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[ The secret isn't all that hard, since he's close to Rei, he definitely asked her to heal him during the lockdown phase--it sped up the process, but it didn't heal him completely. That's all he could ask for at the moment, really. He smiles at Kido and nods. ]

Yeah. I'm really glad... You didn't have to pick up the trash, but thanks. I was gonna do it on the way back to bed. How are you doing though?

Fine.

[ It's an offhand answer as she continues to pick up the papers anyways, because she doesn't need Terry bending open and tearing open his stomach wound or whatever's wrong with him. But in doing so, she catches the words again and smooths out the sheet.

...She re-crumbles the page into a ball and throws it into the trash before going over to her bag on the bed and pulling out that paper airplane from before, straightening out the wings before tossing it towards Terry's face. ]

Is this yours?

[ If I had that poke his eye, I'm sure Kido would already start crying on the second day of August so maybe next time... The paper airplane hits Terry's forehead and he looks down at it. ]

... Oh. Yeah.

[ He didn't think it would be found by someone he knew?! ]

Why...?

[ Number of days since crying: 0

Kido folds her arms across her chest, staring at Terry for a moment like she wants him to please think about why anybody would be questioning paper airplanes spiralling down from the sky. ]

Because I found it outside, that's why. You have a wastebasket right there, so don't go throwing things out the window. You better not have written anything weird on it either, in case somebody else picks it up.

Don't you think it would be cool if it started an augmented reality game? A mysterious paper airplane falls from the sky and it starts a strange chain of events--

[ He laughs a little. ]

I didn't think it would be found by you, and have it brought back to me so fast.

No.

[ This whole situation still feels like some augmented reality game— and game is used very liberally here- but it's been an entire month and Kido's hopes that something will just happen or somebody will just show up and tell them what to do is getting lower by the day. ]

If you're throwing it around the hospital, the people who are most likely to see it are visitors coming in and out, aren't they?

[ She takes the paper again, glancing over at the words that make zero sense to her. She can probably read the yesses and nos, any numbers, very little else. ]

Is that what this is for? Instructions to a game?

Well, no. I was kidding about the game part. I wouldn't be able to make one anyway. But...

[ How should he put this.

Hmmm.

Hmmmmmmmm...

... ]

It's... a love letter.

[ lmao ]

[ Her mind screeches to a halt, because that's one of the last things she would have expected. It takes a while to snap out of it, and that's the only reason she doesn't whack Terry upside the head. She does yell at him, though. ]

That's not something you throw out the window! Stupid!!

[ Honestly, he thought Kido would have just stared at him dead in the eyes and scold him to tell a better lie, so this reaction was... unexpected. Terry looks at her, looking a little surprised.

The kitten on his head finally wakes from the slumber. It's the judging youngest cat, who stares at Kido for a few moments, but then hops down, making good use of Terry's shoulder, lap and floor and toddles off to the bed. ]

Relax, Kido! I was kidding... [ Maybe. ] I don't write love letters.

[ Cat, no... Kido feels like she has plenty of reasons to be upset about that, setting her face into a scowl and glaring at Terry, feeling like she's justified in this too, because who doesn't hate lies or being made fun of? ]

What a stupid thing to joke about... If that's not what it is, then read it out loud to me.

[ Yeah, he really deserves that glare. Terry knows it too, that's why his expression turns into an awkward, nervous half smile instead. He thought he was going to get punched! But is thankful that he isn't for now. ]

Fine, fine.

[ Terry unfolds the paper airplane and straightens it out. ]

"It's been a month since I saw you, but my answer will still be a no. If you think I'd just agree quickly because of your position, you had another thing coming. Though maybe it was better that you knocked me out because I'm now in a place where none of you can reach me. That's too bad."

[ Kido would just have to take his word for it for the legitimacy of the contents, but Terry did read it word for word. He folds the paper into halves twice and tears it in half. It really does feel like a message in a bottle kind of thing in the form of a former paper airplane. He's also blatantly ignoring the existence of the second paper airplane for reasons, so he won't ask for that... ]

[ The frown on Kido's face grows as she listens, but rather than angry, it's uncertain, a little bit embarrassed, because it's very clearly meant to be a letter to somebody specific and she's not the person who should hear it. ]

...It's better to reject somebody in person than in a letter, [ she mumbles, going over to the bed so she can sit on it. ]

Back when we first met, you said you got hit hard enough to be knocked out. Is this to the friend you were arguing with?

It's to that person, yeah, but she's not my friend. She's not here, and really... I just wrote that in the moment.

[ When he thinks about how similar it is to his original's habit of keeping audio diaries, it makes him want to frown in disgust, but he keeps the same face as always. That's why he didn't hesitate to tear the paper in half. Into the trash bin you go. ]

She's my original's girlfriend.

[ She really doesn't want to know, and it sounds like a mess to be caught up in. Definitely not something she should pry into. She should just leave it. ]

But she's somebody important, for you to have written all this to her?

[ She gestures a bit to all the other papers scattered about the room, as well as who knows how many airplanes that have flown outside. All she can make out from this one letter is that this girl asked Terry something, he said no, and she punched him in the face. It's pretty scary how easily she can see herself in this girl's shoes. ]

Huh? I only wrote one about her. The others are...

[ ... ]

You'll have to figure that out yourself!

[ No she doesn't. She takes the second airplane out of the bag and holds it up to him. ]

Read.

Wha--

[ Oh god she really had the second airplane. Terry slightly turns red at the face--he can tell it's the dreaded one because he folded the wings a little differently than the others. ]

No! Get someone else to do it!

What, is it something embarrassing? If it is, it's better if you read it out loud, not somebody else, isn't it?

[ She pulls her hand back at little- not to spare Terry from having to read it, but so she can make sure he doesn't just grab it out of her hands and tear it up like the last one. ]

If it's embarrassing, why would I want to read it out loud?!

[ Kido??? ]

Oh my god, this is payback, isn't it? I'm still not gonna read it!

Because then it stays between us, instead of being shared among others, right? It can't be that embarrassing, if you threw it out the window for anybody to see.

[ It's payback and she keeps the piece of paper held up in front of her chest so he can't ignore it if he keeps looking at her. ]

I threw it out the window without my name on it, wrote in English, IN A JAPANESE TOWN, in hopes that no one would pay attention to it and throw it in the garbage!

[ AAAAAAAAAAaaaa

This is why he can't bully anyone. He just gets hit back tenfold. And it hurts. ]

[ It's karma for littering!!! ]

English is learned in Japanese schools all the time.

[ Which doesn't help her at all, since she never went and never learned. She would ask somebody else to read it for her, but she's mentally going through the list of people she knows here, and they're all pretty... unreliable...

Why isn't there anybody smart here? ]

[ Maybe Terry knew about the latter, so that's why he was banking on it. Just a little bit. He's still dumb though, when he could have just thrown it into the trash himself, but he probably couldn't do it for some reason. ]

Nothing I wrote in there sounds like "I have a pen".

[ aka the most generic stuff you usually learn in classrooms ]

[ ...Kido takes the piece of paper back, and smooths out some of the other crumpled pieces of paper lying around her, stacking them in her lap. Even if she never learned how to read English, and even if there's no Google translator around, that doesn't mean it's impossible. ]

I'll leave you to look after Hayato and Suzume tomorrow, then, while I stay in the library.

[ Just painstakingly translating this word for word. It honestly sounds like such a pain, to the point that she wonders if it's even worth the effort, but if Terry's this embarrassed by it, it must be good blackmail material. ]

[ Terry is never going to tell Kido that he has a google translator app in that phone, but not even that will make him want to take his phone back. He's also appalled that Kido is taking the other papers too?! What the hell!!! He is just internally screaming at this point and tries to swipe at least ONE of them. ]

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