188 Chapter five, 2016, days of waiting: 5 (1/2)

Noriko left the hospital more thoughtful than she had expected. While she didn't visit Urufu every day like Yukio and Kuri she still went to see her friend often enough to notice how much better he made her feel after a visit.

'Should be the other way around,' she thought.

She couldn't exactly pinpoint why she felt depressed now. Maybe because they were wrapped up in their midterm exams and Urufu couldn't attend them.

”What's on your mind?” Nao wondered.

Noriko shook her head and grasped his hand just a little tighter. ”Thank you for understanding,” she said rather than answering his question.

He smiled down at her. ”Don't worry. I know you still have feelings for him, and he's a good guy at that.”

'Do I?' Noriko wasn't certain any longer. Urufu being hurt made her angry, but thinking of him didn't fill her stomach with butterflies the way seeing Nao did.

They made it to the bus stop and climbed the first one heading down-town. When they got off she noticed how those they met smiled at them. 'Huh? What's so funny?' Then it struck her they were still holding hands. The photo model with his midget girlfriend. 'Yeah I guess it could look funny.'

She tugged Nao's hand closer to herself and felt strangely happy that she had something else than Urufu to worry about. 'Do we really look that comical?' She guessed they did. She just about a metre and a half and him at closer to a hundred and ninety.

”Notice the smiles?” Noriko asked at last.

”Uhum. They're hiding their jealousy,” Nao said.

''They' being the girls I guess,' Noriko thought glumly.

”The girls as well,” Nao said, deliberately twisting his comforting words into a self-conscious joke.

”You, you, you!” She couldn't but stop and give him a light box in his stomach. Then Noriko grinned and hugged him. ”Thanks for making me laugh! Thanks for making me feel loved!”

”But you make it so easy,” Nao replied without a moment of hesitation.

'You say all the right things, and you do all the right things as well.' ”You make me blush,” Noriko said and dug her face into his shirt.

Nao held her tight and combed through her hair with long, slender fingers. ”You know, I'm worried as well.”

The words made her step away from him. Doing so she saw how public their display was just outside a subway station, but she didn't care.

”Worried about what? They said he'll recover fully.”

”Ah, not about that,” Nao said and laughed. ”He'll miss out on a full month. What about his midterms?”

Noriko choked down a reply. She couldn't tell Nao that Principal Nakagawa guaranteed Urufu's private tutoring. More precisely she couldn't tell Nao Principal Nakagawa did the tutoring in person, and of all things she could never tell Nao that Urufu probably didn't need any tutoring apart from written Japanese in the first place.

'I keep secrets from my own boyfriend. Makes me a role model girlfriend I guess,' Noriko thought and smirked. ”When do you think he'll be discharged?” she asked, more to change the topic than anything else.