When got to the store, Ukai instructed me to sit up on the counter so that he could get to the wound more easily and not have to crouch down.

After jokingly teasing, asking him if he's an old man that he can't crouch down, I did as he told and hopped on the counter.

Meanwhile, he went to get the first aid kit from the back and I sat there waiting.

I noticed Ukai coming back when he winningly rattled the first aid box in front of him.

I looked at my knee again and made an anxious face. Even though I was a nurse and treated wounds like this on a daily basis, I hated having to treat my own.

"Yeah, it looks pretty bad." He acknowledged my expression when he put down the box beside me.

His comment didn't help at all and made me anxious even more.

Could he at least lie a bit?

He looked at me, our eyes meeting at the same level even though I was sat up on the table.

I was waiting for him to say something to clear out the reason why his eyes were studying me for so long.

"Don't worry." He said softly.

He started rummaging in the box right after, leaving me stunned. And maybe I was glad that he averted his attention to the first aid supplies because I felt my cheeks get red.

He found the spray bottle of disinfectant and sprayed the wound with a first layer of the liquid. My whole leg tensed up and I instinctively hissed.

"Maybe we should talk about something to get your attention away from the wound." He commented while reaching for the tweezers to pick out the small rocks that got stuck in the skin.

I only hummed, briefly looking at what Ukai was doing but quickly looking away again.

Before the tweezers touched my skin, Ukai cleared his throat.

"Um...I wanted to apologize..." His eyes were attentively watching the tweezers make first contact with the wounded skin.

"What?!" I managed to say before I hissed in pain.

"Well, you know, for that night...when you fell into the pond..." I was listening to him with clenched teeth to not hiss again.

I guess this is the reason why he wanted to talk to me after practice.

He was quiet for a minute and then continued.

"...I shouldn't have laughed and I'm sorry." He finally looked at me to show that he was sincere.

I was confused. I was looking at him, my mouth slightly agape.

Ukai probably didn't expect this reaction and his face took an expression of confusion too.

"What, did I say something wrong?" He asked.

A smile slowly crept on my lips until it formed into a chuckled which confused him even more.

"Why are YOU apologizing, I should be the one to apologize. I kicked you out of my house so suddenly, I acted like a child with my reaction. I am the one who should be sorry." Words were flowing out of my mouth without a second thought.

I didn't plan to apologize to him yet because I was still trying to find the right words but when he started apologizing himself, I couldn't let that be.

When I didn't have any more to say, he smiled and a little chuckle came out of his mouth.

"I guess we both felt bad...and I wanted to help you clean out your basement as an apology but now I guess I don't have to." He teased.

"I...I guess you're right." I said a bit disappointed. I wanted to retort something because I really didn't want to clean the basement alone.

"But you could still do it as a good deed and in return, I could help with something in the store. Or I could buy you something, invite you for a meal or..." I tried to persuade him.

Noticing my desperate attempts to justify his help to clean the basement, he smiled and squeezed my thigh. The sudden touch immediately stopped the spiral of my rambling and made me freeze.

Before I could get out of my stunned state, he picked up the tweezers again and continued cleaning the wound, acting as if nothing happened.

"Don't worry, I'd help you anyway. Even though I may not look like it, I'm a bit of a clean freak. Even just thinking about the mess in your basement makes me shudder." It's like he was talking to himself and in his mind replaying the heinous state my basement was in.

I was quiet and only focused on listening to him so that I wouldn't have to think about the tweezers digging into the raw skin.

"...aaand we're done." He announced.

I wanted to celebrate because I thought he had already put the final bandage on but when I looked, he had just picked out all the rocks and still wasn't finished.

"I'll just give it a final layer of disinfectant and then I can put the bandage on." He reached for the spray bottle again and my face tensed up.

"By the way, Y/N how come you're so jittery about getting your wounds taken care of. Are you really a school nurse?" He chuckled and sprayed the liquid onto my knees in the midst of it.

"What can I say, I wouldn't say you're the sporty type either." I gritted between my clenched teeth as a wave of pain went through my leg.

He looked up at me with a wide smile, noticing that my teasing attitude that he learned to like was still with me even though I was in pain.

"Looks can be deceiving Y/N..." He rummaged through the different sizes of bandages the first aid kit had to offer to pick one sufficient for my wound.

"...I wouldn't say you're messy but your living room said otherwise. Don't think I didn't notice you trying to quickly push me past that room so I wouldn't see the heaps of papers scattered there." He was talking with a carefree smile like he didn't just called me out.

Meanwhile, his eyes were focusing on my knee so that he could stick the bandage carefully on.

He straightened up and with a seemingly innocent smile he announced.

"Okay, all done."

I had a tired expression on my face because of how easily he could tease me and think he could get away with it.

"Thank you." I grumbled and pushed myself off the counter.