Chapter 25: ~Chapter 8~ Part 4

"O-ho-ho. Kids these days just don't know their own limits."

I tapped my feet against the floor in irritation and responded with, "Hey doc, could we skip the pleasantries and the annoying laugh and get to the point where you actually examine her?"

"I'm all right," Judy insisted, but I vetoed her protest by keeping her sitting on the examination table with just one finger on her shoulder.

"O-ho-ho. If what the young lady says is true then it's just a case of mild exhaustion due to lack of sleep triggered by sudden exertion during your physical education class. Some sleep and drinking lots of fluids should take care of that in a jiffy! O-ho-ho."

"Now you are only doing the laugh to annoy me, aren't you?"

"O-ho-ho. Kids these days are so short-tempered."

I rolled my eyes and faced my sick assistant. She already recovered some of her color, much to my relief, though the rings under her eyes were still as dark as before. I didn't like that, so I turned back to the nurse.

"Can she sleep here?"

"O-ho-ho. Most certainly, that is why we have beds, contrary of what some might believe."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" The old man continued to smile mysteriously. "I told you, I am not taking girls here for that."

"For what?" Judy asked, her eyes betraying just a hint of suspicion.

"Long story, I will tell you once you get better. It involved the princess's injured ankle."

"Okay then." Thankfully she seemed satisfied with my answer and didn't press the issue. I suppressed an irritated sigh and was just about to continue with my previous line of thought when the door to the nurse's office opened with a loud bang.

Startled, I looked up to find myself face to face with Angie, still wearing her PE uniform and heaving like a furnace.

"How is she?!" I could only blink for a moment at the loud question and it took me an embarrassingly long time to regain my composure.

"She is fine, I think."

She immediately eased up upon hearing my words.

"Thank goodness, I was worried sick for poor whatshername!"

I gave the girl in the doorway a critical look. "You don't even know her name."

"Small details." She smiled as she walked in. "She is your friend, and a friend's friend is a friend!"

"That's... haaahh... right... haaahh..." Josh heaved as he stumbled into the office as well. Great, now the entire worrywart-squad was here.

"You really didn't need to run here without changing, you know..." I told them a touch wearily, to little effect.

"Nonsense. A friend's friend's friend was sick. Of course we would hurry!"

"That was one friend too many," Judy stated in her typical deadpan manner, but Angie only waved a dismissive hand in her direction.

"Semantics!"

"So..." Josh started speaking between heaves. "What was... the... problem...?"

I looked at him and couldn't help but skeptically furrow my brows at the sight of him leaning against the doorframe like he just ran a whole marathon. Anyways, I answered:

"She just needs sleep, something your presence isn't helping."

"Oh, don't be rude!" Angie scolded me with a thin-lipped smile. "Showing camaraderie to our friends' friends is really important when they are ill."

This time I directed the same skeptical eye at her and asked, "You still don't know her name, do you?"

"Why are you so fixated on such small details?!"

All of a sudden Judy tugged on my shirt, drawing my attention away from the angry pout of the childhood friend at the front.

"Yes?"

"It's lunch break," she stated dryly, and it took me a moment to gather what she was getting at.

"Right, I owe you some sandwiches, don't I?" She nodded, so I told her, "Later. You have to sleep first."

"I cannot sleep on an empty stomach."

I gave up with a sharp sigh and dropped my shoulders.

"Fine, I will get you something, but you are staying here. What would you like?"

She visibly pondered for a moment, and even cocked her head to the side a little before answering with, "Something with lots of meat."

"I recommend the meat-lover's double-decker! It has fried chicken breast and slices of bacon between two beef patties. You cannot get any meatier than that!" came the unwanted recommendation from Josh, and when he belatedly noticed the look I was giving him, he hastily added, "What? You are loaded. You can afford it."

"It's not about that!" I started to object, but then Angie inserted herself between the two of us.

"Nah-ah! That's the wrong attitude! You are supposed to follow a sick friend's wishes if you can, no matter the cost!"

"I tell you, something like that is—"

"Do you say that you do not care about the well-being of our poor, sick friend enough to get her the food she desires? And to say so in front of poor whatsherface!"

"Just ask her name, will you?" At this point I let out a shallow groan and turned to Judy, only to find Joshua confidentially whispering to her. Just when did he get behind me anyways? I could only hear the last words of their conversation, but my fears were confirmed when she turned to me with a hungry gleam in her eyes.

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"I want a Wagyu-beef sandwich," she stated about as empathically as her monotone allowed. I glared at Joshua, then directed a slightly less pointed look at her before I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

"What the heck is that?"

"Wagyu-beef?" my friend grinned at me with an enthusiasm that showed that he had been fishing for the question. "It is a kind of cow meat from Japan. It is well known for its exquisite taste, beautifully marbled appearance, and high unsaturated fat content. They make it by massaging the cows and feeding them sake and beer and it's—"

"Wait, stop!" I raised my hands to hold off the torrent of trivia. "Did you actually do research on this?!" He nodded enthusiastically. "Let me guess, it was so that you can mooch off me." He nodded again, this time a bit more hesitantly. I rolled my eyes at him in disapproval, then focused my attention on Judy, who was almost drooling at the description. It was a sight especially unusual on her face, but I had to stand my ground on this, so I took a deep breath and told her, "No. You are exhausted, so you need something light and easy to digest. You are not getting any of these hyper-fancy sandwiches, and that's final."

"Stingy," Angie grumbled at my side.

"Yes, stingy," Judy echoed, completing the united front of accusing eyes arrayed against me.

I tried to object, but their faces told me it would be a waste of time, so instead I grabbed hold of the two culinary corrupters and quickly drove them out of the infirmary. They protested as hard as one would expect them in this situation, but Angie was what, half my size? As for Josh, he was still heaving for some reason and felt as weak as a kitten, so I managed to push them back to the door without much effort.

"Stop interfering and let her rest," I told them firmly between two pushes. "Not to mention, you need to get changed or nobody will eat anything!"

Saying so I ever so gently threw them out of the premises and then dusted my hands with a small flair to affirm my superior people-pushing skills. I was ready to return to Judy when I noticed that there was another person in the corridor.

"And what about you?" I inquired just a touch wryly as I turned to blonde girl sticking to the wall next to the door. She was red as a tomato and refused to meet my eyes.

"I-I-It's not like I came here to check on you two or anything!" she sputtered at me in a feeble display of accusative outrage, and I couldn't stop myself from chuckling at her.

"No, I'm sure you didn't."

"I'm serious!"

"Sure you are."

"I didn't say anything funny, stop laughing!"

"Actually, you did."

The princess stomped her feet (the uninjured one, so she was at least learning) and growled at me with eyes more at home on a viking warrior than a teenage girl.

"I hate you!" she declared from the top of her lungs and immediately took off, nearly toppling Josh and Angie in the process. My friend watched her go and then faced me one eyebrow arched.

"Do you have a problem with her or something?"

It took me a moment to formulate an answer to such a blatantly off-key question.

"No. What gave you that idea?"

"Well, you ‘are' always messing with her, and she apparently hates you."

"Nah, that's just the tsundere talking. I bet she is prickly with you too."

Josh pondered for a moment before giving me a weak nod. "She has a bit of a temper, yes, but if you know about it, then why do you always provoke her?"

"You've got it all wrong," Angie interjected. "Leo only does that because he secretly likes her."

I gave Angie a flat look, but since it apparently failed to get the message, I had to voice it as well.

"That is just as wrong in the opposite direction," I firmly told her. "True, I don't dislike her, but I mostly just find her hilarious, that's all."

"Uh-huh," Angie nodded knowingly, though her mischievous smile said she either didn't believe me or that she found her own interpretation more amusing.

By this point I gave up trying to reason with these two and instead began shooing them away once more. "Just go already, will you? I want to check on my assistant one more time and then I will meet you at the cafeteria."

Following my insistent pushing, the two finally gave in and walked away. I made sure they were out of sight before I rubbed my face and returned to the infirmary, only to find the nurse jovially stoking his mustache by the door.

"O-ho-ho. Oh, to be young again!"

"What?"

"O-ho-ho. Watching the affairs of youngsters like yourself just makes me so nostalgic." He leaned closer to me and whispered, "If you ever need advice in the matters of the heart, you can always ask me for advice. You might not think so, but I was quite popular at your age too." He paused for a wink and then added, "I can also help with the other kind of problems of the heart too. I know a good cardiologist."

After a few flat blinks, I proceeded to continue rubbing my face and completely deny the very existence of the annoying old man in front of me. I wordlessly walked around him and only stopped in my tracks when I noticed Judy was already lying down on one of the beds and was covered under a blanket, with her back to me.

"Oh..." I whispered as I drew a little closer to check on her.

"I'm already asleep. Go away," she stated flatly, though she did sound at least a little sulky.

"Then how are you talking to me?"

"This is a pre-recorded message."

"... Okay then. If you are asleep then I suppose you don't need your food after all."

My assistant visibly twitched under the blanket.

"This pre-recorded message also predicts that I will only nap for a few minutes, so I will have time to eat lunch."

I silently rolled my eyes just for myself and turned on my heel, circled around the still jovially chuckling nurse, and left the office without saying anything else. Once outside, I allowed myself a few more sighs before I headed for the dressing room, just in time for the long chime of the lunch break to sound.

That meant I had to hurry up. I had to change, get my wallet, head for the cafeteria to buy food both for myself and Judy, and then get back to the nurse's in time so we could actually eat. As I counted all that, I shook my head in discontent. I hoped my life would start making more sense as my research progressed, but instead each day was more of a pain in the neck than the last. I knew getting involved with Judy was a bad idea, and I couldn't help but wonder how easier my life could have been if I stuck to the original plan and picked a generic male classmate for an assistant. I also wondered if the cafeteria even had those fancy beef sandwiches, and whether she would actually like them.

"Maybe I should buy a couple of different kinds and let her choose?"

And with that final whisper, I quickened my pace and rounded a corner with a small smile on my face I didn't even notice at the time.

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