Drowning Hope

Chapter 34 : The Eyes That Meet Again

While waiting for Nao to finish her business elsewhere, Kiyashi was sitting on the couch. Holding his phone to text Fuyuka even though she hasn't been responding to him since last night. He sighs deeply as he hit his forehead with his phone gently while gripping onto it tightly. "Fuyuka, why didn't you ask me before you even run away? Do you not trust me?" He whispered to himself with his voice a little painful. But he tries his best not to cry. Thinking back about how Fuyuka had been overreacting to what she saw back then at the infirmary. He still finds it hard to believe that she would just straight up and leave him like that. 

The sound of the door opening sounded, and it snapped him out of his mind. Nao, with her casual clothing, along with her long brown coat, and her green hair tied up into a ponytail, walks down the stairs to her lab. "Kiyashi?" She asked as she saw Kiyashi was sitting on the couch of her lab. He stood up and bows politely as a greeting. It takes Nao a few minutes to change to her work clothes in the other room before proceeding to meet with him. And once she was done changing, she goes to her seat and asks Kiyashi to sit in front of her as usual. He obeys to what she told him, so he stood up from the couch and sits at where she asked him to. Nao checks everything, his medical condition, the drug effects, and more.

"The drug had worn out a bit, that's good news," she said as she wrote something in Kiyashi's medical report. Kiyashi smiled a bit and nodded to her. Although, when he thought that she expected that he wouldn't see Professor Moka again, he told her anyway. "I... Went to see Professor Moka," he said slowly. Feeling a bit afraid that Nao might lash out, but she didn't. She looks up from his medical report and toward him. "I'm not surprised. I just came back from your college just now," she said calmly while keep the reports in his file. Standing up as she keep them in the drawers while she continues to speak, "She wasn't focused on her work when I looked at her from afar. Made a few mistakes and kept mumbling about how she "failed" miserably." Kiyashi looks at her surprised. Knowing how fast Nao catches up to some things, he admired that part of her. He then remembered something, so he takes out his bottle from his bag and put them on the desk in front of Nao. "Here. The drink that Moka made for me yesterday, that I didn't drink. I thought that you might need it for further research," he said, seriously. Nao smiled at him a bit and thanked him for his help.

At that moment, his expression changes. "Fuyuka saw what happened at the infirmary yesterday," his voice saddened. He explains everything about yesterday's incident. Hearing it from him, Nao gets up from her seat and prepares a hot tea for him and puts them on the desk. "Herb tea. Drink up," she said while she sat back down. Kiyashi didn't say a word after that, but thanked her for making him a drink. He takes a sip of it slowly then puts it back down on the desk. "She has the tendancy to have misunderstandings about a situation sometimes," Nao finally breaks out the silence and it took Kiyashi's attention. "Whether or not she accepts it, she doesn't leave just because of a misunderstanding," she said while typing something on her computer. Kiyashi looks down while gripping his hands tightly. "But she could've asked instead of making assumptions and ran away like that," he said, painfully, as he tried to hold back his tears. Nao stops and turns to him, "Would you have done the same? To ask her if you saw something that she did, wasn't really what you had assumed?" At that point, he tilted his head up and looks at Nao, who had a serious look on her face. His throat felt like it got stuck with a pebble in the middle. Finding it hard to respond to it, he looks back down while biting his lower lip, trembling. "You can't expect someone to understand from something they had seen, even if it's just a misunderstanding," she continued to speak as she crossed her arms and legs. "She was devastated on the age of 15, which is why she turned that way," she said, making Kiyashi confused. Then she rolled down her right sleeve, revealing a purple star bracelet on her wrist. Looking down at it with blank eyes, "To be betrayed by someone whom she believed, so she's quick to run away when it happened again, but she never leaves."