It’s My Fault This Time Too?
The hospital’s a joke when it comes to being a respawn point.
If someone’s sick, they’re too busy or just too lazy to lie around at home.
Everyone around them keeps saying, “Please, just go to the hospital already.”
I used to think the same thing. When you’re sick, you go to the hospital. It was only natural.
I couldn’t understand why anyone would just put up with a small illness until it got worse.
But after I became a woman, all I do is wait to die and live like this.
I get why it’s so hard for some people now.
If you run a restaurant or a shop by yourself, even for a second, the sales drop.
There are people who can’t even make it to the hospital in the first place.
Take me, for example.
I had bruises all over my body, so I delayed going until I couldn’t even get my foot amputated.
I never would have known any of this if I’d just lived in a bright world.
If I’d graduated college, gotten a decent job, and worked normally, I would’ve taken care of that foot wound in a flash.
With sick leave that didn’t hurt my pay or annual leave that I could cash out for money.
But for people like me, who just suffer in silence, the illness gets worse until you can’t handle it anymore.
That’s what I’m thinking right now, the second I open my eyes in the hospital bed.
Of course, I have this vague memory of getting slapped across the face, pretending to faint, and then passing out.
People probably assumed I’d fainted and rushed me here.
I’d expected that much.
What I hadn’t expected was how bright the sunlight coming through the curtains was.
Sunlight. Yeah, that was the problem.
I’d spent one night in the hospital.
The moment I woke up, there was this weird, empty feeling.
That doesn’t happen when you sleep too much.
The hospital bed must have been so comfortable that I slept all the way until morning.
And the hospital bill?
It wasn’t cheap.
Last time I fell in the bathroom and lay there for a bit before leaving, it wasn’t that much.
But this time I had to pay for a full night.
The thought of running away crossed my mind.
If it weren’t for the downstairs neighbor aunt lying on the guest bed beside me.
“Ah.”
I almost stepped on her and shouted in surprise when she suddenly opened her eyes.
“Haaaaam. What time is it…… My goodness, sleeping in this late is something I haven’t done in a long time. Student, are you feeling better?”
“Why…… did you come here, Aunt?”
“The noise from upstairs was too much to ignore. I was about to call the police when I found you unconscious. I was so worried. That’s why I brought you here. Because you’re like my own daughter.”
Like my own daughter.
That was the line they used here?
More than anything else, the fact that she’d come to the hospital with me for a whole night just because of me……
Yeah, no need to beat around the bush or feel embarrassed.
It moved me.
Even though she wasn’t family, she’d offered help so readily.
Who else in the world would go to that much trouble for a neighbor who just wanted quiet?
This aunt was simply a kind person.
It was funny.
Everyone said happy families were fake, yet the neighbor was the one being kind.
Honestly, if I hadn’t been this close to dying, I’d have choked on gratitude alone.
“……Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. But seriously, how did you get involved with that crazy person? Boyfriend, right?”
“No, he just got angry because I can’t play games.”
I had no idea exactly who among the complainants had come after me.
Whether he tried to negotiate and failed, or if it was someone else.
Still, looking back, it really was that trivial.
Just because of a game, it turned into this.
“A game? Wait, did you argue with him in the game and accidentally give out your address?”
“No way. The world is terrifying!”
“……No, I didn’t. He just looked me up on his own.”
“Oh dear. Of course it’s the student’s fault. A crazy person who only shows up because of a game did something wrong. The police arrested him right away. Assault, stalking, all kinds of charges. He’s definitely going to jail. But he said he started the trouble first. Why did you even go out? It was dangerous. If the security guy hadn’t stopped him, you could’ve been much worse off.”
“Ah, that’s……”
I felt bad that the aunt was this angry.
It made me shrink even more inside.
But the second I answered, it got even more complicated.
Should I have let him hit me a few times and then gotten a bigger beating?
Even if I looked that nice, friends don’t talk like that.
But telling him how I felt back then was too embarrassing.
It was embarrassing even to friends.
So I just mumbled something vague.
Fortunately, the aunt seemed not to notice.
“And what is this? Brain concussion again. I’m glad it was just a mild one. It could have been so much worse. This is all because you didn’t eat properly. Look at your arms. Have you been eating the side dishes I made?”
My own mother never nagged like this.
But it didn’t bother me.
I even thought maybe this really was how a mother would nag.
Still, one thing worried me.
It wasn’t a real concussion.
I just passed out from sleep.
If I said I was pretending to faint after getting hit, the nagging would only get worse.
I guess I’d just have to let it go quietly.
“Yes, thanks to you, I’ve been eating well.”
“Then can I go check your fridge at home?”
“Ah, that’s a bit……”
“Tsk, eat quickly. But don’t force yourself. Throw away anything that spoils. Eating spoiled food and getting sick would be even worse.”
“I-I already ate everything.”
“You really did? Oh, I was going to feel terrible thinking you’d left it alone until it spoiled.”
Oh, was that not nagging but a trap?
Still, seeing her smile like that while saying it.
It made me feel like the words “because you’re like my daughter” weren’t empty.
Yeah, that should settle it.
There were still two people left who’d joined in on the graffiti terror.
Since the incident happened, security and the police would be on high alert.
As long as Kancho handled the complaints well, it would be fine.
The guy who got arrested would handle the complaints from prison.
Well, that was his problem.
Thinking about it, the hospital bill didn’t feel as heavy as I expected.
I’d given them even more hell.
Paying a night’s worth of hospital fees was the least they deserved.
Plus, the viewers had donated money, so I’d use that.
Oh, but the second I thought of the viewers, I realized I couldn’t relax.
I hadn’t turned off my broadcast when I left.
How confused and angry must the viewers be right now?
“Aunt, I should head home now.”
“Why? Is there an emergency?”
“T-The thing is, I’m doing an internet broadcast. Before I got attacked, I was doing it, and that’s why…… I need to explain to the people watching right away.”
“I-Internet broadcast……?”
So I blurted it out to the aunt in a panic.
She looked really surprised.
Maybe she didn’t even know what internet broadcasting was.
“Student, so you earned money with the gift card I gave you last time……?”
“Ah, yeah, something like that.”
Gift cards were basically stolen from people who made promises in the community, but explaining that would be too complicated, so I could just say I got it from the broadcast.
But for some reason, the aunt grabbed my hand tightly and spoke in a teary voice.
“You shouldn’t be doing things like that. Right now it might make money, but it’ll be a lifelong mark on you. The stalker who came to find you must have done it from information exposed on your broadcast. It’s dangerous.”
“Ah……”
She wasn’t wrong.
It wasn’t my broadcast, but I’d watched Celeste’s, so she’d tracked my location.
Or maybe she’d checked my movements when I went to Kancho’s studio.
Anyway, the fact that I gave up my seat on the bus and fell had even made the news.
But was doing a League of Champions broadcast really that bad of a label?
Of course, if I became famous, people might look into other things, but……
They don’t usually call it a label, do they……?
But the aunt’s words kept piling up.
“Doing an internet broadcast in revealing clothes, dancing. It’ll just attract bad people. So why not stop the broadcast……”
“Wait, wait a second. It’s not a revealing broadcast. It’s just a game broadcast.”
“……What?”