FIRST PUBLISHED ON WATTPAD MARCH 28, 2019
CHAPTER 4: KOUSEI'S PAIN
It was approaching 4 PM. The three found Kousei. Kaori asked Tsubaki. "Yes. Hello, Tsubaki. What can you tell me?" Tsubaki sighed and began with this: "We still haven't gotten a definitive answer yet, but it is fairly likely that Kousei has some sort of unspecified disease. Now, before you start freaking, please note that there may be a chance, however small it is, that it isn't, and this is all a false alarm. Please understand, Kaori..." Kaori sighed heavily, and said "Alright. Let's all chat with him for a bit."
The three went to Kousei's room. He was bare-chested, his chest being marked with a few monitors, and his hands were on his shoulders, almost covering up his pectoral muscles. The two heard Kousei muttering various things, mostly along the lines of I'm scared. My mother taught me well, and now I'm here in the hospital, just feeling like my heart and chest is being gripped by a vise tightly... I'm blacking out and things seem blurred to me now... What the hell happened to me?
He was trembling a little as he muttered those words. "Kousei?" Kaori said. "We're here to see you. As are Tsubaki and Watari." Kousei finally snapped out of it, and finally spoke. "Oh, sorry. Hi, guys, how are ya?" "Worried about you." Kaori said with a little fear in her voice. "Hi, guys." Kousei also said. "Kousei... we've been worried about you. Ever since I saw you fall into that piano, Kaori here, and your other friends have been worried sick. How are you feeling now?"
Kousei sighed, and said "Oh, just a little better. For a moment, I thought I had a heart attack, but that wasn't the case. I think I fainted..." Kaori said "Yeah, that's what I was thinking at first, that you had a heart attack." "Yeah... It turns out I may have the same disease that my mother had. I'm worried... but I'm trying my best to keep myself together. It was like all time had stood still yesterday... I might be released tonight, however." "Okay."
Kaori said in a somewhat encouraging tone of voice. Kousei then asked Kaori something, as he handed her some money, 2000 yen, to be exact. "Here's 2000 yen. Can you be as kind as to bring me the following: A couple egg sandwiches, some potato chips, and maybe some canned coffee?" Kaori nodded, and affirmed him. "Okay, Kousei. Will do."
Kaori, Watari and Tsubaki convened one last time for the day outside of his room. Before they adjourned, a feeling of worry surrounded the three. "Our poor Kousei... Passed out for some reason. I hope it's nothing major..." Tsubaki nodded. "Me too. That was quite the terrifying scene yesterday...Can't believe we've known him for so long, and he just collapses under pressure! I hope it's nothing serious as well..." Watari realized he was late for another soccer practice, as was Tsubaki with her softball practice as well. "Oh, my... what time is it? I need to get to practice soon!" Tsubaki said. "Me too, Tsubaki! We gotta run, talk to you later, Kaori!" Kaori said "OK, see you guys soon!"
As the three exited the hospital, Kaori ventured into a convenience shop a few blocks away and looked at the food items he had to get for Kousei. She found two egg sandwiches. "Egg sandwiches, check..." Next came a bag of potato chips. "Potato chips, got that..." Lastly came two cans of canned coffee. "And that's it! This is what Kousei wants, and what Kousei wlll get." She paid the cashier and got about 500 yen back in change. "Thank you, come again." The clerk said. With the items in hand, Kaori went back to Totsuhara General Hospital to give the food items to Kousei.
Unfortunately, it just so happened that Kousei was having a sponge bath, and a second nurse was also shaving his face with a shaving razor; additionally, Kousei's face was covered in shaving cream. His bare chest was exposed. As Kaori saw this, she reacted as such: Her face became beet red, and she muttered "Oh, crap..." Kousei's face also turned red, his face covered in shaving cream as well.
"Kaori, dammit! This is not a way to get male fanservice! Gidouddahere!" Kaori, at a loss for words, put the bag of food and change down on the door, and made like a tree and left very quickly, saying as she left the bag down on the floor "SORRY! I SAW NOTHING! I'M OUTTA HERE!"
"Sorry about that, guys... that's some food that I asked her to get." he told them. The nurse that was shaving him said to the second attending nurse that was bathing him, "Excuse me, can you retrieve that?" The first nurse said, "Sure." She put it on one of the counters, so that Kousei would eat the food later. "I'll be sure to eat those egg sandwiches, the bag of chips and coffee later." The nurses continued on their work on cleaning Kousei like nothing happened, with one of them sponge bathing Kousei, and the other shaving his face with a razor.
As Kaori ran out, her mind was flustered over what she saw. BRAINBLEACHBRAINBLEACHBRAINBLEACHBRAINBLEACHBRAINBLEACHBRAINBLEACH she muttered to herself as she ran out. She wanted to get something to get her mind off Kousei's shirtlessness. She found something a couple minutes later. It was a donut place that also sold coffee. Maybe this will get my mind off Kousei's partial nudity... she thought to herself.
She then went to the donut establishment and came away with a medium sized iced coffee and two donuts. She then sat on a bench and consumed the donuts and coffee contently. Yum... Coffee and donuts. It won't solve all your problems in life... But it can make them bearable. If only I had some coffee cake with cinnamon... but this will do.
That night as she got home, Kaori got into her Saskatchewan Roughrider T-shirt as she went to bed. Her mind couldn't get off Kousei. Oh, Kousei... you were playing so magnificently until you passed out. I hope you are okay.... As she went off to bed.
As Kousei slept in the hospital, he thought to himself Am I going to survive? Am I going to be alright? Am I really connected to my mother in ways I never thought possible? The future is looking bleak for me. It's like darkness is setting... or is it? He then slept peacefully, with nothing bothering him... for now.