Chapter 15.1

Reunion (1)

I wonder what I was running away from.

I didn’t even know why I was feeling like that.

I just didn’t want to be in that place.

Maybe it was just my imagination that the person I met in the waiting room was the developer of Virtual Alpha. But when I imagined what he could possibly say after that, I just couldn’t stay still at that place.

I might be forced to face the fact that Yuugo was just a virtual existence. Maybe they would tell me that he was someone that didn’t exist in the real world.

I was afraid of that.

Even though I should have known the truth.

I should have known that Yuugo didn’t exist. But I didn’t want anyone to say that to me yet. I wanted to keep this problem to myself.

*

“huff… huff”

It was evening, but it was still hot outside. The asphalt burned by the summer sun was radiating heat from the ground, and the slightly humid air was still storing the heat from the afternoon.

On this hot day where you’d sweat even when you stayed still, I was running at full speed when I realized it. It was no wonder that I was out of breath. My throat also felt so dry.

“…Where is this, I wonder.”

Before I knew it, I was at a completely unfamiliar place. It looks like I had wandered into a residential area.

As I walked around looking for a place to rest, I found a small park. Perhaps it wasn’t a very popular place to begin with, because there were no kids playing there.

After quenching my thirst at a water fountain near the entrance of the park, I decided to rest on a bench that was in the shade of a tree. My ragged breath didn’t seem like it would calm down anytime soon.

What was I doing, really.

I made everyone around me worry, and I averted my eyes from reality.

I never thought that I would become like this, myself.  I never thought I would actually fall in love with someone that didn’t exist and have my feelings being at his mercy like this.

What should I do to forget about it?

When would I be able to face the truth?

I’ve been going around in circles like this for a long time now.

“Maybe it was harder on you because you always keep it to yourself.”

I even remembered Yuugo’s words at a time like this. Even though I tried to forget about it, I always end up remembering him.

Those words were intended for me when I couldn’t face the fact that I was an omega, but I wonder if that word could be applied to me right now. Did I feel this pain because I forced myself to forget about my feelings for Yuugo?

But what else could I do?

Even if it’s painful, I have no choice but to force myself to forget it.

That was the only option I could think of.

“…ah…haa…haa”

It wasn’t until five minutes later that I realized something was wrong with my body.

No matter how much I rested, my ragged breath wouldn’t calm down. Even the fever in my body just kept rising. When I tried to stand up to drink water again, my vision swayed and I fell down from my feet.

At first I thought it was just a heat stroke, but it felt somewhat different than that.

“What…. is this?”

Not only my ragged breath wouldn’t calm down, it only got even worse. I was also sweating non-stop, and the shirt I was wearing got so wet that I could squeeze water out of it.

It was pretty hot today, but I know I didn’t run that much. The amount of running I did when playing soccer or futsal was many times more than this. But, I’ve never become like this even once.

No matter how much my body condition has dropped lately, there was definitely something strange when I didn’t get better even after resting for five minutes here.

Moreover, my body didn’t just feel hot.

Something tingling was welling up from inside my stomach. After I realized the sensation in my lower body, it didn’t take long for me to figure out what was the real cause of this fever.

“Your next heat might deviate from the usual cycle.”

Dr. Kazuki had said that to me just earlier. There was no way I could’ve forgotten about it.

If it was as scheduled, it should come one week later. I thought it would come late when I heard it’ll deviate from the usual cycle.

…I didn’t expect it would come earlier instead.

I didn’t have the meds with me. I received the prescription just earlier, but I didn’t have the time to stop by the pharmacy.

My heat has never deviated from the usual cycle, so I didn’t usually carry a backup suppressant with me.

I couldn’t believe I would get my heat at this place, somewhere that I don’t know, just because I had been running around randomly.

“I’ve got to- call… someone.”

I pulled out my phone in a hurry.

The person who could come here right away would be Dr. Kazuki. No matter how much I’ve been running around randomly, this place shouldn’t be that far from the clinic.

However, it was hard to tell him exactly where this place was. Would he understand if I said I was at a small park in a residential area?

I searched for Dr. Kazuki’s name in the contact list. I didn’t have that much contact saved, but I couldn’t find it quickly only at times like this.

I need to calm down and call him quickly… The more I thought about that, the more impatient I got and my fingers started to tremble.

“…And then, he made a really awful face.”

“I saw that! That was really crazy, huh?!”

The voices that came from outside the park startled me and I stood up right away from my crouched position. My feet were still wobbly, but it wasn’t the time to care about that.

After all, people are coming this way. This would lead to a bad situation for sure.