I did. [ a beat; he adds, for the sake of explaining: ] All of us got sick. Some worse than others.

[ And he was one of those worse off. He doesn't include the information to downplay it - just to keep Cairngorm off his back for being "weak" again, since they're already heading down that road. Judging by the way they won't keep eye contact with him, he knows they'd use it as an easy way out of expressing any kind of positive feelings. Or embarrassment over said feelings.

They're cute, as usual. ]

And I'm glad that nothing happened to you, but it's not like I knew that until I saw you again. For all I knew, you could have vanished from the town like some of the others. [ ryoji, yusuke... he leans his head back, too, closing his eyes tiredly. ] I even went in the woods to look for you. You really gave me the runaround.

[ he'd been looking for the others, too, but they'd definitely been one of the friends at the forefront of his mind. ]

... It wasn't your fault, of course. Still... All that, and then having to break you into pieces afterwards...? For a gem, you're a real handful.