CHAPTER 27: IT WAS JUST A SCARE... RIGHT?

You ever try explaining something you barely understand... to five emotionally unstable women who live with you?

Yeah. Welcome back from the break.

The house was tense.

Sora wouldn’t even come downstairs. She’d holed herself up in the room we used to share, knees pulled to her chest like the weight of the world was pressing against her spine.

"I’m not pregnant," she whispered when I checked on her.

But she said it like an apology. Like it was her fault for existing at all.

I hated that.

I hated how small her voice was.

How she wouldn’t look at me.

How she flinched when I touched her hand.

I stayed with her as long as I could. I tried.

God knows I tried.

But time ran out.

The front door opened.

Boots. Bags. Chatter.

They were home.

Akane came in first, all elegance and perfume. Elira stepped through next, dropping her elf blade bag by the wall. Mei stormed in third, her scarf trailing behind like a comet of pure suspicion.

Rin brought up the rear, arms full of snacks like she’d stocked up for a weeklong apocalypse.

They stopped mid-step when they saw me standing there alone.

"Where’s Sora?" Mei asked immediately, narrowing her eyes like she was ready to fight.

"She’s... resting," I muttered. "She’s okay. Just a little—uh—tired."

That was all it took.

"Is she sick?" Akane pressed, concern blooming across her face.

"Did something happen?" Rin asked, dropping her bags.

"Wait... oh my god. Is she pregnant again?" Mei blurted.

Me: visible sweat.

Sora: still hiding upstairs.

My soul: already leaving my body.

"No," I finally said, raising both hands. "She’s not. It was a mistake. A... big misunderstanding."

They blinked.

Then blinked again.

Then—chaos.

"Wait, what?! How do you mistakenly think you’re pregnant?" Mei demanded.

"She what?!" Elira said, absolutely frozen. "I thought you were joking when you messaged earlier."

"I wasn’t."

I sighed, rubbing my forehead.

They all looked at each other like they were trying to solve a murder.

"She is not pregnant?" Akane finally asked, calm but stern. "Ren... explain. Now."

I told them everything. About the test. The panic. The hospital. Her sister. The breakdown. The false alarm. I told them how she’d shut down afterward, how scared she’d been, how ashamed.

"...So she made it all up?" Mei asked, arms crossed, her tone sharp.

"No," I snapped, surprising even myself. "She didn’t make it up. She really thought she was. And it broke her when she found out she wasn’t. So don’t say it like that."

Silence.

Rin looked away, chewing her bottom lip.

Akane nodded slowly.

Elira let out a long breath.

Mei finally sighed, softer this time.

"...Fine. But I’m still going to glare at her. Just a little."

"We’ll talk to her," Akane said. "Gently. We just... need to understand how it happened."

That was the real question.

How did we mistake something like that?

I didn’t know.

But I was scared the answer would hurt more than any of us expected.

---

Hospitals have this smell.

Sterile. Cold.

Like they’re trying to wash away the pain.

But some stains don’t rinse out.

We all walked in together—tight, tense, and quiet. Sora stayed close beside me, hood drawn low like she was trying to disappear. The others flanked us like a silent guard.

Akane was the first to speak when we got to the reception desk.

"We’d like to speak with the doctor. Or nurse. Whoever was on shift during our last visit here," she said, voice calm, firm, elegant. Like royalty making a demand instead of a request.

The receptionist blinked at her, then tapped into her computer. "Name of the patient?"

"Sora," she said, before glancing at Sora gently. "Sora Arashi."

A few clicks. Then a pause.

The woman frowned. "One moment, please. I’ll call someone down."

We waited in an empty hallway. Just a row of metal chairs and the hum of fluorescent lights.

Sora didn’t speak.

None of us did.

Finally, a man in scrubs approached. Late thirties. Buzzed hair. Sharp eyes that softened when they saw her.

"You’re Sora, right?" he asked, slowly. "I remember you."

Sora looked up, then quickly looked down again.

"I need to apologize," he said, folding his hands together. "There was a mix-up."

Everyone tensed.

"What kind of mix-up?" Akane asked carefully.

He let out a long breath. "The test result we gave you... wasn’t yours."

We all stared at him.

"What?" Mei asked, voice flat.

"There were two tests done within the same fifteen-minute window," the nurse explained. "Yours and another young woman’s who... is, in fact, pregnant. There was a labeling error. A file was misnamed. We realized it when she came in for her next appointment and... well... we couldn’t find her record. Because it had been attached to yours."

"So..." Rin whispered. "Sora was never pregnant?"

The nurse shook his head slowly, visibly regretful. "No. And I am so, so sorry. I tried to reach out once we figured it out, but your contact info was missing from the internal record. I should’ve tried harder."

I looked at Sora.

She was frozen.

Stone-still.

Like her mind couldn’t catch up to the truth it had already lived through.

Elira’s jaw clenched. Mei was already pacing like she wanted to throw something. Rin held Sora’s hand tight. Akane just stared at the nurse with a look that could’ve broken glass.

"We need a full explanation," Akane said, cool and sharp.

"You’ll get it," the nurse said, nodding.

But none of us were listening anymore.

We were all too busy trying to process how one mistake...

Had nearly broken her.

Sora slowly turned toward me. Her eyes met mine.

And for the first time in days...

She looked like she could breathe again.

But I wasn’t sure if that made it better...

Or worse.

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