* * *
It had been a long time since he forgot he had even woken up because he was thirsty.
As Ruite sat there fiddling with the wet cloth and staring at Chester, Chester began to toss and turn.
Startled by the sign that Chester was about to wake up, Ruite quickly lay back down in bed.
As he squeezed his eyes shut, he remembered he had dropped the cloth he was holding back onto the floor.
Flustered, he instinctively pretended to be asleep, listening to the sound of movement. Then came the sound of footsteps.
It felt like Chester was approaching the bed.
Even with his eyes closed, for some reason, it felt natural to sense Chester standing by the bedside, looking down at him.
‘I have to pretend to be asleep even if it kills me.’
Just as he thought that, a cold sensation touched his forehead.
A large palm rested there for a while, as if measuring his fever.
There was another rustling sound, and this time, something damp was placed on his forehead.
At the same time, the footsteps gradually grew distant.
He felt a sliver of light leak in as the door opened, followed by the faint thud of the door closing.
“…”
A few seconds after the sound faded, Ruite slowly opened his eyes.
He lifted his head slightly to scan the surroundings; as the sounds suggested, Chester was already gone.
Ruite let out a sigh of relief and touched his forehead.
As expected, the damp sensation was from a wet cloth.
Whether he had soaked it again or not, the cloth—which had dried somewhat while Ruite was handling it earlier—was wet once more.
That night, after being nursed by Chester, Ruite could not fall back asleep.
The cold retreated quickly, as if showing off.
Perhaps the medicine worked exceptionally well, because his body felt energetic again in no time.
Nothing particularly changed after Chester had visited his room and taken care of him.
Academy lectures were still boring, and practical training was exhausting.
Moreover, as the preparation period for final tests began in earnest, the days repeated in a cycle of slowly losing his vitality.
The assignments with Chester resumed as well.
During the work, Chester was the same as usual.
He would snap at Ruite for making mistakes as if he were pathetic, and he would stiffen his expression in disbelief if Ruite threw out a pointless joke.
However, very occasionally, the corners of his mouth would twitch as if he were trying to smile.
When Ruite lost focus and couldn’t bear to work anymore, Chester would do the work himself instead of nagging.
Other times, Chester would work with incredible focus as if receiving a divine revelation, only for Ruite to turn his head and find their eyes meeting—which happened quite often.
Of course, every time that happened, Chester would turn his gaze away as if nothing had happened.
Experiencing those things made it feel a bit uneasy to claim that things were “the same as usual.”
“Now, I’ve finished grading the reports you submitted last time. I’ll call your names one by one, so come up and take them. If anyone doesn’t understand or is dissatisfied with their grade, come find me at the faculty office later.”
The philosophy professor placed a thick stack of papers on the podium and began calling names.
Usually, for these assignments, the professor writes the grade directly at the top of the first page.
The faces of the classmates checking their grades as they took their papers were, predictably, all different.
“Ruite.”
“Yes.”
Ruite stood up, dragging his chair with a rattle.
Since it was an assignment done with Chester, he wondered what score they had been given.
Could they really get an A+?
The professor’s expression while handing over the report was somewhat meaningful.
A smile of satisfaction played on his lips, as if he were very proud.
Upon checking, sure enough, the letters “A+” were written there.
As soon as Ruite received the report back from the professor, he looked at Chester.
Chester flinched slightly, perhaps not expecting their eyes to meet.
Ruite went back to his seat and plopped down.
Then, without a word, he showed the written score to Chester.
“Well, since you did it with me, it’s a natural score…”
“You’re really amazing.”
Chester paused at the words filled with sincerity.
Seeing Ruite’s eyes sparkle, not even trying to hide his joy and excitement, made Chester feel as if he had become someone special.
“It’s really an A+.”
“Are you that happy?”
“Of course!”
Ruite was too busy expressing his joy at receiving a good grade to notice anything else.
While he was busy looking back and forth between the report and Chester, he heard a small chuckle from beside him.
Seeing Chester’s smile, Ruite’s movements came to a halt.
The surprising thing wasn’t just the smile.
Chester reached out and stroked Ruite’s hair once or twice.
As soon as he felt the touch, Ruite froze in place, his body stiff as if something had broken.
They say a person freezes when they are deeply flustered, and that saying was true.
“Chester.”
The professor called Chester’s name.
At that moment, the hand resting on Ruite’s hair pulled away.
Watching blankly as Chester walked to the front, Ruite absentmindedly touched his own hair.
‘Do people usually stroke the hair of someone they dislike?’
“Chester.”
“What.”
When Chester returned to his seat, he held a report that also had an A+ written on it.
“No, nothing. I called you by mistake.”
“What’s that about?”
For a moment, Ruite wanted to ask why he had stroked his hair, but he stopped.
Asking such a question felt awkward, and he couldn’t even guess what kind of answer Chester would give.
“…yt. Ruite!”
“…Huh? Did you call me?”
“I did! I’ve called you three times already.”
Dylan’s scolding reached Ruite, who was leaning blankly against the wall of the sparring grounds.
“Our spar just ended, why aren’t you saying anything? You weren’t spacing out, were you?”
Dylan and Rhea walked over to Ruite and plopped down.
Today was the weekend, and Ruite was at the sparring grounds to help Dylan with his training.
Leah was with them; ever since the three of them happened to train together last time, they gathered like this occasionally.
“Sorry, I was spacing out.”
“You’re so honest I don’t even know what to say. But is something going on lately? You space out often when we’re eating, too.”
“Ruite, you aren’t sick anywhere, are you?”
Leah asked with a worried face, but his body was healthy—so healthy it was almost a problem.
Nothing in particular had happened.
He had received an A+ for the first time in his life on a recent assignment, and while nothing else great had happened, nothing bad had happened either; he was just spending ordinary days.
“Just… maybe because I overdid it preparing for the final tests?”
Because of that, Ruite had no choice but to use the most convenient excuse.
“Ah, if it’s that, I understand. I don’t know why the testing period comes back so fast.”
As Rhea chimed in with Dylan, the two began to pour out complaints about the upcoming exams.
Of course, the reason Ruite was frequently losing his mind wasn’t the tests.
The cause was Chester.
Lately, Chester’s markedly changed attitude had moved past the point of being ignored and was triggering intense questions.
At first, it was just a faint “What’s this?” doubt, but it grew day by day until it reached a level that could no longer be ignored.
Chester had changed strangely, but the problem was that Ruite had no idea why.
He was just vaguely guessing that maybe Chester had heard something from his parents or family members about an arranged marriage, and that was why he was acting so strangely.
“But once the finals are over, it’s vacation right away. Just bear with it a little longer.”
“Ah, yeah. I should.”
Perhaps because of his thoughts, he had even forgotten that vacation was approaching.
Before he knew it, the topic of conversation had shifted from complaining about tests to the vacation.
When vacation starts, Whitmore students choose whether to stay in the dormitory or return home.
Dylan and Ruite planned to leave the dorms for a while to return to their mansions in the capital, and Rhea added that since her family was rooted in the southern region, she would head down south for the break.
“Leah, then you’ll have to be away from your boyfriend during vacation.”
“Huh? Rhea has a boyfriend?”
When Ruite asked with wide eyes, Rhea nodded with a shy smile.
Listening to Dylan, who loved to talk, it seemed she had started dating a student from the general department she met recently.
Hearing that, the time she had confessed her feelings to Chester at the start of the semester felt like the distant past.
“Ah, I’m jealous. I want to date too. Why doesn’t a rosy event like that happen to me?”
“You’re dating your sword.”
“I want to do it with a human! A human!”
“But Dylan, didn’t you get dumped after confessing to a senior at the start of the semester?”
Ruite remembered clearly.
Dylan had fallen for a senior in the same swordsmanship department and got rejected coldly.
Ruite had comforted him because he looked quite pitiful sniffling over his meal.
“Ruite, you really just poke where it hurts, don’t you? You heartless guy.”
Ruite curled the corners of his mouth mischievously.
It was a small revenge for Dylan treating him like a germ when he had a cold.
Perhaps reminded of his past pain, Dylan began to wail about wanting to be in a relationship.
“Now that we’re on the subject, there’s one thing I’m curious about.”
That was when Rhea spoke up slowly. Her eyes, sparkling with curiosity, were for some reason fixed on Ruite.
“Ruite, are you seeing anyone right now?”
“No.”
“Then, is there someone you like?”
* * *
