His Lie in April - 四月の彼の嘘 (Shigatsu no Kare no Uso) (COMPLETE)

Shell-Shocked

It's time for some music, and here is some Christopher Cross for you. (EDITOR'S NOTE: This is emanating from Kaori's clock radio. The song that plays in the background is "Sailing" by Christopher Cross.)

It had been a day since Kousei had been hospitalized for what was at first presumed to be a heart attack. Kaori was now at her place. She woke up from her slumber and turned off the clock radio that woke her up. Her hair fully messed up and clad in black biker shorts and a green Saskatchewan Roughriders T-shirt, she woke up. 

She sighed and began to worry about Kousei. "It's been a day since Kousei collapsed..... I'm worried..." she fretted. Even though both she and Kousei were disqualified from the competition yesterday for halting their music at one point, that was, for the time being, the least of her worries. 

She then reached for a can of canned coffee that was on her desk. Kaori drank the canned coffee and smiled contently. "Aah, canned coffee. Such a convenient and savory drink to have." Kaori slowly got dressed into her uniform. It was a Friday. 

A knock was heard on her door. "Tsubaki? Watari? Kaori asked, and answered the door. Sure enough, it was Tsubaki and Watari that showed up at her door. Tsubaki said, "I'm here to talk about Kousei." Kaori said, "Yeah. I was worried that he suffered a heart attack." Watari then said, "No. It wasn't a heart attack. The doctors think he just merely lost energy and collapsed. There's also been reports he may be going deaf as well, but all of this is too early to determine." Kaori was only slightly reassured. "Well, it wasn't a heart attack. But he's going deaf? That has me scared. He can't be sick, dammit!" 

Kaori, before she could even think about turning catatonic, took a few deep breaths. Just she drank a cup of tea, she finished getting dressed into her school uniform. All this news of Kousei being ill scared her. Tsubaki told her, "His mother also had this same disease, and it left her in the wheelchair. It is quite possible that Kousei has inherited it, and they're looking into it today. We're not sure, but let's not be quick to jump to any conlusions." 

Kaori, trying her hardest not to go into a catatonic state, again, said "I hope he'll be okay. Excuse me, you two.... I just need a moment to calm down." Tsubaki and Watari nodded. "Okay." Kaori went to her room, trying her best to hold back tears. She paced back and forth in a straight line to keep herself from falling apart. It was about 10 minutes later, after quite a bit of breathing later, that she came back to the two. "Okay, I'm better now. I'm a little scared, quite frankly, you guys...." She lamented. As Kaori was a few minutes late to school, she and her two friends walked together.

Kaori was greeted in the music room by Watari and Tsubaki, who were equally worried about Kousei as Kaori was. However, they were just about left in the dark as to what happened to Kousei. Kaori, with a worried tone of voice, finally brought the two up to speed with the situation. 

"Listen, Watari, Tsubaki, I really don't want to alarm you right now, but I want to start by stating I feared that Kousei had a heart attack yesterday. He didn't. However, he fainted and now they are checking to see whether he had the same disease that ultimately led to his mother being wheel-chair bound and eventually dying." The two looked at Kaori in shock. "This can't be!" Tsubaki said. "That would explain what happened when he suddenly fainted...." Watari said in an equally worried tone. "This is bad...." Tsubaki said. "I'm just as concerned as you are, Watari and Tsubaki. I'm picking up the pieces right now as to what happened.... We need to go see him." The three friends treked to Totsuhara General Hospital to check on their friend.