~To The Story~

You wanted lunch to come already even though it's 9:02 in the morning.

You fought back the urge to pack up your stuff and leave the classroom. You've done it plenty of times before, so what's stopping you now? Well, your mother said that if you skip any more classes again for the rest of the year, she'll take away all of your electronics. And when you use the 'But Karma skips as well,' card, your mother quickly responds by saying. 'And yet he still gets better grades than you.'

You grimaced at the memory. Does Karma ever get in trouble with your parents? Nope! For goodness sake, they could at least act more strict with him. His parents are always out of the country so that makes your parents automatically responsible for him. But even though they look after him as if he was their own son, he is treated like a complete angel or something!

'Maybe the devil can cast spells on someone?' You thought.

Speaking of Karma. Your eyes peered over to the other side of the classroom, and there, you saw his empty desk. You pouted at the reminder that he wasn't here this morning. As usual, Karma was skipping the first period. If you had to take a guess, he was probably still sleeping in his bed.

An image of Karma sleeping popped into your head. You almost chuckled at how you thought about him drooling on his pillows. He probably snuggles with his pillows, too.

'Cutie.' You smiled.

You blinked, realizing what you were thinking. Why were your thoughts filled with Karma all of a sudden. Out of all the words to describe Karma, you used the word cute?

Is he? Well, you did admit that Karma is cute. Not that kind of cute you'll use when you see an attractive guy, but yeah, cute. Thinking about Karma's physical appearance made you remember the girls in your class find him attractive.

You grimaced before shaking your head, trying to forget about that memory.

You then got the feeling of swallowing your saliva again. Your throat has been feeling a little funny since this morning. You really hope you weren't getting sick.

You started to tap your pen impatiently on your open notebook as your English teacher went on. You were supposed to be taking notes, and participating in class but obviously, you didn't want to, and you'd figure that you'll just copy off Nagisa's notebook for the notes later on.

How does the teacher expect the students to keep up if they go over the lessons too fast?

Why did you come to this school again? Oh... right, you made a promise to Karma that you'll go to any school he does.

"Guess what, Karma? I'm going to Kunugigaoka just like you." You said excitingly to your best friend.

"Huh?" Karma furrowed his eyebrows in disbelief. "Are you sure a dumbass like you can handle it?"

"Hah?!" You irked. "I am not a dumbass! I can do it! Besides, whatever school you go to, I'll follow behind." You smiled.

"Hm... fine." Seeing that bright smile on your face made Karma's cheeks flushed.

You almost smiled at the memory. It's just one of the many small but wholesome memories you share with the boy. Your eyes once again shifted to where Karma's desk was. As mentioned before, it was still empty, reminding you that he isn't here this morning to suffer with you.

"How dare that bastard leave me alone to suffer," you mumbled annoyingly.

Meanwhile, at the Akabane's residents, Karma woke up with a sneeze.

'... Who's talking shit about me?'

You made it out of class alive when lunch came around. Karma did eventually come to school, but since you were mad at him for leaving you alone, you decided to have lunch with Airi in the art room. Plus, you felt the need to tell her something.

"Did you know that there are some girls in my class who find Karma attractive?"

Airi stopped sketching in her notebook. Her eyes fell on you almost robotically from upon what you said. Well, it's not what you said that caught her off guard... it's how you said it. You sounded... bitter?

"Is that so?" Airi asked with a hint of knowing in her tone. "Is that a problem?"

When she asked that, you were tempted to say yes. But you couldn't grasp what the problem is. So, all you said was, "no." You swallowed some saliva.

"Huh." Airi expected you to say that. The girl sighed before closing her sketchbook, knowing she's going to have to all her focus on you. "(Y/n), did you come here to talk to me about something?"

You shook your head. "No."

"Really? Because you sound like you want to talk. On top of that, here you are having lunch with me instead of Karma-kun and Shiota-kun like you normally do."

You shrugged, before letting out a small cough.

Airi's grey eyes studied you through her red sunglasses. "Are you jealous?"

"I am not!" You got defensive.

"Uh-huh." Airi wasn't convinced. 'She doesn't realize that she's slowly starting to like Karma-kun.... what do I do? I can't just ask her if she's in love with him.I just need to take baby steps and be careful.'

"Why is that bothering you?" She asked.

"I don't know," you admit glancing off to the side ignoring your lunch. You really didn't know the reason why. But all you know is that you didn't like it. Not one bit.

"(Y/n), Karma-kun happens to be an attractive boy, and if you can't handle other girls seeing that, then imagine how it's gonna be like if another girl has a crush on him. I just want you to acknowledge that 'cause I don't want you getting into a catfight."

You huffed out some air, mildly insulted. "Who says I'm going to get into a catfight? It just bothers me that there are some girls liking Karma for his looks. I know I sound selfish but I wanna be the only girl his life." Your chopstick started picking at your meal. You haven't taken a bite out of your lunch this entire time.

Come to think of it, you hadn't gotten the appetite to eat anything.

"Trust me, he only has your attention, but are you saying he can't be friends with the opposite sex?"

"No, of course not...." You sighed really unsure of how to bring your feelings into words. "I'm just clingy towards him. Especially after realizing how important a person he is to me."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't get me wrong, in the back of my mind, I always knew Karma was important to me but ever since my break up, Karma has been there for me when I was going through a tough time. I suppose I realize how much I appreciate him in my life after going through all the trouble of cheering me up."

"You should appreciate him. Not everyone is as lucky to have a trusting friend like him."

You faintly smiled. "Yeah," cheeks glowing pink.

'Is she blushing?' Airi thought. Now what? Should she try and help shove you into realizing that you might have feelings for Karma? Easier said than done. One wrong move and she might end up pushing you away from Karma. The last thing she wants is to ruin your friendship with him.

"(Y/n), are you planning to date anytime soon?"

A thoughtful expression took over your face. Date...? Your first relationship ended in a disaster and not to mention your ability to trust others has become more difficult. With that mindset, you don't see yourself being with someone.

"Um... No, mostly because I'm not really interested in anyone." You coughed.

"...Hey, are you okay?" Airi asked growing concern. "You seem... off?"

"Uh, now that you mentioned it, I have been feeling a little off since this morning."

Your friend furrowed her eyebrows before placing a hand on your forehead, and one on her own to compare the temperature.

"Ugh, you're burning up." Airi scrambled up to her feet and pulled you out of the chair. "Let's get you to the nurse's office."

"Boo..." You whined.

Airi did take you to the nurse's office where you ended up falling asleep in one of the beds.

You woke still feeling pretty shitty. Your joints ached and your body temperature was high and hot. When you tried moving in anyway, you felt the lightness of your head.

"Ugh." You groaned, feeling the ache in your throat, which was far worse than this morning. You slowly sat up, wanting to test how bad your sickness is.

Wow! The room was spinning from that one slight movement. Your vision returned soon after. You saw that you were in the nurse's office. Well, you couldn't see the entire office, there was a white curtain around the bed, which was meant to give other students privacy if they were to sleep here.

Ah, you suddenly remembered that Airi brought you here when she noticed how sick you were.

Suddenly, someone opened the white curtain. "Oh, hey," Karma greeted, holding a strawberry milk carton. You also noticed that he was wearing his P.E uniform. "You're alive." He let himself in, before closing the white curtain from behind him.

Karma did visit you earlier after Airi texted him saying that you were in the nurse's office. Of course, the first thing he was going to do was to see if you were okay, along with Nagisa, but when he stopped by, you were asleep apparently. Karma then told himself that he will come by again later.

"If I was dead my spirit would haunt you for the rest of your life," you said dryly.

"Does this mean you'll haunt me while I'm changing? Freakin' perv."

"If I wasn't so sick, I would have slapped you for that comment." You mumbled, not having the strength to argue with him.

"Wow, you must be really sick if you don't want to slap me." Karma mused, stirring his drink in the process.

You slowly shook your head. "Whatever, I'm well enough to stand up though to go to class."

"Don't be a moron, just stay in bed, we're having P.E right now, so you'll just pass out from all the running we're doing."

You managed to stand up, trying to look strong in front of him. "See? I'm okay." To further prove your point you began to walk past Karma, but the dizziness took over you making you stumble forward, but before you could even fall, you felt Karma putting an arm around your waist to catch your fall.

It was at that moment you felt a lot hotter than before.

"What were you saying?" You couldn't answer his question. A part of you wanted to stay in his arms like this, however to you, it didn't seem like Karma had the same intentions as he pushed you off and gently forced you to sit on the bed. "Stay."

"Fine." You felt defeated from Karma's concern over you, so you moved back to sit on the bed, underneath the covers. "Can you call my mom and tell her that I'm sick?"

"I already did," Karma stated. "Here." He handed you his strawberry milk carton. "Your throat must be parched."

You accepted the drink. You frowned when you felt the weight of the drink. 'It's almost empty.' Even so, it was better than nothing, so you drank through the straw. "Shouldn't you go back to gym class?" You asked as Karma took a seat at the edge of your bed.

"It's gym class, who cares?" Karma shrugged in an uncaring way. "Besides, it's my job to take care of you when you're sick, and vice versa."

You eyed him for a moment before narrowing your eyes at him "Karma, I'm not going to vomit."

At a younger age, whenever you got sick, Karma would take advantage of that and wait for your to vomit in a bag and use it for a nasty ass prank. Did he ever use his own puke? No. Why? You don't remember but what you do re-call is him saying something like 'your puke is nastier than mines,' or something along those lines.

"Oh come on, I wasn't thinking of that." Karma defended. "Besides, those were my childish pranks back in the day, of course, I moved on to more creative plans."

You rolled your eyed before placing the now empty carton on the desk beside you. "Whatever. You moved to lie down and hide under the covers. "Go back to class now." You closed your eyes shut.

"I rather stay with you."

By those words, you immediately opened your eyes and once again, the temperature inside of your body rose. You already felt dizzy and warm, so you didn't need another layer to those feelings. You had no idea what was going on with you. Maybe it's 'cause you were sick? Yeah, that's it.

"But you'll get bored if you just stay here." You mumbled.

Karma passively hummed. "Not if I wait for the perfect opportunity to take a panty shot." Karma began to lift up your covers, trying to see if your skirt was lifted.

You flushed in embarrassment, and not to mention you got angry. "Go back to hell, you perverted devil!" You threw a pillow at him.

For the time you were at the nurse's office, you ignored Karma until your mom came by to pick you up. You don't remember much what happened after that because you kept dozing off in the car ride and at home.

Of course, you were going to have to miss school. But Karma did come over often and even skipped classes to be with you, but with all the meetups, Karma has caught your germs, and thus ended up getting sick as well.

"Sorry for getting you sick." You mumbled lying in your bed, next to Karma while your mother was downstairs, preparing some soup for you and your friend.

Marshmallow was in your parent's room to help prevent getting the little guy sick. You missed your rabbit.

"It's my fault," he assured, sounding off. "I was going to skip today anyways."

"....Don't we have a test today?"

"It's okay, you were going to fail anyway. You might as well delay the embarrassment."

Glaring at the cheeky smiled he was giving you, you went ahead and wholeheartedly smothered him with your pillow.

"Uncle! Uncle!"

~End Of Chapter~