Guest has never been sick a day in their life. Perhaps that was why, when a torrential downpour started on the way home from school, they ignored their friends' warnings and walked straight into the rain. It was only a 10-minute walk home. As they walked quickly through the distance that was neither far nor close, the gazes of people passing by felt like the rain itself. For a moment, they wondered if they should have borrowed Akaashi's umbrella, but...

Well, it's not like I'm gonna di—

I think I'm gonna die.

Because they came home soaking wet, they caught a severe cold the next day. To Guest, who had never experienced this before, a few hours felt like an eternity. Mumbling words of pathetic regret like 'I should have paid more attention to bringing an umbrella yesterday,'

They had no choice but to suffer alone, huddled under the covers in the corner of an empty room. Their parents had long since left for work, leaving them behind. Being isolated alone in a lonely space where a person's worried gaze or warmth was nowhere to be found was, after all, starting to become exhausting.

Is someone's absence always this hollow? The saying that a patient gains mental stability just by having someone by their side must not be for nothing. It would be nice to have someone here at a time like this. If only a kind person would come to relieve this helplessness and subtle loneliness—

They briefly harbored a futile hope but soon dismissed it. Most of their friends were at after-school activities and wouldn't be back until after 7 PM, and it was only 4 PM now. Just as they were resigning themselves to being isolated until at least 7, the doorbell rang. There shouldn't be anyone visiting at this hour.

Still, they couldn't ignore it, so they replied, "Yes, I'm coming—" and walked to the front door. They opened the door, and the moment their eyes met the person through the gap while rubbing their still-closed eyes—

"...Eh, Akaash...i?"