WILDFLOWER [Ryunosuke Tanaka x OC]

Chapter 31 - The Aftermath

❀

Of course Ryu was worried.

He kept waiting for Kano, but game after game and match after match, she didn't show up. Her aunt disappeared before the first game even started, so he couldn't ask her. Ryu tried calling Kano between sets – no answer. He paced and worried and started connecting dots that he didn't actually think existed. Maybe she didn't come because she secretly hated him, or because she got in a car crash, or didn't want to waste her time on a tournament that she didn't get to play at.

But he knew it wasn't any of that.

Something had to be wrong. Kano would come, hell or high water.

With his mind on her, Ryu missed a few serves and fumbled a handful of easy receives. He berated himself, but his anxiety just kept amping up.

After their final match, after snagging their ticket to the Spring Interhigh, Ryu ran from the gym without helping to clean up. Nishinoya yelled after him, but Ryu didn't stop. He didn't know where he was going, but he had to find Kano. He had to know what happened. He had to know she was okay.

Saeko caught him in the hall with a grip on his arm. He must have looked terrified and wild-eyed, because Saeko gave him the saddest look he'd ever seen. "Come on," she said sternly, "I'll drive. Get in the car."

He couldn't collect his thoughts enough to ask what happened. Four thousand bad things sped around in his mind — tornado, explosion, pile-up, tsunami, giant spiders, anaconda, pirates, Jurassic Park... none of them made any damn sense, but neither did her absence.

At some point, Saeko got him into the car, buckled him up, and sped off.

The bad thoughts chased each other round and round... until he realized they were stopped in a hospital parking lot. Ryu's blood ran cold. "S-Saeko?"

"She's okay... ish," Saeko said. "Room 214. Burn Unit. Go, I'll—"

Ryu jumped out of the car before she could finish her sentence, already running.

"I'll join you," she sighed. She pursed her lips, watching him go. "Yeah, maybe I'll wait a few minutes first. He's gonna need a second."

Saeko hopped back in the car and texted Nishinoya.

We're at the hospital. Everything's going to be okay.

Noya texted back seconds later.

Thank fuck.

❀

What a weird day.

A little bit delirious, Kano sighed and stared at the ceiling, counting the dots in the tiles up there. Every time she got to about forty, she forgot which ones she'd already counted and had to start over, but she wasn't sure if that was from the painkillers or if that was normal for her brain. Bored out of her mind and a little sleepy from the meds, she kept reaching for her phone, but she couldn't look at her phone to distract herself, not even if she wanted to... her phone had been lost in the fire, and the police were still looking for it.

The fire. Right.

Kano glanced down at her new cast on her arm just as the door to her hospital room flew open. "Okay, I found some shrimp chips, a few canned coffees, two packs of Hi-Chews, and a probably-stale mochi doughnut," Nagisa said, not even looking up from her arms. "I think they'll be keeping you overnight, which means they should be bringing you dinner soon, but you can probably have some snacks until then." She hadn't eaten since that morning, well before Nishinoya found her in the spectator stands at the tournament and told her that Kano was in trouble. Nagisa left without a word to any of the girls or even to Keishin, but there hadn't been time. She didn't regret a single second, not even borrowing Keishin's car without his knowledge.