Chapter 7
When Mizuki woke up, she had an ungodly headache. The bright white color palette of the room she was in didn’t really do her any favors, either.
“You’re awake.”
Mizuki could hear the words, but she couldn’t tell who was saying them. Her vision was still a bit blurry, too, but she could see two people in the room, and she could guess who they were.
Especially when one of them got up and walked across the room, turning down the lights.
“Damn, what time is it…?”
Mizuki asked, rubbing her eyes before glancing over towards the window. It had to be past 17:00, since the room was now only lit by the soft golden light outside.
“Uh… Five twenty-eight. You were out for about an hour.”
That was definitely Ena, Mizuki figured. The ringing in her ears was subsiding, and she could hear more clearly.
Mizuki hadn’t actually noticed the IV in her hand until she moved her hand to brush her bangs out of her eyes. Now that she was thinking about it, she realized she still didn’t have complete sensation in her arms or legs. That should go away soon, she figured.
Speaking of things she had just realized…
“That’s weird… I don’t feel nauseous…”
Mizuki sat up, thinking that it might just be positional.
Instead, she was reminded of the lingering pain in her upper back.
While Mizuki sat back, mumbling combinations of curse words that likely didn’t exist until that moment, Ena got up and looked at the label on the IV bag.
“That makes sense, this is IV dextrose and ondansetron, which is for nausea and vomiting, I think. I got a prescription for it when I got sick a few times.”
Ena was so busy rambling that she hadn’t yet realized Mizuki peering over the edge of the bed at her.
“Ena?”
“Hm?”
“You’re tiny. You’re on your tiptoes.”
Ena turned very slowly towards Mizuki, and was met with that mischievous little smile that always came with Mizuki’s antics.
The mischievous little smile that she pretended to find annoying.
The mischievous little smile that Ena missed for those six weeks that felt like 42 eternities.
“Damn, no response?”
Mizuki’s voice snapped Ena out of her spiraling train of thought.
“Sorry, I was just… thinking.”
That son of a thousand bitches not only gave her a grade two concussion, but muscle contusions.
That’s just a fancy word for deep bruising, according to Rui’s Google search.
That was going to hurt for weeks.
The realization made Mizuki sigh, and she watched the little cloud from her breath hitting the cold air dissipate.
“It should be somewhere around here…”
Ena muttered under her breath, squinting at the map on her phone.
Mizuki looked over at Ena, watching her for a moment before nudging her with her elbow.
“You said it was called Fujioka Diner, right…?”
Ena looked up.
“Oh.”
They were right in front of it.
It didn’t take very long for the five of them to be seated, the diner was tucked away in a strip mall off a bigger street and didn’t get much dinner rush. Additionally, it was a relatively small establishment, but the ambiance was very pleasant. The place was well decorated, dimly lit, and all the tables had wisteria flowers in pretty little vases.
Ena had her phone out and was taking pictures the second she stepped inside, much to Mizuki’s amusement. Surprisingly, she didn’t have to wait until the staff turned away to start taking pictures, Ena had asked if they had a policy about it and it turned out that they actually encouraged that sort of thing.
Mizuki’s attention wandered from Ena, eventually landing on Rui, who was flipping through the menu for something that didn’t have vegetables.
Somehow, he succeeded, and within the next few minutes, the whole group had ordered their food. Ena and Akito had ordered pancakes, because of course they did, and Rui, An, and Mizuki had ordered ramen. Actually, An ordered buldak noodles, and Mizuki accused her of secretly being a spawn of satan.
Luckily, the nausea medication was definitely helping Mizuki. She could actually eat and not feel like she was constantly about to be sick, which hadn’t been possible for weeks. Between the music playing and watching Ena doomscroll, Mizuki was almost completely distracted from the lingering unpleasant thoughts in the back of her head.
Key word: Almost.
She could almost hear his voice.
She could almost feel the blade in her hand.
She could almost—
“Mizuki? You good?”
An asked, glancing at her from across the table as she stirred her noodles.
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine…”
Mizuki nodded with a forced smile, and clearly she wasn’t faking it very well enough, because Akito of all people commented on it.
“You look like someone just told you your parents died, but okay…”
Mizuki giggled at that, but Ena still threw a piece of pancake at him anyways. Ignoring the pending food fight, Mizuki turned to Ena.
“Kanade core.”
“Mizuki—!”
Rui, An, and Akito exchanged confused looks for a long moment while Ena tried really hard to act serious. Unsurprisingly, she failed, falling victim to Mizuki’s contagious giggle fit.
“Wait, didn’t you introduce me to her once?”
An turned her attention back to Mizuki, who nodded.
“Mhm. Blue eyes, really long blue hair.”
An pondered the memory for a moment before responding,
“Damn, her parents are dead??”
Before Mizuki could answer, Ena interjected.
“Well, one’s dead and the other one’s sick. Her mother died when she was little, and her dad got sick when she was in middle school.”
“Oh.”
An was terrified of death, and even though it had been months since she found out about Nagi, she still was reminded of it regularly. She wasn’t surprised that it happened after hearing something like that.
Akito must have noticed the sudden shift in An’s mood, because he picked up the conversation and tried to shift the topic a little.
“How is she now?”
“Good, honestly. Better than a year or two ago, when she would overwork the hell out of herself to compose. She has a housekeeper now that helps her with cooking and stuff, plus Mafuyu lives with her now, so it’s harder for her to get away with not taking care of herself.”
There was a short moment of silence after Ena’s explanation before Mizuki eventually chimed in.
“I think you Kanade would get along pretty well, actually. Shared passion for music.”
Mizuki looked to her left, seeking Ena’s input, which was a reluctant sigh.
“Probably.”
Rui, who had been almost silent since they had sat down, finally decided to contribute to the conversation.
“You said the two of them live together, right? Why is that, if you don’t mind me asking?”
With a very slow inhale, Ena exchanged glances with Mizuki, who gave her a small nod.
“Her mom is a flaming piece of shit. If I say any more than that, she might kill me in my sleep.”
Rui and Mizuki hummed in agreement, taking a sip of his water.
“She’s doing better now, I hope?”
Ena nodded, taking a bite of her pancakes.
“Much better.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Silence again.
Silence until An broke it.
“Mizuki, why didn’t you say anything?”
Mizuki froze.
An knew.
She saw her arm.
Of course she knew.
“Say anything about what?”
An sighed, pushing her drink back.
“I get not talking to Ena, but why didn’t you tell anyone else what was going on?”
Mizuki knew exactly where this was going, and she did not like it.
“Why didn’t I tell anyone what happened between me and Ena? Why would I?”
Maybe if she played dumb for long enough—
“You know what I’m talking about, Mizuki. I’m not stupid.”
Nevermind.
“Actually, I don’t. Care to elaborate?”
An scoffed.
“If you were struggling that much, why didn’t you tell anyone? We all thought you were just skipping a lot, and if I had known what you were going through, I would’ve at least tried to help!”
Mizuki let out a heavy, exasperated sigh, fidgeting with her ametrine necklace.
“That’s the point, An. I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want help.”
An was doing everything in her power not to yell at Mizuki, but she was making it so difficult.
“But if the choice is between talking to someone and being dead, you could’ve at least tried talking about it!”
At this point, An was standing, leaning with both her hands on the table. Mizuki was sitting, motionless, glaring at her.
In that moment of silence, An realized something.
Nobody else was reacting.
She was the only one who just found out.
That didn’t make it any easier for her to stay calm.
“I told you. I didn’t want help.”
“But—“
“This is why I didn’t tell you then, and this is why I didn’t tell you about it now. I didn’t want to scare you, and I didn’t want you to freak out. Case in point.”
“Obviously I’m scared, I could’ve lost one of my best friends and you expect me to be calm?!”
“I expect you to not yell at me. We’re in public, mind you. Sit down and stop yelling.”
An stood completely still for a moment, just glaring at Mizuki. If looks could kill, then Rui and Ena would be sitting on either side of a pile of ashes. Eventually, An sighed, sinking back into her seat.
“You do realize I’m just worried about you, right? I’m allowed that much.”
“I never said you’re not allowed to worry about me. I’m just saying that yelling at me in public isn’t a good idea. We could talk outside if you really wanted to, but it’s like… Six degrees.”
An narrowed her eyes in annoyance with a scoff.
“Smartass.”
“Mhm.”
Mizuki took another sip of her drink before putting it back down.
How long had Ena and Akito been texting each other?
Realistically, probably the whole time Mizuki and An had been arguing.
Was it really arguing, or was it just a heated discussion?
Did it matter?
“We’re talking about this again at some point.”
Mizuki looked up at An, who finally stopped staring at her like she was about to push Mizuki into oncoming traffic.
Not that Mizuki would have a problem with that.
“I know.”
An rolled her eyes, stirring the ice in her drink.
At that point, everyone was done eating, so they bought coffees to go, split the bill, and headed back to the station.