Author's Note: Cussing. Profanities.
This is the continuation of Mikey's POV.
Y/N HAD been unconscious for the entire day.
I was with her in the hospital room ever since she was admitted and would only leave for an hour or two before coming back again to watch over her. Grandma Chiyo also came rushing to the hospital as soon as I informed her about Y/N's hospitalization. She was worried sick for her granddaughter and even scolded me for having her injured during our supposed date. Grandma Chiyo warned me if something like this happened to Y/N again, she would sever our friendship and never allow me to speak with her granddaughter for good. I could understand where her anger was coming from. It was entirely my fault that Y/N was lying on the hospital bed right now. I failed to protect her.
"How is Y/N doing?" Ken-chin asked when I came for a visit to his room. He just had his surgery from his stabbed wound the other night and was now recuperating his health.
"Still not waking up," I answered and laid a basket of fruits on the bedside table. I sat down on a chair next to his bed. "Emma wanted you to have these. She's really worried about you."
Ken-chin plastered a small smile. "Have her my thanks."
"Will do." I took a brief look at his abdomen. I knew Ken-chin would be able to pull it through, but the unshakeable fear of his impending death that day was still lingering in my mind. I almost lost him. "So, how's your injury?"
"I'm all good," he said in high spirits. "If it wasn't for Takemitchy, I would've died that day. And Y/N, too. They're both my lifesavers. I'm in great debt of them."
Y/N helped him? "Glad to hear it." I handed over a paper bag to him. "Give that to Takemitchy once he comes over to visit you, Ken-chin."
Ken-chin was taken aback as he took a peek inside the bag and glanced back at me. "Are you sure about this, Mikey?"
I nodded in certainty. "Positive. Think of it as my thank you gift to him for saving your life."
"Alright, I will also pass your message to him. I'm sure he'll be very honored to have this."
"Thanks, Ken-chin." I stood up. "I'll take my leave, then."
"Are you going to check on Y/N?"
"Yeah. The doctor said she'll wake up any time of the day."
"I see. That's good. Say my thanks to Y/N when she wakes up."
"Okay. See you around, Ken-chin."
I soon left his room and went off to see Y/N. I opened the door to her room and carefully shut it behind me once I stepped inside. An aromatic scent of freshly picked flowers instantly filled my nostrils. It was the same bouquet I bought for her and put on the vase to mask the unpleasant odor of disinfectants in this room. I also brought her dorayaki just in case she was hungry by the time she woke up.
Y/N was still in her deep sleep until now. She was in her hospital gown and had a clean bandage wrapped around her forehead. I walked toward her bed and fixed the slightly askew blanket over her petite body. Then, I sat on the edge of the bed and stared closely at the sleeping beauty next to me. She looked so serene when she was asleep.
Y/N had a pretty face. But she was even prettier whenever she smiled. Her lovely smile was always bewitching, similar to an angel descending from the heavens. It took me a lot of restraint to forgo my strong desire to touch her. I did not want to take advantage of her vulnerability. I just continued to watch her peaceful sleep and the calm heaving of her chest.
Until my soft gaze wandered to her pale lips and stayed there for a long while. The thought of kissing her flashed into my mind.
What did it feel like to kiss her?
I shook my head to keep those wicked thoughts away and sighed quietly. No, that won't do. It was no damn lie that I was starting to like Y/N and I cared for her more than I could've imagined. It was all curiosity at first until I realized I was slowly drawn to her. I never felt like this to any girls before. I did not want to keep this friendship anymore. I wanted something more than that.
I wanted Y/N to be only mine and no one else's.
This realization hit me hard when I saw her badly hurt during our fight with Moebius. I wanted to protect this girl as much as I could. I would never let her in harm's way ever again.
"M-Mikey...?"
I broke out of my daze and looked at Y/N as she was slowly regaining her consciousness. I had never been so relieved to see her now awake. "You're awake, Y/N!"
With half-lidded eyes, she roamed around her surroundings before looking back at me. "W-where am I?" she asked weakly.
I was stopping myself from hugging her right now. "You're in the hospital. Don't move. I'll go call the doctor!"
Not long after, Y/N's doctor came into the room to examine her current condition.
"We still need to conduct a few diagnostic tests and if the results are all clear, you may be discharged in the next couple of days. All you have to do right now is to rest and take the prescribed medications," the doctor instructed Y/N.
Y/N smiled feebly at the doctor and nodded obligingly. "Thank you, sensei."
Once the doctor left with his two nurses, Y/N turned her head to me as I sat back on her bed. "You heard the doctor, Y/N. You should lie down and take more rest."
"No, I'm fine, Mikey. I've been asleep for the whole day," she replied timidly. "Did Grandma Chiyo come here?"
"Yeah, she did. She just visited you earlier this morning, but had to leave because of her shop."
"Oh, I-I see..." she said understandably. However, there was a tinge of notable sadness in her voice. "Did she say anything? Did she get mad?"
I shook my head. "Not really. She's only worried about you, Y/N."
Y/N only hummed in response and cast her head down. I caught a glimpse of her crestfallen look, making me frown. Was she expecting to hear something else?
Days passed and more people stopped by to visit Y/N. It was either her co-workers at the cafe shop or her friends at school.
But none of them were her parents or any of her family apart from Grandma Chiyo.
It was then I found out one time at the rooftop that she was an only child and had an estranged relationship with her parents. She seemed to feel uncomfortable talking about her family so I decided not to press on the topic to respect her privacy.
However, seeing her underwear beneath her hospital gown caught me off guard and everyone froze. Y/N was a blushing mess and frantically tried to pull down her gown. It was actually kind of funny whenever I remember that incident. Yet, I did not find it much of a huge deal since I had seen a lot of women only in their undergarments while I was visiting Ken-chin's place from time to time.
A few days after Y/N's discharge from the hospital, I dropped by her house to invite her on another date at a theme park. Emma did hand me those free tickets and advised me to make a move on Y/N. There will also be a scheduled fireworks display in the evening which Y/N would definitely love.
And my sister was right. Y/N did enjoy the fireworks while we were riding the Ferris wheel and was happy with the bunny I won for her. Her enchanting smile made my heart beat faster and I could feel the blood surging through my cheeks. She looked so beautiful in my eyes that I couldn't hold myself back anymore and crashed her lips with mine, shocking her at first.
I simply told her the reason why I kissed her was that I found her cute which was partly true, making her extremely flustered, and did not know how to react.
The sweetness of her soft lips had me craving for more. Thus, I kissed her again. Her lack of response caused me to feel disheartened a little and demanded she return the kiss. Y/N eventually kissed me back and my lips etched into a satisfied smile. Embracing each other, the two of us shared long subtle kisses until our Ferris wheel ride was over. I also gave Y/N another kiss after I drove her back to her place.
Kissing the girl I cared for so much felt like heaven. But being shunned by her for the following days had become pure torture and sent me to the edge. Y/N was always looking for an excuse just to avoid me and it left me frustrated. What I hated the most was people avoiding me like a plague. It made me insane. Did I do something to offend her?
Was it because of the kiss?
"What the hell's wrong with you today, Mikey? You've been acting weird all day," Ken-chin observed. It was break time. He and I were chilling out at the school rooftop and enjoying the tranquility of the place with no disturbance from anyone.
My lips dropped into a frown. "Am I that obvious?"
"Yeah. Indeed, you are. Is there something bothering you?"
I was mulling over whether I should answer his question or not. I just chose the former and started to tell him everything.
Ken-chin let out a chuckle. "So, that explains it. Y/N's the reason," he spoke with a rather amused tone. "I've never seen you like this before, Mikey. And to a girl, nevertheless. You're serious about her, aren't you?"
"M'yeah. I like Y/N, Ken-chin. I'm going to pursue her and make her my girl."
"Well, good luck with that. But first, you have to make amends with whatever conflict you two have."
"You're right," I concurred and turned to his side. If I wanted to resolve an issue, I would never have to wait an entire day just to fix the problem. Why not do it now? "Let's ditch, Ken-chin. I wanted to see Y/N right now."
Ken-chin scoffed. "I know you're going to say that. Just promise me this will be the last time we'll ever cut classes."
We arrived at Y/N's school a short time later and just like our previous visit with Takemitchy not too long ago, we encountered a few mishaps along the way and beat the crap out of the annoying third years.
"M-Mikey..."
Y/N waltzed into the scene and did not expect to see us. She even thought at first I came here for Takemitchy. I directly confronted her about why she was keeping her distance from me and how much I hated being ignored. I deliberately let everyone hear about the kiss we had last time at the theme park, causing the situation to become more chaotic than it originally was.
Y/N became appalled and looked as if her soul was leaving her body. It was a fun watch. She was completely embarrassed and hurriedly fled the scene to escape from everyone, dragging me with her. She was still thinking about her reputation as the Student Council President while arguing with me at the back of the school building. I was elated when I found out I was her first kiss and swiftly pressed my lips with hers, telling her that she was my first too. No lies.
Days went back to normal again.
I told Y/N the true reason behind our relationship between the master and his gofer and confessed my true feelings for her. And just as I predicted, she was doubtful at first and asked why her among all the girls. I even questioned that myself.
Why her?
No, that's not it. What I meant was, why not her?
Y/N was different. She wasn't just any girl. She had proven me that time and time again.
She became someone I cared about the most.
Y/N did not respond to my confession yet, even after she finally agreed to become my girlfriend through Emma's persuasion. But I was more than willing to wait for her no matter how long it took. And by then, I would be the happiest guy on the planet.
The two of us started to go out on dates. Our kisses became more frequent. Y/N had the sweetest lips and the prettiest smile. Her kisses became my new addiction. I simply couldn't get enough of her. She was my new form of drug. My only cure for my insanity and the shed of hope to my dark world. The more I'm with her, the greater I fall for her.
And the more I'm becoming attached to her.
I always felt Y/N was hiding a lot of secrets she did not want to share, much similar to mine. She seemed to have issues with her family. Whenever I asked her about her parents, there was a sudden change in her facial expression, and became extremely gloomy. She would always either change the topic or just dismiss the question.
Her house was also cold and lifeless like it had never been once treated as a home. She told me she had been living by herself for months and it didn't bother her much. Her parents were always overseas for business and rarely came home. From the look in her eyes, I could tell she was deeply forlorn. My heart ached for her. My poor girl. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Had it been always like this? How long had she been enduring this alone? Was Grandma Chiyo aware of her granddaughter's situation?
Y/N was the strongest girl I've ever met. I greatly admired her for keeping her emotions at bay, something I could never have done in this lifetime. She did not even want to tell her grandmother or her parents she had fallen ill. I was the one who took care of her and stayed with her until she fully recovered from her illness.
But as her boyfriend, I wished for Y/N to rely on me more. She wasn't alone anymore. She had me to keep her company whenever she felt lonely. If her parents wouldn't be there for her, then I would fulfill that role. I promised her I would always be by her side and I intend to keep it.
I am more than inclined to play the role of both her companion and her protector if it is meant for her happiness.
Because now I realized, I loved Y/N. I loved her more than everything else in the world.
I will not let go of her.
Thoughts?