That night, Yi Chen exchanged a few brief emails with Ichinose.
Yi Chen felt stifled by the heat, so he took a cold shower that evening.
He had a very pleasant night.
The next day, Yi Chen woke up feeling especially weak, with a very sore throat.
Yi Chen muttered feebly to himself:
"Is this a feverish cold? Seriously, I work out all the time. Never mind. I'll get some medicine after class."
Yi Chen dragged himself to class.
When he arrived, Kushida saw him and went over to greet him.
Yi Chen gave a brief reply. Kushida noticed that he didn't look well and came over to ask him about it.
Yi Chen told Kushida:
"It's just a cold."
Kushida immediately put one hand to her own forehead, then rose onto her tiptoes and touched Yi Chen's forehead.
Kushida looked worried.
"Huh? You're really burning up! Yi Chen, have you taken any medicine? I have some fever medicine."
Yi Chen said:
"No, thanks. I'll buy some medicine myself after class. What you have might not work for me."
Kushida looked concerned.
"You're really burning up. Maybe you should go rest. I'll tell Chabashira-sensei for you."
Yi Chen said:
"It's fine. Your temperature tends to run high at the start of a cold. Thanks, Kushida."
Kushida looked worried.
"Okay, then. Come find me if you can't take it anymore."
The other students watched Yi Chen and Kushida acting so intimately and couldn't help cheering them on.
Yi Chen returned to his seat.
Angel's voice sounded again:
"Ooh, ooh, a weak man~ I'm back to give you another mission~"
Mission:
"Help Ken Sudō."
Reward:
"One Silver Card"
Failure: Death
Yi Chen asked weakly:
"Okay, got it."
Angel disappeared. Yi Chen glanced at Ken Sudō nearby, but didn't notice anything different about him.
Just as Yi Chen was about to ask him, Chabashira-sensei entered the classroom.
Standing in the middle of the room, Chabashira-sensei announced sternly:
"Class C is accusing Ken Sudō of assault."
Ken Sudō stood up to explain, but it didn't do any good.
Yi Chen thought that this must be the trouble Angel had mentioned Ken Sudō was facing.
The students in the class all complained about Ken Sudō's behavior.
I watched Ken Sudō in silence, wondering why the guy hadn't told me he'd gotten into a fight.
As everyone around him discussed Ken Sudō, he looked helplessly toward Yi Chen.
Yi Chen looked back at him and gave him a thumbs-up.
Ken Sudō smiled helplessly.
After class, everyone left.
Kushida came over to check on Yi Chen.
But a friend had invited her somewhere, and Yi Chen told her he was fine, so she left.
Yi Chen asked Ken Sudō why he'd fought and how he'd ended up getting accused.
Ken Sudō scratched his head, looking thoroughly frustrated.
"Yi Chen, I've had the worst luck. The day before yesterday, I played basketball with some people from Class C. They played dirty and kept getting on my nerves."
"I lost my temper and yelled at them. Then they lured me to a spot and started hitting me. But I'm stronger than they are, so the three of them couldn't beat me."
Yi Chen gave him a thumbs-up and said hoarsely:
"Impressive. Winning the fight is pretty cool, especially since they started it."
Ken Sudō said:
"Being cool doesn't help, Yi Chen. They turned around and accused me of assault and bullying them at school."
Yi Chen asked:
"Could anyone prove what happened? Did you hit them?"
Ken Sudō said:
"No, but at the time I said that I had."
Yi Chen replied helplessly:
"You idiot. If you put as much thought into things as you do into basketball, you wouldn't be in this mess."
"Is there any other evidence that they hit you?"
Ken Sudō answered helplessly:
"No..."
Yi Chen said:
"That's bad. So you admitted to hitting them for no reason, while they haven't admitted to hitting you."
Ken Sudō was speechless.
Yi Chen said calmly:
"Scheming frog, keep touching your belly."
"Since that's the case, we'll have to see whether anyone witnessed the Class C students hitting you."
"We need to gather more evidence."
Ken Sudō was a little moved.
"Thanks, Yi Chen. I didn't expect you to believe me right away when I told you all this. Everyone else wants me expelled."
Yi Chen smiled.
"It's fine. I'll help you. Go take care of your stuff."
After they parted ways, Yi Chen went to a pharmacy, got some medicine, and took it.
Then he went looking for a red-haired girl with glasses.
Yi Chen thought:
"I vaguely remember she was there, but I can't remember her name. Seriously."
"I never bother remembering unimportant things I come across."
"That red-haired girl doesn't seem to stand out much."
Yi Chen was outside now, with no idea where to look.
Yi Chen thought:
"If I randomly ask people about the red-haired girl at a time like this, won't it make me seem like I already know something?"
"Forget it. I'll deal with it tomorrow."
Yi Chen went to the place where Ken Sudō said they'd fought. When he arrived, he quietly surveyed the area.
There were surveillance cameras on every floor.
Yi Chen said:
"Huh? There are cameras, so this should be easy. Why would we need any other evidence?"
Yi Chen went to the fourth-floor spot where the fight had taken place.
Yi Chen examined the camera.
"This camera? It's pointing away from the stairwell? Is that right? Does that make any sense?"
Yi Chen tested different angles around the stairwell in an almost comical fashion, only to find that the camera faced away from it no matter where he looked from.
Yi Chen couldn't help coughing.
"Huh?"
Then inspiration struck. Yi Chen brought over a large stepladder and slowly turned the camera around by hand.
Yi Chen breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the camera, now aimed at the stairwell.
He said ruefully:
"That's more like it. Why film a dark, empty corridor instead of the people walking through here? This makes sense."
Yi Chen said:
"So what do I do now? I could go scare them, but that won't help if they check the footage."
"After all, I just changed the camera's angle."
"Whatever. I'll take it one step at a time."
After thinking it over, Yi Chen packed up and headed to the dorm.
Meanwhile, deep in the dark corridor, Sakura Airi slowly emerged from behind a large box.
She stared in astonishment in the direction Yi Chen had just gone.
Sakura Airi said:
"What the heck? Was that our classmate, Angela Yi Chen?"
"Why did he move the camera?"
"Never mind. I should get out of here first."
When Sakura Airi went downstairs, she saw Angela Yi Chen sitting by the road, sighing repeatedly.
Sakura Airi looked at him, wanting to ask what he'd been doing, but she was too shy to speak.
Although Yi Chen had a stuffy nose from his cold, he caught a faint fragrance.
Yi Chen turned around. It was the red-haired girl he'd been looking for.
Unable to hide his excitement, he greeted her first:
"Hi, we're in the same class, right? I'm Yi Chen."
Sakura Airi shyly replied:
"Hi, I'm Sakura Airi. We're in the same class."
Yi Chen patted the step beside him, inviting Sakura Airi to sit down.
Sakura Airi sat down slowly, unconsciously fidgeting with the hem of her clothes.
Yi Chen cleared his throat and said:
"Hey, what are you doing here, Airi?"
Sakura Airi stammered:
"I just came to look around. W-what about you?"
Yi Chen looked incredulous.
"You saw me?"
Sakura Airi nodded.
"I did. You were..."
Yi Chen immediately raised a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture.
With Yi Chen so close to her, Sakura Airi felt her cheeks grow hot.
Yi Chen said calmly:
"Airi, keep your voice down. Do you know about Ken Sudō's situation? I'm trying to help him."
Sakura Airi lowered her head.
"I know. Actually... actually..."
Suddenly, a light rain began to fall.
Yi Chen asked:
"Did you bring an umbrella, Airi?"
Airi shook her head. The two of them had intended to head back to the dorm, but the rain grew heavier.
Yi Chen hurriedly led Airi to a nearby pavilion to shelter from the rain.
Rain pattered down outside the pavilion.
Seeing Airi soaked, Yi Chen took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders.
Sakura Airi shyly thanked him.
Yi Chen teased:
"We must be fated to meet. It's only our first time talking, and the heavens have already arranged for us to have a long chat here."
"I wonder when the rain will stop."
Airi chuckled at that and said softly:
"Yi Chen, you really are funny. And you're so gentle, completely different from what I imagined."
Yi Chen sneezed and looked at Sakura Airi.
"What's wrong, Airi? What did you think I was like before?"
"Nothing. It was pretty nice, too."
Yi Chen:
"It's okay, go ahead. We were brought together by fate, after all."
Sakura Airi said slowly:
"It was just that during the introductions on the first day of school, I thought you were terrifying when you said you'd rise above all of us. It was so silly."
Yi Chen stared at Airi, dumbfounded.
Sakura Airi looked at Yi Chen's astonished expression and hurried to explain:
"No, no, I was just joking. You've always been nice."
"You even helped Yamauchi before, and you get good grades, too. And..."
Sakura Airi slowly turned her gaze to Yi Chen's face.
At her words, Yi Chen said:
"It's okay. I was acting crazy during my introduction. Sorry about that, but I'm not really like that."
Sakura Airi said:
"It's fine. Everyone knows you're a good person."
Sakura Airi adjusted Yi Chen's jacket, which she was wearing.
Yi Chen thought:
Why does this feel weird? Did she just give me the 'you're a good person' line?
And so, the two of them chatted about all sorts of things in the rain. They both really liked anime and other things like that, and had a great time talking.
Gradually, the rain began to ease, until it finally stopped.
When they saw the rain had stopped, Yi Chen worried Airi might catch a cold from being soaked. They exchanged contact information, then soon went their separate ways.
Yi Chen took back his jacket and put it on.
When Yi Chen returned to his dorm, he couldn't stop coughing, and his nose started running, too.
Yi Chen took a hot shower, then lay down and took some medicine before going straight to sleep. His body temperature gradually rose.
Yi Chen didn't sleep well that night.
Before you continue