A Chaotic Morning

The next morning.

Kikyo Kushida sat up from the bed, her head still throbbing with a dull ache. She pressed her temples, and it took quite a while for her to regain her senses.

"Where... am I?"

"No way!"

Kikyo let out a startled cry. Seeing the environment, which was completely different from her own dormitory, her hair stood on end. Her hands frantically patted her body as if checking for something, and she only stopped and let out a long sigh of relief after a good while.

"Thank goodness, thank goodness."

"But what happened? Wasn't I just..."

The fragmented memories in her mind gradually became clear. Kikyo looked around and finally spotted An Xiao, who was still fast asleep on a recliner far from the bed.

Without making a sound, Kikyo gently climbed out of bed. Seeing that her school uniform was only wrinkled, she breathed another sigh of relief.

Don't let the fact that she had let An Xiao grope her chest last night fool you; it had stopped strictly at that.

Gritting her teeth, Kikyo approached An Xiao. Her pink fists were clenched tight, and just as she was about to give this bastard who was still sleeping a "forced physical wake-up call," she saw An Xiao shift uncomfortably as if he had sensed something. He didn't wake up, though; he simply rolled over and curled his body up to continue sleeping.

Kikyo's movements paused.

This guy... he actually looks quite good, especially when he's asleep.

Recalling what Shiina had done last night, and acting on a whim, Kikyo took out her phone and pressed the shutter button while aiming at the person in front of her.

Click!

"Hiss~ is it morning already..."

An Xiao felt as if his eyes had been pricked by something. He rubbed them with some discomfort, his tone carrying a faint, lingering sense of 'death.'

"Yo, Kikyo, you're awake too!"

Kikyo hurriedly put her phone away. She took a breath, walked over to An Xiao, grabbed his collar, and said in a chilling tone, "May I ask why I am in your room?"

"Your behavior right now is much more serious than last night's."

Kikyo had expected An Xiao to explain himself in a panic, but his reaction far exceeded her expectations.

"You're the one talking!" An Xiao slumped back on the recliner, his face full of hopelessness. "Think about what you did yesterday."

"What did I do? Didn't I just go to your kitchen fridge and grab some desserts?"

"They were indeed quite delicious. I also ate some fruit later, I think it was pineapple..."

Kikyo Kushida reminisced, but her memory went completely blank after she finished the pineapple.

"Was there something wrong with that pineapple?"

"I added 40-degree rum to it. The bottle was right there. Didn't you look at what was sitting next to it when you grabbed it?" An Xiao said weakly.

"Where did you get alcohol? And I didn't even taste any alcohol when I ate it!" Kikyo Kushida looked at An Xiao suspiciously.

"It wasn't meant for you to eat in the first place; it was for our homeroom teacher." An Xiao shifted his body to get more comfortable before speaking.

"She's a total lush, and she's the one who gave me the liquor."

To be honest, if he didn't have something he wanted to ask her for recently, An Xiao wouldn't have gone through all this trouble.

"As for the alcohol taste you mentioned..."

"Sprinkle it with lime juice, lime zest, and salt, then freeze it for about six hours, and there's basically no alcohol taste left."

"I can't exactly go to class smelling like booze, can I?"

As he spoke, An Xiao's consciousness became a bit clearer, and he recounted everything that had happened last night.

"I had just finished my porridge last night and was about to go to the kitchen to call you two, when I saw you and Shiina slumped against the kitchen wall, barely conscious."

"Even then, you dragged Shiina onto my bed and spent over an hour cursing that girl Horikita with all sorts of things."

"You wouldn't stop. Shiina was much better; she was just giggling to herself on the side."

"It wasn't until one or two in the morning that I finally managed to coax you to sleep." An Xiao said, letting out a massive yawn.

As the saying goes, it's not the drinking that's scary; it's having someone help you recall what you did while you were blacked out.

Although her memories were still fragmented, after hearing what An Xiao said, Kikyo roughly pieced it together.

In an instant, a wave of heat rushed to her cheeks and spread to her ears.

"...Did I say anything else last night?"

"No, you were just cursing Horikita, maybe dragging in a few people from Class D at most."

"That's for the best." Kikyo let go of An Xiao's collar, straightened her wrinkled clothes, and forced herself to suppress her panic as she prepared to leave.

Taking advantage of the early hour, she would likely avoid running into anyone else if she left now.

Just as Kikyo reached the door and her hand touched the handle, An Xiao's voice, still heavy with sleepiness, drifted over once more.

"Although I don't know what you've been through in the past, and I don't know why you care so much."

"But if you have something weighing on your heart, you can go find Shiina... or if you don't mind, you can come find me."

"How does that saying go? Sometimes you just have to break the pot to mend it."

Upon hearing An Xiao's words, Kushida's hand, which was resting on the doorknob, visibly paused. After a long while, her voice drifted over along with the sound of the door opening.

"Meddlesome."

Click.

"Mm~ has Kushida-san left?" Shiina Hiyori, who had been buried under the blanket, poked out a small head and looked at An Xiao with sleepy eyes.

"Yeah." An Xiao stretched his body and stood up from the recliner, looking at the slightly moving lump on the bed with a hint of curiosity.

"By the way, Shiina, when did you wake up?"

"Was it when Kushida grabbed me?"

"Probably... a little earlier than that."

ps: Honestly, if you mix pineapple chunks, lime juice, lime zest, and salt with 40-degree rum, then freeze it for six hours before eating, it actually tastes pretty good. You can't even taste the alcohol, though the kick is quite strong—after all, it is a combination of high fructose and hard liquor.