Chapter 57

While Satoru slept, Reika alternated between fiddling with her phone and gently stroking his cheek.

Since she had taken the day off, when the time that normally coincided with class breaks rolled around, messages from her friends came flooding in all at once.

“Fufu, I figured someone would catch on.”

Most of them took her reason for absence—illness—at face value and sent her kind, concerned messages.

However, a few people picked up on the fact that she and Satoru were absent at the same time again and sent messages with a more suspicious tone.

It was only natural. Not only were they both absent on the same day, but it hadn’t even been that long since Reika had taken her previous day off.

For now, she replied with thanks to those who showed concern, and brushed off the more prying messages with vague, noncommittal responses.

“Seriously though, even though phones are banned on campus, everyone still uses them like it’s nothing. I just hope none of them get caught and have their phones confiscated or anything…”

Since they attended an academically rigorous school, rules around things like uniforms and phone usage were quite strict.

Satoru and Reika weren’t particularly obsessed with their phones, so they didn’t care much, but plenty of students tried to sneakily use theirs under desks or behind books.

As a result, it wasn’t uncommon for teachers to catch them and confiscate their phones as a disciplinary measure.

With that concern in mind, Reika limited herself to just one round of replies to her friends’ messages before focusing solely on stroking Satoru’s cheek again.

Otherwise, if she kept replying, they’d just keep messaging back and forth endlessly.

“Mmm…”

About three hours after Satoru had fallen asleep, he finally opened his eyes.

“Fufu, good morning. You really slept like a log, huh?”

“How long was I out?”

“Two or three hours, give or take.”

“…You really stayed like this the whole time? Thank you.”

“When the one I love says ‘Don’t leave me,’ of course I’ll stay. Besides, your good sleeping posture helped too.”

“Pretty sure that second reason’s the real one.”

“Let’s not worry about that now. Why don’t you check your temperature? I’ve been touching you the whole time, so I can’t really tell if your fever’s gone down. You’ve been sweating quite a bit, though, so I think it has.”

“Sorry, did my sweat get all over your hand?”

“Fufu, you get me all sweaty head to toe on a regular basis, don’t you? Just my hand is nothing.”

“That’s… kind of a separate issue, don’t you think?”

Exchanging these silly lines, Satoru picked up the thermometer to check his temperature.

The result showed that his fever, which had been 38.5°C in the morning, had dropped to a mild 37°C.

“It went down fast. Might spike again, but I’m relieved.”

“Same here. Want some of the jelly packs I brought? If you’re feeling hungry now that the fever’s gone down, I can go out and grab something else too.”

“Yeah, but first… I’m soaked in sweat and feeling gross. I’m gonna go take a shower.”

“Sounds good, but make it quick, okay?”

“Right. If I get cold now, my fever might come back… I’ll be fast.”

With that, Satoru hopped out of bed, grabbed a change of clothes, and headed for the bathroom.

“Well then… before he comes back, I think I’ll take a little peek at my darling’s belongings. I did tell him to be quick. He just seems to have misunderstood what I meant by that.”

Reika muttered to herself as she began opening drawers in the dresser and desk without a hint of hesitation.

“So that’s why the room looked neat—he just shoved everything messy into the drawers. Classic move right before a girl visits.”

With a mischievous smile on her lips, she pictured what Satoru had been doing before she arrived.

“The fact that he rushed this much must mean there’s something he really doesn’t want me to see. Hiding things from someone you love, tsk tsk. Not a good look. I want him to show me everything.”

As she said this, she carefully sorted through the stuffed drawers.

Even though she was talking about “secrets,” she had a pretty good idea of what Satoru might be trying to hide.

She felt a bit bad about snooping, but her curiosity got the better of her.

And then, just as she’d expected, she found something.

“Fufu… so this is what you were trying to hide. Too bad. Hiding anything from me is impossible.”

Grinning even more mischievously, Reika plucked the something from the drawer.