Ink Stained

54: tale-telling yosei*

物語の妖精

Pai was incredibly nervous as she knocked on Aihara's door a few days after her fainting incident.

It was lunch time, and she had left Shiori with Aoi, Natsume, and Shuusei back in the classroom. She wished that she could have remained there with them. She had never been called to any teacher's office before, especially not by a nurse.

She couldn't imagine why Aihara wanted to talk to her now. Pai had started eating properly again – under Shiori's watchful eye, and Obaasan as well. Even Ryu was enlisted to make sure she ate well, and she knew Shin was keeping a close eye on her too. So that couldn't be the reason. Could it?

"Come in," a voice called out.

She steeled her nerves and pushed the door open. She peeked around the edge and saw Aihara sitting at her desk at the end of the room, back to the large window overlooking the city. She was frowning at her computer screen with a slim pair of bright red glasses perched on her nose.

Bumping into the glass of the window, as if it couldn't see it or had amnesia and kept forgetting the glass was there every five seconds, was a blue bauble of light. It was a Yosei. It was small enough that it had probably slipped through any holes in the boundary around the school to get this close to one of the main buildings. She could even see the little creature shaking its head after every bump, yet it still continued to hurt itself.

Is it drunk or something? She wondered. She shook her head and resolutely ignored the Yosei. If it wanted to knock itself on the window, then let it. It wasn't as if she could stop it. She walked in, sending a cursory glance at the slits in the curtains around the four hospital beds. No one lay on any of the beds.

Aihara looked up and smiled genially. All signs of her earlier irritation at whatever she was looking at on her computer vanished instantaneously. The frazzled nerves gathered in her stomach calmed somewhat at the smile. She hoped that, whatever the reason Aihara wanted her to come in, it wasn't because she was in trouble.

"Um, good afternoon, Aihara-san." She said, walking over to come to a stop the desk.

"Afternoon, Momozono-san." Aihara waved at the two plain black chairs next to Pai. "Please, have a seat."

Her calm disappeared in a flash. Shit, it's something serious.

How do you know? How can you tell?

Teachers don't tell you to have a seat if it isn't serious.

Aihara wasn't technically a teacher, but she was close enough to one.

"S-sure," she mumbled hesitantly. She moved like a robot and pulled out one of the chairs set in front of Aihara's desk, muscles stiff. Her left leg started to jump up and down in a nervous tick as soon as she was settled in the chair.

Her eyes flicked over to the window at the Yosei that still insistently ran into the window, before she brought them back down to where Aihara sat in front of her. It wouldn't do for her to be staring out a window when everyone else saw nothing.

"How are you feeling?" Aihara asked, folding her arms on top of the desk. "I trust you've been eating properly since what happened."

She nodded, praying that this was the only reason Aihara had asked for her. "I am. I am sorry to have been so troublesome to you. It will not happen again."

Aihara held up a hand reassuringly to wave away her apologies. "Don't worry; it's my job to take care of the students here. Plus, what happened to your classmate is quite traumatizing. But, that's not why I called you here."