Since I wasn’t hit in the head, I fortunately didn’t get knocked out. That said, it turns out getting hit by a baseball going over 100 miles per hour straight dead center to your chest still hurts a lot. So much so that it greatly knocked the wind out of me, making it difficult to speak.

As a result of being hit on the stands. The school took the safety precautions of bringing me to the infirmary. It would be an issue if one of my bones broke from getting hit by a ball flying with such force. So they did multiple checks on me to make sure I didn’t need to go to the hospital. Once that was taken care of, they still told me to rest in bed for a little bit.

I’m hugely disappointed I can’t watch the rest of the game. All I got was the first at-bat. Though on the bright side, I was able to watch my best friend play. Too bad I didn’t get to see how that ended.

“You don’t need to stay with me.” I also feel bad for Juria. She chose to stay by me as I would’ve rested all alone here in bed. “Taisei’s playing. You should be supporting him.” At the end of the day, he’s her real brother. Even though I can’t say I don’t like having her with me. I’m not actually related to her. She should be with family first.

“I think he would want me to be with you right now.” She answers. “If I know him, as soon as the game’s over. He’ll come running in here to apologize for hitting you with the ball.”

“Heheh… Ouch…” Her saying that made me chuckle a bit. Unfortunately even doing something as little as that is enough to cause me pain in the chest. “It’s not really anyone’s fault.” I am the one who dove in the way in the first place too. Despite knowing the danger in it, I still chose to be the one to take the hit. “Are you sure you want to stay here with me?”

“Well, is there anything wrong with staying with my hero?” She gives me a playful pinch on the cheek in response.

“I-it’s no big deal.” Flustered, I turned my head away from her. It’s embarrassing to hear someone call me a hero out loud. As nice as it is, coming from her makes my heart race a bit. What is this? She’s usually said these kind of things to me all the time. But I’ve never felt this way in response before. I thought I’d be used to her teasing statements at this age, but it’s only gotten worse.

“Hideumi…” The change in her tone causes me to look back at her. I don’t like that tone. It always comes about right before she says something sad. “I was really worried for you when you got hit. It looked like we were going to have to bring you to the hospital.”

“Guess it’s a good thing you didn’t have to.” I chuckle… That still hurts. All I’m trying to do is lighten the mood between us.

“Yep.” I’m happy to have made her smile again as she rests her hand on my arm. “Only one of us should ever have to go to the hospital.” That’s… A real depressing way of putting it. She’s referring to her need to return to the doctor more often than most. It’s due to her eye that’s covered by the patch. Occasionally it causes her headaches, which they always double check to make sure nothing has developed into anything worse from complications of her tragic incident.

“It’s fine.” I assure her by taking her hand. The two of us look into each other’s eyes, as if frozen in time. For some reason, I don’t want it to end. Yet despite my wishes, she gets a message on her phone.

“Ah, sorry…” She reads it and lets go of my hand. “Looks like the game just ended. I need to go meet up with my friends.” Juria gets up from the chair and heads for the door. “I wish we could’ve spent more time together.” Those are her last words to me right before exiting.

And right as she leaves, a certain other person enters the infirmary.

“Hideumi! I’m so sorry!” Taisei comes rushing in and leaps right into my bed. The boy embraces me tightly as I feel his entire weight crushing my chest. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Please, I’m so sorry.”

“Jeez Taisei, calm down!” He didn’t even wait a moment after the game to see if I was okay. There’s dirt and sweat all over him from a tough game and it’s getting all over me. “I was fine until you decided to jump on me.”

“Oh, sorry.” He gets off me and nervously rubs the back of his head. “Guess I got a bit overemotional there.”

“Just a bit?” I respond. Though it’s hard to stay mad when it’s just a matter of him being worried. “Don’t worry, I’m glad you care.”

“So, are you stuck here or…?”

“The nurse told me she has to be the one to discharge me. You can just go ahead and leave without me. There’s no reason to wait around.” I hope the nurse also doesn’t keep me here long either. Not that I have much better to do at home, but I don’t want to fall behind on my studies either.

Thankfully staying here didn’t last long. Shortly after Taisei left to get out of his baseball attire, the nurse told me it was fine for me to walk on my own. There’s no injury to my body, so other than the soreness I should be fine. As I walk along the hallway, I kind of regret telling him to leave. If I knew I was about to leave myself, then I would’ve liked to have some company on the way home.

“Why are you so doubtful of him?” I hear a voice talking in one of the rooms I’m going by. I’m not one to snoop around and eavesdrop of people. However, I recognize that voice. It’s Juria.

“I don’t know why you think that’s a problem.” As I get closer to the doorway, I recognize the other voice as well. It’s Hinae, her friend. “You can’t just think things with Hideumi won’t change.”

They’re… Talking about me?