ADMIRE ME |Brothers Conflict

21

I had drawn the covers over my head, hiding in the comfort of my bed. Although I was mostly curled in on myself, I had left my left leg stretched out to avoid moving my healed ankle.

Currently, I was preoccupied with sulking. Recovering from a broken ankle proved to drain my energy and left me emotionally unstable.

Pages with prescribed exercises laid scattered over the floor and my cover, but I couldn't bring myself to do them.

I had switched off my phone, not wanting Fuuto to ask me why I wasn't showing up on his date with Ema. Later on, I would deal with the consequences, but now I was busy avoiding facing reality.

When I had counted the days, I had started to believe that I could participate in the culture fair, dance during the ball, and run around. Alas, reality proved me naïve. Rehabilitating would be a lengthy and painful process – my ankle felt so fragile that I knew that I would break it again when I fell.

That meant that I couldn't fall, but every movement pretty much involved a risk of falling.

Besides, my ankle hurt, and I didn't like pain.

So, what was it that I had decided to do?

Hide under the blanket on my bed for days.

I heard the door to my room open, which alerted me of my dad's arrival. Oddly enough, he didn't say anything at all. Intently, I listened to his footsteps which were softer than usual. Then the mattress dipped under his weight as he sat down next to my curled up form.

A hand touched my shoulder gently through the covers.

"[Y/N]," a familiar voice said.

"Fuuto," I mumbled, my voice muffled by the blanket.

He was silent for a long while, stroking me with his hand in an almost absentminded manner.

"I'm sorry," he sighed after a while.

"Never mind that," I replied.

Suddenly, I remembered my promise – I would confess at the ball. Funny that once I had resolved to use the dance as an opportunity, I couldn't attend it.

"Can you breathe under the covers?" he asked me.

"No, it's very stuffy in here," I answered, feeling a smile tug at the corners of my lips. A few minutes ago, my situation had seemed hopeless, but Fuuto's presence alone was enough to cheer me up.

The unfortunate truth was that I had started to depend on him. For now, this dependency wasn't a problem because I had Fuuto by my side.

"The air is very nice out here," he promised me.

"Can I trust you?" I joked, waiting impatiently for his rebuttal.

"I can use violence too," Fuuto remarked casually.

Huffing and puffing, I wrestled free off the blanket, sitting up in my bed. Fuuto watched me with mild amusement, not budging when we ended up closer to each other than either of us had probably expected.

"I heard you didn't show up at school," he said, stating the obvious.

"Well, yes," I admitted since it was the truth.

He picked up a sheet from the floor, thus creating more distance between us.

"Did you do any of these?" he asked me as he wove the instructions in front of me.

Curiously, I grabbed the sheet, inspecting the pictures on it.

"I did, and I hated it."

"Is that you being difficult or is something else the matter?"