Misha didn't dare to blink and stared at little Vanessa with wide-open eyes, almost as if she were a ghost—one hell of a frightful ghost, too.
Feeling his gaze on her, the girl turned around and tilted her head slightly. Then, she smiled sweetly at Misha. Two small dimples appeared in her cheeks as her eyes curved into two adorable crescent moons, giving her the air of a doll. But in Misha's eyes, this cute expression didn't make her appear lovely but devilish instead.
'Oh crap,' Misha thought, a feeling of dread spreading in his stomach. He had the "privilege" of seeing the adult version of this particular smile quite a few times. And if anything, that sweet smile of hers was always the beginning of a big headache.
If his memory served him well, Vanessa had once told him that she had always been mischievous. Even as a child, she had had a knack for pushing her friends around—she also didn't spare total strangers. Ah, man, the poor lambs thought they had stumbled upon an angel, unaware that they had fallen prey to the devil's trap instead.
And sure enough, little Vanessa wanted to drag him into her childish scheme. It became clear as day the moment she opened her mouth.
"Are you bored?" the girl asked in a soft voice. "How about going to the playground downstairs? We could play some games!"
Misha's mouth twitched a little. After all the time he spent with Vanessa, he had long learned what kind of pest she was, and the shy and soft expression on her face didn't blind him. Whether he was bored or not, that girl didn't care in the slightest! All she wanted was a reason to leave her great-grandmother's bedside and have some fun. To her, the old lady was akin to a stranger; she seldom saw her and thus didn't feel obliged to keep her company.
Luckily, a boy of the same age seemed quite interested in her—he kept staring at her with wide-open eyes, letting her know that he was curious about her. She didn't care that he was most likely sick and bedridden; all that mattered was that she could use him as a scapegoat. He was the perfect pawn to help her sneak away.
Misha was all too aware of her train of thought, but he still couldn't refuse her, not when she looked at him with such intense eyes. Anyhow, it'd do him good to move around a bit, and talking with an old friend couldn't hurt. Maybe it'd even lift his mood.
"Why not?" Misha shrugged, getting ready to get out of bed.
However, his father begged to differ. "Misha, you're sick. You should rest, or you won't get better any time soon."
"But—!" the child whispered, lowering his gaze.
"And you're still eating."
"I'm not very hungry. I'm actually feeling full, so, please?"
"You barely touched your plate."
Misha chewed on his lower lip, poking the food with his fork. This thing wasn't very appealing, looking like a mass of unidentified matter. How could his father tell him to eat such a weird-looking meal...? Did he want his death?!
Seeing his son's action, Alexey sighed lightly and decided to compromise, "Finish your plate, then you can go play. But if you don't feel well, say it."
At these words, a smile bloomed on Misha's face. His attention then fell back onto his meal, and he wolfed down the unappealing food within seconds, afraid his father would change his mind. It drew laughter from every corner of the room, but Misha didn't pay it any heed.
On Vanessa's side, her father also wasn't too keen on the idea. After all, they had driven for hours to visit Nathalie, not to play around. Leaving the old lady's side to watch his daughter play with some unknown boy wasn't what he came here for.
As if reading his mind, the boy's father said, "I can watch over them, and we won't stay at the playground for too long."
"Eeeh?" Misha whined, looking at his father with a hint of resentment in his eyes.
"An hour, no more," Alexey warned, his firm tone letting everyone know that his decision was not open for discussion.
"Stingy," Misha tsked to himself.
"Did you say something?"
"No!" Misha awkwardly laughed. "Nothing. Nothing at all!"
Alexey didn't say anything, but the look in his eyes spoke volumes.
While the father and son duo bickered, Dean thought about what to do. Even if the other father accompanied the kids, he couldn't feel at ease. The idea of entrusting his daughter to a stranger wasn't very reassuring.
Knowing her father was wavering, Vanessa tugged his jeans to draw his attention. The man bent over, and she whispered something in his ear. Afterward, although he still appeared a little reluctant, he agreed to let her daughter go with the boy.
The two children and Alexey left the room soon after.
As they walked toward the elevator, Vanessa said, "I'm Vanessa, by the way. What's your name?"
"Misha. My father is called Alexey."
"Misha? Isn't it a girl's name?"
The boy almost tripped over his own two feet. Could someone tell him why she had to respond the exact same way she did the first time she heard his name in their past life? She was currently more than ten years younger, for goodness' sake!
"No! It's a boy's name!" Misha cried out, glaring at his father from the corner of his eyes.
Right there and then, he decided that it was Alexey's fault if he had such an ambiguous, girly name—he willingly discarded the fact that the one who named him was his mother, not his father.
"Oh yeah, how did you know this hospital had a playground?" Misha had been here for a few days, and he didn't know. Even in his previous life, he had never known that there could be a playground inside a hospital.
"My mother lived in this hospital for a long time. And whenever I came to visit her, and she wasn't feeling too bad, she would bring me to the playground and play with me a bit," Vanessa said with a faint, sorrowful smile.
The words took Misha by surprise, and he froze for an instant. Once his brain managed to process the underlying meaning, he felt like the stupidest man on earth. He knew Vanessa had lost her mother when she was relatively young, yet he still went ahead and asked such a silly question! Honestly, what was wrong with his brain? Why couldn't he use it to put two and two together?!
Her mother's death was one of the main reasons they grew close so fast in their past life; Misha and Vanessa both had to go through the same painful experience of losing their mothers at a young age, giving off an illusion of camaraderie. All Vanessa had said, though, was that her mother died from an illness. She hadn't said in which hospital she passed away. How could Misha ever have thought it was the hospital he was currently hospitalized in...?
Coincidences could be so damn frightening.
Following this episode, Misha didn't dare say anything at the risk of making another blunder, and the heavy atmosphere lasted until they reached the playground. There, they had to disinfect their hands before entering the room. If they had a cold or something along these lines, they had to wear a mask. Although Misha only had a fever and he didn't seem contagious, he was still asked to put on a blue mask just in case, which he reluctantly did.
Inside the room, a few children were playing here and there. Their parents sat on the side, carefully watching over them. Some common toys were made available for the kids to play with, like dolls, plastic cars, or giant Legos. A thin mattress covered the ground, and two small inflatable slides stood tall in the middle of the playground. There was also a plastic house where a bunch of little girls played.
"I'm going to sit over there," Alexey said, pointing at the other adults who were sitting next to each other on plastic chairs.
Misha responded with a nod to let him know that he heard him. Then, without looking back, he followed Vanessa to a box in the corner of the room. The girl opened it and rummaged through it for a while. When she found what she wanted, she smiled brightly and proudly showed it to her new friend.
Misha blinked. "What's that?"
"A tea set!"
"Yeah, I can see that. But what I meant is: why did you take it out?" he asked as he stared at the pink tea set toy with a frown. He had a bad omen.
"Because we're going to play house, of course!"
Misha's mouth twitched. What did he expect? Vanessa was currently eight years old, not twenty-four. She wouldn't drag him to a bar to drink and dance all night.
"And you're the mum, and I'm the dad!"
"W-what? Why?!"
Was it him, or was there something wrong with their respective roles?!
"Because you're cuter than me!" Vanessa answered very seriously, nodding as if she was all-knowing.
Misha's heart dropped. No matter the age, that girl was a pest who loved to bully him.
'Cuter than me, my ass!' he thought, grinding his teeth. 'Wait until you grow up, I'm so going to make you regret this!'
For the time being, he was an adult in the body of a kid, and he couldn't exactly take revenge on a little girl only because she wanted to play house—albeit in an unconventional way. Misha wasn't that immature yet!
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Chapter revised on 2022-05-02
Edited by Clozed! ♥
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