Makoto groaned as he woke up, the familiar sight of his room flooding into his eyes as they opened lazily. Although he was hardly conscious, a sudden wave of pain rushed over his being; his head was pounding, his limbs felt like bricks and his nose was runny.
"Just my luck," he sniffled to himself. Recently, a cold had been circulating around Hope's Peak Academy and, whilst Makoto rarely got sick, it seems that he hadn't been so lucky this time. Pulling himself out of bed, he crossed the floor to grab his clothes and began to slowly change out of his sleepwear and into his everyday outfit. Today was a school day as well, he groaned internally, the realisation making him feel exponentially worse. Why couldn't he get sick on the weekend? Then at least he could just hibernate in his room until the illness passed.
"Ahhh!" he grumbled as he pulled his shoes onto his feet and coasted towards the door to leave. Today wouldn't be that bad - all he had to do was get through classes and then he could come back and sleep for as long as he wanted to.
"Hopefully nobody realises I'm ill," he mused to himself as he stepped out into the dorm hallway, closing his door behind him, "or they'll never let me hear the end of it."
"Makoto, you're sick?"
Makoto choked slightly on his breakfast as Kyoko sat down in the seat opposite him in the dining hall and immediately commented on his condition. He swallowed. I guess they call her the ultimate detective for a reason. He tried his best not to sound nasally as he responded, "no, I'm good."
Kyoko looked unimpressed and stared at him blankly, "you're lying."
"W-what makes you think that I'm sick? He paused, "which I'm not- by the way." he added awkwardly, catching the attention of Sakura who sat next to him as he did so, who smiled, slightly amused at his uneasiness.
Kyoko eyed him suspiciously, taking a small bite out of her toast before continuing, "simple, your face is redder than usual, your eyelids are drooping slightly which may suggest that you are tired and your voice sounds slightly different to how it regularly sounds."
"Makoto, if you're sick then it's important that you drink plenty of fluids and get bed-rest. Otherwise, you'll feel worse than you do now," Sakura advised.
"I'm not sick, it's just my nose is a little runny and my head hurts slightly. It's nothing."
Kyoko glared suspiciously as she chewed her food, "It's nothing?"
"It's nothing!" Makoto lied.
"Alright." Kyoko took another bite of her half eaten toast and began to study the newspaper she had brought with her. Makoto sighed and also went back to eating. He felt bad for lying to his friend, especially as she only had his best interests at heart, but if everyone found out he was sick then he'd have to isolate in his room and miss class. That couldn't happen, he needed all the study time he could get.
Sakura frowned, sensing the tense atmosphere that descended over the group, "Do we have biology today? I haven't done the homework yet."
Makoto quietly said that they did and Kyoko didn't respond, not being a fan of small talk at the best of times. Sakura briefly pondered on ways to resolve the sour mood, gave up, and called Hina over to their table, who had just this instant strolled into the dinning hall. A fun conversation ensued between the two for a while, with both Kyoko and Makoto happy to eat and listen to the gossip and banter.
Kyoko finished her breakfast, collected her newspaper and stood up to leave. "Goodbye," she announced coldly, not making eye contact with anyone at the table as she began to walk away.
Makoto exhaled, "Bye." Today would be a long day.
Biology crawled; a combination of the constant whirring of an air conditioner, the particularly dry area of the subject they were covering and the banging coming from behind Makoto's eyes all combinated in a way that made it hard to stay awake, let alone concentrate and make notes.
"Makoto!" the teacher's small basilisk eyes glared at the student, "I hope you're making notes on what I'm saying! This will be in the test!"
"Sorry." His pen moved across the barren page on his desk, like a sloth, as Makoto slowly scribbled the last piece of information he could remember the teacher saying onto the page. The teacher cleared their throat noisily before turning around and facing the blackboard.
"Now, to conclude what I was saying-" again, the teacher's speech blurred and became hazy in Makoto's mind. He never usually had trouble concentrating in class, but this one particular lesson had simply blurred into a long session of headaches, feeling cold and the occasional effort to actually pay attention to the content. The brown haired student looked at the clock mounted to the wall above the blackboard- just under ten minutes to go. He breathed deeply. Out of the corner of his eye, Makoto thought he saw Kyoko peering at him from her seat a few spaces to his right, however, as he tilted his head to get a better look at her she instantly looked back down again at her textbook and began writing. Great, on top of everything, Kyoko was also mad at him.
The next ten minutes passed slowly, but surely. The teacher cleaned the blackboard, set them research to do outside of class and left the room, leaving the students to pack their stuff away and go about their business.
"Yo, Makoto," Leon approached Makoto with a concerned look spread across his face, "you doing okay? You were either staring off into space or staring at the floor for, like, the entire lesson."
"Yeah, it's just my head hurts a little, nothing huge."
"Alright, cool. Just checking you're good." Leon smiled easily, "see you next period," he said before setting off and leaving the room. Makoto's stomach dropped like a weight. Of course! The day had only just started, he had a few more lessons to do after this.
"Oh well," he grumbled as he trudged out of the classroom and into the halls. A mass of neat white hair and dark clothing suddenly appeared in front of him; Kyoko was waiting to pounce on him outside the door.
"How's your head and runny nose?" she enquired, getting straight to the point.
Makoto grimaced, remembering the lie he had told his friend, "they're… manageable, I guess. Thanks for asking."
Kyoko hummed as she produced a large notebook from her bag and held it out to Makoto, "I know you didn't make any notes, so you can copy up my notes from this lesson." Thrusting the notebook at the boy's chest, Makoto instinctively grabbed it.
"Wow, thanks Kyoko!" he smiled.
"I take it you still won't admit to being sick?"
"I'm not sick Kyoko, it's just my head hurts. I can still work."
Kyoko looked puzzled at this response. "I see," she murmured, before saying her goodbyes, turning around and walking away down the corridor, leaving a dazed but happy Makoto clutching her notebook behind her.
Having slowly trekked down from the fifth floor science rooms to the first floor classrooms where his maths lessons were taught, Makoto opened the door to the classroom and flinched back from the blast of thick, hot air that attacked him from inside the room. The rooms were infamous among students for being stuffy and hot - and the fact that it was a summer morning certainly didn't cool them down either!
"Ugh!" He stepped into the room and slumped over his desk at the front of the classroom, pulling his notebook and pen out of his backpack as he did. The teacher suddenly entered the room and the chatter between students stopped. Although Makoto enjoyed maths, the minutes passed like hours. The teacher started drawing diagrams on the blackboard as they talked about something to do with shapes.
Hot, stagnant air stuck to Makoto's skin. He suddenly felt light-headed.
"As you can see, the area of this shape is exactly the same as-"
The teacher's words slurred and were reduced to mumbles and noises. No matter how hard he tried, Makoto couldn't focus on what was in front of him, he felt like he was underwater. Why was it so hot in here?
"Makoto, are you ok? You're really red." The teacher queried, worried for their student's safety.
Makoto swallowed, "yeah- I'm fine."
The teacher didn't look convinced, "are you sure?" Makoto's peripheral vision started to go black, making the world appear more zoomed in than usual. His body fell forward slightly into the wooden desk as he rested his weight on the surface in front of him for support.
"He's going to faint!" Kyoko panicked as she stood up from her desk and rushed to Makoto's side. She produced a small, grey water bottle from inside her jacket; "here!" She shoved the bottle into Makoto's hand, "drink something, you'll feel better."
Steadily putting the bottle to his lips, Makoto took a big swig. The water was lukewarm, but it cleared his head slightly.
The teacher inspected Makoto, "I think you should go to the nurse." She said over the concerned whispers of the class.
Kyoko hastily volunteered to take him, slinging Makoto's arm around her shoulder and pulling him up onto his feet. Makoto cooperated and allowed himself to be pulled up, partly because he was too tired to protest and partly because Kyoko's eyes were piercing into him in a very 'don't even think about resisting' kind of way.
Kyoko carried Makoto out of the room, being slow and steady with her movements as not to fatigue her friend. "What hurts?"
"My head's spinning," Makoto answered meekly, "and I feel really tired."
The detective sighed. "We're almost at the nurse's office, do you need to rest?"
"No, let's keep going."
"You know I won't let you go back to class after this, you're sick. I'll bring you and your things to your room after the nurse inspects you."
"Okay," Makoto grumbled, defeated by Kyoko's insistence.
The nurse, upon examining Makoto, deemed him to be sick; a verdict that caused Kyoko to smile smugly and Makoto to groan in embarrassment. The doctor advised Makoto to take it easy and rest up for a few days and thus, Kyoko insisted Maktoto return to his room as soon as the nurse dismissed them.
"Umm-" Makoto uttered quietly as the pair ascended the stairs leading to the dorms, shattering the silence they had been stuck in, "I'm sorry for lying to you, about me being sick, I mean."
Sharp amethyst eyes met dazed green ones as Kyoko stared Makoto in his face, almost like she was evaluating him or thinking of what to say next. Makoto grew uncomfortable at the gentle intensity of her look. "Why did you do it?" she asked as they reached the top of the stairs, "outside the science lab, when I confronted you and gave you my notes, you mentioned that you could still work. I'm having trouble understanding what you meant, but it's related to that, isn't it?"
"There's not a lot to it," Makoto chuckled weakly as they approached his door. Reaching into his back pocket, Makoto grabbed his key and unlocked his door before stepping inside with Kyoko behind him. "I mean, this is a school, right? I have to work."
"But why not take a break if you're sick? Do you really need to be working constantly?"
Makoto flopped dejectedly on top of his bed and Kyoko sat on the edge of the bed. "Yes." he answered, "I have to get better so I can keep up with you ultimates."
Kyoko's brow furrowed, "keep up? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, everyone here is the ultimate of something, right? Everyone is super talented and I'm just average at best. I have to work harder than everyone else so I can keep up with them."
"Makoto…" Kyoko looked disappointed, bringing butterflies into Makoto's belly as she looked at him. "You're talking like you're completely talent-less, which if obviously not true, as you were talented enough to get into Hope's Peak."
Makoto scoffed, closing his eyes as he did so and relaxing into his bed, "yeah, by luck. Is being lucky a talent?"
Kyoko considered briefly, "yes, I think being lucky is a talent. And besides, you have talents besides being lucky, like your detective skills or the fact you never lose faith in people and you never give up." the white haired girl waited for a response, but was met with calm silence; Makoto lay on top of his bead, fully clothed, passed out.
"Rude." Kyoko huffed, smiling slightly. She carefully got up from the side of the bed and crept over to the door, "Just wait, Makoto. I'll prove you wrong."