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Iwase at the infirmary gave him a once-over without the perfunctory glare attached to her bared teeth, line of vision politely chilly as she delivered a sigh that was equal parts sympathetic and spiteful. She checked for the nurse’s absence before she told Takao, with flickering resignation, to take the bed farthest away from the window.
“Can’t keep doing this, you know,” she pursed her lips. “They’ll start to think I let you in regularly.”
Takao only grinned. “It’s been a stressful week. Won’t you let me be, Iwase?”
“Stressful,” Iwase scoffed, and turned away without making another snide remark. Takao settled down on the infirmary bed and rolled over flat onto his belly.
He didn’t expect to find much comfort here, the pillow was lumpy and he could never quite fit his reckless thoughts into a comfortable position. He didn’t want to be that comfortable, anyway. Only it was infinitely worse to sit around on the same bench in the same corner of the locker room and watch Shin-chan pace back and forth muttering about losing games to Akashi and fateful encounters and keeping up appearances and the empirical loss of luck, hour-long sermons that got neither of them anywhere and wound themselves tight enough around Shin-chan’s head until he started missing shots. Shin-chan, missing shots. What was Takao supposed to think?
“You’re talking to yourself again, Takao-kun,” said Iwase, “you’re doing that a lot when you come here, did you realize? I mean it’s amusing, but it can’t be healthy. I’m gonna start thinking you actually have a reason for coming to the infirmary other than to skip class and steal bed space from people who actually need it.”
For a moment, she almost sounded like she was concerned. Takao turned his head around to face his classmate. His pillow shifted under his neck and dug into his shoulder uncomfortably. “Well what am I supposed to do, then?”
“I dunno,” Iwase said wryly. “Something crazy to divert his attention, probably. It works when I do it to my boyfriend. Give him a lap dance. Read him cheesy confessions from a Kamenashi drama. Snapchat him pictures of your dick.”
“Wow, Iwase, we’re not dating,” Takao said, and frowned.
“Oh yeah?” Iwase smirked.
Takao closed his eyes and leaned back on the bed. There was a smile on his face. “But I do think you’re onto something with the snapchatting.”