[TSSIM] Chapter 432: Catch a Cold

Saturday.

While the internet was as lively as ever, many people were planning meetups at the entrance of Otonokizaka High School to enjoy the school festival together.

Although quite a few people showed up, it wasn't as many as expected. Everyone also brought rain gear, naturally because the weather was ridiculously gloomy.

By the way, the sky had been like this since Wednesday, and it rained every day.

When it first started raining, the nine members of Muse once again looked at the manga that had been given to Honoka. Aside from being amazed by the sheer coincidence, they didn't know what to say.

However, they were all a little worried, as this turn of events was just too concerning to ignore.

Homura also felt a bit worried about this.

After all, if things kept going like this, was Honoka really going to catch a fever?

Nonetheless, knowing Honoka hadn't been overworking herself, nor had she been exercising in the rain, how could she possibly get sick?

Even so, it might be possible to happen if she forgot to close the window and kicked her blanket onto the floor.

Feeling a bit concerned about this, Homura arrived early with the others at Otonokizaka High School.

"Where's Honoka?"

As he arrived, Homura asked Muse's members right off the bat.

"Honoka-chan hasn't shown up yet..." Kotori shook her head, looking a bit worried.

Homura: "..."

"Could it be... something really did happen to her?" Hanayo suddenly looked flustered.

"Kayo-chin..." Rin didn't know what to say either.

"Didn't anyone call her?" Eriri frowned.

"I just did. She said she'd be here in a bit." Umi replied, pacing back and forth in the room with her arms crossed.

"Everyone, I'm here~"

Just as they were talking, Honoka, who everyone had been worried about, finally showed up.

Everyone looked at her in unison and noticed that she didn't seem to have anything wrong with her.

"She's walking straight, so I guess nothing major happened."

Homura's remark earned him some serious eye rolls from the girls.

"Ehehe..." Honoka rubbed her nose. "I think I might've caught a bit of a cold."

Everyone: "..."

"C-C-C-C-Cold?!"

"A cold you say?!"

As Hanayo and Nico exclaimed in shock simultaneously, the others didn't look too happy either.

"Yeah..." Honoka shook her head. "I'm not running a fever or anything, just a bit..."

A bit of what?

Achoo!

"Sneezing..." Eli's face darkened.

Seeing this, the others were stunned.

Forget about whether Honoka could perform or not, how were they going to handle it if she sneezed during the performance?

Homura quickly stepped forward to check Honoka's temperature.

"Temperature's a bit high, so... it's just a simple cold?"

Homura muttered to himself, looking like he was deep in thought.

Hearing his mutter, the others stayed silent and didn't interrupt, though they all seemed a bit expectant and curious about whether he could cure a cold.

"By the way, there's no place to take a bath at school, right?"

Homura suddenly asked an unrelated question.

"No, our school doesn't have one..."

Nozomi quickly replied, though she didn't quite understand why he was asking that.

Homura nodded.

"Then let's head to Honoka's home first."

"What are you planning to do, Homura-kun?" Megumi asked curiously.

"Since it's just a cold, I just need to speed up her blood circulation, promote metabolism, and sweat it out. Luckily, I have just the right method, don't I?" Homura shrugged.

"Massage?" Megumi raised her eyebrows.

"Exactly, but after sweating it out, you'll definitely feel sticky. Honoka, you don't want to perform like that, do you?" Homura asked.

Honoka looked a bit conflicted, but Umi started to persuade her.

"What are you hesitating for? If you don't accept it, you might as well skip today's performance."

"I'm just worried we won't have enough time..." Honoka mumbled.

"Don't worry, Honoka-chan, there's still over two hours!" Kotori chimed in.

"You should hurry up and go." Elf waved her hand. "You could've been home by now with all that hesitation, y'know."

"Yeah, let's go before it starts raining."

Saying this, Homura somehow pulled out two hats, put one on himself, and the other on Honoka's head.

"Let's go!"

Without delay, Homura grabbed Honoka's hand and set off quickly.

After the two left, everyone fell into silence.

Maki played with the ends of her hair, her gaze wandering, then remarked, "If it wasn't for Homura-kun, Honoka wouldn't have learned better ways to exercise and would've kept pushing herself like in the manga... If that had happened, it wouldn't just be a cold today."

Still silence.

In fact, the others had thought of this too, but Maki was the one to voice it.

"It's like Homura-kun can see the future... No, more like Murphy's Law, right? Things just coincidentally take a turn for the worse. If it weren't for him..." Nozomi shook her head and didn't finish her words.

"I hope that doesn't happen—mph!"

Umi started to speak, but Elf quickly covered her mouth.

"Umi, you can't say it!"

"Huh?" Umi looked confused.

"Do you know that the more you don't want something to happen, the more likely it is to happen?!"

Umi: "..."

"That's right!" Hanayo nodded. "We can't think about bad things! Homura-kun will definitely—mph!"

"Don't say that!"

Nayuta rushed over and covered Hanayo's mouth.

Hanayo: "???"

Unable to speak, Hanayo could only stare at Nayuta with a head full of question marks.

"You know, setting up a flag is totally a thing, so don't even think about it in a situation like this!" Nayuta explained seriously.

Everyone: "..."

"So we can't say anything at all, huh..." Maki's mouth twitched. 

"Maybe we can try to jinx it?" Eriri rubbed her chin.

"Forget it, trying to jinx it now will just backfire." Elf shook her head.

"No, I mean reverse jinx it." Eriri added.

"You know, that's basically a curse, right? It's only a reverse jinx if the curse fails." Nayuta chimed in.

"Sure enough, you just can't be proactive about these things." Eriri's face darkened. "After everything's over, you can talk about it however you want, but while it's happening, anything you say might cause a problem."

"Can't we just keep it in our heads?" Megumi tilted her head. "I mean, flags and jinxes only come true if you say them out loud, right?"

Elf: "..."

Nayuta: "..."

"That's it! Let's do it like making a wish on a shooting star!" Elf clapped her hands. "If saying it out loud won't work, then just don't say anything!"

Kotori and the others exchanged glances, not making any moves, though it seemed like they were trying not to laugh.

"Speaking of which... didn't Homura-kun once talk about why shooting stars fly so fast..." Utaha murmured.

Elf: "..."

"Pfff!" Nico almost couldn't hold her laugh. "It's because the shooting stars don't want to hear people's wishes, right?"

Rin buried her face in Hanayo's shoulder, her own shoulders shaking.

Hanayo wanted to hide too, but Rin held onto her tightly, so she had to stifle her laughter, making her face look a bit strange.

Everyone else had different expressions, but Nozomi didn't even try to hide her smile, giggling happily.

"Meh, whatever! We should probably just do nothing and wait for them to come back."

Elf declared while rolling her eyes at everyone.