The Final Session (1)

(Haruna POV)

***

'....What if I didn't do well?'

Haruna tightened her grip on the straps of the backpack she was wearing, occasionally turning towards Reiji, who was next to her.

In the past, whenever she felt confident about a test, the scores were still never high enough to be truly proud of.

She used to brush it off, her thoughts too occupied with Granny and how she could help her out.

But she didn't have that 'luxury' this time.

Not in the same way.

Now that she was walking away from school, the stress slowly ebbed away, but not without leaving behind the worry about her results and tomorrow's exams.

"Whatcha thinking about? You look like you might have diarrhea."

Haruna made a disgusted face and bumped into Reiji, knocking him slightly off-balance.

"Why would you even say that?" she hissed.

"Hey, I was just wondering," he chuckled back.

"Ugh, now my appetite is gone. How are you going to make it up to me?

"Hmmm, that's not good. Who's going to eat the cookies I was going to bake?"

"Oh, look! My appetite is back again," Haruna grinned, patting her stomach.

Reiji smirked and turned to enter his building, with the excited girl following behind while rubbing her hands in anticipation.

When they entered his apartment, Haruna bounded in after kicking her shoes off.

"Oi, wear the slippers!" Reiji called out, throwing a pair at her feet.

She clicked her tongue and put them on, heading for the sofa where she promptly collapsed with a groan.

When Reiji went into the kitchen and took something out of the fridge, her eyes lit up.

"Ooh, what's that?"

"The cookie dough. I'll quickly put it in the oven and we can chill for a bit until its ready. We'll start studying after that," he replied without looking back.

"Huh? When did you make the dough? I didn't see it in the fridge yesterday."

"This morning, before I left for school. You were coming over later, so I had to be ready."

"....You made cookie dough on the day of the midterms?"

She was so stressed out that she had even forgotten to charge her phone, which led to her missing the alarm, and here he was making sweets the morning after he was bedridden with illness from a wound, and right before the midterms, too.

'This monster....' she thought internally.

"It doesn't take too long if you already know the recipe; it's not a big deal," Reiji laughed, rolling his eyes as if he knew what she was thinking.

Once he placed the cookies into the oven, Haruna stood up from the couch and walked over to him, crossing her arms with a serious frown.

"....What?" he asked, stepping back when he noticed.

"Take off your shirt."

"What? Why?"

"Tch, just do it!"

Reiji leaned away, putting on a frightened expression in mock protest.

"No, not my innocence!" he sniffed exaggeratedly.

".....Just shut up and do it. I didn't get to change the bandages in the morning because of my hurry, so I need to see if you did it properly."

Reiji chuckled and began unbuttoning his shirt after loosening his tie even further. He always left the top button open and never pulled the tie all the way up, and she had to admit it suited him.

And when the shirt came off completely, her breath hitched in her throat involuntarily.

When she'd changed his wrapping last time, Reiji had only removed one side of his t-shirt to reveal his right arm.

And she was so panicked about the injury that nothing else was within her range of thoughts.

So not only was this her first time seeing his full upper body, but it was also the first time she saw the tattoo on his left side, which caught her off guard.

'Those muscles are insane....'

Her eyes wandered all over Reiji's abs and chest, studying the black dragon inked on his body with the utmost seriousness.

"Hellooo? Anybody home!"

Reiji was waving a hand in front of her face while grinning, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Sh-Shut up!"

'.....Why did I do that?'

She felt her cheeks grow hot when she realized what she was doing, turning away to grab a tissue from the kitchen so that he wouldn't notice her daze.

"S-some of the medicine leaked out of the bandages, so I'll wipe it away," she stammered nervously, carefully rubbing out the liquid that had dripped out on his arm. "But there doesn't seem to be any other issues, so I won't change them again today."

"Oh, thanks!"

"When did you get this tattoo?"

"Ummm..... Over the summer, before school started. Doesn't it look cool?" he grinned.

Haruna concentrated on the ink, satisfied at finding a way to stare without making it weird.

"It's.....fine. Do you not have a thermometer at home? I couldn't find one before," she continued, moving on from the embarrassment as much as she could.

But her gaze kept wandering over to the rest of his body as she wiped the residue, causing her to bite her tongue to regain focus.

"No, I need to get one. But I feel fine, aside from the remaining fatigue, so no need to worry," Reiji reassured.

"....Okay, good."

Once she finished cleaning up, she moved to throw the tissue away into the garbage bin, but when she glanced back, Reiji was putting his clothes back on.

And for some reason, she didn't like that.

But there was no justification to tell him to keep it off, so she bit back the protest that wanted to leave her mouth.

'Why am I pissed??'

She blinked with confusion at her own thoughts and shook her head to clear them up, though that didn't yield much result.

"Now, before the cookies are done, I want a full report on how the midterms went," Reiji declared, his tone shifting alongside the subject.

The turntables were now....

The tables were now turned, with Reiji looking at Haruna sternly while she tried to escape into the living room.

She leaped back onto the sofa, covering her face with a pillow in denial.

"I don't know, so I can't give you a breakdown!"

"Nice try, that's not gonna work."

"But what if I did poorly?" she asked quietly, lowering the pillow so that only the top half of her face was visible.

"I told you, it doesn't matter. There are many ways to make money, so look at the midterms as self-improvement and not a responsibility," Reiji sighed, joining her on the sofa as he sat on the other end.

"That's not the issue, you idiot," she snapped as she threw the cushion at him with the speed of a crossbow, smacking him in the face. "This is all your fault!"

Reiji rubbed his aching nose and tilted his head quizzically.

"What did I do?"

"You made that stupid bet! What if I fail and you have to post a video of... that??"

Reiji leaned back into the headrest as realization dawned on him and laughed.

"Oh, that. That's not really fair, though. He made the bet, I just matched it," he shrugged indifferently.

".....That doesn't make any difference. What if I don't make it through?"

"Then I lose the bet and make the video. No big deal."

Haruna pursed her lips and stared at the man in front of her, hiding her head behind her knees to cover up the fact that she was blushing yet again.

'Urghhh, this is dangerous....'

"What's up with you today? You've been zoning out so often?" Reiji asked with furrowed brows. "Did you catch my fever somehow? Though I doubt it was contagious."

He reached out and pried the pillow away from her, feeling her forehead with his hand just like she'd done for him before.

"Wait, you really are a little warm...." he muttered.

Haruna was taken aback by the sudden contact, and when she locked eyes with his deep blue ones that were strained with worry, she jumped away from him.

"I need to use the washroom!" she yelled, racing into his room instead of using the guest one in the hall.

Reiji watched her, an understanding smile growing slowly.

"So she really did have diarrhea."

'Or... Maybe she's....?'

***

Reiji checked the oven while she was gone, nodding happily at the progress.

"I guess I was overthinking it. To take this long, she must be in a bad state. I'll give her some stomach medicine when she comes out," he mumbled under his breath after he checked his watch and saw that it had been quite a while.

He was wondering if it was any of his food that had caused it, since she'd stayed over for two nights, in which case he'd feel a little guilty.

'If she had to hold it in during the midterms..... Oh no, I feel bad.'

Just as he was thinking this, his bedroom door reopened, and Haruna came back into the hall.

"....Are the cookies ready?" she asked, refusing to look at him.

"Almost, but I don't think you should have any."

"Huh? Why not?"

"I don't want your stomach issues to get worse; you still have midterms tomorrow," he explained calmly.

"Stomach issues? What are you talking about?"

"Well, you were in there for a while...."

"...."

As Haruna's face got redder and redder, her arms shaking with fury, Reiji started to realize he'd fucked up.

"YOU'RE DEAD!!"

"ACCKKK!"