A bit after the call was finished, the microwave that was heating up his food suddenly dinged. Leon turned his head in response and took the food out of the microwave.

He placed the plate of meat down on the table, and then he took some rice. He still had a few rice leftovers from... when? Leon froze. Hold on a second, this rice he has in his dining room—when did he make it? He had to think this through.

The rice he found, he’s not sure when he made it. He looked at it and touched its texture and it hasn’t sogged yet... barely. Okay, maybe it already did, but Leon’s not sure.

He observed the rice once more. It’s kind of wet—whatever that means. He asked himself, in his current condition, would he risk getting food poisoning? He already feels like shit and has to drink meds until he gets better. If he gets food poisoning, he might as well just die.

He thought for a moment, and then he chuckles. “Aha... yeah, no,” he told himself, dumping the soggy rice into the trash can. He sighed. “Mom’s gonna be really upset if I die,” he mumbled out. He washed his hand, and then he went to make some new freshly cooked rice.

He took out some rice from the container, measured it, and then he put it into the rice cooker with water. And while the rice was currently cooking, Leon took his phone out, intending to watch some videos on youtube, but then he remember that he hasn’t told the school about why he was absent today.

Damn it, he thought. He better the class rep quickly before he’s labeled ‘alpa’ for the whole day.

He scrolled down his contact list, looking for Ienna’s name, and his hand momentarily froze on Eli’s contact. He thought for a second, should I ask him to tell Ienna? he asked. He opened Eli’s contact, but then he came to realize that they weren’t in the same class anymore, right.

He clicked out of Eli’s contact and scrolled down again, stopping on Ienna’s name. He opened it, and then he went ahead and texted her.

   Leon: Yo, Ienna

   Leon: Uh, sorry it’s kinda late to tell you this... I just woke up um

   Leon: I’ve been sick for the last few days, probably would still be tomorrow as well

   Leon: Do you mind telling the teacher that?

He waited for her response, and not even a minute later, she has read his messages. And then she texted back.

   Ienna: Ooh

   Ienna: Get well soon

   Ienna: It’s like what melia said then she’s right

Leon frowned.

   Leon: Melia?

   Ienna: Yeah

   Ienna: She said you look sick when you were at her house for a group project on saturday

He was at whose house when now, huh?

Leon was confused. He’s been sick the past two days—three if he included Saturday evening. He has been focusing much of his time during his sick day on himself. He legitimately couldn’t remember anything that happened in the last few days except for what happened inside of his room—and that was not a particularly pleasant memory.

He thought for a few more, and then he finally remember. Oh yeah, Melia! She’s the girl who lived on the same block as him. Damn, if Ienna didn’t mention her, he wouldn’t have remembered that at all.

   Leon: I see

   Ienna: Well okay then i’ll tell the teacher

   Ienna: You go rest at your home there big boy

Leon snorted. Even through chat, she was still the same Ienna that he knows.

   Leon: Thank you, Ienna

After sending that last message, he sighed. Finally, he’s done. All he needs to do now was to wait for the rice to cook so he could finally eat. So, he just sat in silence, watching some youtube videos, and later on, when the rice was cooked, he finally ate.

Luckily this time, he didn’t puke out his innards. He could actually digest the food properly, thankfully.

And when he’s done eating, he didn’t know what else he’d do. Aimlessly, he walked towards the living room and sat on his couch. He picked up the remote to turn on the TV, intending to actually watch the TV, but he got bored immediately. So instead, he took out his phone and played some games.

Leon isn’t particularly a gamer. He only played a few puzzle mobile games. He prefers watching other people play games instead—it’s more fun, and it saves him the stress of having to deal with the game itself.

So he went and watch Markiplier’s videos. He loved the dude’s video. Re-watching the first FNAF video he uploaded was practically a ritual. After a few hours of watching Markiplier making a fool of himself online, he was stoked. He’s done now, that was enough laughter for the rest of the day.

Afterward, he went to his room and took his guitar. He sat on his bed and placed the instrument on his lap. He thought to himself, maybe he should play a few songs? He needs to do something, anything that he would do to fill up the empty times he has for being sick.

He repeated the intro of Alec Benjamin’s ‘Let Me Down Slowly’ a few times—the tune of it is irresistibly catchy, damn. He loves it, and he loves the song’s lyrics even more.

He moved on to play something else. At first, he was playing some random notes, creating a pretty melody. “This good... yeah, this is good...” mumbled as he was playing it. He kept creating that tune, not noticing that he was slowly drifting towards the melody of the song he’s been writing for a long time—the song that he wrote for her.

The song that I wrote for you.