“Ow… Y-yeah, I’m good! This floor is super slippery,” the woman replied brightly.
She had glossy black hair and a distinctive side ponytail tied high on her head. Her demeanor was so cheerful that it seemed to ward off the hospital’s gloom. It was clear even through her clothes that her body was well-toned, and that, combined with her tanned skin, gave off a sporty vibe.
She stood up, eliciting more surprise from Karamori when her head rose above his. Even though he was still in middle school, it was rare for a woman to be taller than him.
She smiled in embarrassment at her fall. Karamori found himself dazzled.
He gave her a cup of instant ramen.
“Ah, thanks a bunch!” Her eyes lit up as she looked at Karamori. “Oh! There’s someone else here my age?! It’s really hard being in the hospital as a student, isn’t it?”
She spoke as if they were already close friends. Karamori, however, just cocked his head.
“Huh? The same age?”
Who is? Karamori thought. The woman in front of him had the face and figure of an adult. There was no way she was as young as him.
The girl smiled as if she were used to this kind of exchange.
“I’m a second-year in high school.”
“R-really?!”
That was their first encounter. They didn’t talk for long, but the next day, Karamori had found her in the lounge eating instant ramen again, and they’d begun to talk to each other regularly.
Despite looking like an adult, she really did go to a nearby high school.
“My friends visit me, but there’s something really nice about having a fellow patient to talk to who’s your own age. Don’t you agree?”
“I guess…”
“You’re kinda gloomy, you know that?”
The woman’s—no, the girl’s—name was Oka Sakura. She was outgoing and as bright as the sun, and it wasn’t long before she broke down Karamori’s barriers and her light spread to him. She didn’t care at all that she was a couple of years his senior.
Karamori had been a cheerful kid himself before the incident, and he’d been starving for someone close to his age to speak to, so they became fast friends. Conversation came easy due to their surprisingly good chemistry.
One week after meeting her, Karamori felt perfectly at ease in her presence. Two weeks after meeting her, he was smiling.
“You know why I’m here? I’m having heart problems. Isn’t that so unfair? Teenagers aren’t supposed to have heart problems,” Sakura said.
“Is your heart going to be okay, Sakura?”
“Lighten up a bit. We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Are you…gonna be okay?”
“Sorry to get your hopes up, but yes! My surgery was a success! So no crying on your shoulder today!” she teased.
Karamori glared at her. “Why would I want that?”
“They’re just keeping an eye on me for now. I’ll be discharged soon.”
“Really?”
“Are you disappointed?”
“Nah.”
“You sure?”
They were chatting in the hospital’s lounge at around noon, just like always. Ever unsatisfied with the hospital food, Sakura was eating instant ramen.
“Hey, look at this,” she said, holding her chopsticks in one hand and holding her mobile device out toward Karamori with the other. She was showing him a post on a social media app. It was for a comedy manga with a round penguin on the cover. “Isn’t Prudence, Sir Penny! the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”
“I mean…,” Karamori replied evasively, not wanting to be rude. The title caught his attention more than the penguin. “…‘Prudence’?”
“Yep. It’s this super popular new manga.”
Karamori looked at the follower count.
“It has almost zero followers.”
“I meant it’s super popular with me. It only has ten chapters so far, so it’s still new, but it’s gonna blow up soon. Just you watch!”
“Why? It doesn’t look that unique to me.”
“Trust me, it is. It’s about Sir Penny, a penguin knight who laments the rampant corruption among his fellow knights. It deals with adultery and other kinds of misconduct. He even meets a hero’s party guilty of embezzlement. It’s cute and socially conscious.”
“That sounds different…”
He wasn’t sure if that combination could work, but it definitely sounded like something that would draw attention.
“I hope it gets super popular so they start selling merchandise!”
“You think it’ll get that big?”
As they chatted, Sakura slurped up the last of her ramen.
“Ahhh, that hit the spot.”
“You eat instant ramen every day, Sakura.”
“I like it. It’s so good if you use a little less hot water and make the flavor richer. I also like to boil it a bit longer than the instructions say so the flavor seeps into the noodles. And if you don’t drink the soup, you’re doing it all wrong.”
“You’ll be back in the hospital in no time.”
“Oh, I’ll be fine. I’m young.” Sakura stuck out her tongue.
Karamori found himself laughing at her boyish behavior.
She smiled, looking satisfied. “You’re laughing a lot now, Karamori.”
“…Yeah, I guess I am,” he said awkwardly. Karamori was slightly discomforted by the nurturing look she sometimes gave him. He knew how low his spirits had been.
“You’ve probably figured this out, but I started speaking to you because I was worried about you,” Sakura said.
“I got the feeling.”
He’d thought she was being unnaturally sociable with him—though a part of him attributed that to her just being a little weird.
“Can you blame me? You were like a ghost when we first met! When you asked me if I was okay, I was like, ‘Who are you to ask me that?!’”
“Ha-ha-ha…”
Karamori obviously hadn’t told Sakura why he was here. He couldn’t tell anyone what he’d done, and he wasn’t mentally ready to talk about it anyway. Fortunately, she talked openly about herself and didn’t ask Karamori any questions.
Sakura recrossed her long legs.
“I might have been overstepping, but I decided I wanted to keep an eye on you. Then we kept running into each other by chance, so I decided to keep talking to you.”
“Yeah… Honestly, you’ve helped me. I feel a little better now,” Karamori admitted.
“Only a little?”
“Slightly better, then.”
“That’s even less than a little! I’m gonna be discharged soon, you know. Will you be okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll manage.”
“Really? Well, I’ll visit you when I can.”