Chapter 4
Despite having been done eating dinner for almost 20 minutes, both Shinonome siblings remained at the table, scrolling on their phones quietly to procrastinate doing the dishes, which they did together per their parent’s requests.
Abruptly, Ena broke the silence.
“What. The fuck.”
Immediately, Akito looked up from his phone.
“You look pissed.”
Ena rolled her eyes at her brother’s comment, but brushed it off.
“Mizuki’s been ignoring my texts, so I checked her location.”
“And…?”
“She’s at the fucking ER, Akito.”
A moment of awkward silence passed before Akito responded.
“She didn’t mention it? At all?”
Based off the glare he got from Ena, that might’ve been the wrong thing to say.
“Would I be surprised if I knew why she was at the ER? Think about it, dumbass!”
Ena was pacing in circles beside the table, starting to hyperventilate. Concerned, Akito stayed in his chair and watched her spiral.
“Okay, fair… Ena, at least think about it before you freak out.”
Akito spoke calmly, typing something on his phone.
“You said she hates hospitals, right? So she’s probably not there alone. Just guessing, why would Mizuki most likely be in the ER?”
Ena slowed down, her pacing coming to a stop as she turned to face Akito.
“Right now? If I had to guess, she could either have needed a tetanus shot or tried to throw herself off a building, I don’t know??”
Akito, as much as he wanted to, didn’t question Ena’s answer. His phone lit up, though, with a message from An.
Bzzt.
Bzzt.
Bzzt.
Multiple, actually.
Group Messages: Vivid Bad Squad!!
An Shiraishi: HOLY SHIT MIZUKIS IN THE ER???
An Shiraishi: Sorry
An Shiraishi: I’m calm.
An Shiraishi: Yeah no she didn’t tell me anything, but there’s a chance Kamishiro might know why
An Shiraishi: Actually he might be with her
An Shiraishi: Earlier when I was looking over her shoulder she was texting him, they were gonna meet up after supplementary classes to “talk about something kinda serious”
An Shiraishi: Her words, not mine
An Shiraishi: Try contacting Kamishiro, lmk if you find out anything!!
Akito Shinonome: K thx
Akito Shinonome: Ena’s losing her shit rn but I’ll keep you posted
“An says that she might be with Kamishiro, do you have his number?”
Akito asked, to which Ena replied,
“Yeah. Can I see what An said first, though?”
Akito nodded, sliding his phone across the table. Ena scrolled through the texts, scoffing as she gave Akito another glare.
“You told your entire band that I’m losing my shit? I’m gonna beat your ass later.”
Ena didn’t sound too concerned about it, though, he had probably said worse on several occasions. She just picked up her phone and her drink, making her way over to the stairs.
“I’m gonna go call Kamishiro. I don’t really care if you come with or stay out here. If you stay here, though, you might get stuck with the dishes.”
As soon as that last bit sunk in, Akito was following Ena back to her room. She tried to swing her door shut, and Akito had put his foot in the door. By the time he was actually in her room, Ena had thrown herself onto her bed and picked up a Kuromi plushie. Akito settled down on her desk chair, spinning it to face her bed. He was met with the rapid clicking of Ena’s nails against her phone screen, which lasted a couple minutes, followed by Ena calling someone, presumably Rui.
Judging by Ena’s reaction, he picked up surprisingly quickly.
“Is Mizuki okay?? She hasn’t been answering my texts or anything, what the fuck happened??”
Ena, barely realizing it, immediately started yelling into the phone.
“So you’re aware we’re at the ER.”
Ena scoffs, glancing idly around the room. Her snarky, irritated tone was a sharp contrast to Rui practically whispering into the phone.
“Yeah, I have her location. So, what the fuck, Kamishiro.”
“Okay, I know it looks bad, but she just had a wound on her arm that needed to be checked out. It’s a couple weeks old, just infected, she’ll probably get a couple stitches and be okay.”
Rui paused, making sure there weren’t too many people in the waiting room giving him weird looks for being on the phone.
“As for Mizuki ghosting you, we’re in the waiting room right now and she’s been asleep pretty much since we sat down. I’m sorry she scared you…”
“Oh. It’s fine, I guess.”
Ena sighed in thinly veiled annoyance. She lowered her voice before speaking again.
“You said she had a wound on her arm, right? How bad was it?”
Another long moment of silence.
“I’m not really sure. She said she passed out a couple times, and it just… looks pretty deep.”
In typical Ena fashion, she got angry before she got upset. She did manage to keep it somewhat under wraps; for now, at least.
“How far up her arm did it go?”
Ena was speaking very quietly by the end of her sentence, clearly not wanting Akito to hear that part. Akito didn’t say anything, but he heard it anyway; not even because he wanted to, he just had insanely good hearing.
“Uhh… Most of her forearm, I think. I shouldn’t be telling you this without her permission...”
At this point, Ena was pacing around her room again.
“Now is when you want to back out of this conversation? Seriously?”
Ena scoffs, hanging up on him before throwing her phone across the room. She turned to look at Akito, who was still watching her silently.
“How much of that did you hear?”
She asked, continuing her rapid, anxious pacing.
“All of it, why?”
Akito promptly answered, to which Ena rolled her eyes in annoyance.
“Don’t tell anyone about it. Especially close friends, I don’t want to be liable if everybody finds out Mizuki’s personal business, got it?”
Akito nodded. He had absolutely no will to piss Ena off when she was like this. She sighed, her pacing slowing down to a stop.
“I should’ve gone looking for her earlier, I could’ve kept her from doing this…”
Ena’s nails were digging into her palms, she was trying not to get too upset about it, but it wasn’t making a difference. Akito, again, tried to calm her down.
“You’re positive that she did this to herself?”
“Obviously, how do you accidentally get a cut from your wrist to the inside of your elbow, pass out twice, and not seek medical attention if it wasn’t on purpose??”
Akito sighed, he couldn’t really argue with that. It was hard to get Ena to calm down when she was actually making reasonable points…
“True… Kamishiro said it was from a couple weeks ago, though, right? And that the primary risk was the infection?”
Ena nodded.
“So right now, Mizuki is okay. Keep that in mind, Ena. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t talking to anyone a couple weeks ago, I remember An tried to contact her around then and she got ignored, so even if you had tried to contact her, she would have probably ignored you anyways. Don’t blame yourself for it, okay?”
Ena nodded again, slightly less frustrated.
“Fair point… I’m still pissed though. Why would she go to Kamishiro and not me? I mean, they’ve known each other longer, but that’s literally it.”
Akito sat in silence for a minute, thinking about something.
“I mean… I remember in middle school, Kamishiro used to constantly be walking around with bandages on his wrists, so…”
He trailed off towards the end of his sentence, making Ena turn back to him once more.
“Oh. I guess that makes some sense…”
Ena pondered the whole situation for a couple minutes, then wandered over to her door.
“Yeah, no, let’s just… go do the dishes. I don’t wanna think about it.”
Ena, still pretty irritated, left her phone on her bed, which Akito quickly noticed; Ena took her phone everywhere.
“Ena, you left your phone…”
“I know. I don’t wanna look at it, it’s gonna make me mad again. Plus, Kamishiro is going to start messaging me soon, asking some shit like ‘Did you just hang up on me?’ and then I’ll be really pissed.”
Ena responded with a sigh, trying not to think about it too hard. Akito shrugged, following her out of her room.
“Makes sense.”
“Akiyama Mizuki?”
A young nurse called Mizuki’s name, dragging her out of her much needed nap. Noticing her struggle to fully wake up, Rui shook her a little.
“Mizuki, the nurse just called you…”
Rui spoke softly, trying to wake her up without being too loud. Mizuki yawned, slightly more awake. She stood up, albeit slowly, and picked up her bag before walking over to the nurse. Unsurprisingly, Rui followed Mizuki back to the room where the nurse took Mizuki’s vitals. A different nurse then came and transferred them to a different room, where Mizuki hopped onto the exam table and Rui sat in the chair next to the table. When the nurse left the room to grab Mizuki’s intake form, Rui spoke again.
“By the way, Ena called while you were asleep. She was… pissed, but I think she was mostly just worried.”
Mizuki was initially confused, but it clicked in her head a moment later.
“Ohh shit, she has my location…!”
Rui couldn’t tell if Mizuki was slow because she had just woken up from a heavy nap, or because she hadn’t eaten in five days. He was concerned regardless, though.
“How much does she know…?”
Mizuki asked, glancing over to Rui.
“Pretty much everything…”
“Rui!”
“Don’t get mad at me, she was interrogating the details out of me! Plus, I didn’t say anything about how you hurt your arm, she figured that out on her own.”
Mizuki sighed, rolling her eyes.
“Okay, that’s a little less annoying. What do you even mean by ‘interrogating the details out of you?’”
“She was screaming at me for most of the call. She got quiet towards the end though, when she was asking more specific questions, which I didn’t really understand.”
Mizuki went quiet again, thinking it through.
“Wait, I’m gonna check something.”
Mizuki murmured, picking up her phone and opening the messages app.
Direct Messages:
Mizuki Akiyama: Heyyy lil bro
Mizuki Akiyama: So how much of that phone call did you hear (╥_╥)
Read: 19:03
Bzzt.
Bzzt.
Akito glanced over at his phone as he put a couple plates into the cabinet.
Notifications: 2 Messages from Mizuki Akiyama
Absentmindedly, Akito clicked the notification and unlocked his phone.
“Shit. Ena…?”
Ena, in a slightly better headspace than a half hour earlier, glanced over at him for a moment before rinsing the soap out of the pot in her hand.
“What?”
Akito looked over at Ena, then back to his phone before answering.
“How do I respond to this…?”
Ena picked up the dish towel, drying the pot off as she turned and walked over to Akito and looked over his shoulder at the texts.
“Respond to… What the fuck??”
“Exactly. So, what do I tell her?”
Ena, for probably the fifth time that evening, started pacing.
“Uhh… She already knows, so I guess it doesn’t matter…? Just don’t act weird about it.”
Akito raised a brow, but didn’t really argue.
“If you say so…”
Akito sighed, picked up his phone, unlocked it, and started typing.
Direct Messages:
Mizuki Akiyama: So how much of that phone call did you hear (╥_╥)
Akito Shinonome: All of it
Akito Shinonome: How tf did you know though? I was completely silent
Mizuki Akiyama: Rui said Ena started whispering at the end and I just guessed that she didn’t want you to hear her
Akito Shinonome: I heard her anyways :skull:
Mizuki Akiyama: Fuck
Akito Shinonome: Sorry
“Damn…”
Mizuki sighed in disappointment.
“I was right. Ena was being quiet because she wasn’t alone.”
Rui looked up from his phone, tilting his head upon seeing Mizuki’s disappointed expression.
“You seem disappointed.”
Mizuki nodded, turning her phone off and setting it down next to her.
“Yeah, her brother was with her and heard the entire call.”
“Oh. All of it?”
Mizuki picked her phone back up with a sigh.
“Yep… Including when Ena was trying to be quiet.”
“Oh… So they both know?”
Mizuki nodded. Before Rui could respond, the nurse returned with Mizuki’s intake sheet, along with a tray that had stitching supplies on it.
Between getting the actual stitches put in and getting her blood drawn, the two were only in the ER for another hour. They ended up leaving around 20:00, and Rui dragged Mizuki across the street to Mcdonalds in hopes of getting her to eat something. To his surprise, it actually worked, and the two did enough talking to distract Mizuki while she chipped away at her french fries. While Rui finished his food, Mizuki pulled out the visit summary that the ER nurse had given her.
“Hypoglycemia… That tracks.”
Mizuki shrugged, grabbing a fry off Rui’s tray. Normally, he would’ve protested, but considering Mizuki was eating for the first time in five days, he didn’t care.
“Yeah, that’s part of why I insisted you eat something.”
Mizuki glanced at him over the paper with a small, mischievous smile.
“Rui, Is this you telling me to up my intake?”
“Yes, is this you telling me you’re back on Twitter?”
Rui responded, matching her teasing tone.
“No— Wait, how do you know that's from Twitter??”
Rui didn’t answer the question, much to Mizuki’s annoyance. He just giggled and picked up his and Mizuki’s trays and walked away towards the trash bin.