Itazura Na Kiss- Eternal Love Story

#17 Unexpected Reactions

(Kotoko POV)

I woke up very early in the morning. Everyone was asleep. I looked on my right. Irie-kun was sleeping in peace. I turned on my right side and kept my right arm under my head to look at him properly. A smile broke in my face. I controlled the urge to touch his face with difficulty. It was like a dream- watching him sleep from this close after ages. I watched him sleep for a long time.

Then I got up to get ready for work. I decided to hide I mean attend work today and leave early before anyone wakes up. Irie-kun didn't sleep the whole night to take care of me. I felt happy but at the same time I felt bad as he couldn't sleep for me. I went downstairs in the kitchen for breakfast without making loud noises. 

One thing I have miraculously mastered during the past year is moving around making limited noise. I don't walk around making a ruckus everywhere I go now. That certainly is only when I remember to stay careful about it. I always had to make sure to stay out of everyone's sight when my body swelled due to pain or I vomited. I also had to make sure I made less noise so that nobody notices. I did got caught vomiting a few numbers of times over the year but I told them it was due to indigestion. Otou-san was really worried and urged me to see a doctor. I assured him I was fine and the doctor only told me to avoid consuming alcohol. I quietly finished eating breakfast and left to work.

...

Everyone at work was surprised to see me as I always took 2 days off after my therapy. I usually only visited in the afternoon for 3 to 4 hours for saline if I was too weak during these 2 days. Hana or Mio always dropped me home during those days. I told them I was there because of the high fever I had last night. Dr. Ayano immediately did some checkups and instructed Mio to put saline on me. Apparently I was too weak. Hana set up a bed and Mio went to get the saline. I sent a text to oka-san about coming to work as she was sleeping when I left. She knew I had off so she would be looking for me. She called me as soon as she saw the text.

"Kotoko-chan, why are you at work? You don't have work today."

"Oka-san, the schedules changed this month and I have work today. I will get the off later in some days."

"Oh... too bad. Naoki just arrived. I thought you both could hang around these two days. He didn't have work either." She said sadly.

"Oka-san, don't feel bad." I kicked myself mentally for lying so much. "We can hang around later anytime. Now that he is back, it doesn't matter, isn't it?" I tried to cheer her up.

"Hm." She didn't sound convinced.

"Oka-san, we will talk at home, okay?"

"Right, okay. Get back to your work honey. Bye." She hung up.

I sighed. What am I going to tell Irie-kun? He will also be looking for me as soon as he wakes up.

...

He called me around 10:30 am. He slept till so late. He must have been really tired. I took a deep breath before answering.

"Hello?"

"Kotoko, where are you?" He was still sleepy. But as usual his voice sounded so intoxicating. I always drooled over his sleepy voice. I smiled before replying.

"At work."

"Work? Don't you have the day off today?" He was confused.

"No, our working schedules changed this month. I won't have any off days for now. I will be getting those later." I lied smoothly feeling guilty. I hoped he will buy it.

"I'm coming to get you." He said calmly after a moment of silence.

What? No! Damn it! He didn't buy it.