You're Acting Weird Today
"You're acting really weird today."
"Argh, I'm nervous."
"Just do what you normally do. Just do what you normally do."
It was Monday, midterm exam day.
Lab access opened at 10:50, with the exam starting at 11:00.
That was why they'd arrived a full twenty minutes early and were waiting.
"Aaaah. I don't know. I just want it to be over already."
"Yeah, that's how it goes."
He wasn't exactly free of nerves himself.
If anything, he'd rather be fighting with his body than sitting through this.
He watched Cecil scrunch up her face and take a deep breath, then slipped his hand into his pocket.
"If you're nervous, want some candy?"
"Yeah. Thanks."
He'd heard that eating something sweet helped calm your nerves, so he'd stocked up. Chocolate, apple, grape… those were the ones he could grab right now, though he wasn't exactly sure what else he had. He didn't particularly like sweets, after all.
He watched Cecil pop candy into her mouth and wait, and before he knew it, it was 10:50.
The first-year students flooded into the lab in a rush.
The lab they'd be using for the exam was bigger than he'd expected. Each table had its own sink built in, one per seat.
And then, ten more minutes.
The midterms began.
"Haaah…"
"What? Did you mess up?"
"Not really, but I'm completely drained."
Maybe it was the focus, but the midterm had ended faster than he'd expected.
He'd done exactly what he'd prepared for, no variables thrown in, but Cecil looked a little down.
She hadn't messed up, but it didn't seem to sit right with her.
"Want to go get something to eat?"
"Sometimes I get the feeling you try to solve all my problems with food."
"Not hungry?"
"That's not it."
But the way she smiled while saying it gave her away.
For Cecil, food might not solve every problem, but it could handle most of them.
His recent paycheck was still comfortable, so he decided to treat her—partly to pay back the money he'd borrowed.
"Then West House…"
"I'll die. Seriously."
"Eep."
They settled on Big Meat for lunch.
She'd called it "calorie storage," hadn't she? Using that skill, she could eat a ridiculous amount.
Mana control was a bit tricky, but it was an incredible ability. That was probably how Cecil maintained her figure despite eating that much.
"So, what now?"
"Now? I've got my part-time job."
"Oh, right."
Maybe it was because she'd been so focused on the midterm, but Cecil had been acting pretty out of it since earlier.
He'd figured she'd snap out of it with time and left it alone.
But even at the library job…
"Excuse me."
"……"
"…Excuse me?"
"Hmm? Are you checking something out? Here, I'll get it for you."
"Ah, yes."
Whatever she was thinking about, she didn't even hear customers calling her, so he ended up handling checkouts from the back room.
"Cecil."
"……"
"Cecil?"
"……"
"Hey!"
"Huh? Yeah? Oh, you called me?"
He had to call her two or three times before she'd finally hear him.
"You're acting really weird today. You know that?"
"Hmm, is that so?"
"Nothing's wrong with you, right? Like, sick or something?"
"Eh, I've never been sick a day in my life."
Then why was she like this today?
"Hehe, sorry."
"It's not about being sorry. I'm just worried."
Cecil was, honestly, scatterbrained and easily distracted, but she was also sensitive to how others saw her.
For someone like her to be so spaced out that she didn't even notice him calling her name… just sitting there, doing nothing, staring off into space.
"But it's really nothing. I'm fine."
"…Well, if you say so."
But it felt wrong to push further when she insisted she was okay.
She seemed troubled, but it was awkward to keep dragging her around, so he walked her back to the dorm.
"I-I'll go in first!"
"I'll come tomorrow, so don't leave early, okay?"
"Yeah."
After dropping Cecil off, it was already past six.
Now that he thought about it, he'd been eating every meal with Cecil, so eating alone felt strange.
"I could call Sion… oh."
Right. He didn't have a phone.
And besides, Sion seemed to have some sort of thing going on with Bail—he'd been catching glimpses of it. It felt wrong to interrupt that.
What could he do?
He didn't know many people… Maybe he'd just go somewhere.
"…I understand up to that point, but explain clearly and precisely why your next destination would be the infirmary."
"Hmm… a food friend?"
"Haaah… What kind of priest calls his disciple a 'food friend'?"
He'd ended up at the infirmary.
Student sparring happened all the time, so injuries were common.
Normally, you'd expect the infirmary to be busy, or at least to have patients on hand at all times.
"But that's not the case here. The students are naturally tough, so minor injuries are handled by the medical department students stationed here. Thanks to that, the infirmary tends to be quiet."
"Hmm……"
"What's that look? It's like you're staring at a useless lump who just takes up space and salary without doing anything."
"That's not what I meant."
"So you did say it. You need to show more respect for your priest, disciple."
Fortunately, the infirmary only had a 30-something guy in a coffee-stained shirt slouching around.
"Well, since you're here, I'll treat you to a meal. Anything you want?"
"Oh, thank you, Priest!"
"Only 'Priest' when I'm buying you food, huh?"
"Then West House…"
"I'll expel you using my rights as your master. Rot in hell."
He'd narrowly avoided losing his status as first disciple over a minor issue, but they moved past it.
Since nothing came to mind, he asked for whatever Albert usually ate.
"Normally, I'd just go for dessert."
"Huh? Really?"
"I'm joking."
"?"
"Pasta, then."
Albert skillfully maneuvered his phone and ordered pasta.
"You know, Rolling Square uses its own delivery system and artifacts, so their food stays fresher longer than other places. I'm talking about things like heat retention and noodle texture."
"That's kind of interesting."
"Unfortunately, it's a trade secret. Go ask them yourself. Dig the ground if you have to."
"…?"
This guy's sense of humor was a little unsettling.
Albert, who'd been half-smiling, suddenly straightened his expression and spoke with weight.
"So. What's the real reason you came to see me, Jeden Hersen?"
"I didn't want to eat alone."
"I always give two chances. To anyone, anything, at any time. In other words, there's never a third."
"……"
He looked up.
The same eyes as always. The same downturned mouth. The same steady breathing and unshakable posture.
He looked exactly as he always did, yet there was a strange pressure in the air.
Right. This guy had known from the start.
He had no choice but to speak up a little earlier than he'd planned.
"Well, you see…"
He summarized what had happened with Cecil today.
Her thoughts drifting somewhere else.
Her inability to focus.
Her unusually frequent ear-rubs.
He couldn't find the cause.
Albert listened, then paused to think.
"First, understand that I'm not a professional counselor with the expertise to give effective advice. I'm a priest who listens to his disciple's troubles."
"Yes."
"In my opinion, um…"
Maybe Cecil has another guy.
"That's not it."
"Firm."
"Yes. There's no way."
"I'll ask for your reasons."
"That's…"
He couldn't answer.
Not because he had no reasons, but because there were too many.
Like, she was always attached to him, so she didn't have time for another guy.
She always wore that carefree smile, but that was only for people inside her fence. The Cecil who went cold and expressionless was actually pretty scary.
Logically, if she'd gotten another guy, the situation where she came to pick him up every day and he walked her back wouldn't have continued.
And, also…
"Stop. I'm getting goosebumps. That's enough."
"Is that proof?"
"Of course it is."
Albert sighed, cut him off, and spoke again.
"Then, let's think about it the other way around."
"You mean… she has a guy?"
"I'm seriously listening to your concerns, so stop talking nonsense. I'm saying to imagine that I told Cecil about you."
"So, you're saying to assume I told Cecil, 'Jeden's got a new girl'?"
"Right. Then what do you think Cecil would say?"
Hmm.
He closed his eyes and thought for a moment.
"She'd say, 'There's no way!' …something like that."
"That's what I think too."
Albert smiled faintly.
"Problem solved."
He said it.
"Of course, forcing a relationship to develop too quickly within less than a month could actually damage it."
It wasn't even a month yet.
"But at the very least, you need to make sure of your own feelings. How do you see Cecil?"
"……"
If asked about his relationship with Cecil, he could immediately answer "friends."
Cecil would say the same.
And she'd say the same about Sion and Bail.
But those two and Cecil were… different.
He couldn't put it into words, but they were definitely different.
Relationships were formed, continued, broken, and developed.
He… how did he see Cecil?
"This isn't a question I can answer for you. Ah, the pasta's here. Let's eat first."
That day,
Albert happily listed the advantages of Rolling Square while eating, but he couldn't taste a thing.
Whether he hadn't properly satisfied his hunger or not, he woke up hungry in the middle of the night.
His stored calories had kept hunger at bay, but the worry had come back, and he'd tossed and turned.
It was right after the midterms.
Jeden had submitted his finished work in an hour and left the lab first, so Cecil, who'd filled the full two hours, was only now setting out to find him.
'He said he'd be at the clock tower next to the library… He must have waited a long time. I'm sorry.'
She was leaving Thunder Hall with those thoughts when—
"Whoa. Seriously? Isn't that guy crazy?"
"That's what I'm saying."
Some voices came clearly to her ears.
"What's he saying?"
"They're not even officially dating. They're just friends, so what's he being so clingy about?"
"Seriously? He actually said that? …Wait, he's not a noble, is he?"
"If he was, would I be telling you?"
It sounded like a love story.
Cecil was just a regular girl her age, so she found herself listening intently.
"Basically, it's cheating, right?"
"Exactly. Turns out he was famous for being a player. She got played, that's all."
To sum it up, it was about a couple who were in the process of going from casual to official.
But the guy had been doing similar things to other girls, and when it came out, he'd turned it around and blamed her.
"We're not even dating, we're just friends—what's the problem?" he'd said.
At those words, Cecil's heart gave a strange jolt.
She knew better than anyone that it wasn't true, but if Jeden had given another girl his affection…
Of course he didn't have the time, the will, or the opportunity. But what if, just hypothetically…
'…That idiot!'
Tears pricked at her eyes.
Just imagining Jeden doing that made her feel irritated and choked up.
Oh, this isn't good.
She remembered a story from a dream not long ago—an angry wife whose husband had cheated.
She'd thought, "How can another girl get so worked up over something like that?" But now that she was thinking about it herself, it felt pretty petty.
The questions circled back to one: what kind of relationship was she in with Jeden?
If someone asked, she could say "friends" without hesitation.
'…No, I don't want that.'
What if that situation happened?
What if someone misunderstood them as a couple and said something, and then Jeden sternly corrected them: "Ah, we're just friends."
She'd actually said that herself.
At the time, she hadn't thought much of it, but hearing it come from Jeden's mouth… it felt strangely unpleasant.
No, it was true. They were friends.
But… wasn't that too firm? Hmm?
Suddenly, she felt sorry for Jeden.
Should she have thought about it a little more before saying that?
Had he been hurt?
She'd thought being friends was enough.
As long as she could see him again, what did it matter if they were just friends? She'd been fine with being strangers.
But now that she'd actually met him, she wanted to be by his side.
And being by his side, she wanted to be special to him.
He was already special to her, so she wanted to be that for him too.
…Cecil wasn't stupid.
She knew how she felt about Jeden. And she understood what "special" meant.
That's why she couldn't bring it up carelessly.
What if her feelings weren't reciprocated?
What if, even in the most hypothetical of scenarios, she wasn't special to him?
What if he didn't think of her the way she thought of him?
Her world would tear apart and she'd never be able to stand again.
For someone with such a fragile spirit, that was too terrifying.
So she couldn't even bring herself to speak, and just suffered alone.
"…Hey!"
"Huh? Yeah? Oh, you called me?"
"You're acting really weird today, you know that?"
So she hadn't even heard him calling her from right beside her, and had made him worry instead.
She turned her head, and there was Jeden, wearing a sad expression she'd never seen before.
He was genuinely worried about her, looking around for answers, asking over and over if she was okay. His face looked like he'd carry her off running if she said she was sick.
In that moment, she felt like an idiot.
…It's nothing.
Jeden thought of her like this. There was no way he'd look at some other girl.
So, it really was a useless worry.
And she'd made him worry over it.
Thanks to him, her gloomy, damp mood vanished completely.
Right.
There's no reason to feel bad over meaningless thoughts, right?
So she was about to say it.
Sorry for overthinking.
It wasn't a big deal.
Let's go get dinner.
…That's what she was about to say.
"Are you really okay?"
His hand covered her forehead, like he was checking her temperature.
"Eh?"
She made a stupid sound.
…Wait?
Was his hand always this big?
It wasn't like this when they were kids, was it?
No, well, time had passed, so of course.
…His arms are thick too.
His muscles were appropriately toned, with veins visible—well, that might sound a bit weird, but they were impressive.
Now that she thought about it, he'd been like that when they went to the lab too.
Looking at him now, he was taller, and his legs were long.
And when her eyes inevitably drifted to his face…
"…Are you running a fever? You're getting hotter."
The way he looked at her with worried eyes.
The thought that he looked at her like that only for her.
Her face turned an unbearable shade of red.
"I-I'll go in first!"
"Yeah. I'll come tomorrow, so don't leave early, okay?"
She fled back to the dorm.
Her roommate, who'd been as cold as stone, stared at her in confusion as she hastily shut the door like someone was chasing her.
But the image of Jeden's hand on her forehead grew clearer and clearer.
Her flushed face and racing breath grew worse and worse.
And finally, she collapsed to the floor like she'd crumbled.
______________________________
I'm so embarrassed!
