RIVALS INCARNATE

Chapter Thirty-Four: Something Forbidden

This was bad.

Two days after, Yuko Amazawa woke up to the sound of her alarm ringing, groaning in her bed inside her apartment, nursing a severely painful headache and quite above normal temperature. Her body was aching all over, and she felt so hot and for the very first time, she was actually feeling too lazy to get up. She realized that she did not have enough energy to move off the mattress as she felt herself quivering from a cold. So she slowly reached for her phone placed on top of her bedside table and struggled to turn the alarm off.

Oh, gods, she had a fever.

 This must not be real. She never got this sick before, she would always make sure she never gets it. Always taking meds to avoid it whenever she felt a headache coming. But this time, it happened. For real. And she had actually let herself be carried away by her work and overflowing thoughts that she forgot about her health. 

Calling in sick was the most awkward thing she ever did, but she had to. And when her assistant answered her call and got too surprised that Yuko was letting her know that she would be absent today, Yuko knew that this was totally something so out of her norms. She never called in sick and she would always try to attend work as much as possible, no matter how tired she was and sleepy. But since this situation was not something she had also expected to happen, she had no other choice. She was really in pain.

She dropped her phone beside her, taking a deep breath as soon as she ended the call and stared straight to the ceiling. When was the last time she felt quite lonely? Was there even any food left in her fridge? She still had to eat but she really can't force herself to get up. She felt too exhausted even though her mind kept insisting that she needed to work.

I did something terrible. 

"Ugh!" she grunted out loud, closing her eyes shut and rolling over her bed while he tried to not remember what Kyouhei said two days ago. Why was he in her mind now? She can't afford that kind of distraction again. Yuko touched her head just to feel how hot she was and flinched when she felt that it was too high. This was the worst cold ever. What would she do now?

Yet refusing to bulge in her bed, she tried to get some more sleep. Maybe that was what she all needed to do. She was really not getting enough sleep the past few days and most of the time, she would get out of work so late that she even misses a few meals. Why was she suffering like this? Well, she chose this in the first place, so no sense complaining this much now. But then again, Yuko still found herself quite sentimental about her situation. It felt lonely... Even though she did not want to admit that, she was honestly sad. Why was she sad? She did not really understand why. She was already used to being alone and reclusive. But for the very first time in her life, she felt the burden of silence and cold overwhelming her with such fleeting sadness to the point that she almost wanted to cry.

It was very empty. Emperor Shin never felt this kind of negativity before even when he had been used to being alone for most of his life as a prince and an Emperor. Yet, Yuko, in this modern age and with such liberty to do whatever she wanted to, felt extremely lonely. This was strange and it felt like she can't do anything about it.

And soon, while wallowing over those thoughts, sleep eventually came to her, as if it was the only natural thing to ever happen as she felt her cold getting worse and worse as the minutes went on. She had nothing else to do anyway, and this was the only way she knew she could lessen this inconvenient fever.

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"You are not a worthy one, you fool," a voice said in the darkness. Shin quickly recognized that voice and he turned around to follow where it was coming from. But he could not see anything. It was all black and he was all by himself. He tried running towards its direction, reaching out his arms just in case he could feel anything. But it was all void, like an abyss.

"Father?!" he shouted out, but no one responded back anymore. He kept chasing after something he was not yet sure what is, and he could feel his chest slowly burning from the endless running. It was hard to run with the heavy robe he was wearing, but he was too out of his mind to care about anything else.

"Father!" he yelled again. And this time, all of a sudden, something pop into view. There was a person standing from afar. Its back turned on him. Shin ran faster, trying to reach for it. He wanted to see if it was his father and he kept shouting his name.

Then when he thought he was almost there, it suddenly vanished. He stopped and gasped, catching his breath as he looked around. Nothing, there was nothing there anymore. Where is it? Where did it go?

"You deserved your death," someone whispered in his ear and he shivered. It was too close but when he turned to his side, no one was there. 

"WHO ARE YOU?!" he yelled back. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

He frantically searched, his whole body shaking while he panted heavily and felt his sweat dripping down his face. And as he looked and looked, he felt his hand getting wet. He glanced at it and got immediately horrified. There was blood everywhere, in his robe, on his hands and he shook violently while trying to understand what was actually happening. What the hell was this? WHAT IS GOING ON?!

Swayed by his intense emotions, Shin's knees buckled and he dropped to the ground, still staring in shock at the state he was in. He smelled the nauseating scent of blood overcoming his senses, he felt like vomiting but he can't move his arms. He did not want to. Then all of a sudden, he saw a presence standing before him and he looked up. His mouth slowly opened but no word came out as he stared wide-eyed at the person.

It was Kyouhei Kurosaki... But he looked like Rei. No, Shin shook his head. Why?

"Kuro... saki?"

"Do you trust me?" he asked him, but his voice sounded distorted. And for a moment, Shin could not know what to answer. Then Kyouhei slowly gave him an evil grin, his face slowly changing as it turned into Rei's, then he said, "I hope you do."

NO.

No.

NOOOO!

"NO!" Yuko woke up again, shaking and grabbing the sheets of her bed as she gasped for air. She was still in her room. It was just a dream. It was not real. She slowly calmed down and felt her body sweating everywhere. Was she getting delirious? 

She tried to move, but her muscles ached, and she remembered that she was actually still sick. And just when she was about to push herself up from the bed, the door of her room suddenly opened wide and she saw Kyouhei Kurosaki looking nervous and worried as he ran towards her.

"What's wrong?" he asked her with a deep frown then he suddenly touched her face, held it with both of his hands while he searched for something in her eyes, "Are you okay?"

Was this still a dream?

Yuko could not really react accordingly when she saw him sauntered into her place just like that. And the very first thing she ever really did was to reach for something that her hand could grab and flung it towards him, hitting his cheek. Kyouhei felt the impact on his face before he had seen that one coming and he almost stumbled and hit her bedside table if he hadn't tried to catch his balance right away. Fortunately for him, she only smacked him with her pillow then he heard her angrily asking him.

"How did you get in?!"

"I'm sorry," he quickly apologized, knowing for sure that he would not hear the end of this because he did something terribly forbidden. He really crossed the line this time yet he knew that there was no valid excuse for this. No matter how good his intentions were, he cannot really explain it in a way she would ever really understand. "I was really worried, Yuko-san. You never called in sick before."

"I know," she spat back, still glowering at him, "But how did you get in?!"

"I know your passcode."

"WHAT?!"

Kurosaki winced, that did not sound right at all. But he could no longer take it back, so he went on to explain it in a much more reasonable way.

"I'm really sorry," he apologized again, and his voice came out too hoarse as he continued, "I did it in an impulse. But I promise you, this will be the first and the very last time I will ever do this, Yuko-san. I just wanted to make sure you're fine."

He stared at her, his eyes filled with such raw tenderness that Yuko was deemed speechless for a moment. Stop staring like that, she thought to herself. And perhaps, it was this fever that was making her feel queasy inside, but Yuko did not like that little flutter in the pit of her stomach as she met his eyes. This was dangerous.

"It's not a dream," he said to her, and for a second, Yuko thought he was referring to that horrible nightmare she just had a while ago and she gaped at him, panicking inside. Then he added, "I'm really here, Yuko-san. It's real."

And it's wrong, she almost said to him. But she did not dare to tell him that. Not right now. Because for some reason, she liked that she was no longer all alone.

She never knew she actually needed someone... like this right now.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------next chapter: Chapter Thirty-Five