Chapter 44 (1/2)

“Sis?”

“Miho!”

Miho’s sister had gotten even thinner. With sunken cheeks, she almost looked like a skeleton. Myohan pretended to be a nice boy and said hello.

“I ran into him downstairs.”

“Wow, Miho, you have a friend?”

“Sis!”

“Okay, okay. I was just joking.”

She smiled brightly. It was so different from how Miho looked only a minute ago. That smile was too bright for a patient with an IV. Miho took up a jar and said he would go and get water. He asked Myohan if he wanted to go with him, but he said he wanted to stay there. He didn’t know why, but he just felt like he should.

“So, what’s your name?”

“Myohan, O Myohan.”

“Oh, really? I didn’t know Miho had such a handsome friend.”

Once Miho left the room, her smile faded. So sick of everything. Myohan read that on her face in an instant and narrowed his eyes.

“Thank you for being friends with my Miho.”

Well, Myohan didn’t even know if Miho knew his name, but he decided not to point that out. It was silly that he was now visiting Miho’s sister when they weren’t even that close, but he swallowed that too.

“He’s never brought a friend here before. He’s always alone, so I thought he didn’t have any friends. He’s not all kind and the friendly type, you know.”

Miho’s sister went on, trying to sound unconcerned. Myohan looked away to hear how she thought her brother didn’t have any friends, and he bit his lips to hear what came after that.

“I even thought Miho was being bullied for having no parents.”

Myohan’s heart hurt again. A little brother coming to visit his sick sister? In a way, it was only natural. Miho came to the hospital every day to take care of her, but he just thought it could happen if the siblings were close. But, Miho had looked so fragile and painful at the reception, and it gave Myohan some questions.

“He might look strong, but he isn’t. So I was worried. He couldn’t cry even when we lost our parents. But he must have cried more than anyone in his heart.”

Miho’s sister then realized she had gotten too personal, so she changed the topic with a smile. She asked things about school, Miho’s friends, and studying. Myohan answered all of them, and he could get up only when Miho came back.

“Sorry, I had to go downstairs.”

Miho’s sister made the two boys leave, telling them to go and have some fun. She seemed to be a lot happier to see a friend of Miho’s for the first time. Miho lost all the expression he had the second they left the room. Myohan let out a small sigh.

“Before, you said you promised to repay the favor.”

“I know.”

Why did he have to be one of the twelve zodiac animals? Myohan was supposed to make him transform in front of him, but he just couldn’t. So he ended up saying what came to his mind first. It would have been funny to demand him to reveal his weakness for saving him from a ball once.

“If you really meant that, start coming to school every day.”

He wasn’t nagging him to be a good student. It was just that if he didn’t come to school, he would have to come to the hospital every time to meet him, and that was going to be a problem for his plan of making him turn into a sheep.

Miho looked a little confused, but then he saw Myohan’s quiet eyes, he nodded. Myohan smiled and patted his head. Miho was taller than him, but it wasn’t that hard to do.

“And,”

It was just a simple whim. It was strange, but he couldn’t help being soft to the animal boys. Looking at Miho, Myohan added,

“I don’t have parents, either.”

O Shin was most certainly going to call him soft. He was going to scold him with that expressionless face, calling him a soft cat. But Myohan could say with confidence that he wasn’t pitying the boy and wasn’t being controlled by empathy.