Dating During Pandemic
Part II
! PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION !
COVID-19 is a serious issue and sensitive topic for many people.
Do NOT follow the advises given or actions taken or details provided in this story. Instead, refer to CDC for reliable information.
Disclaimer: All characters and some references are based off of Higuchi Tachibana's Gakuen Alice
Natsume dumped the instant ramen into a pot of boiling water, along with the seasoning packets.
He hadn't eaten for the past 24 hours and was starving. Stirring his noodle and hoping it'll cook faster, Natsume opened a bag of seaweed-flavored chips to snack on. He was about to grab a second one when his phone rang. Glaring at the gleaming screen, the young man wanted to ignore the call. After all, he had been ignoring everyone for the past week.
However, Natsume changed his mind upon seeing the caller ID.
"Hey -"
"Finally! I was getting worried there," the person on the other line sighed in relief. "How's the apartment? Do you have everything you need? Still have the jet lag?"
The raven haired couldn't help but appreciate having Ruka Nogi in his life. After a whirlwind of uneventful events, Natsume found himself stranded in Tokyo with no place to stay, and Ruka generously let him stay in his one-bedroom apartment until he could figure out his next move.
"The apartment's great, man. Thanks for letting me stay here, I slept like a log. Probably it'll take a day or two to get used to the timezone again."
"Of course, just give me a call if you need anything. Don't forget to feed Usugi for me, I can't come home until things get better."
Natsume instinctively nodded. Being an Intensive Care Physician, Ruka was on the front line during the battle against COVID-19. Busy was an understatement of what he was going through.
"Definitely. You don't need to worry, Usugi's doing well. I'll send pictures of him later," said Natsume while looking at the fluffy grey Mini Lop that was sleeping on the couch. Even though he never had rabbit as a pet, Natsume had to admit that the little bunny was incredibly adorable.
"That'll be awesome. Yuu and Nonoko have been begging for more pictures," Ruka inwardly smiled as he remembered his coworkers who were obsessed with his pet rabbit, "Did you go to the grocery store earlier?"
Natsume's hand stopped midair when he was about to take a bite of his noodle. The little interaction he had with a young woman earlier crossed his mind. Unconsciously, he looked around the apartment as if looking for moral support, before telling Ruka what happened a few hours ago.
"You what?!" Ruka gasped but quickly tried to lower his voice to avoid attention. He was in the hospital cafeteria for a short dinner, and surely didn't want to announce what his friend had done to the world, "Tell me you did not cough on that poor woman's face. Weren't we supposed to stay six feet apart from others? Did you at least apologize?"
Nastume ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. He would've been furious if someone coughed in front of his face, especially in the middle of a virus outbreak. That was probably the most stupid thing he'd ever done.
Oh wait, images of what happened for the last few months flashed his mind, and he immediately corrected himself. Second most stupid thing he'd ever done then.
"I did apologize. I told her I had jetlag and wasn't in my right mind."
"But?"
"She...freaked out more after knowing I just came back from my travels."
"Ha! Airplane germs. She had good reason to be concerned."
Ruka felt bad for finding humor in the situation. He wanted to laugh out loud, but decided not to. It was funnier because his friend had always been calm and put-together. Back in high school, teachers and friends complimented him for behaving more mature than his age. The young blond man would pay a large amount of money to watch Natsume Hyuuga getting flustered in front of a lady.
"On a more serious note, do you have any sore throat, or -"
"Ruka, stop. Of all people, you know I would let you know if I got sick. You're kind of my primary doctor since forever."
"I know, it's just that," Ruka paused, not knowing if his friend would be happy to hear him drop the bomb. His doctor side was coming out after all. "I'm a little worried because you have the asthma."
Ruka expected Natsume to immediately react, but when he didn't, Ruka decided to continue, "You're at the higher risk group here, Nat. And I know, your asthma hasn't recurred for the past few years, but still, you have to be extra careful these days."
Instead of replying, Natsume decided to take a big slurp of his noodle. It was even better than he remembered. He hadn't had Japanese instant ramen for the past few months, and surely missed it a lot. "Yes, mom. I'll be fine."
The doctor's blue eyes flickered like a pair of Topaz, as he knew his friend was trying to downplay his condition. "Alright, let's talk about something else."
Taking a deep breath, Ruka muttered the courage to ask the next dreaded question. He didn't want to bring this up, but someone had to know how Natsume was coping with his problems, and most likely that person would be him.
"Do you wanna talk about, eh, what happened in Paris?"
The raven haired man sighed, as the once delicious ramen in front of him now tasted like rubber. He immediately lost his appetite, and glanced at a few bottles of unopened Whisky that he got from the liquor store last night: the first thing he bought once he reached Tokyo. What a great start.
"Let's not. I want to forget Paris."
And maybe today's the day.
Mikan was pacing back and forth in her studio.
She had taken a shower, washed her face - twice, drank vitamins, drank water, eat a bowl of soup that has garlic and ginger inside, yet she still felt uneasy.
Is this karma for not taking what mom said seriously?
On other circumstances, Mikan wouldn't have overthought what happened earlier. But the timing was so perfect: a random person coughed on her face after she ignored her mom's advise, it must be karma. Taking a deep breath, the brunette tried to distract herself and turned on the TV. The News channel popped up with the latest death count on Coronavirus, and Mikan gulped.
"This...is not helping," she tried changing the channel but everyone and everywhere seemed to only be talking about the pandemic these days. "Very not helping."
She immediately turned the TV off before her anxiety gets worse. No way she was going to let her panic attack get to her. Not now. She had been doing so well for the past year, and a tiny part of her didn't want to let Shiki, her therapist, down.
"Think, Mikan, think," she continued pacing back and forth in the kitchen area, when she saw a frame on the wall. Inside was a beautiful calligraphy art that Permy had created for her a few years ago. Underneath the writing was little drawings of macaron, painted in beige and light pink colors.
'If there's a whisk, there's a way.'
Mikan smiled as she grabbed her recipe book and started flipping the pages, "Time for a little cupcake action to the rescue."
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Apartment 301 had always smelled like a bakery, and that night was no difference.
Mikan loved to bake for as long as she could remember. It all started when her favorite strawberry shortcake ran out in the local bakery, and her mom suggested she learn to make one herself - with her mom's help of course, as six year old kids couldn't possibly do it themselves unless they were contestants in MasterChef Junior.
She considered enrolling in Pastry School after graduating high school, but decided to learn Graphic Design instead, and kept baking as a hobby.
Poking the center of her tiny chocolate cakes with a toothpick, Mikan triumphantly gave herself a pat in the shoulder when it came out clean, "Perfect! Now, I'll just wait until you guys cool down."
The brunette opened a piping bag and poured in the vanilla-caramel frosting that she had made. Her speaker was playing a slow jazz song from a random Spotify playlist, and Mikan couldn't help but feel at peace. Baking on a Sunday night had never felt better.
She was scooping the last bit of frosting into the bag, when the loudest and most horrific noise blared inside her studio.
The fire alarm.
Mikan almost dropped her bowl, but immediately recomposed herself and checked the already-turned-off-oven. Phew, at least the alarm wasn't her fault. She bet someone accidentally burnt their popcorn in the microwave and triggered the alarm. Grumbling because her night was disrupted, Mikan put on a cardigan over her shirt, layered with a winter jacket, and put on a pair of sneakers. She made sure she got her keys, wallet, and phone, before heading out and locking her door.
She was headed towards the stairwell when she saw something; a small animal running towards her direction. Her hazel eyes squinted in confusion for a few seconds, but finally realized that a very frantic-looking bunny was sprinting in the hallway. The poor thing looked so frightened, it must have been startled from the loud noise.
Mikan immediately remembered Hotaru's older brother, Subaru Imai, who once had a pet rabbit. He had taught her a thing or two on catching a bunny on the loose. Quickly, she took off her jacket and spread her cardigan open while approaching the rabbit slowly. As soon as it leaped, Mikan draped her cardigan over the little mammal and scooped it up in her arms within one movement. She wrapped the cloth around the bunny like a burrito, limiting it's movement so it had no choice but to stay still.
"Look at those cute ears! You're a feisty one, aren't you? Your owner must be so worried," the brunette smiled while the bunny stared at her with a pair of worried brown eyes. "Now, let's find your person."
Looking up, Mikan thought she was hallucinating.
She did not just see a raven haired man jogging towards her. Blinking a few times, she noticed that his right hand was holding a little crate, while his left was holding a piece of carrot. As soon as they made eye contact, his face turned from panic, shock, to bewilderment.
His crimson eyes looked at her, then at the bunny in her arms, and at her again. His expression was unreadable, but she could tell he was as equally surprised as she was.
Mikan couldn't bring herself to say a word. This felt like déjà vu with what happened in the store earlier, and she didn't know where to even begin.
Standing a couple feet in front of her, he finally broke the silence that seemed like forever.
"Hi, uh- again. Thanks for catching Usugi."
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A/N
^intense K-drama music in the background.
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Hi all, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you so much for your positive feedbacks - shoutout to AriCat-Hg and pressuredtreasure ! - and for all of you who had fav'd/followed the story :)
Seems like more people are writing/reading fanfic now that we're all quarantined (hesitantly inserting a smirking emoji...)
A little note about this chapter, I wanted to portray the characters as real people with real problems. The storyline on the other hand is very fictional, or maybe it could happen in real life too, who knows?
Hope you are all doing well and stay safe!