Rules of Engagement: BOOK 2 [Tokyo Ghoul: Female!Kaneki x Tsukiyama]

Chapter 22

Shuu read all the deleted texts and sat outside Ken's room for a long time. Or at least, it felt long to him. He didn't know what the clock had to say.
Eventually, he got up, slipping the phone in his pocket, and went into Ken's room.
He thought she'd be terrifying to look at, her limbs mangled and her face unrecognizable, but she just looked like Ken. She had a few scratches on her face and one of her arms was in a cast, but she looked like Ken.
He didn't realize that he'd been standing there staring at her for five minutes until Hide cleared his throat.
"Please stop with the eye rape. This is a hospital."
Shuu glared at him. "How can you make jokes about that?!"
Hide shushed him, pointing to Ken, before whispering, "Because Ken needs constant positivity and optimism in her life. And if you're asking why I don't seem to be bothered by it, it's because I know that it's more important for me to take care of the present Ken than waste my time being angry and hurt for the past one. I won't get any answers, and she won't either. But she's trying to get past that night, and me being here for her every day is what she counts on. So shut up and get your chickens in a row."
"It's ducks," Shuu corrected bluntly as he plopped down in the chair next to Hide.
"It's chickens you jackass."
"It's ducks you moron."
"Chickens!"
"Ducks!"
And that was how Ken came to consciousness twenty minutes later, the two of them still arguing with each other.
Her eyes widened a second as she felt the oxygen mask on her face, and she tried to pry it off again.
Hide immediately noticed and ignored Shuu, going over and helping her take it off. He winked at Ken. "I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to do this, so don't tell the nurse or she'll have my ass."
"And I bet you'd enjoy that," Ken said, her voice rough with disuse.
Hide laughed. "Well, you're not wrong. So? How're you feeling?"
Ken tilted her head. "I think they put me on so much medication that I actually feel all right." She paused, looking around the room. Hide stood close to the bed, blocking Shuu from her sight. "Where is he?" she asked.
Hide tensed. "Shuu? He's-"
"No," Ken said, and Shuu's heart felt like a balloon that had been pricked by a pin, popping suddenly and letting out everything inside. "The driver."
"What?" Hide asked.
"The driver of the car that hit me. I was crossing the street and he came around the corner and I don't really remember the rest but I know that he called an ambulance for me and waited."
Hide's eyes widened. "So it was an accident?"
Ken frowned. "Of course it was an accident, he wouldn't hit me on pur- Wait, you thought that I was trying to kill myself?"
Hide was quiet.
Ken shook her head. "No way! I mean, I wasn't, but it's not that I haven't thought about it-"
Hide opened his mouth but Ken cut him off.
"-but I'd never actually do it!"
Hide sighed in relief, but Ken wasn't finished.
"What made you think I would do that?"
"Well, you sent a text to me that was actually for Shuu and it made me worried..."
Ken sighed. "So he didn't get it?"
"Oh, no, I sent it to him. He's right there," Hide said, moving so Ken could see him.
Shuu hesitated, staring into Ken's eyes. That text had been a breakup text, hadn't it? Why would she want him to be here?
He got up quickly. "I'm sorry," he said, going over to the door. "I'll leave now."
"Wait..."