After the students dispersed, Declan, who had been standing at a distance, approached. He looked at his name and Henry’s name written side by side on the paper and muttered.
“…It’s real.”
Henry tried not to make a face showing his displeasure toward him.
Of all these students, it had to be Declan. No matter how he thought about it, this was a curse. He even had the delusion that the teacher had deliberately paired him with Declan.
The incident from yesterday kept surfacing, bringing sporadic feelings of guilt. He disliked him, but disliked him as much as he was bothered by him.
However, since they’d become partners, he could no longer avoid or ignore him. So Henry steadied his heart with an excuse.
This is all an effort not to let David’s advice go to waste.
“Want to go first?”
Henry asked as he walked toward a spot where two seats were empty.
“Doesn’t matter.”
He heard the sound of Declan’s footsteps following behind. With a short answer, he sat in the seat next to him and held out his hand. It was because they had to measure heart rate while holding hands, according to the practical instructions.
Henry couldn’t hide his awkwardness, but Declan seemed completely unbothered even as his hand was held.
Henry grasped Declan’s left wrist with his thumb and middle finger. However, the shape didn’t fully wrap around, so he eventually changed the position of his hand. He placed his thumb over the spot where he could feel the pulse.
Looking at Declan’s hand touching his own, Henry unconsciously gulped. Then he spoke needlessly to hide his awkwardness.
“…Why is your hand so hot?”
Henry thought his hand felt exactly like it was placed on burning firewood. He himself had quite a warm body temperature, but Declan was even more so.
He blinked slowly and answered with a puzzled expression.
“I’m always like this.”
The man’s body heat transferred to him. Even though only their hands were touching, it felt like heat was rising throughout his whole body. He wanted to escape from this strange heat. Was that why?
“…Hazel must have liked that.”
He brought up words he didn’t need to say, words he wouldn’t normally have said. One of Declan’s eyebrows crooked. Only after seeing him did he snap back to his senses.
“What are you talking about?”
“No, I mean… she gets cold easily. I suddenly thought of it without realizing… Sorry.”
This isn’t it, Henry muttered quietly in a voice the other person couldn’t hear.
He didn’t know why, whenever he came in front of this bastard, he kept revealing things he didn’t want revealed and saying unnecessary things. Henry hung his head low, resenting his own mouth from a moment ago.
“You…”
“Huh, huh?”
“Are you even counting properly? It’s been over a minute now.”
Henry’s eyes widened greatly as he answered in shock at Declan’s question.
“I counted!”
“What number are you at?”
“Um… 82. How many minutes has it been?”
Actually, he wasn’t certain. Because he’d just panicked, it seemed like he might have missed one or two beats.
But he didn’t have the confidence to hold this blazing hot wrist again. Henry said a plausible number.
Fortunately, Declan let it pass without suspicion.
“1 minute 20 seconds.”
“Then I should write down about 61.”
“Yeah.”
Henry said as he let go of his wrist. With a monotone answer, the man recorded the number with his left hand while extending his right hand to Henry.
He wants me to give him my hand, right?
Henry glanced at Declan and placed his hand on top. Unlike him from before, Declan easily grasped Henry’s wrist in one hand.
Clack, Declan, having finished recording, put down his pen and picked up the stopwatch to hand it to Henry.
“Tell me when it’s time.”
Henry nodded and pressed the start button on the stopwatch. Beep, time passed with the sound.
Henry silently looked down at the man’s hand. His heart was pounding. Henry thought all of this was because of the embarrassment from earlier.
Why did I say such useless things?
Henry squeezed his eyes shut then opened them. In the midst of it all, he was bothered even by the trivial detail that he had so easily grasped his wrist.
Wasn’t this bastard’s height similar to mine? 5cm, no, wasn’t it a 6cm difference? Can hand size differ this much with just that difference? My hands are pretty big too… When this bastard holds a ball, how were his hands…?
He tried not to be conscious of the hand being held, along with irrelevant thoughts.
“…How many seconds is it now?”
One second that felt like one minute passed. At Declan’s question, Henry looked at the stopwatch, but there was still plenty of time left.
“It’s 40 seconds… Why?”
Henry, who had been staring at his held wrist until now, finally raised his head. He saw Declan’s face with furrowed brows. Henry, who had been watching quietly, hesitated then opened his mouth.
“…Is there a problem?”
“Are you sick?”
“No? I’m not sick anywhere.”
Henry said, puzzled by the question that felt out of the blue.
“Then why is it beating so fast?”
“…What number is it at?”
“68.”
Henry’s mouth fell open without realizing it. For a moment he doubted his ears, wondering if he’d heard wrong, but looking at Declan’s face, that wasn’t the case.
It had only been 40 seconds, and already 68 beats?
“…Didn’t you count wrong?”
“No.”
At this point, it was awkward to ask Declan more. Unlike himself, Declan had really been concentrating only on his heart rate.
Henry stopped the stopwatch and twisted his wrist free. The teacher who had been going around also saw them and approached.
“What’s wrong, something not working?”
“…Lowell’s heart rate is reading too high.”
“Hm? How was it?”
“68 beats in 40 seconds.”
Henry smiled awkwardly and silently listened to the conversation between the teacher and Declan. The teacher’s head whipped around after hearing his answer.
“Do you… have a heart condition or something?”
“If I did, wouldn’t I not be able to play football?”
Henry answered, rolling his eyes at the teacher’s question.
“Then why is it like that?”
Henry, now receiving two pairs of eyes on him, hurriedly thought up an excuse. He had no choice.
He’d tell them the reason if he knew it, but he couldn’t figure out why his heart was beating like this at all.
“Maybe it’s because I’m hot?”
“Hot? Now? In December?”
The teacher answered, puzzled. Henry shrugged as if it were nothing.
“A little. Russell’s hands were hot.”
He felt a gaze boring into his face, but Henry didn’t look back. It was an intentional avoidance. After all, it was true that he’d felt hot after holding that bastard’s hand.
Fortunately, the teacher nodded, saying it could be so at Henry’s words.
“Sometimes heart rate can rise when you’re hot. Try it a few more times for now, and if it still doesn’t go down and you can’t finish in time… Hmm. Yeah. How about substituting it with a report?”
“A report?”
“Yeah. Giving extra time separately is a bit much. It’s an activity that needs to be done within the time frame anyway. Try until the end for now, and if you can’t finish, how about analyzing and writing down the reasons why the experiment didn’t go smoothly?”
Henry glanced at Declan. Declan had finished without any problems, but now he was receiving an additional assignment because of himself again.
He thought that maybe this time he would frown and get angry.
“Understood.”
In reality, Declan lightly exceeded his expectations and obediently answered that he would do so.
Henry asked him quietly once the teacher moved away to check on other students’ experiment processes.
“…Aren’t you angry?”
Declan, who had been resetting the stopwatch, raised his eyes. As if hearing a voice asking what he was talking about now, Henry explained hesitantly.
“There’s no problem with your experiment results, but you’re getting an additional assignment because of me.”
After hearing those words, Declan handed over the stopwatch with an unbothered expression. Henry, receiving it, stared at Declan intently, demanding an answer.
Declan finally spoke only after Henry held out his left wrist again.
“It’s my fault too.”
“Huh?”
“You said you got hot because my hands are hot.”
“Ah, that… that’s true, but…”
It was true that he’d gotten hot from that point on, but it was only an excuse after all.
Football was an outdoor sport. Henry, who had played it for a long time, was as resistant to heat as he was sensitive to it. It meant he felt hot, but endured it well.
Henry’s cheeks reddened. At the feeling of heat rushing through once more, Henry slowly exhaled, trying to cool down the heat.
“And it’s not confirmed yet. If your heart rate returns to normal, you won’t have to do it.”
With words that felt generous, he pointed to the stopwatch with his head. At words that even felt kind somehow, Henry ended up becoming noticeably flustered.
“I, I pressed it.”
Even though he understood it meant to press the start button of the stopwatch, Henry reacted a beat late. He screamed internally at the thought that he must have noticed his confusion.
He didn’t know why he’d been so flustered.
It just was.
