ICYM Ch 53

Episode 53

“Ahhh!”

I shook my body rapidly, like a dancer flinging everything off with their movements. Startled by my chaotic flailing, the bug dropped off, and I did not miss the chance and bolted right away.

There was only one place I could go. Still feeling as if the bug was clinging to my body, I threw the door open without even thinking to knock.

Owen was nowhere to be seen. Kendrick was the only one in the room. He had been sitting on the edge of the bed, but when he saw me burst in, he jumped to his feet, and I charged straight at him without hesitation.

“Hayden?”

I did not care at all how I looked to anyone right now. My whole body felt unbearably itchy.

“I…! There is a bug…! Bug!”

“Huh?”

“Is it on me?”

“What is?”

“The bug!”

When I stomped my feet and asked again, Kendrick quickly grasped the situation and scanned my body from head to toe.

“There is nothing on your body.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Is that so? Are you good at catching bugs, by any chance?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Then please help me. There are b-bugs in my room.”

Just thinking about how there had been not one, not two, but three of them clinging there made a chill run down my spine again.

“In your room?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I will go to your room first and—”

Slip.

Maybe because I had been moving around too wildly, the towel I had wrapped around my waist slid down and fell to the floor with a plop. I did not even have the courage to look at my lower half, which suddenly felt completely bare.

“……”

“……”

Just like Kendrick had said earlier, there was truly nothing on my body anymore.

When something moves, your eyes naturally follow it. Kendrick had unconsciously followed the falling towel with his eyes, but when he realized what he had done, he closed his eyes tightly.

As if he had seen nothing at all.

But the heavy silence told me everything.

Such excessive kindness only made it more painful.

Whoosh.

I quickly snatched the towel and wrapped it around my waist, but the damage had already been done.

“……”

How nice it would have been if Kendrick had teased me playfully so I could get mad, or if I could have laughed it off lightheartedly first.

But neither of us had such refined conversational skills.

Kendrick tilted his head back slightly and apologized to me in a hoarse voice.

“…Sorry.”

“No, I am sorry.”

When Kendrick, who had done absolutely nothing wrong, apologized, it only made things more awkward. If there had been a bowl of water nearby, I would have dunked my face into it without hesitation.

Naturally, Kendrick was the first to recover from the mental shock.

“Sit down for now.”

“Ah, okay.”

He sat me down at the edge of the bed and draped a blanket over my shoulders. When I pulled the warm blanket closer to completely cover myself in front, Kendrick bent his knees and asked me, “Do you want to wear my clothes for now? I will go catch the bugs.”

“Uh… No.”

For now, that option seemed like the best one, but the problem would come later when I had to return the clothes. I wouldn’t exactly tell him, ‘I was naked in your room and wore the clothes you lent me,’ but the memory would inevitably resurface when I returned them.

Even though it must have been troublesome, Kendrick did not show the slightest sign of annoyance as he asked for my opinion.

“Then? It looks like it will take some time to catch the bugs and spray bug repellent.”

Having realized firsthand how afraid of bugs I was, Kendrick said he would even bring the spray from downstairs and use it for me.

“Then, sorry, but could you bring me some clothes?”

“Tell me where they are.”

Even while asking for the favor, I felt self-conscious spelling out which clothes to bring from which drawer.

Then I remembered the clothes I had not even unwrapped yet.

“Could you just bring the shopping bag between the wardrobe and the bed?”

“Okay. That will do?”

“For now.”

“Got it.”

Kendrick went out immediately and quickly brought back the shopping bag I had asked for.

When he returned, one hand held the shopping bag, and the other held a first aid kit.

It was not even a serious wound, and as one thing after another kept happening, I kept forgetting I was injured. When I looked down, the bleeding still had not stopped.

“Ah, sorry. I got blood on the floor. Bloodstains are hard to clean.”

“If you use hydrogen peroxide, it comes off right away. You do not need to apologize for something like this.”

…Why does he naturally know things like this? Is it because he comes from a mafia family, even though he’s so gentle?

“I-I see.”

“Your leg, put it here.”

Kendrick knelt on the floor in front of me as I sat on the bed and placed my injured foot on his knee.

This posture feels kind of strange? The thought crossed my mind, but since he was treating me, I couldn’t be shameless enough to avoid it just because the position felt odd, so I stayed still.

“Ouch.”

“It is not a deep cut, but the skin is torn quite a bit.”

“…Really? Ah.”

He cleaned inside the wound with an alcohol swab and applied medicine over it. Then he covered it with gauze and secured it with a bandage.

“A bandage alone would not be enough since the wound is long. How is it? Too tight?”

“No, it is just right.”

After finishing the treatment, Kendrick closed the first aid kit and stood up.

“Then I will go catch the bugs. Get dressed while I’m gone.”

“…Yeah. Thank you.”

Click.

Perhaps prioritizing what needed to be done first, Kendrick left the room without saying anything else, leaving me behind. Only after the door was completely closed did I take the clothes out of the shopping bag.

I finished getting dressed, even straightened Kendrick’s bedding, and then sat down to wait.

I just realized that this is the first time I’ve been in this room.

Kendrick’s bedding smelled of pheromones. It was not unpleasant. Rather, it smelled nice.

Even though it was inside the room, perhaps because he deliberately restrained his pheromones, the scent was not strong. I lowered my head and buried my nose into the blanket. At first, I thought a floral scent would not suit him, but thinking about it again, it actually matched quite well.

Sniff.

The pheromone scent was so good that I could not easily pull my nose away.

Bang.

Am I seriously cursed with embarrassment?

The door flew open while I still had my nose buried in the blanket. I should have lifted my head quickly, but instead, I raised it after the door opened, pretending to be natural.

“Hayden?”

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the person who entered was not Kendrick but Owen. Owen stared at me, sitting on Kendrick’s bed, with a bewildered expression.

“Oh, you are here?”

Thankfully, it seemed I had gotten up more naturally than I thought. He did not seem to give any particular thought to the fact that I had been burying my nose into the blanket.

“You did not come to see me… right? You came to see Kendrick?”

“Y-yeah.”

I should have said no.

“I thought you did not think very well of Kendrick.”

“…After hearing what you said earlier while baking, I thought I might try getting a little closer. And I happened to have something I wanted to ask about homework, too.”

A lie gives birth to another lie. Once I started lying, I had no choice but to make every answer a lie. Still, would it not be even stranger to say we were actually dating after having suspected him of being the culprit earlier?

And what was I supposed to tell Kendrick later? I was tempted to explain things in a way that would make things easier for myself, but Kendrick had the right to know that I had secretly suspected him.

Come to think of it, I’m hiding a lot of things.

I had thought Kendrick was hiding too many things, but when I actually thought it through, I was the one hiding more.

I was even deceiving him about my own trait.

“Is that so? Then where is Kendrick?”

Seeming not to doubt my excuse much, Owen accepted it and dragged his chair over to sit in front of Kendrick’s bed.

“There were bugs in my room…. I asked him to catch them for me. So I am waiting.”

“Bugs? Did you leave the window open?”

“…Yeah.”

I had opened the window just once and ended up going through all sorts of things in the middle of the night. Come to think of it, today has been really long.

“That is rough.”

“I am never opening the window at night again.”

“That would be the wise choice.”

“Yeah.”

“Huh?”

In the middle of our trivial conversation, Owen suddenly looked me over again more carefully.

“I told you Kendrick wears cute pajamas, right?”

“…Ah, yeah.”

I could tell what he was surprised by. The clothes inside the shopping bag I had asked Kendrick to bring were pajamas. I hadn’t planned to wear them in the dorm, so I left them in the shopping bag without organizing them.

What kind of excuse was I supposed to come up with this time?

The fabric and design were the same, but the pattern and color were different, so I hoped Owen’s keen eye would not notice that our pajamas were similar.

“The pajamas you are wearing… they look exactly like Kendrick’s…?”

Unfortunately, contrary to my hopes, Owen had a pretty sharp eye.

“…Do they?”

“Yeah. Even the sleeves are exactly the same.”

“……”

I had somehow managed to get past the fact that I was here, but I didn’t think I could explain away the pajamas as well.

“I’ll explain.”

Since I was the one who caused this, it was only right that I dealt with it. I opened my mouth to say something, but Owen cut me off.

“No, wait.”

“……”

“Thinking about it again, with your personality, I do not think you would come looking for Kendrick just because of one thing I said, would you?”

Why was he suddenly making such sharp deductions? Maybe because the fabric was warm, cold sweat trickled down my forehead.