi......"


"Eh, Izumi-san? Is she all right?"


"Probably. She had a fever in the morning and was absent from school. It didn't seem that bad, so I think she will be okay, but.......The medicine we have at home was almost out, so I thought I'd take it."


"I see."


As I picked up a few boxes and was comparing prices and efficacy, a man in a lab coat approached me.


"Can I help you?" said the young man, who appeared to be a pharmacist. I told him about Izumi's symptoms, remembering how she had looked this morning. In the middle of the conversation, Yuriko walked away, as if she wanted to buy something.


The pharmacist recommended one medicine. I took the box to the cashier and paid the bill. I put the medicine in my enamel bag and left the drugstore, where I found Yuriko waiting for me outside.


"Here. I brought this for her. When you have a fever, it drains your energy."


Saying this, she gave me a nutritional supplement drink with store tape on it.


"Oh, Thank you."


It had a pink label, and the illustrations and font of the written text were designed for women, with a tender impression. It also says that it is good for dry skin.


"Get well soon, tell her that for me."


"Yeah. Thank you."


I thanked her, took it, and put it away in my bag. Then,


"......By the way, you've changed, Kenichi."


The unexpected words continued.


I had been focused on my hand, but I looked up and said, "Eh? What do you mean?" She smiled for a moment and said, "It's nothing," and then started to walk out. I took a step behind her and started walking.


It was raining outside, and in the short time we had been in the store, it had gotten even darker.

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