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It was just her and Chouno in the faculty office when she collapsed, so honestly, Sadayo wouldn’t be surprised if every single teacher at Shujin Academy (and Kosei, for that matter) knew that she fainted and ended up in the hospital. The concept of not airing everybody’s dirty laundry was unknown to the English teacher.
She was in pretty rough shape. When she fainted, she’d hit her head on the ground and ended up with a concussion. When she got to the hospital, they told her that she was dehydrated and severely fatigued. Cool, fine, no big deal, she figured she would be on her way in time to make it to her next shift with the maid company. She was wrong.
They couldn’t let her go until the next morning, she was told. She would need an IV to get some fluids back into her body, and she desperately needed the rest. If she could get a full night’s sleep and have a decent enough level of fluids in her body, then she could go home in time to make it to the school the next morning.
Thinking about losing out on the night’s paycheck made her feel sick, a deep anxious feeling in her chest that only got worse when she thought about what would happen if the Takases caught wind of this. There was no way they would agree to turn down the amount of money she had to pay them every month; when she first tried pleading with them so that she wouldn’t have to find another job outside of Shujin to make rent every month, they laughed at her and demanded more.
She tried not to think about it. One of the nurses brought her a book, so she decided to read to make an attempt at relaxing. Trying to grade papers or something wouldn’t end very well.
Sadayo wasn’t expecting visitors - her parents and sister lived in another prefecture, they didn’t need to know how badly she was doing, that would just cause them unnecessary stress, and she doubted Akira would spare a thought for how busy he was with everything else - so when one of the nurses informed her that someone was at the hospital to see her, she expected the worst. She steeled herself and clutched the book close to her, expecting the couple blackmailing her to walk through the door.
Instead, in walked the Shujin Academy counselor. He tried to give her a smile, but he looked downright sick. She wondered if something about this situation was familiar to him - or maybe he just didn’t like hospitals? It probably wasn’t her place to ask, and she wondered more what he was even doing here to begin with.
“Maruki-san?” she asked, unable to mask the confusion in her voice. He seemed to melt when she said his name, though, his shoulders dropping and the smile on his face becoming all the more genuine.
“You remember me,” he sighed, walked over and sat in the chair next to her. What an odd thing to say, Sadayo thought, but hey; she was just glad to see a friendly face.
“Come on, I didn’t hit my head that hard,” she waved her hand dismissively; “it’s going to take more than a little knock to make me forget you.” He was, honestly, the kindest person at that damn school; one of the few staff members who she could tell cared more about the students than about the school’s reputation or his paycheck.
She wished there were more teachers there like him.
She wished she could still be more like him.
They had struck up something of a friendship since he came to work for the school - sometimes going out for drinks after school when she had a day off, usually eating lunch in the faculty or nurse’s office together. He was one of the few people that didn’t judge her for coming to school tired, for rushing out for her shift at her second job. Sadayo liked him. Sadayo liked him a lot.
Maybe it was the concussion, but he was sitting awfully close to her. Her face turned bright red, and she had to look the other way.
“I know you work really hard, but I didn’t think it was this bad. You should really try to take better care of yourself.” His voice was a little scolding, but not in a condescending tone; he just sounded like he was worried for her, like he wanted to make sure that she was okay. “But I’m sure that the doctors have told you all that already, haven’t they?”
“Yeah, they have.” She sighed; this was all stuff that she knew already. “It’s just… a little hard to keep on top of sleep when you’re trying to balance two jobs, you know?”
“I can imagine.”
There was some comfortable silence between them for a few minutes - it genuinely just seemed to Sadayo that he was relieved to see her safe, relatively fine, and able to remember his name. She wondered why that seemed to be a sticking point with him, but he didn’t want to push him for information if he didn’t feel like talking to her.
“Kawakami-san, I…” he spoke up, and she looked to his face; she was a little surprised to see a light blush across his cheeks, and she blinked. “I’ve been thinking about asking this for a while, and I know this probably isn’t a good time to actually do it, but… would you be interested in going out for dinner and a movie sometime? As a date, I mean.”
Oh.
Sadayo’s face was bright red, and for a few seconds she had to replay the question in her mind. She knew that she was pretty attracted to Maruki, but knowing now that the affection was reciprocated was a bit overwhelming. She knew she had to say something, though, and she definitely didn’t want to turn him down, so she croaked out a “yes.”
She honestly would not be surprised if she fainted again, especially when his face lit up in a bright smile and she took hold of her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
He shifted his chair a little closer to her, and she rested her head against her arm despite her brain short-circuiting just a little.
It occurred to her after a little while that she probably needed to be honest with him about what the maid job entailed, though. If he was going to be taking her out on a date and if their relationship was going to go anywhere - which she honestly hoped it did - he deserved to know.
“Um, Maruki-san, I’ve told you that my second job is as a maid? Well… sometimes it involves some… sex work. Nothing non-consensual or extreme, and there’s rarely penetration involved, and I get tested regularly, but…”
Before she could say much more, he was shaking his head, and she let herself go quiet. That gentle smile never left his face.
“What matters to me is who you are, Kawakami-san, not what you need to do for money.”
She didn’t mean to, but she began to tear up, and he moved to hold her close.