Chapter 26 - Playground

Misha dared not the blink, staring at the little girl as if she held all the secrets in the world. In response, Vanessa tilted her head and smiled widely. Two small dimples appeared in her cheeks, and her eyes formed two adorable crescent moons, which made her appear cuter. However, in Misha's eyes, she didn't look pretty, only devilish.

In their previous life, Misha had seen the a.d.u.l.t version of this smile so often that he couldn't mistake it. That sweet expression was the beginning of a big headache. It seemed like Vanessa had always been mischievous, even as a child. She got a knack for pushing her friends around. Well, she also didn't spare total strangers. The poor lambs were always falling into her clutches.

Sure enough, the little girl didn't wait long before opening her mouth and dragging him into her childish scheme. "Are you bored?" asked Vanessa with a soft tone. Then she added before Misha could even answer, "How about going to the indoor playground downstairs? We could play a game!"

Misha's mouth twitched. When it came to his friend, he wasn't blinded by her sweet appearance anymore, not after all the time spent with this little devil, and he knew that whether he was bored or not, it wouldn't affect the girl in any way. All she wanted was a reason to leave her great-grandmother's bedside and have some fun. To her, the old lady was almost like a stranger since she seldom saw her, and she didn't feel obliged to keep her company.

Luckily, there was a boy of her age who seemed quite interested in her as he kept on staring at her with wide-open eyes. She didn't care about the fact that he was lying in a hospital bed, which naturally meant that he was sick. All she thought was that he would do a great scapegoat. She could use him to sneak away right under her father's nose. In her mind, she was a good girl who only offered to play with a poor, sick child.

In the end, Misha couldn't refuse her, not when she was looking at him with such intense eyes. Although he knew the real reason she offered to play together, he also benefited from it. He hadn't left his room for so long; it would do him good to move around a bit. So, he shrugged, "Yeah, why not?"

However, his father wasn't sharing his opinion. He frowned and said with a firm tone, "Misha, you're sick. You should rest, or else you won't get better any time soon."

"But…" whispered the child, lowering his gaze.

"And you're still eating."

"I'm not really hungry…"

"You barely touched your plate."

Misha bit his lips, poking the food with his fork. This thing wasn't very appealing. Frankly, he wondered if his father would still dare to say to eat his plate after eating hospital food for a few days in a row. Perhaps, he would say the contrary and even bring takeout the next time he came to visit him. Dreaming wasn't forbidden.

Seeing his son's action, Alexey sighed lightly and decided to compromise, "Finish your plate, then you can go play. But if you don't feel well, say it and stay in your bed."

A smile bloomed on his small face, and Misha furiously nodded his head, afraid that his father would change his mind. Then, he wolfed his meal in a matter of seconds under the laugh of his noisy roommate.

Vanessa's father wasn't too keen on the idea, either. After all, they came to visit his grandmother, not to play around. Leaving the old lady's side to keep an eye on his daughter was not what he came here for.

The father of the boy seemed to sense his worries. He looked at him and said, "I can watch over them, and we won't stay at the playground too long."

"He?" Misha w.h.i.n.ed, looking at his father with a hint of resentment in his eyes.

"An hour, no more," said Alexey with a firm tone.

"Stingy," murmured the child for himself.

"Did you say something?"

"No! Nothing. Nothing at all!" awkwardly laughed Misha as he pushed the wheeled table out of the way and prepared to jump off his bed.

His father didn't say anything, but the look in his eyes spoke volumes.

While the father and son duo bickered, the man was thinking over the suggestion. However, even if the other father accompanied the kids, the man still wouldn't feel reassured. The idea of entrusting his daughter to a stranger put him on edged.

Vanessa sensed his hesitation, so she didn't hesitate and tugged her father's jeans. The man bent over and she whispered something in his ear. Afterward, although he was a little reluctant, he let her daughter go with the boy.

The two children and the man left the room soon after. While they were walking toward the elevator, Vanessa asked, "What's your name?"

"Misha. My father is called Alexey."

"Misha? Isn't it a girl's name?"

The little boy almost tripped over his own two feet. Why did she say the same thing she had said the first time she heard his name in their past life? Right now, she was more than ten years younger!

"No! It's also a boy's name!" pouted the child, glaring at his father from the corner of his eyes. He decided that it was his fault if he had such an ambiguous name – he discarded the fact that the one who named him was his mother, not his father.

"By the way, how did you know that this hospital had a playground?" He had been here for a few days, and he didn't know. Even in his previous life, Misha had never known that there could be a playground inside a hospital.

"My mother has been here for a long time. When I came to visit her and she wasn't feeling too bad, she would bring me to the playground and play with me a bit," answered Vanessa with a smile, and Misha felt like someone was trying to crush his heart.

He knew Vanessa had lost her mother when she was quite young. It was one of the reasons they grew close so fast as they had experienced the same thing. All she had said, though, was that her mother had died from an illness. He would never have thought that he had been hospitalized in the hospital where his friend's mother passed away.

Afterward, Misha didn't dare to say anything, and the heavy atmosphere lasted until they reached the playground. There, they had to disinfect their hands before entering the room, and if they had a cold or something along those lines, they had to wear a mask. Although Misha only had a fever and he didn't seem contagious, he was still asked to put on a blue mask just in case, which he reluctantly did.

Inside the room, a few kids were playing here and there. Their parents sat on the side, closely watching over them. Some toys, like plastic cars, big pieces of Lego, and cheap dolls, were made available for the kids the play with. The ground was covered with a thin mattress, and two small inflatable slides stood tall in the middle of the playground. There was also a plastic house where a bunch of little girls played.

"I'm going to sit over there," said Alexey, pointing at the other a.d.u.l.ts who were sitting next to each other on plastic chairs.

In response, Misha nodded to let him know that he heard him. Then, he followed Vanessa to a box. The girl opened it and rummaged through it for a while. When she found what she wanted, she smiled brightly and proudly showed it to her new friend.

Misha blinked, then asked, "What's that?"

"A tea set!"

"Yeah, I can see that. But why did you take it out?" asked the boy as he stared at the pink tea set toy with a frown. He had a bad premonition.

"Because we are going to play house, of course!"

Misha's mouth twitched. What did he expect? Vanessa was presently seven years old, not twenty-three. She wouldn't drag him to a bar to drink and dance all night.

"And you're the mum, and I'm the dad!"

"Eh!? Why?" Was it him, or was there something wrong with their respective roles?

"Because you're cuter than me!" answered Vanessa with a childish tone.

Misha's heart dropped. No matter the age, that girl was a pest who loved to bully him.

'Cuter than me, my ass!' he thought, grinding his teeth. 'Wait until you grow up, I'm so going to make you regret this!' Because, after all, he was an a.d.u.l.t in the body of a kid, and he couldn't exactly take revenge on a little girl. He wasn't that imm.a.t.u.r.e yet!