18 Having Fun

"Well, it doesn't matter, isn't it? The most important thing is that you're not disfigured," Koharu said in a rush, finally recovering from her shock.

"And you look totally fine. You don't look like you had an accident at all. You look so pretty, and even your eyes changed color. Did you really get injured so badly? Or were you just playing with us to make us worry for you?" she added in a sweet, but rebuking tone.

It may sound harmless, but the way she said it was as if she caught someone playing sick to get attention.

With this, Koharu, the burriko, successfully transferred everyone's attention back to Ara.

Oooh good.

But the simpleton forgot the doctor and the nurses were in the room. So, before the others could even react, the doctor and the nurses who felt offended at her words rebutted her suave accusations. But they asked permission from Ara before they spoke to the visitors, and she just nodded her agreement. 

"Young miss, I'm sorry for interrupting your reunion, but Ms. Suzuki's injuries are real. She was just lucky that when she drifted into a deep sleep, her body cooperated well with the medication and healed at a very speedy rate. The glow on her skin was due to her brother's order to have a dermatologist and nutritionist take care of her body as soon as she woke up."

"That's right," one of the nurses added. "I'm actually the one in charge of applying creams and body massages to Ms. Suzuki," she said with pride.

"As for her eyes," the doctor added. "It's a rare condition someone gets when he or she received severe head trauma. If you still have doubts, you are welcome to come with me and I will show you all her x-rays and laboratory exams."

The last line was delivered with only a slightly veiled warning. After all, at the end of the day, the staff had to protect the reputation of the hospital. If someone who's obviously not shy to slander people was here, they had to defend themselves.

If Okada Koharu managed to make everyone believe that Ara lied despite what the doctor already said, it would appear as if the hospital conspired to fake the patient's condition. It's a type of scandal that would end the hospital. In Japan, everything was depended on reputation. 

"Do you want to come with us to see her records?" the doctor asked as he transferred his disapproving gaze from one guest to another. The nurses mimicked his look as they too stared at the potential troublemakers.

Technically, the doctor couldn't show them Ara's records without her permission, but she didn't mind, so she never bothered reminding him. This was after all in her favor. It would save her a lot of time and energy.

"Ah, there's no need for that," Pres said as he pulled Koharu to the side. "Okada was just teasing Suzuki. They're actually the best of friends."

"Oh?"The doctor and the nurses didn't look like they believed it but refrained from giving any further comments.

"Then if you don't need anything else, we would take our leave."

The doctor then turned to Ara as he bid goodbye – but not before reminding her not to overexert herself.

Soon, Suzuki Ara was left alone with her guests. For a while, it was quiet in the room, until she got out of bed and stood up.

"Are you hungry? My brother got me some snacks earlier."

"Ara, are you sure you can move around? The doctor just told you not to overexert yourself," Rin reminded her worriedly as she stood up and pushed Ara back to sit on the bed gently.

Rin and Miharu might be friends with Koharu, but Ara had no bitter feelings with them. Like the past her, they were pretty passive people and just followed Koharu around.

The only reason why Koharu used her instead of them was because those two belonged to average families, and their personalities. Ara, on the other hand, was only passive to Koharu because she liked her as a friend, but she's really someone people couldn't control otherwise - that and the fact that she's smart academically and was very rich.

"I'm honestly okay. I'm even doing some therapy exercises already," Ara assured her, but the girl didn't allow her to move.

"Where is it? I'll go get it," she volunteered, and Ara had no choice but to point at the boxes sitting on the table at the mini kitchen.

"We actually got you some snacks and drinks as well," Miyahara said as he and Uchida showed the bags they brought and took out the small bottled drinks and small bags of snacks and placed them on the table.

"Wow!"Rin suddenly blurted out and everyone turned to her.

She was carrying an elegant black box in her arm as she went to the table and placed it there. The others who saw the box were amazed too.

"Oh my, isn't this wagashi from Kuuya?"Miharu was also delighted.

Kuuya was a wagashi or traditional Japanese sweets shop located in Ginza, the most upscale district in Tokyo, and was one of the most expensive sweets retailers. It's an extremely popular store that's rather iconic because of its one hundred-and-thirty-one year history. One couldn't just go there and buy without reservation, most especially their specialty sweet called "Monaka", a sweet made of mochi flour wafers and an azuki bean filling.

"Quick open it," Uchida who's a guy ordered excitedly. It was how popular this dessert shop was.

Rin opened it, and several rows of cute traditional sweets were inside. It was easy to see that everyone fell in love and they ceased fire. Even Koharu kept quiet to eat.

"Amazing Suzuki, your brother really pampers you," Rin commented as she happily popped a cute sticky rice cake in her mouth.

She was referring of course about the difficulty of getting sweets at Kuuya.

"Well, I'm his only sister so it's natural that he spoils me, right?"Ara replied with a grin and Koharu almost choked.

"But I thought your relationship with your brother was not close," Miharu said thoughtfully as she turned to Koharu who paled. She had told Rin and Miharu that Aki hated Ara's guts because she's so ill-tempered and stubborn.

Ara smiled sweetly. "How could that be? We may fight but which siblings don't ever fight? If my brother and I are not close, he wouldn't have taken a break from work to care for me when I was in critical condition nor get me these sweets, right?"

After everything that they'd seen, everyone quietly agreed. What Ara said made sense. Rin and Miharu's brows were knitted a little as they gave Koharu contemplating looks.

"Suzuki," Uchida started; his eyes bright with curiosity. "You said earlier that someone tampered with your car?"

His question made the already pale Koharu stiffen, but it was subtle that the others didn't notice except for Ara.

"Yes. The brakes didn't work when I stepped on it, so I turned the wheel and hit the lamppost."

"So that thing about you committing suicide because you're depressed was not true?" Miharu asked wide-eyed.

Ara then pretended to look surprised. "Depressed? Me?" she scoffed.

"Well…"

"Well, you look so disinterested in the world and sad so we thought you were suffering from depression," Koharu explained hastily before the others looked at her suspiciously again.

Just like the other rumors, she was the one who told everyone Ara was suffering from depression anyway. It was a good thing that the way she said it was not direct, as if she just mentioned her thoughts out loud, creating a huge misunderstanding.

"I look disinterested because I'm bored," Ara drawled out lazily. "But why would I be depressed? I'm Suzuki Ara, heiress of the Suzuki Raiden Group, the spoiled younger sister of Suzuki Aki, my grades are high and I don't look bad. Why would I be depressed?"

If someone else would say what she did, it would come out as boasting, but Ara's way of saying it was like just stating facts so it was not offensive.

And they were indeed true.

Starting today, Suzuki Ara would make sure everyone would know these facts. She would not let Okada Koharu use her as she did in the past, and she would make sure that people would discover this so-called heroine was in truth a burikko.

AH, but she would take her sweet time though. It's not fun if she'd end it immediately. There were still two months remaining of school after all. Remembering this, Ara made an innocent expression.

"I wonder if the police already found the culprit who sabotaged my car," she said out loud and she almost laughed to see Koharu's eyes filling with panic.

"Well, your family has influence so it will not take time for them to catch that person," the President assured her.

Ara nodded. "I already pity that person actually. My brother would destroy him completely," she added, that made Okada Koharu lose all blood on her face, and she laughed.

Ara had been a good and considerate princess while she was in Ritz. The last time she ever did something bad was when she sneaked out of the castle to go to the festival and got beaten by a minotaur.

It was safe to say that Suzuki Ara never realized being naughty was so much fun until now…