Chapter 278: Making Me Like Them
Chapter 278: Making Me Like Them
So many people!
Lots of people!
Therefore, the hospital room was probably completely full!
Even though he couldn’t see it, Himekoji could tell.
Because, besides his eyes, he still had his ears—
“Kasumigaoka!! What are you doing here? Third-year students don’t have a school trip!”
“Can’t I come without a school trip? What if I have a book signing event in Kyoto?”
“‘What if’? Are you trying to trick a puppy?”
“Yes.”
He absolutely didn’t expect her to be so shameless, actually admitting it so quickly!
Eriri froze for a moment, but then immediately got angry, letting out an “Ahhhh” scream.
“Wrong sound. Should be ‘Woof woof woof’.”
“You woof woof woof! Your whole family goes woof woof woof! Woof woof woof!”
“What? Didn’t hear you. Can you say that again?”
“I said your whole family woof woof woof!”
“Say the last part again.”
“Woof woof woof!”
Clap clap.
Kasumigaoka patted Eriri’s head like she was petting a dog. So satisfied.
“Good girl.”
The young woman praised her with a smile.
…
Listening nearby, Himekoji could feel invisible sweat dripping down his forehead.
So that’s—
Call the police! Animal cruelty!
Kasumigaoka was really terrible. Himekoji’s heart ached for Eriri.
Hahahahahaha.
…
Naturally, it wasn’t just Eriri and Kasumigaoka making the hospital room noisy and chaotic.
Also present was—
Yuigahama, who, for some reason, was serving tea to everyone who came in, as if she were hosting a tea party in the hospital room.
And Akiko, nagging Yukinoshita to unlock the handcuffs.
Eh, wait!
Saying that…
It turned out Yukinoshita still hadn’t unlocked the handcuffs for the Himekoji siblings!
…
“Akito, are you playing S&M?”
Sometime without noticing, the person leaning by the bed had changed from last night’s Yukinoshita to the current Mashiro.
So, when did Mashiro actually get here?!
When Himekoji woke up, he found Mashiro playing with his handcuffs.
Though he didn’t see this scene with either of his eyes.
“S&M? Of course not!”
Himekoji denied it immediately.
He wouldn’t have minded playing some S&M games with Yukinoshita occasionally, but there was one condition—
He had to be the ‘S’ in S&M.
“Then what are you playing? Cops and robbers?”
Mashiro tilted her head, confused.
…
Mashiro’s social circle was really, really small, and her news was severely delayed.
Therefore, she only learned today what had happened to Himekoji.
While Himekoji was asleep, Mashiro stayed by the bedside, holding his hand.
Watching this, Akiko and Eriri ground their teeth, having a silent contest to see who could make the funniest expressions together on screen.
Finally… well… maybe Eriri’s expressions were slightly more impressive.
“He’s a pervert who got caught.”
After refusing Akiko’s unreasonable request to “want the handcuffs off,” Yukinoshita answered Mashiro for Himekoji.
Himekoji completely didn’t expect—
This Yukinoshita person could actually handle two conversations at once!
While dealing with Akiko, she was simultaneously paying attention to the “dialogue bubble” here with him and Mashiro.
Though, in the very next moment, Himekoji realized.
Someone capable of “handling two conversations” wasn’t limited to just Yukinoshita—
“Putting handcuffs on him doesn’t mean you’ve caught him.”
After finishing tormenting Eriri single-handedly, Kasumigaoka turned her gaze towards a new battlefield.
For her, Yukinoshita might be a more interesting opponent.
“What gives you the right to handcuff him?! I’ve never done that to him! Get them off him now!”
Even though she’d just taken a loss against Kasumigaoka, Eriri had absolutely no intention of giving up. She seemed even more determined and jumped straight into the fight, following right after.
Eriri also chose Yukinoshita as her target.
With characters stepping onto the scene one by one, it really felt like a good show was about to start.
As for the remaining players in this drama…
Hikigaya was in charge of rolling his eyes from the sidelines.
Hayama and Tobe were probably acting as background extras.
Of course, if you said they were helping to lighten the atmosphere, that wouldn’t be wrong either.
…
“Why did you all decide to spend today’s free time at the hospital…”
Hiratsuka-sensei looked at all the students in the room and seemed a bit helpless.
The third day of the School Trip was free activity, which was fine, but the school really meant for students to learn more about Kyoto’s local customs and culture that day.
They should learn about Kyoto, not Kyoto’s hospital!
“Sensei, you make it sound like you haven’t been to the hospital yourself.”
As expected, Miura Queen always spoke to everyone with that look and tone.
How impressive.
But the Female Teacher couldn’t argue back.
She could only shake her head,
“I’m going out for a smoke.”
Hiratsuka-sensei then said that.
“No, you can’t smoke in the hallway either!”
A bunch of girls were around Himekoji’s hospital bed “playing mind games,” and Himekoji was already so annoyed. When he heard Hiratsuka-sensei’s words, he quickly found an excuse and got out of bed.
“I’ll go stop Sensei! Honestly, as a teacher, doesn’t she know smoking is forbidden in hospital public areas and the ward?”
Acting very seriously, at that moment, Himekoji didn’t act like a blind person at all. He rushed quickly and precisely out of the ward…
“PONG!”
Well, he actually hit the door precisely.
The Female Teacher had closed the door when she left, and Himekoji didn’t know because he couldn’t see.
So he banged head-first into it and got a big bump.
…
“Crack.”
Hiratsuka-sensei glanced into the hallway, saw no one was there, and calmly took out her lighter to light it.
“Hey, Sensei…”
Himekoji caught up and hadn’t finished speaking when the Female Teacher interrupted him with a knowing look,
“Want some fire?”
The Female Teacher pulled another cigarette from her pack and offered it to Himekoji.
“No, no… Wait a minute! You’re telling your own student to smoke!”
“You just refused, didn’t you?”
The Female Teacher didn’t care.
“What if I didn’t refuse?”
“Then we’d be partners in crime.”
The Female Teacher shook her head with a hint of regret,
“Too bad we couldn’t become partners in crime.”
“Hoo—”
Somehow, the Female Teacher had already started smoking and calmly blew out a smoke ring.
The smoke ring looked pretty, swirling around her eyes before fading away.
“I told you, no smoking in the ward!”
Himekoji reached out and snatched the cigarette from the Female Teacher’s mouth.
Even without sight, he managed to do it, thanks to past experience.
Once, when the Female Teacher failed a matchmaking date, Himekoji did the same thing and took the cigarette from her mouth.
That time, he crushed the cigarette butt right away.
This time, he didn’t.
…
“But sometimes, you just want to smoke…”
“Really?”
Holding the cigarette, Himekoji zoned out for a while.
If you don’t have a smoking habit, why would you ever feel like smoking?
Thinking this, Himekoji didn’t know what got into him. Like he was bewitched, he brought the cigarette to his mouth.
“Cough, cough, cough…”
He tried to take a puff.
Then, as expected, he choked badly.
“Haha, bitter, harsh, spicy, and choking, right?”
The Female Teacher laughed at him.
“No, a bit sweet…”
“Sweet?”
“Yeah…”
Himekoji nodded silently.
Probably not the cigarette’s taste.
It was lipstick.
Shaking his head, he skipped the topic—
“Alright, now we’re partners in crime, right? But next time, Sensei, you should walk a few steps to the smoking area first.”
Himekoji put out the cigarette.
“Haha, as a teacher, I got schooled by my own student.”
“Doesn’t that show you’re a good teacher?”
Hearing the Female Teacher laugh so happily, Himekoji laughed too.
“Pfft.”
But Himekoji didn’t know that only the sound of the Female Teacher’s laugh was real.
…
His eyes might never recover.
That was the reason Hiratsuka Shizuka wanted to smoke, even in a no-smoking zone.
“Himekoji, you’re a good person.”
The Female Teacher patted his shoulder.
“A good person? To not be objective, I am a good person for sure, haha.”
Himekoji made a joke.
“No, I’m being objective.”
“Huh?”
The seriousness in the words made Himekoji pause for a moment, not reacting.
“Because I’m a teacher.”
Hiratsuka Shizuka slowly looked at him and said,
“It’s my job to judge my students objectively.”
“So, to be very objective—”
“Himekoji, is a good person.”
“He’s the disciple I’m proud of and delighted with.”
“He’s the one I like…”
“As a student.”
…
…