A Reason to Care

Chapter 6: A New Motivation

A painful smile stretched across Chihime's face as she took in the sight of a beautiful phenomenon. Taka and Mondo, who have been up on each other's necks to this point, have become bros.

"So, uh, what circumstances led to this?"

Makoto shrugged as he chewed on some poorly made toast, as in 'bread dumped into a toaster for 30 seconds and slathered with butter that is still rock hard' toast. A brief thought arose on the possibility of cooking breakfast to win over trust among her classmates. "I don't know. They told me last night that they were having a sauna contest and wanted me to judge them, but I left after a while, and then this happened."

"What- how do you simply leave in the middle of a contest if you're the judge?"

"I don't think I could have stayed there all night..."

You just didn't want to be responsible if they died from overheating in that sauna overnight.

"Well, at least that didn't happen and they have the good sense to not stay in there for too long," Chihime poked the egg on her toast, causing it to spill on her toast everywhere, "And they get along now...which is great!"

That was a lie. Why on earth would she be happy with the two loudest people becoming best friends? At least when they were in conflict they would avoid each other. Now they will be hanging out all the time, talking in over the top voices about how awesome their friendship is. It's better than unwanted tensions, but it's still dreadfully annoying to withstand in the early hours of the morning.

The only other worst possible scenario is if they fused together and become one annoying person altogether, but that will never happen, right?

Scuffing down her meal, Chihime left the table to free herself from their booming voices. She was reminded to throw her laundry to wash later as she cleaned the plates and utensils of its mess.

She had only used two sets of clothes since her stay in the academy, but she would never understand why one would let their dirty laundry pile up. Having a large mound of clothes sitting on her lap as she wheeled herself to the laundry room felt like a repulsive sight for someone to see. Chihime dried the tableware off and replaced them back into the cupboard where they belong, staring wistfully at a mixing machine next to a pile of dishes before closing the door to deal with more important matters at hand.

Chihime spotted Chihiro at the corner of the room when she entered and gave her a nod, which the programmer responded with a shy wave. As she dumped her clothes into the washing machine, she was given a small glimpse of Chihiro checking her arm when she thought she wasn't looking.

"Did you hurt your arm, Chihiro?" She kept her tone kind and soft, knowing that direct confrontation would scare Chihiro off.

"Oh, not really. It's just that a mosquito bit me a few days ago, but it still hasn't gone away yet."

"Hmm, mosquito bites take less than a week to recover, though I might be remembering it wrong. May I take a look?" Chihime scowled at the angry red spot on her friend's arm, "It's fading, but it seems like the mosquito left a big mark. Didn't you notice it?"

"No, I noticed. But..." Chihiro paused.

"Go on..."

"Well, I felt it bite me, and I looked down at it. But I didn't do anything. I just sat there and watched it suck my blood..."

"Chihiro, I know this whole ordeal is stressful for you, but that doesn't mean you should hurt yourself. There are other ways for coping-"

"Oh, I didn't mean to hurt myself! It's just...the mosquito must have been really hungry to suck that much blood. If it was that hungry, it would've been really sad not to let it have anything."