Growing Pains
A girl and a boy unrelated and of the same age couldn't possibly live together, could they? Of Tsumugu, Chisaki, and awkwardness...and of rice krispies, sick girls, forbidden love, and rainbow dreams.
Grudgingly, Chisaki admitted that she had neglected watching her diet in recent days. She would usually cook for the three of them, but there were occasions when Grandpa Kihara showed his hand. He made a big haul early one day and the prize he fetched home was a few pounds of fresh marlin. He asked Tsumugu and Chisaki to run an errand to Saya Mart for some vegetables and shellfish and when they stepped back inside the house, a wonderful aroma of grilled fish welcomed their return. That evening, Chisaki sat down to a scrumptious dinner and ate to her heart's content.
Later, as Chisaki was entering the bath, shedding off her long-sleeved top, denim shorts, and thigh highs, she felt a slight straining around her chest when she unclasped her bra. She ignored it, though, only to find the following morning that she had to suck in her breath a tiny bit in order to hitch the hook to the nearest eye. And yet, she persisted on ignoring that nagging feeling.
"Chisaki! We're running late!" Tsumugu yelled from downstairs.
"Coming!" Chisaki snatched up her school bag, pummeling out of her room, pounding down the stairs, and pushing through the front door where Tsumugu was expecting her with his bag slung over his shoulder.
That day, they had Home Economics and the recipe was chocolate rice krispies, which was met by the girls with keen interest, but earned a dreaded groan from the boys, because they would rather skip out on the baking and preferred jumping to the taste-testing instead. By coincidence, Chisaki and Tsumugu were in the same group when they were divided equally and the two of them worked astonishingly well as a team. The chocolate rice krispies turned out perfect and Chisaki was fairly proud of their finished product, which proved true as she sampled, in her opinion, amodest few.
However, after that episode, Chisaki often felt short of breath, like a weight was crushing her lungs. It was not mere chance was it, that she could only find relief when she had finally unfastened the clasps of her bra? Chisaki studied the girl in the reflection. She was tall and big-boned, not willowy, and...Chisaki winced at the flab or blob, she would describe more, of skin she had clamped in between her thumb and forefinger.
"No, it must be baby fat," Chisaki might have convinced herself, the operative word being might. She waseating rather healthily. Somewhere, in the eddies of her mind, she tried to make an inventory of exactlyhow many pieces of rice krispies she consumed in Home Economics, the strawberry parfait and chocolate fudge sundae she enjoyed with her girl friends during a sweets binge not too long ago, the bag of assorted candies and potato crunch she alternatively popped into her mouth one after another during cram nights, and, not to mention, there were also the full meals she had been eating when Grandpa Kihara was in the mood to prepare dinner, which, as of late, was becoming more often. She could no longer ignore that nagging feeling anymore. Her biggest dilemma, of course, was regarding the changes in her upper region.
During dinner, Tsumugu noticed that she only seemed to be eating a much smaller portion than usual. Her reason was she did not have much of an appetite. Then, at school, she approached her two closest female classmates – Kaori Akiyoshi and Yuu Seiki.
"Can you help me do some shopping?" Chisaki opened up.
They both perked up their eyebrows in surprise. Yuu asked, "In the city?" To which, Chisaki nodded.
Kaori said, dubious, "Why not ask Tsumugu to accompany you? Not that we're not okay with the invitation, but you guys are already living under the same roof. You do stuff together."
Something about the way Kaori worded it induced Chisaki to blush. She blushed even harder for what she was about to whisper to Kaori and Yuu, beckoning them to come hither, "They're too snug now."
At first, Kaori and Yuu stared uncomprehendingly at her. Chisaki's next move was to lower her gaze to her chest and look back up at her classmates' unblinking faces.
"Eeh! Oh, that!" squealed Yuu in an excited whisper, but Kaori could not help bursting out, volume a tad overloud, "Oh, oh! What's your cup si–"
"Ssshh!" hissed Chisaki, signing the 'quiet' gesture and flailing her hands desperately. At this point, the whole class must have overheard them as she could feel their eyes pricking her back, Tsumugu's included, and she was so ashamed she buried her tomato-red face in her hands.
"I don't think you should force it," Tsumugu spoke, worried lines etching his otherwise stoic face. Chisaki was already dressed in her school uniform, but she was hunched over, her brows twitching in pain as her hand curled like a gnarled claw clutching at her stomach. Tsumugu was careful to give her some space, but he was ready to trespass it anytime Chisaki showed the slightest inclination of collapsing right then and there.
"I'm part of the committee." The words came out strangled, like she having difficulties, but it came out like it was supposed to explain enough.
Chisaki meant to pass through Tsumugu and the door, but she fumbled in her steps and was on the verge of tipping forward only to be held back by a firm pair of hands.
Tsumugu's eyes bulged, for Chisaki's skin was abnormally hot. He immediately spun her around to face him and splayed his palm on her forehead. "You're running a fever." Despite her adamance, Tsumugu marched the sick Chisaki back to her room and stood guard at her door until he was certain she had changed into her pajamas and was tucked into her futon comfortably.
When Tsumugu was not budging at all from his spot at the mouth of her room, Chisaki pleaded, "Tsumugu, please! Go to school. I'll be a good girl and rest."
Resigned, Tsumugu uncrossed his arms, plucked his bag off the floor and left for school. Yet, although his body was going through the motions of school, for the rest of the day, his mind was distracted with Chisaki lying sick in bed.
After informing their homeroom teacher and Shun Sayama, who was also in the school festival committee, about Chisaki, Tsumugu decided to seek Akari's advise. He told Akari how, right after exams season, Chisaki was very busy with committee duties and had been going home later than usual, how she recently went through a phase of skipping meals but was now eating regularly again, and these things aside, he did not find anything unusual with her yesterday. When he described her symptoms - nausea, fever, stomache pains - Akari looked enlightened at the last bit and moved to stand in front of the calendar pinned to the wall, nodding to herself. "It all makes sense now."
Akari smiled knowingly. "Well, you see. Tsumugu, she's going through her..." She lowered her voice to a whisper.
Tsumugu's features did not betray any reaction but he seemed to take a while to digest the information. Finally, he turned to Akari. "What can I do to help her?"
Akari scribbled words on a notepad and then peeled off the top sheet. "Here. You can buy it over the counter at a drug store. You'll also want to prepare a warm compress for her. Chamomile tea is good too, if you have some. You don't have to worry so much about the fever. It'll just go away, but if her temperature becomes too high, please let me know. Hmm, what else? Oh, you might also need to buy thosein the 'Feminine Care' section at the drug store."
Tsumugu made all his mental notes and thanked Akari.
"On second thought, you might feel embarrassed buying such things. Do you want me to buy them for you?"
It was like the world was on mute as Akari anticipated his answer.
"I can do it," replied Tsumugu and very nonchalantly, that he could win an award for it. Akari was amused and said something about 'brave' and 'mature'. Tsumugu exited Saya Mart while Akari shouted after him, "And tell Chisaki not to stress herself out too much!"
A trip to the drug store later, Tsumugu knocked perfunctorily on the wooden sliding door of Chisaki's room. "Chisaki? I'm coming in!"
"Mmm." He heard her weak response from the other side of the door.
Tsumugu put down the tray of gruel, tea, and warm compress close to Chisaki's head. He knelt over her futon, his hand feather-light on her forehead. "How are you feeling?"
Chisaki was swathed in layers of blankets with only her arms and head sticking out. She cracked an eye open and mumbled out, "A little better."
"Your fever's gone down, it seems. That's good."
Tsumugu helped her sit up and positioned the short-legged tray in front of her. He waited until she had scraped the bottom of the bowl. "This," he said, pointing at the warm compress, "is for your stomach." And then, he foraged through the plastic bag he brought with him. "And also, this. Akari said it's effective against cramps." He deposed a medicine tablet on the tray. The plastic bag rustled and its contents tumbled out to the side - painkiller and two packs of...Chisaki raised her eyebrows.
"I thought you might need those. But I wasn't sure which brand, so I bought two kinds," Tsumugu explained, keeping a straight face.
Chisaki stared bug-eyed and with mouth agape, then her cheeks grew flushed from the sickness or was it from another cause? Was she envisioning him being at a loss on which one to buy and having to ask assistance from the clerk, who tried her best to be non-descriptive and descriptive at the same time, yet in the end, he paid for the medicine and two different brands? She could not have possibly guessed but she was probably close. In a burst of motion, she gulped down the medicine and tugged her blanket, but not without tremendous effort, all the way up to her mouth. Tsumugu met her lambent eyes and heard her muffled voice. "Thank you, Tsumugu."
The school bell king kong-ed to announce lunch ho