The Shadow King's Princess (An OHSHC Fanfic) [Completed]

Chapter Eighteen

“It’s no problem, really! If you need-”

“I don’t!”

The nurse didn’t say anything after that, probably not wanting to upset his precious patient. I wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed by his reaction to my refusal or to be relieved that he left me be. Without saying anything else, the nurse pulled the curtains around the bed I’d laid down in shut. I immediately felt myself relaxed now that there were no eyes on me. For one of the first times since arriving at school I felt the stress of the announcement drain away. As a result of that combined with my normal lack of sleep, I felt my eyes begin to slide shut.

“Honestly, Yamauchi-kun, if it isn’t one thing it’s another.”

The first thing I heard when I opened my eyes was that one name. I instantly felt myself tense, realization that the so called ‘bug’ Kyoya had wanted me to avoid was only a curtain away.

“Sorry, Akaike-sensei,” Ichiro replied. “It’s not like I plan on ending up in here every other day.”

The nurse laughed and I could hear him the sounds of him rummaging around, most likely in a drawer. As he did, I sat up, careful not to make a noise.

“At least it wasn’t your sister this time,” Akaike joked. “Although I suppose cutting your hand during biology just might be more embarrassing.”

“It wasn’t my fault,” Ichiro protested immediately.

Having successfully moved to the edge of the bed without being noticed, I hesitated before my next move. A second later I pushed away my worries about being seen, and moved the curtain just enough for me to peer out. Ichiro sat only a foot away from the curtain, his back towards me. The injured hand was being held by the nurse, who had a wet cotton swab squeezed between the ends of a pair of tweezers and pressed to the top of the cut. I couldn’t see Ichiro’s face, but I imagined it must have been screwed up in pain. The cut looked quite deep, although from what I could tell it seemed rather clean, as to be expected of a scalpel.

It was slightly difficult to push away my initial reaction upon seeing the blood, but my need to see what was going on made it possible.

“Oh?” the nurse asked, moving the tweezers and extracting a hiss of pain from Ichiro.

“Y-yeah.”

The nurse looked hesitant and his gaze flickered up to study Ichiro’s face. Seeming to find whatever he was searching for, he sighed and dropped his eyes back to Ichiro’s hand.

“It wouldn’t have anything to do with that news, now, would it?”

I could actually see Ichiro’s entire body tense up when the question was asked.

“Why would it?” he muttered, his head turning away from Akaike. “There’s no reason for it to.”

Akaike continued to move the cotton swab down the cut, making sure to clean it out. He must have been trying to decide how to handle this.

“You talk to me a lot, as often as you’re in here,” he said slowly. “Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but there has been a name that has come up pretty often in our conversations recently, hasn’t there?”

Ichiro stayed silent with his face continuing to look away from the nurse. Myself, I couldn’t decide what to think. He couldn’t mean...

“And if I’m right about this as well, that is the same name that was all over the news this morning…” Akaike continued. “As well as all over campus the moment students began to arrive. There is even a large amount of staff discussing the news.”