Chapter 229: The Fever Breaks and Overlapping Shadows

“…No, don’t…”

A hoarse, broken sound of resistance, faint like sparks scattered by the wind.

Kaoru Hoshitani bit his pale lower lip, clutching the remaining hem of his pajamas with both hands, trying to shrink his frail body into the shadow of the living room sofa corner.

The thin, light clothing Chika casually tossed onto his lap gave off a high-class perfume scent that was out of place in this old apartment.

The translucent light beige fabric clung lightly to his legs.

Just looking at it made his stomach churn and his ears burn painfully.

‘How could this be…’

‘Wear it outside…’

‘No… Miss Chika doesn’t intend for me to wear it outside at all…’

‘She, she wants to…’

“Xun Jun.”

Chika looked down at him, the almost perfect curve of her lips not shifting in the slightest.

She sighed, her tone carrying the tolerance and helplessness one might use with a willful child:

“It seems a high fever really does slow down one’s judgment. But it’s okay… Since Xun Jun doesn’t even have the strength to lift a hand, Big Sister Chika will just help you.”

“Wait… Miss Chika—!”

There was no room for Kaoru Hoshitani to retreat.

Without even taking off her shoes, Chika stepped forward, her black-stockinged knee sinking into the living room sofa cushion, sealing off the boy’s escape route against the backrest.

“Smack.”

A light yet dull sound.

With one hand, Chika caught both of Kaoru Hoshitani’s wrists as he tried to resist, lifting them upward and pinning them to the soft living room sofa cushion above his head.

“Mmph…!”

Kaoru Hoshitani let out a pained groan.

The 38.5-degree fever had drained his remaining strength; under the firm grip of Chika’s steady hand, his struggles seemed as laughable as a larva caught in a spider’s web.

Chika’s free hand calmly reached for his chest.

“No… Please… Don’t take it off…”

The boy’s eyes reddened, tears welling up at the corners.

The other’s fingertip just deftly hooked.

“Click.”

The third button slipped from its hole.

Then the fourth.

The thick cotton pajamas that had wrapped the boy, washed white and pilling, were like a rusted shell pried open, pulled apart at the shoulders by Chika to both sides.

The cool indoor air struck the skin flushed and burning from the high fever.

“Hiss—”

The extreme temperature difference sent a wave of fine shivers across his skin.

As the heavy, sweat-soaked old cotton slipped down his arms, Kaoru Hoshitani’s fevered nerves suddenly tensed.

His vision darkened, dizzy, spinning.

In a daze, the old cotton garment being stripped away seemed to tear a rift in his consciousness—

[“Little, Little Kaoru… First, take off your wet clothes, okay? You’ll catch a worse cold…”]

That was a voice from long ago.

Accompanied by the roar of a rainstorm hitting a tin roof, unique to the seaside small town.

In the deep winter of his second year of high school, on an evening so cold it made one shiver.

He had gotten caught in the rain from his part-time job at the convenience store and ran a fever of nearly forty degrees in the middle of the night, curling up shivering under the covers.

When the anti-theft door clanged from the fierce wind, the one who rushed into the foyer, umbrella turned inside out and soaked to the bone, was Aina Saiten.

At that time, Aina was still just a green first-year university student with a half-ponytail.

Seeing Kaoru Hoshitani delirious with fever, Senpai Aina, usually known for her calm rationality, panicked so much she even put her slippers on the wrong feet, pacing around the room at a loss.

She scalded the back of her hand pouring hot water and nearly smashed the mercury thermometer on the corner of the table while shaking it down.

[“Wh-what should I do… His clothes are all soaked with cold sweat, he needs to change into clean ones…”]

Seventeen-year-old Aina stood by the bed, her cheeks hotter than Kaoru Hoshitani’s feverish ones.

She clutched the largest old pajamas she had found in the wardrobe with both hands, her whole body stiff as a board.

[“Little, Little Kaoru has grown up, he’s a boy now… I-I absolutely don’t mean to peek! Absolutely not!”]

The girl closed her eyes, turned her head toward the pitch-black rainstorm outside the window, and even raised her arm in panic to cover her line of sight.

Just like that, with her eyes closed, she groped from memory, clumsily yet politely reaching a dry towel into the covers to wipe the cold sweat from his neck, then laboriously wrapped him tightly in the thick cotton garment that carried the scent of sunshine and soap.

She even meticulously tucked the corners of the blanket three times, afraid that the slightest cold draft would get in.

[“Phew… That’s better.”]

In his memory, Aina sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the boy huddled in the thick quilt with only his flushed little face showing, finally letting out a sigh of relief, a gentle smile rippling in her eyes:

[“Sleep peacefully, Little Kaoru. I’m here, no one can take away your warmth.”]

“—What are you thinking about? Xun Jun.”

A soft whisper burst in his ear.

The illusion, like a fragile mirror, was shattered underfoot.

There was no sunshine-scented soap.

No girl clumsily covering her eyes.

And certainly no thick quilt safely cradling him in its embrace.

Kaoru Hoshitani suddenly opened his eyes, gasping for breath, the tears sliding from the corners of his eyes ice-cold.

Chika looked down at him from above, her pale golden hair falling, brushing past his flushed collarbone.

“Your eyes are so unfocused… Are you waiting for that Senpai Aina who left you alone in a cold, empty room?”

Chika pinned Kaoru Hoshitani’s thigh to the corner of the living room sofa with her knee, her fingers picking up the light beige garment thin as cicada wings.

“Too bad, the one staying here tonight is me.”

“No… Don’t put that on… Please…”

Kaoru Hoshitani could no longer suppress his tearful voice.

Chika paid no attention to his pleas.

Her hands moved skillfully and irresistibly, slipping the cold silk fabric over the boy’s arms and pulling it down along his burning, slender torso.

“Rustle…”

The faint sound of fabric rubbing was especially clear in the dead-silent living room.

No pilling thick cotton, no sense of safe wrapping. The thin gauze clung to his slightly sweaty skin the moment it touched.

The flushed skin, the deeply recessed collarbone lines, the chest rising and falling with rapid breaths, even every inch of his ribcage…

Were outlined completely under the dim, cold light.

It was even more humiliating than being completely naked.

Chika released her hold on Kaoru Hoshitani’s wrists.

Kaoru Hoshitani slumped deep into the living room sofa cushion, even the strength to raise a hand to cover himself drained away.

Chika gazed at the sight of him, so ready for the taking, a thick, dark light flickering in her eyes.

She bent down.

“Smack.”

Chika extended her arm sideways, catching the boy’s slender, trembling waist and pulling him into a warm yet controlling embrace.

This posture, this shadow.

The arm wrapped around his waist, the pale golden hair falling by his neck, and the flushed skin and entranced eyes showing through the boy’s disheveled thin shirt—

Overlapped completely with the future countdown clip that Aina had repeatedly dragged and played on the old mobile phone screen in the South District Old Warehouse…

At this moment, they completely overlapped.

“Mmph… Hah…”

Kaoru Hoshitani trembled violently, Chika’s breath brushing entirely against his sensitive earlobe.

Chika’s fingers, through the thin gauze, slid down along his ribs toward his lower abdomen.

“Your heart is beating so fast… And your body is burning up too.”

Chika’s lips curved slightly as she brought her mouth close to the boy’s ear, whispering:

“I’ve already confirmed your surface temperature.”

“But… since you’re burning up this much, just measuring the surface isn’t enough, is it?”

Chika’s fingertip rested at the edge of his lower abdomen, pressing down slightly.

“Next… Big Sister Chika will have to properly check Xun Jun’s ‘internal temperature.'”