You are late!

It's been a while since I last came here...at this hospital.

I went inside the hospital.

I walked to the reception and said, "Excuse me. Umm, I have come to pick up the patient from room number 103."

"Room number 103" The man at the receptionist looked at me and said, "May I have your name?"

"It's Luka, Luka Aldini"

"Oh! So you are Mr. Luka. The patient is waiting for you in her room."

"Thanks"

I turned back and--

"By the way, room 103 is on the 2nd floor."

"Yeah. I know that"

I rushed to the stairs.

"She sounded kind of angry on the phone."

I picked up the pace and started running more speedily. I am basically jumping on the stairs, and because of that, people are giving me a displeased look.

I reached the 2nd floor.

I looked at the room number and confirmed it was 103. I was about to enter the room but stopped and looked at the end of the lane where people were getting on the elevator.

"Hmm?"

Nah. That's impossible. There is no way that bitch is here.

I opened the door and entered the room.

"You are late, ya' know!" She flicked her long orange hair and glared at me with her green eyes.

Yup. She is angry.

"I am not late. I came here as fast as I could," I replied.

"Whoa! You are sweating so much."

She took out a napkin from her purse and started wiping sweat from my face.

"Hey. What are you doing--stop it!"

I took the napkin from her hand and put it in my pocket.

"Let's go. I am kind of in a hurry. I will drop you at your house and go home quickly," I said as I grabbed her hand.

"No way! You didn't even come to see me in a month, and now you will just drop me off and go home?!"

"Yes. That's what I said. Now let's---hey, what are you doing?! Let go!"

She is hugging me tightly.

"Hey, idiot! Let go"

She shook her head and said, "I won't."

"Stop it! See, that nurse is giving me a weird look. Hey Suzu"

"I won't unless you say we will take a detour."

Sigh~

I sighed as I said, "Fine, fine. Now let go."

She let go of me.

She grabbed my hand and pulled me as she said, "Let's go!"

"Yeah"

We are walking in the park.

"I am sorry for not visiting you in the past few weeks. Many things happened," I said as I kicked the stone near my feet.

"It's okay. I am happy that you are here now."

"But why did you call me to pick you up? I mean, I don't mind, but...you know."

"Well, you see. Papa was coming, but I told him that you would be coming to pick me up."

"I see."

Hmm?! What did she say?

"Hey, what did you just say? Can you repeat it again?"

"Papa was coming to pick me up, but I told him you would pick...."

"Are you an idiot?! Why did you do that?!"

"I am not an idiot! You didn't come to visit me, so I wanted to meet you."

"You know what your dad said to me when I met him last time?"

"What did he say?" She asked, tilting her head.

"He grabbed my shirt from the collar and said, 'Don't you dare show your face to my daughter.' I mean, yeah, it was my fault that you ended up in the hospital. But your old man is scary, and you told him that I am coming to pick you up. He is going to kill me." I turned around and said, "I don't feel so good. I am going home."

Saying that I started walking, but Suzu grabbed my hand.

"Hey, wait!"

"No, I don't want to die!"

"You are saying that, but you visited me every week when I was admitted here."

"That was a different thing. He didn't know I was visiting you secretly."

"But I told him every time you visited me," she commented in a small voice.

"I am definitely going to die! let me go, let me go!"

I shrugged off her hand and started walking.

"Didn't you say you will always be together with me?! Or that was a lie?!"

She yelled at the top of her lungs, which caught the attention of people around us.

"Hey! Now, calm down. Don't yell. See, the people are looking at us, okay?"

And I never said that! I hate this habit of hers.

Dammit!

She always does something to cause misunderstanding to the people around us.

"I hate you," I said as I bit my lip.

She grabbed my hand and jumped on me, squeezing her breast on my chest, saying, "No! Please don't hate me. I won't do that again. Please?"

"This won't work on me anymore. How many times have you said this before? And stop with your puppy eyes."

Dammit!

Why is she so cute?!

She is still looking at me with puppy eyes.

I scratched my head and said, "Let's go, dammit."

"Okay"

Suzu suddenly grabbed my arm, which caught me by surprise.

I looked at her, and she just smiled back in response.

Is it just me, or does she look cuter now? Maybe it's because I haven't seen her in a while?

"Wait," I said, glancing around.

"What happened?"

"Is there a pharmacy store nearby?"

"We just passed one a while ago. Why?"

"My head hurts like hell since morning" I spotted the store as I said, "Okay, so you wait here. I will be right back," and ran to the store.

"Hmm, okay."

After a few minutes, I came back with a small box, which was actually a medicine box.

"Do you have water?" I asked

She took out the bottle from her bag and said, "Here."

I took out a couple of medicines in my hand and took the bottle from Suzu's hand, gulping down all medicines.

"Hey! What are you doing? Why did you take so many medicines at once?"

"Hmm? It's more effective if I take more, right?"

"No, it doesn't! You idiot"

"Don't call me an idiot!"

It's been a while since she got angry at me. But I can't help it. I mean, she looks cuter when she is angry.

"Well, my head hurts so much that I don't mind taking some more medicines."

"But why does it hurt? Did something happen recently?"

"Many things happened. I guess I am just stressed out. But well, everything is okay now."

"I see. You better take care of yourself, or I will have to force myself on you."

I patted her in reply.

Being with her is so much fun.

"I still remember how you used to say 'Nothing can hurt me, nothing shall hurt me' while swinging your sword."

"Wha…!"

I take it back. She is still annoying!

"Please forget that. I was a fool at that time," I said, giving the bottle back to her.

"That's not true."

"It's true. You are still a fool, though."

"I am not a fool!"

She is pouting!

"Oh, Nice! I was thinking about going to some café," I remarked.

"Hmm? Where is the café? I don't see it," Suzu said, glancing around.

I pointed my finger in that direction and said, "There it is."

"It's a vending machine."

"You can drink coffee, so it's a café."

"It's not! Café doesn't only serve coffee."

"I know that"

We rushed over to the vending machine.

I bought two coffee cans.

"Huh? I don't wanna drink coffee," said Suzu.

"It's not for you."

"When why did you buy two?"

"Well...I drank some medicine, right? So I am feeling sleepy."

"That's what happens when you take too many at once."

"Yeah, yeah," I bought a strawberry drink saying, "Strawberry for you, right?"

"Yes. And why did you ask after buying."

"Here," I tossed the can to her.

"Say Suzu. I am going to the exorcist academy."

"I see."

"You are not mad."

"You want me to get mad?"

"Please don't."

"You decided to go there. I can't force you to do what I want you to do, right?"

"At first…" I quipped.

"Hmm?"

"At first, I wasn't planning to go there. I didn't even give practical exams to go there. But for some reason, I got accepted, and I am even in Class A."

"Well, you got accepted as soon as you got your exorcist badge."

"That's true, but still…"

"Why are you telling me all this?"

Suzu is a normal human, while her father is an exorcist. Her mother is a normal human, so Suzu couldn't go to Exorcist school.

She is mad, after all.

"You see, after what happened at our middle school. I stopped talking to everyone. Of course, that includes my family too. I never left my room."

"But Ana came every day to talk to me, but I just ignored her and treated her like a pest. And due to that, it affected her studies, and she ended up in class B," I added.

I looked up and said, "Ana even came to meet me every day and told me to go to school with her. But I just kept refusing her, and because she went alone on one of the missions and got hurt, which resulted in her losing her memories."

"At that time, I realized that I couldn't protect people if I act like this. Even during middle school, you got hurt because of me, and I couldn't do anything to help you," I added.

"It wasn't your fault!" Suzu grabbed my hand and said, "This happened to me because I was careless, and Chloe--"

"Don't take that bitch's name! Everything happened because of her"

"Luka. About that, actually, there is something I want to tell you…hmm?"

"What happened?"

She was going to tell me something, but as soon as she looked behind me, she stopped.

"Don't react, but I think there are two weird people following us for a while now."

"Weird people?"

"Yeah, it's two girls. They have been following us ever since we left the hospital."

"Is that so?" I forced an awkward smile and asked, "By the way, Suzu. Can you tell me what they look like?"

"Let's see, one girl is wearing a hat, and she has light brown hair."

"I see. What about the other girl?"

"She is wearing sunglasses, and her hair is kind of white...no, pink hair."

"Oh?"

What the hell are they doing?!

"That girl with sunglasses is weirder," Suzu added.

"What do you mean by that?"

"She is holding a stuffed bear with her."

Seriously?! What is she doing?! Why did she bring that with her?!

"And she is wearing a hairpin, but I don't think that's weird," Suzu added.

She even wore that hairpin?!

"Say Suzu, is she is wearing a necklace or something?"

"Necklace? Let's see..." She squinted her eyes and said, "No. I don't see anything on her neck."

"I see."

Why isn't she wearing that?! Maybe she really didn't like it?

"What happened? Do you maybe know them?" Suzu asked, tilting her head.

"Yeah, the girl with the hat is Liz."

"Liz?"

"She is in the same class as me. And the girl with the sunglasses is Ana."

"That girl is Ana?!"

"Don't raise your voice" I covered her mouth and added, "And yeah, she is Ana."

"She looks different from what you described her when we were in middle school."

"I think so too. She wasn't like this before, but I can't blame her after what I did to her"

"Let's act as if we didn't notice them, okay?" she said as she grabbed my arm.

"Why?"

"It's more interesting this way.

"It is…interesting?"

"Yeah"

Saying that she dragged me with her.