Beatrice was uncharacteristically nervous.

It was the first School Assembly of the Year. A new year. Normally, at this time, she would be checking things backstage with Sam to make sure everything was in place while Kyle would be outside, greeting the students coming back.

Her nervousness was due to two things.

One, this would be the first time she would be spending time with Sam ever since he got together with Betty.

It wasn't that she avoided him ... well, technically, she didn't. After all, they were Student Council members. They would meet and see each other at the 'office'. However, there were always other people around and she as doing her thing while he was doing his.

Right now, whilst it was true that there were other people around, she was side-by-side with Sam as they did the usual sound check, equipment check and the such. Sam was being Sam, meticulous and serious as he looked over everything.

Surprisingly, and to her utter relief, Beatrice found that she could talk to Sam normally. Okay, that was not entirely true. She was nervous and sometimes her voice quivered a bit but overall, she managed to carry a conversation with him.

The best thing was, Sam was treating her like normal and didn't even flinch or react to her slightly unusual behaviour. It helped her calm down and carry on. She knew that he noticed, and the way he was treating her was his way of taking care of her.

Betty truly was very lucky.

"Okay, that's the last of it," Sam said, ticking the list on the board he as holding. He looked around one last time backstage and nodded, satisfied.

"So, are you ready?" he asked as he looked at her.

Beatrice took a deep breath. She turned and glanced at the hall that was filling up. Even from where she was standing, she could see the intense disappointment on most of the girls' faces. Perhaps it was her imagination?

"They don't look too happy, do they?" Sam said with an eyebrow raised. He shook his head and pushed his glasses up his nose.

Apparently, it wasn't her imagination.

"Well, that's to be expected, I suppose," Beatrice said in resignation, "After all, Kyle's not here. They're probably wondering where he is."

Sam nodded, agreeing with her, "Who told him to eat raw oysters anyway?"

For some strange reason that Sam could not understand, Kyle had wanted some seafood when they returned to Country Tz. No, not it was strange that Kyle wanted seafood, but it wasn't just the typical grilled seafood dishes. He wanted to try raw oysters, sea urchin and jellyfish. You get the idea.

So, a day before they were to come to Sakura Academy, Kyle got his craving satisfied.

Unfortunately for Kyle, there was one particular bad oyster.

✿ Mini Flashback ✿

Kyle loved seafood but in his previous life, he couldn't afford them. Not to have on a regular basis, anyway. There were some of the more exotic variety that he had never been able to try, and so, this year, he was going to have some.

Most of them were pretty ok, but the oysters was surprisingly delicious. He knew what people said eating raw oysters was about with regards to libido but that was not on his mind as he used a finger to detach the oyster from its shell then squeezed a lemon wedge onto it.

"Man, Kyle," Xing Had said as Kyle tilted his head back and slurped in another oyster, "How can you eat that?"

Just as Xing Han asked that, Kyle's face had a slight grimace. The last oyster didn't go down as smoothly as the previous ones. It had been a smaller one, so he didn't really chew it even though that meant missing out on really tasting it.

He sniffed the oyster shell, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Kyle found out soon that it hadn't been his imagination when he started getting diarrhea. He was still in the middle of eating (not oysters by then) when the pain began. He felt chills and some stomach cramps, so he hurriedly went to the bathroom.

It went downhill from there.

Xing Han had been in a panic then.

He had never seen Kyle sick and having a pale, obviously-in-pain Kyle in front of him turned Xing Han into a highly vocal and excitable worried person. Okay, so that's how Xing Han normally is (without the worry part).

When Xing Han went to check up on Kyle in the bathroom for taking so long, he nearly screamed. Kyle was leaning over the sink, his face pale and face wet as he had just washed it. Xing Han quickly whipped out his phone, calling an ambulance, shouting that his best friend was dying which caused the other restaurant patrons to be in a state of panic as well.

It was vibrio vulnificus food poisoning.

This was something that could happen by eating seafood infected with the bacteria frequently found in oysters in warm coastal waters during the summer months. It was also known as the 'flesh-eating bacteria' - though if one ingested it, it didn't mean that Kyle's insides were being eaten up.

It only meant that he got diarrhea, cramping, fever, chills, and on top of that, vomiting. These symptoms usually last 'only' 3 days. It was rare to get this as restaurants nowadays do not source their oysters from the wild but would farm it, thereby reducing the risk of such contamination.

Kyle was just 'lucky'.

Well, he really was lucky in one sense. As he was such a fit person, and he got treatment quickly, the complications that can arise from this type of food poisoning was not serious. There had been deaths before, but that was normally from people who had underlying health issues already.

Thus, Kyle would only be returning to school the following week. Kay decided to stay behind (of course) to take care of Kyle while Xing Han was kicked out of the Smith Mansion. There was no way the Smiths would allow Xing Han to play hooky.*

They had a responsibility to Xing Han's parents. Sam had to literally drag Xing Han away from Kyle. He grabbed Xing Han by the collar and pulled, nearly choking Xing Han. Xing Han allowed Sam to take him away, though his sad eyes never left the weak-looking Kyle on the bed.

Xing Han's hand stretched out to that pitiful figure, not realising that he, himself, was making a more pitiful figure as he was dragged out of the room.