ICYM Ch 52

Episode 52

“Oh my. You really must be sick.”

However, the response to my words of thanks was pure panic.

I usually expressed gratitude or apologies well, but I was someone who almost never said heartfelt words to a friend. So if a person like that suddenly came back looking like they had been rolling around outside in the rain and said something like that?

For a moment, I almost felt offended, but when I put myself in Owen’s shoes, it was only natural that he would be worried.

“I’ll explain later.”

“Okay.”

Come to think of it, I had not looked in the mirror, so I did not really know how bad I looked. But when I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror behind Owen, I fell silent for a moment.

Everyone had not been exaggerating for no reason when they reacted in shock at my appearance. I had thought only the back of my clothes would be wet, but muddy water had splattered all over my hair and face.

And it was not just splattered and done. The mud, mixed with rain, was streaming down in streaks.

If it were me, I would not even ask for the reason. I would have gone straight to the dorm supervisor and said he looked seriously sick.

Owen, who said he would trust me and wait, was basically a saint.

I was briefly distracted by my own appearance, but I quickly came back to my senses.

“If Kendrick comes back and his clothes are wet or anything like that, could you let me know?”

And even at the very end, I stayed cautious. I did not rule out the possibility that I was so worked up that I might be miscalculating the timing, or that there could be another possibility I had not considered yet.

At my desperate words, Owen looked like he had a lot more he wanted to ask, but he did not say anything and simply nodded.

“Yeah… But don’t think you can just gloss over this. You’re going to have to explain what happened later.”

“Yeah.”

“For now, you should take a shower with warm water.”

“Yeah.”

“You really look terrible right now.”

“Yeah.”

Judging by the looks on the dorm supervisor’s face and Owen’s, I could guess how awful I looked even without seeing the mirror. There was no way I could keep looking for Kendrick in this state, so I decided to wash up first.

I was dragging my feet weakly when I reached the front of my room. My body felt drained of strength, and my gaze was directed down the hallway.

“Hayden?”

At the sound of someone calling my name, I snapped my head up. Kendrick, the very person I had been searching for so desperately, was standing in front of my room.

“…Huh?”

My eyes met Kendrick’s as he stood by the door. His gaze slowly widened as he looked at me.

Kendrick seemed very shocked by my appearance and could not hide his bewildered expression.

“What happened to you?”

Kendrick tried to step toward me, but I moved faster. I took long strides, closed the distance in an instant, and grabbed his hand.

“…You!”

Why are you coming out from here?

A strange surge of emotion rose in my chest, and my words cut off halfway.

Kendrick was wearing a deep navy-colored outfit. In the dark, it would have been hard to tell black from navy.

But—

“Huh?”

I examined the condition of Kendrick’s hand that I was holding. It was clean, without a single scratch. His body looked completely dry, as if there was no trace of moisture at all, and his shoes were clean.

“Where did you go?”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t come straight here from your room, did you?”

“Ah. But right now, you—”

“Answer my question first.”

Despite my irrational questioning, Kendrick did not get angry at all and instead readily explained where he had been.

“I did not see you during dinner, and I heard you were not feeling well… So I ordered delivery.”

Kendrick lifted the plastic bag he was holding in his free hand, the one I was not gripping.

“So you went downstairs to pick this up?”

“Yeah. I thought you liked Chinese food.”

“And then you came straight back up?”

“No, I got held up for a bit by Mr. Robbs.”

“Mr. Robbs?”

“Earlier, Mr. Robbs said they were short on people, so I joined in.”

“Ah.”

At that moment, the question of why Kendrick, who had suddenly said he would not do outdoor activities this weekend, was baking was also resolved.

“He wanted to thank me for participating.”

Deliveries were only received at the front entrance. And Mr. Robbs had seen that scene too. There was not a single reason left to doubt him.

“Did you happen to see anyone pass by the front entrance?”

“…Not really?”

That meant the culprit had come up through the back entrance.

I looked at Kendrick’s face as he said he did not know anything. If he had thrown a rock at me and was now pretending nothing happened, Kendrick should be auditioning for movies, not attending school.

No.

Kendrick was not the culprit.

Sunbae had been mistaken. Combined with the evidence I had, there would no longer be any reason for Kendrick to be suspected.

When I stopped asking questions, Kendrick spoke as if he had been waiting for the moment.

“You are shaking a lot right now.”

“…Ah. We said we would meet at nine, right? Sorry.”

Only then did I belatedly remember what a mess I looked like, and why Kendrick had been waiting in front of my door.

“It is fine.”

“You should go wash up first. You are shaking. Are you not hungry?”

“I am not really hun—”

Grrrrrrrr.

My stomach growled loudly without any sense of timing, so I quickly changed what I was about to say.

“—gry. I guess I am really hungry.”

As the tension eased, the hunger came rushing in with it. I gave an awkward smile, but instead of smiling back, Kendrick reached out and placed his hand on my forehead.

“I am dirty right now.”

“You are not dirty.”

“I just realized that I am acting extremely suspicious right now.”

“Yeah.”

“You are not going to ask anything?”

“Right now, the most important thing is for you to soak in warm water. Luckily, you do not have a fever, but your body is like ice.”

“Yeah.”

I accepted Kendrick’s kindness without question. No matter how much Sunbae suspected him, I should have believed him. I knew from watching him up close that Kendrick was not that kind of person. So why had I wavered?

“I will be in my room. Call me when you are done showering.”

Just as Kendrick was about to pass by me, telling me to go wash up comfortably,  I unconsciously grabbed his wrist.

“Do you want to wait in my room?”

“…Huh?”

“Since you have to come back anyway, it is fine. It saves you the trouble of going back and forth. If you do not want to, that is okay too.”

At my dejected tone, Kendrick spoke quickly.

“No, then I will wait in your room.”

“Okay, then.”

With a hesitant expression, Kendrick turned his body toward the door. Instead of opening it, he knocked.

Knock knock.

We had just been talking face-to-face right behind the door, and he knew I used the room alone, so knocking all of a sudden was strange.

“Why are you knocking when I’m right here?”

At my question mixed with laughter, Kendrick looked as if he had been struck by lightning and hurriedly opened the door.

“Ah, right.”

Kendrick walked straight over to the desk and set down the bag of food. I was filled with guilt toward him. It did not sit right with me to keep him sitting on a hard chair when he was not even studying, so I offered some kindness.

“You can sit on the bed comfortably.”

“Huh?”

“If you want, you can even lie down and roll around!”

At my words, Kendrick sprang up from the chair. For a moment, I thought he must have wanted to roll around on the bed after all, but instead of heading toward the bed, Kendrick went toward the door.

“No, I will wait in my room after all. Wash comfortably.”

“Huh?”

Before I could even respond, Kendrick threw the door open and left.

Left alone without understanding what had just happened, I briefly considered going after him. But I decided to shower first.

Only after letting warm water pour over me did I realize how cold my body had been. As soon as the hot water touched me, my skin tingled, and it felt as if I had endured any longer, I might have ended up with hypothermia.

I wanted to stay in the hot water longer, but I did not want to keep Kendrick waiting too long.

“Ah.”

As sensation returned to my body, a dull ache spread below.

There is more blood than I thought.

The injured area was wider than I had expected.

After finishing my shower and loosely wrapping myself in a towel, I went back into the room. Maybe because I had forgotten to close the window earlier, it was quite cold.

“Ah, right.”

I can’t believe I even forgot to close the window.

Since it was an old building, there was no screen, so bugs could easily get in.

I should close the window before changing clothes.

There were many kinds of bugs, but the one I hated most was the crane fly, which looked like a mosquito but was about three times the size.

It did not have any real offensive power, but just its appearance alone was enough to deal serious damage to me.

Yeah, just like that.

Absentmindedly thinking that, I suddenly froze.

I made eye contact with a bug clinging tightly to the wall right next to the window. The blood in my entire body ran cold.

Not just one, but three of them were lined up together.

Goosebumps broke out all over me. Even so, I bit down hard on my lower lip, trying not to lose my composure.

First, I should quickly change clothes and then ask someone else to get rid of them. Hoping they would stay still until then, I slowly backed toward the wardrobe.

Swish.

But as if refusing to grant my wish, the bug flew straight at me and landed squarely on my collarbone.