KOF School

Bad News

Iori dragged himself towards the school gates when his phone repeatedly vibrated in his hand. He frowned and looked at it to see that it was his uncle before looking up to see Kazuhiro standing at the gates, his phone pressed against his ear.
Iori ran to him. "What's up, Uncle? Why are you calling me?"
Kazuhiro looked a little worried. "We need to go."
"But what about Aiko?" Iori asked, confused. "She's not here yet."
"She's already in the car," Kazuhiro pulled Iori's arm. "Come on."
They went to the car and saw Aiko at the front passenger seat. Kazuhiro slipped behind the wheel while Iori slipped behind his sister.
"Uncle, what's wrong?" Aiko asked, concerned. "Is something wrong?"
"It's your father..." Kazuhiro sighed. "He's in the hospital."
"What?!" The siblings gasped.
"Uncle, what happened to him?" Iori asked, his heart racing as he scooted to the middle seat. "Is he okay?"
"He's... he's still being checked," Kazuhiro sighed.
"What happened to him, is he okay?" Iori asked again.
"I'll tell you at the hospital," Kazuhiro sighed.
The ride was silent and the siblings just couldn't bear to think what had happened to their father.
"Is he okay?" Aiko squeaked. "He's okay, right?"
Kazuhiro sighed. "I... I don't know. The doctors don't know either."
The hospital finally came up and they followed Kazuhiro into the lift.
"Seriously, what happened to him?" Iori demanded. "Uncle... what happened to Dad?"
Kazuhiro avoided their gazes. "He... he tried to kill himself."
"What?!" The siblings gasped.
"He thought he was being a burden to us and decided that..." Kazuhiro's voice cracked. "He even wrote a letter and left it in my saxophone case before leaving."
"What did he do? Is he okay?" Aiko demanded next. "I hope he didn't do anything serious."
"He slit his wrists and ingested something, doctors haven't identified what," Kazuhiro sighed, leading them out of the lift when it stopped. "It was a good thing that the cuts on his wrists weren't deep enough to cause any real damage. But the substance he had ingested..."
"Is he okay?" Iori asked. "He's okay, right?"
"They confirmed that the substance wasn't an acid or a strong alkali because there were no signs of burns or corrosion," Kazuhiro added. "They suspect it was a drug, just didn't know what."
They went to the floor where Masaomi was admitted at and waited outside since they weren't allowed in.
"He's gonna be okay, right?" Iori asked, seeing how scared his sister looked.
Kazuhiro shrugged. "Hopefully."
They waited and waited and couldn't help but notice how tired their uncle looked as he sat hunched on the wall-mounted plastic chair. He was staring at his phone, but his face wore a deep frown of stress and worry.
"Uncle, have you eaten?" Iori asked, concerned.
Kazuhiro let out a humourless chuckle, lowering his phone as he leaned back. "How am I supposed to eat when your father is like this?"
Iori stood up. "Uncle, no. You need to eat something. Aiko, come. Let's go to the cafeteria and get him something."
Aiko promptly got up and followed him downstairs.
"Poor Uncle... he's really worked up," Aiko remarked, getting into the lift with her brother. "I really hope Dad's okay."
"I hope so too," Iori sighed. "I know he has it hard and all, but he has to receive the help he needs. I'm sure he'll be assigned to some sort of counselling after he's out."
Aiko nodded, tears streaming down her face. "Yeah... I really hope he gets better."
Iori put an arm around her as they started searching for the cafeteria. They eventually found it and got some food for themselves and mostly for Kazuhiro. They got some extras too before going back to the floor where their father was kept. They noticed that Kazuhiro was talking to a doctor and started running towards them to know of their father's condition.
"Thank you, Doctor," Kazuhiro bowed. "I appreciate your help."
The doctor bowed too and reentered the double doors behind him.
"Uncle!" Aiko called. "What did the doctor say?"
"He said that they already found out what Niisan has indigested," Kazuhiro let out a tired sigh. "It was identified to be some sort of tranquilliser, probably sleeping pills. I dunno where he even got that stuff. They've started to pump out his stomach."
"I thought that sleeping pills have a distinct sign when ingested or something?" Iori frowned, remembering the time he read something like that. "They should've found out about this immediately."
"He was only rushed here right before I came to pick you up from school," Kazuhiro explained. "I didn't have time to speak to the doctor, only spoke to a nurse before coming to get you guys. The doctor says that he's still in critical condition but at least they know what to do now."
Aiko nodded and handed him a pack of sushi. "Uncle, eat this. You must be hungry."
Kazuhiro nodded and sat down to eat the sushi. He ended up giving half of it back to Aiko since he couldn't finish it.
"Uncle, no, eat it," Aiko said, pushing it back to him. "You barely ate half of it."
"Can we see him, is he okay?" Iori asked, eating his onigiri.
"Not yet, the treatment is still going on," Kazuhiro quickly said. "They said he might wake up tomorrow."
"Uncle, I think we should go home and come back later," Aiko suggested. "There's nothing much for us to do here now."
"Yeah, Uncle," Iori agreed. "We should go."
Kazuhiro shook his head. "No. I'm staying here until I know that Niisan is no longer in danger." He felt his pockets and pulled out the car's keys. "Here, you guys can go home if you want."
"Uncle, I don't even have a license," Iori shook his head. "If we get caught, we're done for."
Kazuhiro snorted. "Like you've gotten caught before. Iori, you're a good driver."
"Uncle, no. We can't go home without you."
"Niisan's right, we'll stay right here with you," Aiko chimed in. "But I still think we should go home... for a change of clothes, at least."
Kazuhiro finally agreed to come home, especially when seeing how the two were still dressed in school uniform. "Fine, I'll come with you and get some things."
They went home, got themselves cleaned, and packed a few things before making their way back to the hospital. It was an agonising wait, praying that the doctor would tell them that everything is okay.

Kay frowned and dug the class group chat's member list to see if he could find Iori's number. He didn't save most of them since he thought it would be a waste of time to do all of that.
Eventually, he found one with the username Yagami Iori and tapped on it to save the number before texting him.
Iori
Is everything okay?
I saw how anxious ur dad looked when picking u up
Kay frowned and waited for a reply but didn't get one. He shrugged it off and decided to go see what his brothers were doing instead.