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Today was a monday, but the music teacher wasn't going to attend classes today. The reason was a very sudden fever, which limited his ability to move, see and speak. The sickness glued him down to his bed, with a cold-wet compress on his forehead.
The fever was going to keep him down for at least a week, or worse, two weeks. He wasn't going to be able to leave his house for a week because of the sickness. It was annoying, but he could only try to treat the symptoms by himself with sloppily made tea and a bowl full of warm mashed potatoes.
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"Oii!! Kyogai, we're ba~ack!!" The front door opened in a hurry, ending up hitting the wall with its inner side, as two men entered the house. One was relatively shorter, only wearing a gray tank top and sweatpants, and the other, with a much taller and bigger build, wearing a black shirt and, just like the other man, sweatpants.
Both men entered the hall and took off their shoes, with the shorter one entering the living room with socks, while the taller one walked in with slippers. The men quickly inspected the suspicious silence of the house. They knew that Kyogai, the music teacher, was a quiet person, but today they thought that it was a bit too quiet. Even with Kyogai's presence.
"Man.. I wonder where Kyogai is.." The shorter man said suddenly while scratching his head.
"Probably at his job!" The taller one chimed in. "Where else do you think he could he be..?"
"..Oh..? Ah. Right right, yeah."
"And, uh, one more thing, Masa.." The taller man paused when he noticed that Masa, the shorter man was focused on something else. "Masahisa, listen to what i have to say."
"Yeahh, i am listening!" Masahisa did not want to listen in actuality and walked off to Kyogai's room. "You say your thing! I'll.. quickly go and grab something!"
The taller man deeply sighed in annoyance, as he continued to speak anyway. Masahisa meanwhile entered into Kyogai's room effortlessly. No knocking or slow peeking, thinking that his roommate wasn't there.
Kyogai, who was making his best effort to stay calm in his bed, almost jumped up because of how loud and fast Masahisa opened the door. Both men looked at each other in confusion and shock. The shock mostly came from Kyogai.
"Uh.. Oi!! Yozo!" Masahisa called out to the taller man. "Turns out Kyogai's still here!"
"What?" Yozo called all the way from the kitchen.
"And, oh good god, he kinda looks like he's about to die, or something!" Masa added to his sentence.
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"So, you'll be off for the whole week, huh?" Yozo and Masahisa were all gathered around their roommate, with Masa sitting on a stool chair and Yozo directly sitting on the bed beside Kyogai.
The sick man couldn't even gasp a word out, so he just nodded.
"Uh-huh.. Well, did you call the.. i dunno, the principal or whoever you call at the school, that you'll be sick leaving for the week?"
Kyogai nodded sideways, that he in fact didn't yet.
"Welp, you better hurry up then!" Yozo shrugged his shoulders. "Don't want the principal, or whoever, to get on your head!"
Kyogai's jaw dropped very slightly, trying to get a word out. With a very raspy and cracked voice, he managed to say,
"I can't."
Yozo blinked blankly at his response as Kyogai almost coughed, then cleared his throat from saying just two words.
"...you do it.." Kyogai cleared his throat again, "..for me instead.."
Yozo gave out a tired sigh. This request felt like he was now his caretaker or something. But no can do, Kyogai could barely speak, so of course someone had to help him out with this.
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Now on the phone with the principal, Yozo answered her questions with as much patience as he had in him.
"Yes."
"..."
"Of course, yeah."
"..."
"No, no he'll probably get better after a week. It's no big deal really."
"..."
"Huh..? That's it?" Yozo cocked his head to the side as he listened to the principal. "Oh really. I'll be there soon." He hung up the phone and returned it to his sick roommate.
"...?" Kyogai tilted forward his head, quietly asking Yozo what the principal has asked him.
"I dunno either. To probably get some of your stuff from the school or do something else that's in relation to you.. Something of that sort!"
"..huh.."
---
Some form of moodiness was showing up on Yozo's face because he had to go outside again. And this time for his roommate's sake. As he passed through the living room to get to the door, he noticed how Masa was casually chilling on the couch, watching something that both of them didn't understand.
Masahisa turned off the tv and looked back at his roommate. Shrugging, he asked, "What..?"
"I'm going out again to get something. Don't do anything dumb." Yozo thought that this last sentence sounded more like a parent informing their child.
"Of course, yeah! You can count on me. I'm not planning on doing anything today anyway."
"Right, and make sure you check on Kyogai from time to time, in case he's dying." Yozo said with a tiny tinge of sarcasm as he got out of the house. Silence ruled the living room for a moment, before Masahisa decided to do his own thing.
He was tasked with checking up on his roommate from time to time, sure, but that didn't mean he couldn't do anything else.
Masa whipped out his phone, with a protector that had more cracks than a broken sheet of methamphetamine. The first thing he tried to look up was the status of his favourite music band.
"Ah! Finally a new snippet!" Masa's unnaturally green eyes glimmered in joy as he pressed play and turned up his volume to fully hear the upcoming new song.
//IT'S A DEADLY COMBINATION!! SUPER DEADLY COMBINATION!!//
A fast paced melody from the metal genre began to play. Unfortunately the quality of the sound that Masahisa's phone was of low quality, which made the snippet sound worse than what it really was.
//COME ON!! JUMP UP!!x4 SUPER DEADLY COMBINATION!!//
Masa liked the snippet a bit too much, to the point of putting it on loop for about two minutes. After the third replay, he was in the zone.
Kyogai was unfortunately not having it. He was calmly laying down, trying to get some rest, but one very thing was bothering him now.
It was the unnecessarily loud sound of Masahisa's new favourite song, combined with his terribly off-tune vocals and the sound of thudding. Those thuds were as if someone was jumping up & down repeatedly on the wooden floor. And that someone was obviously none other than Masa, who was getting a bit too much into this.
Kyogai couldn't get up and tell him to stop, because of the fever pain and his lost voice, so he just covered up his ears and slowly turned around on his bed, facing the wall.
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"Hahaha!! For a good moment i forgot you were even here!" Masa peeked through the door, while wearing a slight smug on his face. Kyogai just stared back at him, visibly irritated and unable to speak.
"Okay okay! I'll try my best to be serious now!" Masahisa entered the room, first thing he noticed was the empty blue bowl on the floor with a spoon in it. "I'll.. be taking that! Real quick and i'll come back!"
In the kitchen, Masahisa wondered what food was he going to prepare for his sick roommate. While he stared down at the empty bowl, which still had crumbs of potatoes in it, Masa got an idea. He was just gonna prepare another bowl with mashed potatoes.
Totally known fact was that Masahisa was definitely known for his creative and smart decisions and choices!
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"Noticed that you ate some of these, so i made you more. Hope you like 'em!" Masa thrusted his arms forward, waiting for Kyogai to pick up the bowl from his.
Kyogai's eyes widened in disbelief when he saw the contents of Masa's mashed potatoes. The pieces were barely even mashed, just squeezed at some point into making. The peel of the potatoes wasn't even peeled, heck, it wouldn't be a surprise if it wasn't washed properly. The bowl shook in his shaking hands as a tear of disbelief and disappointment ran down Kyogai's face.
"What? You can't even feed yourself now?"
Kyogai tried to answer, "No, of course i can eat by myself. Don't worry about me!" But his throat did not allow him.
"Nah, don't you worry! Why do you think i'm here for? Obviously not here to serve you food only." Masa then grabbed the spoon and scooped up some potatoes. "C'mon! Open up!"
"What the heck are you doing?! You think i'm a little kid or something? I don't need all of that! Just give me the bowl, leave me alone and let's get this over with..." was what Kyogai wanted to say right now, but due to the current situation with the fever and his awful throat, he couldn't.
"Ahh~ C'mon, open up that mouth and let's hear an 'ahh'!" Masahisa tried to not make himself laugh as he said this.
Cringing, Kyogai opened his mouth hesitantly to accept the spoon that was thrusted up to him. Dear god, those mashed potatoes were shit. His eyes dampened as he felt the unwashed & unpeeled skin of the mashed vegetable. But knowing it'll be unspeakably impolite to spit it out, he tried so hard to just gulp it down. The awful texture, combined with a bland taste, it was definitely worth crying over. Due to just how bad it was.
"..don't you.." Tears ran down the sick man's face. "..feed me.. this.. again."
Masahisa rose his brows as he put the now empty spoon back in the still full bowl. For a second he looked somewhat offended by being denied to feed his roommate, but that look vanished with a sudden careless shrug.
"Aight, then there'll be more for me!" Unhesitatingly, Masa started to gobble at the mashed potatoes like it was the end of the world. Kyogai just looked at him with worry, specifically a "what is wrong with you?" kind of worry. Masahisa licked the bowl and spoon clean, he even joked that it didn't need a wash from the sink, much to Kyogai's rather gloomy and irritated reaction.
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"So... Kyogai, you haven't even mentioned a thing about this!" Masa pointed at his own face. His eyes and smile were so widened that it was creepy to look at.
Kyogai nodded curiously, questioning what he was supposed to even mention. Masahisa snickered at his confused expression.
"It's my new tattoo, idiot!" He pointed to his nose, that was sporting a very faint arrow-like shape. "It's literally placed at the most visible spot you can imagine, yet you just notice it??"
"...it almost blends with your.." he coughed. "...your face. That's why it's so.... barely noticeable."
Before Masa could continue his brag about his tattoo, both men heard the front door open. Without a ring or a knock. Which meant that Yozo has returned from wherever he was.
"Ah, i'll go check if he brought something. You stay here!" Masahisa stood up and (accidentally) slammed the door after he left. Kyogai exhaled, adjusting himself on his bed, thinking about how he obviously wasn't even planning to go anywhere.
As his eyelids began to fall heavy, they jumped up again, when he heard the voices of his roommates coming from the other rooms. They sure do talked super loud at times..
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Yozo creeked open the door, poking a half of his face in to check on his roommate. He was still laying down, but with visible discomfort, combined with irritation, written on his face. His blue eyes moved to look at Yozo's face, who was still standing behind the barely open door.
Kyogai sighed, giving him a gesture that it was okay to come in. The sick teacher carefully inspected his roommate's hands as he walked in. He was holding a paper bag, seemingly full with something that was faintly square in shape.
Kyogai pointed at the bag, silently questioning Yozo about it.
"Oh that." Yozo sat down, placing the bag on the drawer beside Kyogai's bed. "It's an, uhh..? Some sort of gift from a coworker of yours, i'm assuming."
"...coworker...?" Kyogai mumbled out.
"Yeah, it was this young looking pretty woman. She wore two hairpins that looked like butterflies, you know? We stumbled upon each other while i was heading back and she asked questions about you."
"..Oh?"
"Mm-hm, then, of course, i told her how you were doing and stuff. Let me tell you, that woman seemed really concerned about your state, to the point where she gave me this." Yozo then pointed at the paper bag.
"..what's.." the sick man cleared his throat again, "..in it...?"
"I dunno, she said it's some sweet desert that they serve nearby, called 'honey toast'."
The light in Kyogai's eyes disappeared once he heard the name of the desert he was given. As Yozo began to ramble about how he wouldn't dare to touch a thing that was served in the same place as where that toast was made, Kyogai just thought of how this gift was just a sign that his week was definitely going to be something far worse from relaxing.
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