As I worked on the house I wondered where Hana's mother was, she had told me she works from home and yet she was nowhere to be found, of course as I was cleaning I found her office but no sign of Hana's mom, I did notice however that there were many files that happened to be unorganized and lazily layered on after the other so I reorganized them, I looked around the room and found there was a framed picture of Hana, and her father on the wall, which showed a really young version of her, about 10-11 years old on top of her fathers shoulders, walking down a path of what looked to be a hiking trail.
I walked closer to it, picked it up and inspected it more thoroughly.
Hana was smiling, but it looked more forced than out of happiness, her father also looked that way too, almost as if there was an untold tension in the air that they were trying to blatantly ignore.
Just then I hear the sound of the front door opening, I quickly put down the photo back where it was and walked towards the front door and was met with Akira, Hana's father, he looked to be unpacking something from a large duffle bag, he was oblivious to my existence and I took me tapping him on the shoulder to notice me.
"What the-"
Akira, taken aback by me being here, tripped and fell onto the floor and looked me up and down with hostility, like I broke into his home.
"Oh, right."
Akira put his hand on his forehead, I could see now that there were dark circles around his eyes, he was tired.
"I forgot, my daughter texted me saying you would be here, and I see you did all the chores for some reason, not that I'm complaining."
He paused, and brought himself to his feet and began digging around in his bag again.
"Thanks for looking after Hana, she came down with a really bad case of strep throat and her mother wasn't able to be here today, something about a business meeting with coworkers."
"I see."
Akira then produced a small container, which he proceeded to toss to me. By pure reaction I caught it and stared at him, dumbfounded.
"Soup, give it to Hana please, speaking of which."
He stood up and walked towards me, the floor creaked under his feet as he stepped close to me.
"What are your intentions for my daughter?"
I couldn't speak, what did he mean by that, did he think I was here for some ulterior motive or was he just curious?
"She's my friend, she wasn't at school and wasn't replying to my texts, so I came over to check on her. I saw she was sick and didn't see you or her mom around so I thought it would have been wrong of me to leave her by her lonesome."
Akira stared at me, before shrugging and walking to what I assumed was his bedroom, and shutting the door behind him, before then instantly throwing it open again, and sticking his head out.
"Oh by the way, me and my wife would love to have you over for dinner, if that's not too much?"
I already texted my mother about how I was staying at Yamada's house for a bit, she of course approved of it but now I might have to stay the night, which I wasn't sure she was ok with.
"Don't worry, Hana already gave me your mothers phone number, she's aware and ok with it."
Since when did Hana have my mothers phone number?
Actually now that I think about it my mother probably got it when she visited me. When I was sick, I wasn't thinking coherently so I probably didn't notice them exchanging contacts.
"Thanks, I would take you up on that offer, but I need to pick up groceries for my mom later."
"That fair, do whatever you want until you need to leave, just try not to burn the house down, also remember please give Hana that soup, she was dying for it."
"Yes sir."
"Please, call me Akira."
Before I could respond he shut the door once again, and all I got from that interaction was dinner, and a thermos of soup.
*****
Hana was still asleep but was now sleeping on her side, either she woke up and adjusted her position or her body well restless as always, even if she wasn't conscious.
Her chair was still right next to her, and had not moved at all from its original position, she had been out for about 2 hours while I cleaned her family's home, of course it wasn't fun, cleaning is never fun, but I got to see a lot of photos of her and her family which made me see her in a different light.
Hana's breathing was steady, I noticed now that her shirt was slightly too small for her, which made her stomach stick out somewhat, I could see now she was wearing shorts that were oversized, and baggy.
I also saw now that she was shivering every now and then, despite it being a good 70 degrees in her room.
I walked over to her and sat in the chair once again, this time I was staring at her, and for some reason I couldn't help it, call me creepy or whatever I won't blame you, but she looked really cute.
Just then Hana opened her eyes, she held her breath, she woke up to me staring at her.
Despite being sick she was not too lethargic, as she immediately yelped and hid under her covers as if i were the bogey man.
"Pervert…"
"Why?"
"Because you're staring at me, while I'm sleeping."
"And how does that make me one?"
Hana uncovered her face, but still covered the rest of her body under her sheets.
"Because you were ogling me, like most guys would in your situation."
I facepalmed myself, she was just trying to get a rise out of me, that or she actually thought I was taking advantage of her, but just by the way she spoke I doubt it was the latter.
"Shush, I'm going to give you some soup now"
"Save that for when I'm your-"
Hana paused, slowly a red flush appeared throughout her face, she then promptly hid fully under her covers again.
"Save that for when I am your what?"
"N-nothing, you said you had soup?"
"Yes, were you assuming I was going to feed it to you, like some grandma in a nursing home?"
"No, but I'm open to that idea."
Hana once again peeked from her covers, this time sitting up fulling, I had to back away to give her room, I opened the thermos which had a spoon already inside it, and scooped up the nutrient rich liquid.
"Open wide, grandma."
"Oh haha."
Hana then, instead of taking the spoon or thermos from me, moved her mouth closer to the spoon and put it in her mouth whilst I was holding it.
I quickly let go of it, and nearly fell backwards in my chair. I did not expect her to do that.
Hana pulled the spoon from her mouth, and giggled.
"Wasn't expecting that huh"
"Your intuition is amazing, yes I wasn't."
Hana looked around her room, and saw that her door was shut. I had shut it behind me by force of habit.
"Masaichi, sit down with me for a second."
"Why?"
"Just, humor me."
"Ok?"
I sat up from her chair and sat beside her on her bed, she almost immediately grabbed my hand as soon as I did, I looked up at her, confused as to what she was doing.
"What are you doing?"
"Remember when you and I were in that club room, getting questioned left and right by everyone?"
"I- how does that have to do with you holding my hand?"
"Remember how you answered Sasaki's question?"
"Yes, I said I didn't have a crush on anyone."
Hana paused, she looked nervous?
"Can I tell you something?"
"Well yeah, what is it?"
"I have someone I like."
I stared into her eyes, despite how calm and methodical she looked on the outside. I could tell she was not composed at all, she was horribly anxious, and running off pure adrenaline.
Thoughts swam in my head of how I should respond, I didn't want to assume it was me despite her having no other male friends, and lately I had felt feelings I hadn't ever experienced before, but it didn't mean I wanted to go all out and indirectly confess to her, I had to make sure who it was.
"And who would that b-"
And before I could react, she tightened her hold on my hand, and kissed me.