A few minutes had passed when the door opening beside me woke me up from my thoughts. One of the two nurses that had entered Chiharu's room stepped out and walked away. It didn't seem like anything serious.

Mr. Mochizuki took advantage of me coming back to reality to say, "I'll give you some time to relax. There are some things I need to take care of anyway. I'll see you later."

"Sure," I replied.

Once he was gone, I asked Aya and the nurse from earlier to help me stand up and walk back to my room. The pain had weakened a lot by the time I lay down on the bed, yet the nurse gave me a quick check-up and glued the sensors back onto my body.

The nurse asked me to relax before leaving, then Aya did the same, but worries about practically everything kept bugging my mind. Regardless, Aya and I weren't alone for much longer.

Aki suddenly entered the room. She closed the door behind her and stared at me for a brief moment. Instead of acting cool as always, she ran toward me and squeezed me.

My body slightly jolted because of the pain. About to ask her to stop, I realized how anxious everyone must've been when they found out what happened to me, so I simply hugged her back.

She lifted her head from my chest to say, "I'm very sorry."

"It's fine, it doesn't hurt as badly anymore."

"That too, but I meant for letting this happen."

"What do you mean?"

"When you left yesterday, the girls asked me if you were alright and even suggested that I go with you, but I refused. I suspected it was something related to the hacker, so I didn't want to make it worse by meddling. If only I…"

"You had nothing to do with what happened," interrupted Aya. She stood up from the sofa and rested her hand on Aki's shoulder. "I know saying this is weird, but it probably would've been worse if you followed him. None of this would've happened and the hacker would still be free."

Aki propped all of her weight off my chest to stand up. "Did they catch her?"

"They did," I answered.

Her eyes sparkled as the smile I missed returned to her face. She fell on my chest and squeezed me, making me groan and jolt again.

"Sorry, I'll stop doing it," she giggled.

"Thank you. Where is everyone else?"

"They are either waiting in the reception area or in the bus. We've been asking the receptionists if we could visit you for hours and they finally said yes, but only two people can be here at the same time. Everyone was kind enough to let me come first."

"In the bus? Didn't they leave us behind?" I asked.

Aya answered, "I told you not to worry about it."

"The more you tell me not to worry, the more I'll worry."

She sighed. "Look, I'll ask a nurse how much longer you need to stay, okay? I'm also guessing you want some time alone."

I replied, "I didn't—"

"You read my mind," said Aki at the same time.

She turned around to look at me with a sneer on her face, while Aya merely shook her head before stepping out of the room.

Aki slowly bent forward to bring her face closer to mine until our lips touched.

"You were saying?" she smirked.

"I take it back."

The kisses didn't last for long as we decided not to try our luck. We instead chatted until Aya returned to the room a few minutes later, accompanied by the nurse from earlier.

The nurse said, "Fortunately, the projectile had already been weakened before it hit you, meaning it didn't have enough strength to go out through your back and none of your vital organs were damaged. We conducted surgery to make sure there were no remnants and to take care of the wounds properly."

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Was my heart hit?" I asked.

"The bottom part of it was scratched slightly. We didn't expect that to cause further issues, but we decided to treat it as well."

"What about the projectile? Was it a bullet or a laser?"

"Although we cannot be certain, it was most likely for it to be a wind blast. Both a bullet and a laser would've caused serious burns, and the bullet would've left some debris, if not the entire bullet."

Aki asked, "Wind blast? Can wind be as deadly as a bullet?"

"Yes," nodded the nurse. "The pressure with which a wind blast is shot is immense. Many times, it is used not to leave any traces, but the lack of them is enough reason for us to conclude it was a wind blast."

"Unbelievable…."

I shared Aki's amazement.

The nurse continued, "Since your recovery has been going as planned, you should be able to leave in two hours, provided we don't find anything that concerns us during the last check-up. Is that alright?"

"It is, thank you," I replied.

Before walking out of the room, he smiled, "Don't hesitate to call me if you have more questions or if there are any problems."

Once he was gone, Aya said, "We should leave as well."

"Why?" I asked.

"You need to rest as much as possible. Instead of coming in pairs, I'll just ask everyone to wait until you're discharged. That way, you won't have to tell the same story a dozen times, which I'm sure has many details we'd all love to know," she threatened as she glared at both Aki and me.

Aki and I glanced at each other before whistling the suspicion away. Aya merely sighed.

Aki bent forward to give me a kiss on the forehead, which wasn't something that happened every day.

"I'll see you in a bit. Let's go," she said to Aya.

About to step out, Aya stopped and turned around. "Actually, there's something I can tell you that might help you relax."

"What is it?" I wondered.

"The accountant told me this morning that this month will be the first one to be profitable."

In a snap, my mind had gone blank. Even after several seconds, the only thing I was able to say was, "Thanks."

Aya nodded with a smile before walking out of the room and closing the door.

A single tear rolled down my cheek, which I quickly brushed away. The only reasons I had cried before were due to anger, frustration, fear, and feeling incompetent. Now, I had shed a tear of happiness.

Aya's word finally hit me: I didn't need to worry. For the first time in months, I didn't struggle to keep my mind at ease. If I hadn't just slept for a whole day, I would've fallen asleep as soon as I closed my eyes. Despite that, I felt the peace I had been missing.

The time for my discharge had finally come. The same nurse as always arrived at my room to give me one last check-up. He concluded that I was good to go.

Before that, I needed to change clothes, so the nurse asked me to ask someone I knew to bring me some. I called Aki, who arrived in less than five minutes. She helped me change since I still was somewhat weak and we headed out.

We walked past Chiharu's room and I couldn't help but look at the door, despite not being able to see inside.

As we walked down the hallway, a suited man and a woman walked past Aki and me. They slightly bowed at us and we responded likewise. However, it took me a couple of seconds to notice the familiarity of their faces. I turned around and saw them stop in front of Chiharu's room.

"Do you know them?" Aki asked.

They were Chiharu's parents. I couldn't remember exactly where I had seen them before, but it didn't matter. I had promised myself to leave the past behind and focus on what really mattered.

"I thought I did, but I'm not sure where I've seen them before."

They entered the room and I turned around to continue walking with Aki.

We took the elevator down and reached the reception area. I had only taken a few steps when Astra jumped to hug me, taking my breath. Sanae, Risa, and Umi promptly arrived and they all joined the hug. I hugged them back.

"We hate you," said Sanae in a confusingly-happy way.

"Huh?" I uttered.

Risa asked, "Why didn't you tell us everything you were going through?"

"I'm sorry, I was threatened not to tell anyone and I didn't want to get you in any more trouble than necessary."

"We still were targeted, weren't we?" Umi said.

"Right. How much do you know?"

"As much as Aya told us and what they told on the news."

"Which isn't much," Mr. Mochizuki said as he approached us. "I apologize for meddling, but I'll politely ask you not to discuss this in a public space."

"Sorry," I apologized. "You haven't told the public anything?"

"No more than Bise's name. We need to find out as much information as possible before giving a statement, which will take us a couple of days. I know it won't be easy just by seeing the sea of reporters out there, but please don't tell anyone anything about the case before we do."

Sea of reporters?

I peeked out from behind the wall to see a dozen reporters waiting outside through the window.