She Seeped Into Me
The body heat I felt supporting my collapsed senior in her home was nowhere near a normal human temperature.
The instant I realized that, I was already running with her in my arms.
“Haa… haa…”
Buksan University, where I go to school, has a medical college, so a university hospital sits nearby. Whether Dad had deliberately arranged it or it was pure chance, that hospital was only a five-minute run from the mansion.
I sprinted there with my senior in my arms. The moment I arrived and understood that regular consultations had already ended for the night, I charged straight into the emergency room.
“What seems to be the problem?”
“She’s a patient! Her fever’s through the roof!”
“Yes, please register first.”
“It’s urgent!”
“I understand. So hurry and complete the registration.”
…This was a first. Getting this furious at a complete stranger. My senior was still suffering like this, yet the person at the desk was half-lidded and spouting that nonsense.
But I knew that exploding further wouldn’t change a thing, and that it wasn’t really their fault either. So I tried to follow procedure—only I didn’t know Wa Sol’s resident registration number, and I didn’t have her ID.
In the end I attempted to register as her proxy.
“What is your relationship to the patient?”
At that question my thoughts froze solid.
Friend? Or just an acquaintance?
Yeah… saying we were senior and junior would sound natural enough.
“Someone I… know. She’s my senior.”
As the words left my mouth, the fact that I couldn’t describe us as anything more than that made me a little depressed.
I barely remember what I did while the paperwork flew by in a blur, but thankfully we got her seen quickly. Still half out of it myself, I explained her condition to the doctor in her place, and he took action based on what I told him.
Now she was on an IV, lying in bed with a far better expression than before.
Watching her breathe softly in sleep, I finally noticed the tiny headset nestled in her ear.
Had she been gaming?
Thinking it would only make sleeping uncomfortable, I reached out to remove it.
“Mmm…”
Just then she shifted, and without meaning to I ended up cupping her cheek in my palm.
The moment my hand met her skin I felt smooth warmth—normal temperature this time.
Thump…
…Haa. Get a grip, Go Gachi.
Feeling something like this while she was this sick…
I took a deep breath, carefully eased the headset from her ear, and set it on the pillow beside her head.
“A cold, of all things. She really was wearing thin clothes last night.”
On what was supposedly the last night of the spring chill—pretty cold weather—she had been outside without even a coat. Looking back, I had been so focused on the sight of her crying that I never once noticed she was freezing.
Idiot.
“I’m sorry, Senior.”
I pulled the hospital blanket over her and quietly apologized. Whether she heard me or not, her hand suddenly moved.
And then it closed tightly around mine.
“…Senior, are you awake?”
“…”
I called to her, but she still didn’t answer, so she probably hadn’t woken—just grabbed my hand in her sleep.
Thump…
Damn it. Again.
Getting this flustered over nothing more than a handhold…
Her hand, smaller than I expected, held mine with a light, almost stroking pressure. It felt soft, embarrassing, and ticklish all at once.
“Huu…”
Still, seeing her sleeping so peacefully while holding on made me think I didn’t have to pull away… No. No more excuses.
I simply didn’t want to let go.
“I’m such… trash.”
I wasn’t anything to her.
Just minutes ago I couldn’t even describe us as more than senior and junior.
…So what did I want to become to her?
Close friends? Or something like an older-sister-and-younger-brother pair?
Neither.
A fool who actually ran to her room the second he imagined her collapsing would never be satisfied with something that shallow.
If he were, he wouldn’t be a fool—he’d be a complete idiot.
“…We only met a week ago.”
I first saw her by chance and helped her move.
At the after-party we happened to sit together, talked, and walked home side by side.
Then a misunderstanding led to a meal together.
We ran into each other again by chance and ate once more.
And again, by chance, we shared a class.
We called, made plans, and I hurt her.
After that, more chance… more chance…
All of it had happened in a single week. Just one week.
“Is a week… long or short for the time it took me to fall for her?”
Comforting yet addictive—after meeting a senior like that, I thought of her constantly.
Most of our meetings had been pure coincidence, yet now I was grateful for every one of them.
Thanks to those coincidences she had, like a miracle, seeped into me before I even noticed, and I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
“Senior… I think I’ve fallen for you.”
“…Mmnya.”
“Eh!?”
I had confessed thinking she wouldn’t hear a word. But the soft sound that followed made my heart hammer for an entirely different reason.
No way she heard that… right?
I’m not ready yet.
“Hm… Huh? Gachi?”
“Yes, Senior… Are you okay?”
“Yeah… This is… a hospital?”
“Yes. When I went to your room you were collapsed, so I brought you here in a hurry.”
“I see…”
Thankfully it seemed she hadn’t caught my confession just now.
…I should be glad about that, right?
“But… why were you in my room?”
Ah. Of course that would seem strange.
What do I do… The real reason I went is even weirder…
…Screw it.
“Well… I was watching Eve’s stream, and when I saw that Kiri had collapsed… somehow… I got worried about you.”
Saying it out loud, even I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Yeah, it definitely hadn’t been a normal train of thought.
I had to admit it.
“I don’t know why that idea popped into my head either. You just… came to mind… and then Eve—”
“Eve again?”
“Huh?”
Even though her eyes were open, the hand still holding mine tightened.
Her expression… wasn’t the pained one from earlier, but it wasn’t a good one either.
“Eve again… You only ever watch Eve’s streams… Why… don’t you look at me, Gachi?”
Was she talking about what happened at the café?
That was already… No. That was my fault. Of course she had been holding onto it.
“I’m really sorry about the café. I truly… hurt you. I never meant to ignore you. It’s just… Eve is really… precious to me… I’m sorry.”
How many times was I going to say “sorry”? My head still wasn’t straight, so all that came out was apology after apology.
“Right… That day too. I was right there… and you didn’t look at me… It made me sad…”
Wait? So the words just now weren’t about that day after all.
And her pronunciation was still a little slurred…
“Senior, it doesn’t seem like you’re fully better yet. Or maybe you’re still half-asleep. Ugh.”
The second I finished speaking she clamped down on my hand—hard. It felt like she was trying to tear it off.
I never thought the day would come when a girl’s grip would actually hurt.
“You’re not… listening to me…”
“Yes…”
Tap-tap.
“Yes?”
With her free hand she patted the bed, face full of discontent.
“Uuu…”
“S-Senior?”
What kind of face was that? Lips pushed out, eyebrows drawn up…
It looked exactly like… a pout.
“Head… come closer.”
“I’m… already right beside you.”
“Closer.”
“Yes…”
Following her order I leaned in another twenty centimeters or so. Before I knew it I was half-kneeling by the bed, arms resting on the mattress.
This was… a little dangerous.
Her face was closer than I expected, and she smelled nice… and on top of that—
“Whyyy?”
Her voice went straight into my ear. Plus my hand was still trapped in hers. Four of my five senses were working solely for her.
“No reason. Just wondering what’s up.”
“…Uuu. Do you still have to watch Eve’s stream?”
“No. Eve’s stream already ended.”
“Don’t believe you. Show me your ears.”
I wasn’t even wearing a hood this time… I turned my head both ways so she could see neither ear had an earphone in it.
Did we really need to go this far…? Well, considering what I’d done, I had no choice but to obey.
“Good. None.”
“…You’re definitely still half-asleep, Senior. Or the cold’s lingering. You should rest a bit more.”
“Then… Gachi’ll be gone… Don’t like… Gachi… Gachi stay…”
Her soft, slurred voice reached my ear and I felt a strange sense of déjà vu. I couldn’t remember when, but I was sure I’d heard it before…
“Look… at me.”
“I am looking.”
“…Liar. You’re not looking at me.”
“I really am.”
“Then… why only Eve?”
“That’s…”
“Why… don’t you look at me?”
We had circled right back to the beginning.
Did she mean I should meet her instead of watching Eve’s streams? But… I still couldn’t give Eve up. If I abandoned her now… I felt like I’d crawl back into that cave. Eve was that precious to me right now.
While I was stuck in that private tug-of-war—
“Whyyy… don’t you watch my streams…”
—my senior dropped a bombshell.
“What!?”
Her streams? What streams was she talking about…
Wait. Streams?
The moment I heard the word, every scrap of déjà vu snapped into a single clear shape.
“Even when I stream at different times from Eve you never watch… So I finally collabed with her just to make you look… I was so worried about you I couldn’t even play properly and lost… I even forced myself through a horror game even though I was scared…”
It sounded impossible, yet only one person fit everything she was saying.
“Because Gachi was there… I kept going.”
Somewhere along the way her usual speech had returned; the slur was gone. That clear voice only made the figure in my mind sharper.
Just as I finished processing every piece of information and was about to reach the answer—
“Whyyy… won’t you watch my Kiri streams? Gachi… I…”
—she handed me the answer herself.
“What!?”
The words hit me so hard that for a second my mind simply stopped, as if time itself had frozen under the impact.
“…like you.”
I never even heard what she said next.