86 Hospital – The Awakened Jabami Souko:
Hikigaya felt completely scattered inside, his thoughts racing.
When it came to matters between the sexes, his understanding was purely hearsay—half-formed and vague. This was by far the closest he had ever been to a girl.
But even so, he had never heard of something so ridiculous as just touching a girl's feet having this kind of exaggerated effect.
It was truly…
Absurd.
"Jabami, are you okay?" Hikigaya Hachiman asked tentatively.
The response he got was an unconscious moan from Jabami Yumeko:
"Mmm~ Hikigaya-kun, more~ I'm going to break~"
"..."
Hikigaya Hachiman stood with dark lines across his forehead. Now that he had finally regained his composure, he slowly got up from the bed and walked to the side, rubbing his temple as he looked at the scene before him with a headache.
The bedsheet was so wet, there was clearly no way to sleep on it.
And since there didn't seem to be any spare sheets to change into, calling a nurse to help would risk compromising Jabami's reputation.
Letting a boy into a girl's room—shared with her sister no less—and ending up with a soaked bedsheet... if that got out, the rumors would be terrible.
"Seriously… it was just touching her foot, wasn't it?" Just as Hikigaya was mulling over how to handle the situation, a voice rose next to him, making his hair stand on end.
The voice was cold and faint—the voice of a sickly beauty who stirred sympathy at a glance.
"Who are you?"
Hikigaya Hachiman spun around.
Jabami Souko was leaning against the headboard of the hospital bed, a curious look on her pale face. Her hands stopped folding the origami in them, and she stared at the world with eyes as pure as a newborn's.
Hikigaya's pupils shrank, and his heart rate shot up again.
This time, even the prime numbers couldn't save him.
His mind blanked out. Instinctively, he turned to Jabami—only to see that Yumeko was still completely out of it, mumbling nonsense in a blissful stupor, clearly in no condition to handle the situation.
'Guess I'll have to just push through this...'
"Um… I'm a classmate of Jabami Yumeko. My name is Hikigaya Hachiman."
"Yumeko?"
Souko completely ignored his self-introduction and softly repeated the name "Yumeko." Staring at the slightly more mature face that bore about seventy percent resemblance to Jabami Yumeko, Hikigaya couldn't shake an indescribable sense of eeriness.
It felt like he'd been caught in some sort of uncanny valley effect.
He walked over to Yumeko and tried shaking her arm to wake her up.
But strangely enough, though Souko had regained her senses briefly, Yumeko remained trapped in a state of euphoric oblivion—completely unreachable, leaving Hikigaya at a loss.
Soon, Jabami Souko groaned and held her temple, clearly in pain. When she opened her eyes again, she looked at her sister with a wistful expression.
That gaze seemed determined to etch Hikigaya's image deep into her heart. Weak, but firm, she pleaded:
"Hikigaya Hachiman, please… take care of her."
Her voice grew softer and softer. Before long, her once-clear gaze returned to a blank, indifferent look, and her hands resumed folding the origami.
'What the hell is going on here!?'
Hikigaya felt cold sweat soaking through his clothes.
From that initial feeling of being caught in a compromising situation, to guilt, and now to this heavy sense of being entrusted with someone's final wishes…
Even without Jabami Souko's request, Hikigaya would have taken responsibility. After touching a girl's foot, Hikigaya Hachiman wasn't the kind of man who'd play dumb and pretend nothing happened. He would look after her… for her entire high school life?
Time was a heavy unit of measure. Hikigaya couldn't guarantee how long his relationship with Jabami would last.
All he could say was that, as long as they weren't separated by distance, and as long as Jabami didn't start to hate him, he would make sure she didn't fall into the abyss of compulsive gambling.
That was his resolve—as a man!
But misfortune doesn't stop just because a man has made up his mind.
Ding-a-ling-ling—
In the cramped VIP hospital room, Hikigaya's phone suddenly started ringing.
[Incoming Call: Yukinoshita Yukino]
The ringtone echoed endlessly, looping on and on.
It felt like he could sense Yukinoshita Yukino's firm resolve to reach him—even through time and space.
Now that reason had retaken control, Hikigaya quickly figured out what had happened.
That Miura Yumiko… she must've sold me out to Yukinoshita.
My situation—it's been exposed!
Hikigaya gasped and drew in a breath. After thinking it over, he decided to take the call.
For one thing, what had to be faced must be faced. This was his fate—he couldn't run from it. And besides, he and Yukinoshita Haruno were still in a strategic partnership; offending her younger sister could have negative consequences for his endeavors.
He wasn't one of those passive, dense protagonists from Japanese light novels.
How could he not notice Yukinoshita Yukino's feelings toward him? One after another—they all wanted to consume him completely.
Things had been going so smoothly, with "lust" being the last thing on his list. But now, after doing what he'd done with Jabami Yumeko, he had no choice but to confront his own feelings head-on.
What position did Yukinoshita Yukino hold in his heart?
She was probably on equal footing with Jabami Yumeko. In short, he had to balance both bowls of water evenly.
Hikigaya Hachiman rubbed his forehead and answered the phone:
"Hello… Yukinoshita."