My Bothersome Life

Falling Sick

"Rika! Wake up!" Luke kept shaking me.

I opened my eyes to find myself inside the library study room with a familiar towering pile of books stacked up in front of me.

"I'm up, so stop shaking me," I groaned.

"How long was I sleeping for?" I stretched my arms and legs.

"About how much it took me to read all those books in that pile that you brought in. You were sleeping for such a long time and I was going to leave because I finished reading all those books. So, I woke you up to tell you that I was going back to our room to get some sleep" Luke displayed his worried gaze.

"Maybe if you're feeling tired you should leave as well and tackle those books tomorrow." Luke got up to put the books away.

"No, I'm not feeling that tired anymore. I'm going to stay here until I finish reading all these books. I'll go back to the room later when I feel like I'm confident to pass the exam with at least 100%." I shook my head while I refused Luke's advice as I grabbed another book from the pile to start reading.

'Are you sure that's even possible?' Luke silently judged me before he reluctantly left me alone.

I drifted my focus onto these never-ending piles of books as I started to concentrate highly on memorizing the materials.

'If you can't understand it, then you memorize it,' became my motto from all the studying I was put through in my former life.

When I finally finished reading all those long books that I took from the dimensional library, I stood up to take a break. After walking around the small room before going into another study session, I searched through the dimensional library for more relevant books.

I pulled a bunch of books from my search that appeared to be only visible in my eyes. Thankfully, the dimensional library was relatively easy to use. It resembled a google search bar where once I found the book I wanted, it would appear in my hands out of thin air.

I slumped onto the desk as I felt sick and exhausted. Maybe I even had a fever. I was sure that after my second pile of books, I was still feeling fine, but maybe it was starting from the fourth round that I felt I was starting to feel a little dizzy.

At this rate, I realized that I probably couldn't even walk properly anymore as I wobbled while I walked towards the door. Since I couldn't move my legs without limping, I sat back in my chair to finish the seventh pile of books I got from the dimensional library. Although, I was thankful that I still had the stamina to move my arms. The only unfortunate part was how this ability probably got transferred from my past life where I had to study for majority of my time.

I knew that with this much studying, I would get at least a 95% on the exam. However, that was 5% short of what I wanted. That 5% would prevent me from buying a decent bed, clothes, the necessary furniture and more!

Just when I grabbed another book from that pile, my vision started to get blurry again for the nth time. I was starting to see two sets of piles of books in front of me while few black spots blocked my normally wide vision.

'Just a little bit more,' I told myself. Just a little bit more. Unfortunately, my body didn't follow my commands as my body dropped off the chair and landed onto the soft carpeted floor. I didn't know who came up with the concept of carpeting the study rooms, but maybe they were able to foresee this happening.

I tried to quickly get myself onto my chair as I noticed Luke approaching the library study room.

I was glad that from inside the room, you could see what was going on outside. However, you couldn't see what was happening inside the room from outside the room. Which meant that Luke wouldn't see me in this embarrassing state until he entered the room.

Unfortunately, things did not go as it was planned when I tried to move my legs before Luke entered the room. I tried moving my arms after failing to move my legs, but my body wouldn't listen to me. It was truly awkward when Luke entered the room one minute later to see me lying down on the floor unable to move.

"This is a kind of exercise to help someone study better for an exam." I tried to come up with a decent excuse.

"So, in order to do 'some kind of exercise' a person lays on the floor with flushed cheeks with a burning hot body temperature to prepare for an exam?" Luke asked suspiciously while placing his cold hand against my forehead.

"I learned it from the history book that people from district five do this often." I grimaced.

I wasn't exactly lying because people from district five did do weird stuff in the past like witch hunts. However, even I knew it wasn't a decent excuse because even I wouldn't believe it.

Luke was silent for a moment with a loss of words. It was a shame to look at such an angelic face with such contemplation as small frowns occurred frequently on his face.

After Luke finished pondering on what to do, he wobbled as he lifted me up in a princess carry to the infirmary room with his thin arms.

I wondered how a four-year-old would have enough muscle or stamina to carry a 18kg girl with his branch-like arms that appeared to be very fragile.

A doctor immediately led Luke to place me onto the nearest empty bed with her eyes full with great concern, "this patient looks like she has a high fever!"

"What medicine do I have to take to get better fast enough to prepare for the upcoming exam," I faintly asked. 

"Even with the medicine it's going to take at least half a day to recover." The doctor answered gently while she passed me a cup.

I was impressed with the medical system of this world as it was astoundingly more advanced than my past life. In my past life, it took at least three days to get better from a high fever. As expected from the reputation from the first district!

I decided to resume my studying after a few hours so that I can recover to be more efficient. Even I knew I would go nowhere from studying in my present sick state.

I took the medicine that the doctor fed me to drink and laid on the nice bed. The next time I opened my eyes, I realized a couple hours in a split second. When I felt like I got back the ability to move my limbs again, I started to put more strength in my arms and legs to see if they would move. I was feeling a bit dizzy, but that it would be fine because I was planning to take another break again after finishing the seventh pile of books that I pulled from the library.

I got up to walk towards the entrance of the infirmary to see Luke walking towards the entrance while he held onto a piece of melon bread and a bottle of strawberry milk.

"Are these for me?" I asked as I almost got touched from his caring actions.

Luke nodded, "I thought you would be feeling a bit hungry after studying for a long time in the library."

"Thanks!" I gratefully grabbed the melon bread and strawberry milk.

I walked into the empty hallway to finish the rest of the books in the pile left in the study room.

"Where are you going? The washroom nor the infirmary is that way." Luke asked with a frown.

"To the library," I looked back at him.

"To the library you say." Luke disagreed with me as he tried to lead me back into the infirmary.

"I know I was sick a few hours ago, but I feel that if I keep on staying in bed, I'd be wasting my precious time for studying for the exams." I replied.

Every second was precious. Especially when the time was clicking closer to taking the exams. Well, I did technically have a week left because I was using the space-time room, but I wasn't going to take any chances.

"Why are you so desperate to get a good mark? It's just very confusing Rika because ever since you came here you have changed." Luke asked while tilting his head in confusion.

'It's more like why haven't you caught on yet. It's because I want to sleep in a decent bed and buy more cute clothes and daily necessities,' I sighed inwardly.

"It's because I want to sleep in a decent room with at least the daily necessities without worrying about the amount of points we have." I framed it nicely.

"Rika, if you were worried about these things you should've told me. There are a lot of events to gather more points at this school, but once you get sick, you can't even participate in any of these events." Luke tried to convince me to rest in one of the empty beds.

Of course, there were more events, such as the midterms and finals coming up in the future. However, I was really confident that I would be able to do well this time since I poured my heart and soul into studying willingly. I wasn't going to waste all my effort in deferring them with a doctor's note when I was almost finished with the preparation. I couldn't find a better opportunity to earn more points than now.

"What events excluding exams? Didn't you want me to study more anyways? In our last school, you kept on dragging me to your 'extra study sessions'!" I clenched my fists.

I started to feel a little angry and annoyed from Luke even though I knew he was just trying to help.

Luke let go of my hand as he tried to hide his face to conceal the welling tears that started to make his large ocean eyes slightly glisten. I frowned as I didn't mean to overdo it. I instantly felt a guilty pang in my heart from making a young child almost cry.

He was only a four-year-old in the end. As the adult in this partnership, I should have acted more mature. It was heartbreaking to make such a beautiful face wrecked with both a mix of worry and contemplation. Even though others would not be able to turn away from his lovely troubled appearance.

However, my body had a reflex where it would hide behind things or run away whenever it was embarrassed or filled with guilt. Unfortunately, I ran away from Luke after glancing at his uncomfortable expression with my bad instinct. 

And at this really bad timing, I had tripped over nothing while trying to put a distance between the sad angelic boy and I.

I gasped as my body was about to slam against the floor. However, I found myself tumbling against his chest when Luke grabbed my wrist and pulled it towards him.

'How did he get here so fast?' A thought crossed through my head.

"Let go!" I yelled when I realized Luke was still holding onto my wrist.

Luke let go of my wrist in exchange for a tight hug. He gently patted my back while I started to burst into tears. I wondered how my old family was doing in my past life and maybe my current family in my current life. If I didn't go to this school, I would probably be sleeping in a big fluffy bed with meals made by my mom in my warm house.

Maybe it was because my body regressed to this young child that my mind was starting to regress as well.

When I finally started to calm down, Luke asked gently, "Are you alright now?"

I nodded my head while thinking that Luke must be feeling homesick as well, but he never showed it. I guess it was me that was unreliable with throwing tantrums everywhere and suddenly crying that made Luke have nobody to depend on.

Luke led me back to the infirmary again without me knowing, "You should really rest Rika"

I nodded while climbing into a bed and thought that I should give in for today as I planned to study more tomorrow to make up for it.