Yesterday

"Tsukki!" Tadashi greeted as soon as he saw Kei.

Kei only eyed Tadashi and returned his look to his mother. He was ready to go and already outside, but his mom reminded him something.

"Kei, you should give it to her." His mom ordered him sternly.

"Okay," Kei replied boringly as he turned around, facing Tadashi where he was waiting.

Once they exited the fence wall, Tadashi questioned Kei, "What was your mother talking about?"

"Ah, about that . . ." Kei sighed, "She wanted me to give Yukizome a lunch box."

"Lunch box? To Yukizome-san?"

"Yeah,"

"Why, though?"

"Yesterday evening," Kei answered, hiding his hands inside of his pockets, "She saw Yukizome bought a processed food at the convenience store. Then she asked me if what is she eating during lunch breaks. I said, she is always buying breads because . . ." he paused for a moment, thinking. "Because I don't know."

"I see, I see." muttered Tadashi while nodding. "So you are going to invite her this noon?" and he inquired with a meaningful tone.

"I don't know." Kei said rasply while scratching the back of his hair irritatedly.

Tadashi chuckled to himself. "Why not, Tsukki? You and Yukizome-san are in good terms, aren't you two?"

"Tch. We're not." Kei stated bluntly. "And yeah, why don't you give this lunch box to her instead of me?"

"Huh? What, me?" He asked surprisingly.

"Yeah. You're closer to her. And she's talking nicely to you than to me."

"Pfft." Tadashi closed his mouth as he laughed secretly. "Tsukki, aren't you the one who's talking rude to her? And she's just talking back to you."

"Tch." Kei just hissed and closed the chat.

Meanwhile, Tadashi started to rummage his bag, checking if his stuff were complete. He just had the feeling that he was forgetting something, so he decided to look for it. And his instincts were right, he was forgetting something.

"Snap!" Tadashi blurted out.

Kei eyed him sideways, still with a bored expression, but he was asking 'what'.

"Ugh... I forgot my English notebook." he sighed, sinking his shoulders down with an irritated face. Then he sighed, "I have to go back, Tsukki."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, my home is not that far from here." Tadashi replied, slightly grinning. "You can go ahead, Tsukki."

"Just don't be late." The tall guy just said, faced the front, and continued walking.

"Yeah." On the other hand, Tadashi smiled a bit and walked on the opposite direction.

After a while, Kei reached the school silently with his headphones on. As he stayed silent, waiting for the homeroom time to come, in his peripheral view, he saw Yamaguchi with Yukizome, walking straight inside the room.

Lorraine immediately sighted Kei as she dashed towards with a full smile. "Yo, Kei! My megane buddy! How are yah?"

And that is the start of their quarrel.

As soon as the class started, they went to their seats and focused on their lesson. It was seemed the class was bit boring for Kei, especially in the Modern Japanese time, but he was trying hard not fall asleep, unlike the lady in front of him who was about to bang her head down.

He groaned silently as he was greatly distracted by her, yawning nonstop. And that was good, because yawning is contagious. Kei was fighting the urge not to yawn and keeping his eyes on his teacher.

Kei Tsukishima was a smart person. Well, he would not be accepted in a college preparatory class if he was not. He was a type of person who could ace the exams if he put some more effort in studying. However, he didn't like doing troublesome things that was why he stayed higher than the mediocre level.

He looked at his wrist watch, and the time said that it was five minutes before twelve noon.

He immediately thought of his mother's order. He must give Yukizome the lunch box that his mother prepared for her.

Kei sighed on his mind, "Troublesome," and he said.

Yamaguchi, on the other side, noticed Tsukishima's annoyed face. He grinned to himself and thought that he should lend him a hand on this matter.

And finally! The bell had rung and Yukizome stood up quickly as if her energy was brought back to the highest level. Kei saw her leaving in a fast pace, that he hadn't even opened his bag and talk to her.

"Yukizome-san!" Good thing, Tadashi Yamaguchi was reliable enough and made Lorraine stopped on her haste.

"What's it?" The lass asked.

"Buying breads again?" and the freckled boy asked her back as he walked near her.

"Well, yah."

Tadashi questioned her why, and Lorraine didn't mind answering him. Now that they had heard her reason, it was a good thing to give her a lunch.

He was about to ask her if she could join them eat when she bid her goodbye again and ran in a brisk way, but this time, they were not able to stop her, because a third year guy, who happened to be the president of Student Council, called her.

It was clear that Lorraine was bit aloof with the SC President, but he didn't care at all. In fact, he was still amused with her actions and innocence.

The president convinced the young lass to eat together with his fellow SC Officers. And in the most disappointment of Kei and Tadashi, Lorraine accepted his invitation.

As they left without some words, Tadashi faced Kei with rueful face.

Kei sighed sharply, "At least she can eat properly this time."

Yamaguchi agreed with him, "Yeah, maybe next time."

"No more next time." Kei dismissed the chat, snapping at him.

Meanwhile, when the lunch break was over, everyone was returned to their room, the same also with Yukizome.

At this time, she discovered that the Yuhei Kurosaki was the SC President and she ate with the SC Officers.

"I'm guessing that you enjoyed eating with the Student Council Officers. Tch." Kei said annoyingly.

Yukizome faced him with a creased brows, "You're wrong, Kei. And why are 'tch-ing' like that?"

"Shut up," Kei said with a facepalm. "Your voice is ugly."

The lass almost rolled her eyes and gave him a look saying 'idiot'.
Once again, it was Trigo time. And once again, they had to survive this.

Gladly yes, they survived it.

The two guys left the classroom without talking to Yukizome. And it didn't bother her at all. It simply was not new to her.

They went to the lockers room and then to the gym for a volleyball practice. And even though it was almost midterms, it was required for them to practice still. It was a pain for the guy Tsukishima, but he had to deal with this. This was the thing he started, that was why no more backing out. At least, he had this kind of mental attitude.

They started the warm up, and they noticed that it was silent. Not that typical silent. Sure, it was noisy, but the noisiness was not noisy at all. Then they had taunted that the loud-mouth Shoyo Hinata was not around.

"I'm sorry I'm late!"

Ah, speak of the devil. Okay, he came.

"Hinata," the silver-haired Sugawara Koushi called, "Why are you late?"

"I'm really sorry!" answered Hinata, bowing his head, "I just helped a lady to go to the infirmary."

"What happened to her?"

"Ah . . . uh, sh-she . . ." Hinata said nervously, because he remembered that he should not tell anybody what happened to her. "S-She got tripped somewhere and hit her head. That caused her some minor injury. Ha-ha-ha . . ."

"Are you sure that you're not making the story up?" It was Kageyama asked him suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course! You can check her in the infirmary, if you want!" Challenged him.

Kageyama glared (as always) at him. "No thanks. It's practice time."

And then, they continued the practice.

Today

"Kei," his mom said his name with a serious tone. "Today is for sure, you got it?"

"Got it." he answered lazily and left the house.

Last night, Kei got an earful of whining from his mom for not giving the lunch box to her.

He sighed exasperatedly. "Why am I obligated to give this to her? Mother can give it to her directly." He nagged to himself.

Tadashi was not here this time. Maybe he overslept.

Kei only shrugged his shoulder and continued his pace on the way to his school. As soon as he reached the lecture room, it left him quite surprised that Yukizome was already here this early. Most of the time, Kei arrived at school earlier than her. But it was different this time.

He sat on his chair silently, not even caring to greet her. He only watched her covering her face with her arms. Maybe she was sleeping, he thought.

The class begun. The teacher asked her if she was fine, she answered yes. So he would just believe that she was fine. Long hours of discussion, he was watching her. And he could not just ignore her.

She was obviously sick. Her skin complexion was really pale. And that mouth mask, she was hiding something. Hiding what? She was not coughing at all and he could not hear her sniffing as a sign of colds.

Then why was she wearing one? What was with her today?

The lunch time came and Kei didn't concentrate to the whole lecture time. He was checking on her. Who would not be? Everyone had noticed. She was just the one who persistently said that she was fine.

And Kei was still bothered by something. About the lunch box.

"Dammit." he cursed inwardly.

How could he possibly approach her in that state? And inviting someone for a lunch was not even his thing.

He should just ask Tadashi to give this to her.

He was about to zip his bag open when the pesters in his daily life came. Shoyo Hinata and Tobio Kageyama.

"Still a no. Get lost." and he just shut them off.

Kei heard Shoyo was mumbling behind his back and he didn't give a damn about it.

"I'm sorry!" Suddenly, he heard Hinata apologized.

And it was oddly unbelievable that Yukizome and that Shrimp knew each other.

He even kept saying that they met yesterday.

Wait . . . Yesterday?

As far as he could remember, Hinata was late for practice yesterday, because he helped a lady to go to the infirmary. The lady who got tripped and caused a minor injury. Did that mean . . .

Yukizome weakly went out of the room to go to the infirmary. That was for the better. She should stay at the infirmary just for this time.

"Don't you think that we have to help her?" The King muttered, also watching her.

"Yeah. She must be depressed for what happened yesterday." Now the chibi answered back.

They decided to give her a hand and were about to chase her, when . . .

"Wait."

. . . Kei stood up with a heavy aura and grabbed Hinata's collar. His height towered him and looked down on his short built.

"What really happened to her?" He questioned in a low, menacing voice.

Hinata got easily horrified with that blank expression but his aura said it all.

"S-She . . ." Hinata stuttered, dropping some sweats on his face. His hands were in the surrender mode.

"She?"

"S-She . . . got bullied yesterday with some girls and fortunately I was there and helped her!!" The orange-haired fellow said agitatedly and everyone heard it.

That answered Tsukishima's question and slowly let go of his grip on Hinata's collar.

He went straightly to the direction where the infirmary was. It was unexpected, because Yukizome was still on the half way to reach the infirmary.

He chased after her, and once he reached her, he pulled her arm to face him. She even got out of balance and fell to his chest. Quickly, she regained her composure and gazed upon him.

Kei didn't said any word, but he stole her mouth mask to confirm with his own eyes the minor injuries that Hinata was pertaining to.

And there was no mistaking it. She had this bruise beside her lips. Looking closely, she also had one on her eyebrow.

What a stupid woman. He said to his mind.

Lorraine tried to pull her hand back, but he only tightened his grip. "You hid everything pretty well," the blonde said with his coldest, mocking voice. "Should I congratulate you?"

He saw her gritted her teeth and said, "Let me go." with her shaky voice and saw her eyes watered.

Kei immediately felt guilty of it and obediently listened to her command.

She turned her back and watched her walk for few steps.

What a stupid woman. He spoke once again and walked to the opposite direction. If she needed something, she should said it with her own mouth. Really, what a stupid woman. Tch.

Come to think of it, why she was bullied?

And without knowing, he shifted his head behind to gaze Yukizome one more time.

He wasn't really sure of what was happening, but all he knew, the time went slow as he witnessed how Yukizome collapsed on the floor. Kei wasted no time and sprinted directly to her.

Tsukishima carried her head with his one arm and started patting her cheek lightly. "Yukizome, hey." He tried waking her up, but there was no respond from her. She was just breathing hardly while shaking.

"Tch." he hissed. Then he had no other choice but to bring her to the infirmary . . . by carrying her, bridal style.

He secretly thanked the heavens for being athletic, that was why carrying her was bit easy.

Soon, as he reached the infirmary, Tsukishima told the physician what happened. The doctor examined the poor lady hopelessly lying on the hospital bed, checking her pulse and body temperature. She was breathing painfully as she was panting for more air.

Umehara-sensei placed an ice bag on her forehead to cool her head down. "Yukizome-san," she gently called her name, slowly tapping her cheek. "Can you hear me?"

Gratefully, she regained consciousness faintly.

"Yukizome-san, just keep breathing, okay?" said the doctor, caressing her hair, "Don't let your breaths falter not until I send you to the hospital."

Kei's brows were knitted closely. Hospital? She was just unconscious, was there even a harm on that?

He saw her nodded her head as answer, then she started crying silently. Tears fell down continuously on her face. That time, he realized that she was really in deep pain. And that pain, he felt it as well as if something was squeezing his chest.

"What's with her?" he asked the physician.

"Psychogenic seizure." she stated simply. "I'm also guessing that she have a weak heart."

That sentence struck him. She was that weak?

"What does that mean?"

"It is a type of non-epileptic seizure that does not have a physical harm. It usually acquired when a person is stressed, injured, having a mental illness or trauma. She could not bear all of it, even the hot temperature. She's also dehydrated. Over-fatigue, I could say." Umehara-sensei told the eyeglasses guy.

He sighed to himself. That . . . was plenty.

Later that day, the physician dismissed him. She even assured that she would take care of Lorraine. So then, he went back to his respective room.

"How's she?" Tadashi queried.

"Fine," he replied, sighing. Though she's not. "Having enough rest and sleep . . . in the hospital."

"Wait, what? Hospital? What? Why?"

"I meant it." Kei placed his elbow on the desk and rested his chin on his palm. And so, he explained everything, even though it was a pain. "Great, right?"

I also want to get hospitalized so that I can escape this tiresome life. He said to his mind.

☔

Let's have a little POV of Kei. Haha. Forgive me if it's lame.

And yeah, it's been a while.

- hand their end -