Fever and Half-Sleep Combined
Once the silly fox had drifted off, I switched off every light in the room, eased the door shut, and stepped out into the hall. Lingering inside and accidentally waking her would have been the single most pointless thing I could do... so I left. That was all there was to it.
"Saran, thank you so much. I can't believe you didn't just pick up the medicine — you even bought all those other things that are good for a cold. Just the medicine would have been more than enough... Do you happen to know how much it came to? I'll transfer you the money in a bit."
"It wasn't much."
"How much was it?"
"It's fine. Barely even made a dent in my account."
"That's... still..."
Once we'd made it out to the living room, Saran and I talked about this and that. It was only a short conversation, but she was kinder than I'd expected — telling me it was all fine, that there was no problem, that I didn't need to worry about it. I was grateful, and a little guilty... I wanted to repay her somehow, but there was still far too much left to do.
"You sure know your way around someone else's house."
"Ah — I just figured things would be around here, more or less."
"Hmph."
Even after the cleaning I'd already done, the place was still a lot messier than I'd thought. You couldn't just leave a sick person's home in that state. I'd tidied a little after we first arrived, but that clearly wasn't going to be enough — so I had no choice but to roll up my sleeves and start cleaning in earnest. It wasn't just the cleaning, either. There was a surprising amount to take care of, and in the process I ended up wandering all over Baek Eun-hwa's apartment. Saran seemed to find that a little suspicious, but...
"...Guess I should run the washer."
I had too much to do to linger on explanations. I brushed it off and moved straight on to the next task.
The result of a schedule that had run nonstop from Monday through Thursday — she hadn't cleaned a thing, just tossed everything wherever it landed. I had to tackle a house that was even more chaotic than usual, and I had to do it alone. Saran was here, sure, but asking her to handle this kind of work on top of everything else felt wrong. I'd already sent her out on errands. Demanding anything more than that would have been too much.
"Washer's going. Hah... now for..."
After pouring Saran a cup of coffee, I went back to working through the housework on my own. The fox den was a much bigger place than my little studio, which meant there was quite a bit to do... but I'd been living on my own for years. And back in the orphanage, I'd been the type to step up and work without being asked. It wasn't that hard.
"Hah...!"
I managed to finish earlier than I'd expected. I even went so far as to make a pot of bean sprout soup with the sprouts left in the fridge — whether she'd been planning to throw them into a bowl of ramen or not, I couldn't say.
"All done?"
"For now, more or less. Once Eun-hwa wakes up, I'll wipe her down again, get her into a change of clothes, give her some warm water, and then we'll have lunch... That should be all right, don't you think?"
"Yeah. That should work."
"Right. So I think I can take a little break."
I said it easily as I sat down beside Saran, who'd already claimed a spot on the sofa. Though, I always notice this... maybe it was because the sofa itself was ridiculously expensive, but the moment I sat down I couldn't help melting into it completely, going limp against the cushions.
"Nnngh..."
"..."
"Fwaaah..."
This is insanely comfortable... Like, ridiculously comfortable...
I let that thought drift through my head as I soaked in a moment of rest — and then I realized Saran, sitting right beside me, was staring. Maybe it was because I'd gone limp so suddenly. But the sofa really was more comfortable than I'd imagined, and the idea of just staying sprawled out like this until Baek Eun-hwa woke up sounded pretty appealing.
"So you're staying here all day, then?"
"I think so. I can't exactly leave a patient alone."
"I see."
"Her body aches are worse than I thought. A little nap isn't going to fix it. If she can get a proper night's sleep, though, she should start feeling a bit better."
"Got it."
Saran answered in that slightly blunt way of hers, as always, and I stayed flopped beside her without moving. A little over an hour had passed. The fox was still asleep. The snake sat quietly at my side. The day had turned into something completely different from what I'd planned, and I was a lot more tired than I'd expected to be.
I was turning that over in my head when I noticed Saran looking at me — like she had something she wanted to say.
"Did you want to ask me something?"
"Yeah."
Well... she could just say it. No need to hold back. Spending time with her like this, I was starting to think that Saran was a much kinder person than her cold, blunt appearance would suggest.
"Why are you taking such good care of her?"
"Eun-hwa?"
"Yeah."
Well. It wasn't a question I'd seen coming, so it caught me a little off guard. But I was well aware that I was looking after Baek Eun-hwa well beyond what anyone would call normal. If this was a simple sick visit, I'd already blown past that — I was basically serving as her live-in nurse.
From Saran's point of view, sitting comfortably on the sofa and watching my every move... asking why I was going that far was probably only natural.
"Mmm..."
Charlotte looked like she was turning something over in her mind. Saran watched her from the side.
The truth was, Saran had been uncomfortable for a while now. She simply hadn't shown it. The reason, of course, was everything that had happened today. Her counselor, Charlotte, had finally made time for her, and Saran had accepted the invitation for that reason alone — only for the entire day to be completely ruined because of one person.
...Thursday.
Today was supposed to be the day Charlotte was assigned to Saran. Not some other hero — Saran, and Saran alone. And because of the commissions that had been coming in lately, it was a day that hadn't actually happened in quite some time.
She'd managed to tolerate the interloper showing up. She'd figured that once they wrapped up the conversation, they could spend the rest of the time as planned. But that expectation had been thoroughly shattered, and Saran was considerably more put out than she let on.
"She'd go to the hospital on her own even if you didn't fuss over her like that, wouldn't she?"
It was the kind of question the usual Saran would never have bothered to ask. That was how little she liked the way today had gone. In front of Charlotte she stayed as quiet and well-behaved as she could, but inside, her grievances had piled up far higher than Charlotte probably realized.
"Ah... normally, yes. But Eun-hwa is a little... dense, when it comes to herself. Even today, in the state she was in, she kept trying to make her schedule. If I didn't step in, I think it would only get worse."
"That so?"
"Yes. If Eun-hwa had actually rested like she was supposed to... she never would have shown up at the café today, would she?"
"...Hm."
At first Saran couldn't quite follow what Charlotte was saying. But as she listened, she couldn't help remembering the morning — Eun-hwa walking into the café pouring cold sweat, looking for all the world like she was about to collapse. She had to concede the point, at least a little.
If Charlotte, as her counselor, hadn't kept intervening... Baek Eun-hwa absolutely would have pushed through her entire schedule, cold sweat and all.
"And even if it weren't Eun-hwa. I'd do this for any hero under my care. If you came down with a cold and were coughing your lungs out, Saran... I'd come to your place and look after you just like this. I'd do the same for Batori."
"...Really?"
"Of course. I'm your counselor. Working hard for the people I'm assigned to — helping them — that's my job, isn't it?"
"..."
Her counselor said it with an easy expression, body sunk comfortably into the sofa. There wasn't a trace of pretense on her face, so Saran could only sit there and look at her.
"Hehe. Just think of it simply. You rescued me when I was kidnapped, remember? This is no different from that."
The conversation had started because Saran was uncomfortable watching Charlotte fuss over Baek Eun-hwa. Charlotte had answered without any particular worry, chatting about it as if it were nothing... but the more Saran talked with her counselor, the more her thoughts kept multiplying.
"Oh — I just realized we haven't had lunch at all. It'll probably be a while before Eun-hwa wakes up... Want to eat something together, just the two of us?"
"Yeah."
"Is there anything you'd like? If not, I was thinking we could just keep it simple and boil some ramen..."
"Anything's fine. You've been working nonstop. Ramen's good."
"Hehe. Shall we, then?"
But separate from all those spiraling thoughts, the time she spent alone with Charlotte was something Saran genuinely enjoyed. Being around someone so bright — so unlike herself — was a newer experience than she'd expected. So Saran nodded, and agreed.
"...Cough."
Meanwhile, while Saran was spending time alone with Charlotte in the living room and kitchen...
"Cough, cough..."
It was summer, and yet she never turned the air conditioner off — not for a single hour. She kept the apartment locked at seventy degrees, stripped off her clothes the moment she walked in, and threw herself onto the bed. After repeating that for days, the fox had come down with a full-body cold.
And even though Baek Eun-hwa was clearly asleep, she kept coughing. Wiping away her sweat a few times, feeding her porridge, and getting some medicine into her... even with an Awakened body, recovery was going to take more time than that.
"Cough...!"
In the quiet room, the only sound was the fox's coughing. The coughing aside, Baek Eun-hwa stayed under, sleeping right through it, still more than capable of sweating her way through a proper rest. But the coughing went on, and of course it reached Charlotte's ears out in the other room.
"...Eun-hwa? Are you asleep?"
Charlotte slipped carefully into Baek Eun-hwa's bedroom. Saran couldn't have cared less about Baek Eun-hwa, so she stayed put on the living room sofa. Charlotte was a different story. She came in as a counselor — to keep looking after her patient, to check on her condition.
"Mmm... she's already sweating a lot."
Charlotte looked at the sleeping Baek Eun-hwa for a moment, then made a quick decision and went back out for another towel. She dampened it with water that was lukewarm rather than cold.
"Nnh..."
Baek Eun-hwa was already asleep, so Charlotte moved carefully, gently, making sure not to wake her — softly wiping her forehead, her chest, her throat. Baek Eun-hwa was soaked in cold sweat from head to toe. Charlotte even found herself thinking that tomorrow, without fail, the blanket and mattress would have to be changed. But that wasn't what mattered right now.
"Nnh..."
"Just a little longer. I'm almost done."
Charlotte gently stroked Baek Eun-hwa's burning forehead as she kept wiping the sweat away. Maybe it was because she kept stroking her hair while she tended to her. Or maybe it was the damp towel touching her skin as she wiped.
"Nh..."
"You can keep your eyes closed. It's all right to go on sleeping."
"Nngh..."
Baek Eun-hwa stirred, naturally, a little way up from sleep. She didn't open her eyes fully or come to — she just fluttered them open for a moment at the stimulation... so Charlotte softly covered them with the remaining towel and finished wiping her down. And through it all, she never stopped gently stroking her forehead.
"You're doing so well. Breathe slowly. Yes, like that. Just stay comfortable, and I'll help you drift off again."
In a soft, gentle voice. The same voice she used when she cast her hypnosis.
"It's all right to rest as easy as you want today."
Words to put a heart at ease.
"I'll keep taking care of you. So just rest, and don't worry about a thing."
Words she couldn't help but feel safe hearing.
"I'll always be right here."
Charlotte said all of it while stroking her hair. And Baek Eun-hwa — her mind still half-caught between sleep and waking, gone far softer than usual from enduring a hundred-degree fever — slipped, just for a moment, into a kind of misunderstanding.
...Mo...m...?
The person helping her, looking after her, cherishing her right now — Charlotte — she mistook her for a parent. It was the combination of a hundred-degree fever and a mind lost in half-sleep. It was also everything Charlotte had been doing to calm her down as thoroughly as possible before using her ability.
But Charlotte had no idea what Baek Eun-hwa was thinking. She simply kept talking to her, quietly, until...
"Sleep well."
With that short farewell, she snapped her fingers and used her hypnosis, letting Baek Eun-hwa sink into a deep sleep.
A great deal had happened in a very short span of time — but Baek Eun-hwa didn't wake until well into the afternoon. And thanks to Charlotte wiping away her sweat now and then, she woke feeling far more refreshed than she ever would have expected.