Broken Without Yuu (Bloom Into You)

Chapter 4 •

Sorry this took so long to update. But I'm back! I hope you enjoy :)

The entire room had gone silent, and no one dared to break it. I sat completely motionless, my eyes widened in shock. I couldn't help but blame myself for this, there's no denying that I'm at least indirectly the one to blame. None of this would've happened if I'd just tried to fight against Touko's stubbornness this morning. This is all my fault.

I continued to just sit motionless as time felt like it had stopped. I muted out the loud mutters ringing through the room, to the point where they were barely even existent in my mind.

I wasn't sure how long it'd been, most likely only a few seconds, before Sayaka broke this motionless state I was in. She gripped my wrist tightly, forcefully dragging me up off my seat and running towards Touko, pulling me behind her. I was surprised that she thought of me at all in this situation, you'd think Touko would be the only thing in her mind.

As we approached the front of the room, Sayaka kneeled down to the floor beside Touko. I was about to do the same but Sayaka had already scooped Touko up into her arms, holding her with the same fragility, and almost tenderness as yesterday. It almost made me jealous, as much as I'd hate to admit that.

Sayaka walked out of the gym at a slightly quicker pace that a normal walk, I followed a slight bit behind her until we exited the room, and then I caught up to walk beside her.

For the duration of the entire walk we were both silent, I was still too in shock to say anything, and part of me was scared that Sayaka would blame me for this. I spent most of the walk gazing at Touko's face, doing fairly pointless things, such as mentally noting each time she took a breath, or each time I could see her twitch ever so slightly.

As we entered the nurse's office, Sayaka placed Touko down on the first empty bed we saw was available before we both approached the nurse's desk in the next room over.

We didn't have to explain much. Apparently a teacher at the gym had already contacted the nurse and explained what happened using the school's phones, so we both walked back to where Touko was to wait for the nurse who would apparently 'be there once she wakes up.' I didn't quite like such a straightforward response in a situation like this, but I guess that can't be helped.

"I... I can't believe this happened," I quietly murmured, looking down at Touko's face longingly. Sayaka turned her head away from me at my words, sighing lightly as she did so.

"Saeki-senpai? What's wrong?" I asked. I was not particularly concerned about Sayaka's well being by asking this, not that I didn't have any concern at all, but it was more to start a conversation, prevent more silent tension between us. Also, I guess it would be better if Touko woke up to the sound of one of our voices, rather that dead silence.

"It's nothing," Sayaka replied after a bit, her tone more dull and saddened than usual. "I just... I guess I predicted that something like this would occur."

My mind went blank. How am I supposed to reply to that. The awkward, silent tension came back tenfold, this time neither of us prevented it. The only sound in the room was the hushed sound of Touko breathing, which, in itself, only made this tension grow.

I placed my hand over Touko's and squeezed it gently without even thinking, as if my arm was moving without my mind telling it to. My eyes wandered up towards her face, where I noticed her eyelashes twitch slightly. I squeezed her hand slightly harder, which caused her eyelids to crack open ever so slightly, still remaining nearly closed.

"Yuu?" She muttered in a hushed tone, her tired, glossy eyes meeting mine. Sayaka, who had also noticed that Touko had awoken and was looking down at her, quickly shot her head up towards me. A reaction to hearing Touko use my first name, I assume.