Right after finishing his conversation with Hazel, leaving behind the voices and hands trying to hold him back, Henry returned straight to the dormitory using his uncomfortable foot as an excuse.
As soon as he entered his room, his legs gave out. Henry leaned against the door and crouched down on the floor. Due to his sitting position, the bandage wrapped around his ankle naturally came into view.
Four days since being treated at the infirmary. Was it because he’d moved around a lot?
At some point, the bandage wrapped around his ankle had come loose on its own, and now he could barely feel any pressure from it.
In fact, when he woke up this morning, it had improved enough that he didn’t even feel pain from his injured ankle. It seemed it had been a very minor injury, just as Coach and the infirmary teacher had said.
Henry tapped the bandage with his fingers. He thought it was about time to remove this bandage that had long since lost its purpose.
Wondering if he should take it off, Henry reached out his hand. He scratched at the medical tape holding the end of the bandage a few times, trying to remove it, then suddenly stopped.
A slightly rough, weightless piece of cloth.
Somehow he didn’t want to remove this cumbersome bandage. It was strange. He had the odd thought that it would be fine to leave it on for a few more days.
Henry let out a long breath as if swallowing a sigh and got up.
***
His roommate, Joseph, returned when Henry was in the middle of organizing his belongings in the dormitory.
As soon as Joseph came back, he made a fuss and asked Henry.
“Hey, hey! Big news! Big news! Did you hear? Hazel asked Russell out on a date! At this rate, aren’t they going to get back together?”
From that commotion, Henry came to understand Hazel’s feelings a little.
That it was nice that Declan wasn’t interested in gossip about others.
“I know.”
Henry spoke calmly and continued folding the clothes he’d been organizing.
“What? You already knew? That’s weird. You definitely weren’t there then.”
Deflated by Henry’s reaction, Joseph flopped down on the bed with a completely disappointed face.
“Just because I wasn’t there doesn’t mean that kind of talk wouldn’t reach my ears.”
Joseph propped his chin up and watched Henry moving busily, then asked.
“But why aren’t you angry? You seem fine?”
“Why would I be angry?”
Henry answered Joseph with a somewhat bewildered tone.
“Well, I mean… You and Hazel only dated for two weeks before breaking up. And that same girl not only dated Russell for nine whole months, but she’s still desperately pining for him. If you were the you I know, this would definitely be annoying news.”
“Why would I care about something like that?”
“You’re… kind of weird, you know?”
Joseph’s face scrunched up at the extremely calm answer. Then he just glared at Henry’s back silently for a while.
Just as Henry, whose back of the head was starting to burn, was about to ask why, Joseph suddenly jumped up with an exclamation of realization.
“You, you… no way. Did you know from the beginning? That Hazel was going to ask Russell out on a date?”
Henry didn’t bother to answer. From the long silence, Joseph read Henry’s affirmation and made a dumbfounded expression.
“Don’t tell me that’s why… you deliberately made Hazel quarterback in Powder Puff and Russell… Wait, was even the injury on purpose…”
“Are you crazy?”
Henry had been quietly listening to the mostly correct speculation, but he challenged that last statement.
“Ah, the injury wasn’t?”
“Of course not. If I got badly injured, it could affect my playing career forever. Would I do that?”
“Well, that’s true.”
Joseph got excited thinking he’d grasped the truth, then calmed down after hearing Henry’s answer.
In his mind too, Henry Lowell when it came to football wasn’t someone who would ruin his own body for personal reasons.
“What’s gotten into you? Going to the trouble of doing something nice for Russell? Are you two now really! Completely! Reconciled or something?”
Reconciled?
At that question, Henry stopped the hands that had been moving without rest. He heard Joseph calling him from behind, but couldn’t answer.
After a brief silence whose reason even Henry himself didn’t know, he gave an answer that resembled a mutter.
“Who knows… Why did I do that?”
He suddenly felt doubtful. It wasn’t that he’d forgotten the reason. Helping Hazel and Declan get back together so he could put Declan in his debt. Henry was certain that even if he went back to that day, he would make the same choice.
But now that things were going well, something felt frustrating. Somewhere he couldn’t pinpoint in words.
“Huh? What?”
Joseph, who hadn’t heard the quietly flowing words, craned his neck toward Henry.
Henry didn’t see this, too absorbed in thinking about why he felt so frustrated. And after brief contemplation, he was certain.
“No, ah… That’s it.”
Hazel was both an ex-girlfriend and a friend, wasn’t she! It seemed he just didn’t like seeing her suffer emotionally because of Russell!
“What’s ‘that’s it’? Speak louder. I can’t hear you.”
As soon as Joseph complained about his frustration at Henry’s continued muttering,
Complaints poured from Henry’s tightly closed mouth.
“Hey, if Russell was going to accept a date invitation anyway, why the hell did he break up with Hazel in the first place?”
Joseph was momentarily flustered by the rapid-fire words. He couldn’t hold back and threw a question at Henry.
“…Going on a date doesn’t necessarily mean dating, does it?”
“If he’s not trying to get back together, why would he accept a date invitation? It’s not like he’s testing Hazel.”
“No… Leaving all that aside, is that really something for you to get angry about? Or wait. Did you still have feelings for Hazel?”
Joseph asked back in a lukewarm voice. Only then did Henry’s words stop abruptly.
“What?”
“Well, I mean. Since when have you cared about Hazel that much? Forget having lingering feelings—you never once brought her up after you broke up.”
“No, I…! Even if I didn’t bring it up, I just wanted her to be doing well! If you saw a friend being toyed with, would you feel good about it?”
Joseph’s eyes narrowed. It was a look of disbelief.
Henry cleared his throat and turned away. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand Joseph’s reaction. Even by his own thinking, this wasn’t something he would typically say.
Perhaps predicting that Henry wouldn’t say more even if he pressed, Joseph observed Henry’s expression, then smoothly brought up something else.
“But why are you suddenly organizing? Because of the break?”
Pretending not to be embarrassed, moving busily, Henry answered.
“…Iris is coming to pick me up tomorrow morning. I have to go home. Since I’m going anyway, I wanted to take some stuff in advance.”
“Home? Didn’t you just go home last week? Why are you going again?”
Joseph asked back at Henry’s answer. Instead of answering, Henry pointed to his leg, still wrapped in bandages.
“Ah.”
It was a short exclamation, but it contained understanding.
Joseph had known Henry for as long as David had. Thanks to that, he knew quite a bit about Henry’s parents. The fact that Margaret cherished her young late-born youngest son as if he’d break if squeezed, as if he’d fall over if the wind blew.
“I should let her know I’m okay.”
“If I were you, even knowing she’d worry, I couldn’t do what you do.”
“You don’t know that.”
Joseph let out a deep sigh and spoke with a tone full of certainty. However, Henry didn’t agree with his words.
He believed that anyone raised under their parents would become like him.
Joseph already knew the answer Henry would give him. Years of dormitory life. The two who had always been roommates had even had arguments about this.
Instead of refuting Henry’s words, he looked at his ankle and asked.
“Does it still hurt?”
“No, I think it’s almost healed. No pain either.”
“It healed quickly.”
“Because it was a minor injury.”
Henry answered relatively honestly.
They bickered and it was annoying sometimes, but anyway, wasn’t this worry from a long-time friend? Even if he made excuses, he didn’t want to make up lies.
“Then can’t you take the bandage off?”
It was the very thought Henry himself had just hours ago. Henry silently looked down at the bandage wrapped around his foot, then slowly shook his head and said.
“Not yet.”
“Why? You said it’s fine. Isn’t it uncomfortable to move?”
“It’s only been a few days since I got injured, and you want me to take it off already? Mom will scold me.”
“Ah, true.”
Getting scolded by mom. It wasn’t something a teenager in his late teens should say, but Joseph understood even that.
Joseph lay down on the bed and casually waved his hand toward Henry, who was nearly finished organizing.
“Alright. Have a good trip.”
