[ the panacea ]
The waiting room was filled with a toxic silent atmosphere. The tension was enough pressure to consume herself in second thoughts. Maybe this isn't it. Maybe she should walk out the door right now. But it was almost too late; she cursed herself because she had just turned in the forms without any further thought. These people already have her SSN, insurance policy number, and her home address tracked down.
"Kinomoto Sakura?" The robotic voice from one of the LED monitors hung against the walls beckoned her to report to one of the patient rooms.
She gulped in fear as she scrunched her thinly veiled hospital gown enough to turn her knuckles pale. Funny thing was, she'd walk out perfectly untouched and scrap-free – physically unharmed. She wasn't going to get a transplant or have her skin pried open, but her anxiety centered around the fact that she was going to instantaneously change her whole future. She would meet someone who would make her future whole.
"Sakura, I've never been happier in my life if it weren't for the procedure." Tomoyo hung her head over her fiancé's shoulder as she landed a quick peck on his cheek. The glimmer of the engagement ring was enough to temporarily blind her.
"I could tell."
The two had suffocated Sakura with their puppy love and sappy life advice for the past two and half years. Of course, she was in full support for them to tie the knot but it was sickening to her single status to be a third-wheeler. How the hell was it even possible to be in a never-ending honeymoon stage relationship?
Eriol let out a short laugh at Sakura's displeasure. "Don't forget to ask for Dr. Yue. He's probably my second best man." He gently slid a holographic business card across the coffee table as she reluctantly tucked it in her purse.
Sakura gave an unexpected dry laugh but for a different reason those they would assume. Never has she seen him hang out with any male friends because he was practically a magnet to Tomoyo. "Hm, let's see. I could buy five year's worth of home entertainment streaming, a smart TV, my own botanical garden, a new condo, ten bottles of -"
"Don't think of it as a price tag. Think of it as an investment." Tomoyo said as-a-matter-of-fact.
The girl had a cunning sense of logic who could practically put the whole world in her hands. Unfortunately, or fortunately, her keen sense of manipulation was only used for the goodness of her best friend.
"Look guys, I appreciate the support but you can't really say it's a hundred percent accurate. Whatever happens, happens. I could just bump into someone on the streets, take them out to dinner, and start a new life from there!"
That's how her parents met, anyway. A stereotypical yet unlikely "meet-cute" situation where her mother clumsily tripped on a wet floor of the dairy aisle and her father caught her bridal style "as though an angel fell from the sky," he would frequently retell.
"She's a little outdated." Tomoyo whispered to Eriol. He slightly nodded in response as he laced her hands into his. "Uhm, Sakura."
She crossed her legs on her friend's living room sofa and sighed, "Call me old fashion -" She gestured her hand in a closing-the-zipper motion the second the two opened their mouths and shot them a glare. "but anything combining technology and love is anything but romantic."
Eriol shook his head at her ignorance. "This isn't eHarmony and this isn't some bogus lab experiment. It's universally acceptable to the public nowadays."
The endorsement of technology completely consuming social lives irritated her. She swore pop culture was going against her liking these days and this came from the girl who's subscribed to overzealous e-magazines. The highest grossing chick flicks started to consist of a man falling in love with his home operating system (she shuddered).
"Give me a year."
Annnd what did Kinomoto Sakura accomplish in that year? Three failed short term relationships, all coming to a concluding consensus that they were going to try out the brain scan, love-matching, voo-doo machine. Third charm only became a charm to Tomoyo.
"Kinomoto Sakura, right?" The doctor closed the door behind him as he entered, snapping her out of her daze.
Or maybe snapped her back into her daydreams. She gave an incredulous look and tried to keep her composure together. There was a possibility at that moment of awe her apprehension diminished. What she was doing again? Oh yeah, about to bask her body in radiation. But this, this fine young gentleman could be of par to those on a medical drama.
He was probably two and half heads taller in her metric system. Something about him gave an angelic aura, practically lighting up the entire dim room. His silvery metallic hair grazed upon his fair skin, almost too fair, but maybe this guy was a dermatologist too. His shoulders were broad and body was well-built underneath his white medical attire but it perfectly complimented his gentle face.
"D-Dr. Yue?" She stammered. 'Damn, Sakura! Get a hold of yourself!' She was feeling like a little Japanese schoolgirl and it was torturous.
He smiled and walked up to her with a brightly thin tablet in his hand. "That's me." And so he moved even closer and held her chin up, looking deeply into her emerald eyes.
She shut her eyes tightly. She legitimately found herself in some sort of medical drama situation. A successfully charming doctor alone with the stoical patient. Turn on the twinkling background, a ballad soundtrack, and this would definitely be worth her two year's salary.
"Hm, you seem healthy to me and judging by your records you're good to go. The procedure will take several hours but about an hour to get the results. Do you have any specific requirements?" He asked as he was ready to write with his touch pen.
"Can it be you?" She responded drearily.
"I beg your pardon?"
Sakura opened one eye and realized he wasn't in front of her anymore. Not sure what to say, she tried to cover up without thinking. "Uh. Tall, dark and handsome?"
"Got it!"
She gawked as she saw him take note. She wanted to take it back immediately because she was ethnically against the system of finding your absolute perfect soulmate. It's like cheating God!
"Oh, this isn't cheating the Him at all. It's simply making it easier for His creations to find one another." He let out a short laugh. "Gender? Location? Ethnicity?"
'How did he...' She was taken back. 'Whatever.' "Tomoeda would be nice so distance won't be a problem, I don't really care about ethnicity and male, please."
"All right, then! I need you to lay on that table over there and an assistant and I'll connect you to an IV. Make sure you've removed all of your jewelry and you lie as still as possible so the pictures won't turn out blurry. We'll be looking at your entire personality, cognitively. After you're done, drink plenty of water so you can rehydrate."
"Sounds good." Sakura said meekly as he was about to set up the machine.
She kept her eyes shut the entire time in hopes she would catch up with her beauty sleep. The copious hours she was indebted could have added up to a month's worth of hibernation. Instead, she found herself an endless void to the point where she wasn't sure if she were sleeping or delving in a pit of daydreams.
Then the sudden realization came to her – a back-up plan. She grinned to herself like psycho behind bars. If the results made her end up with someone she was unhappy with, she was going straight out of town to buy a cat. Make that plural.
Slowly the machine started to turn off on its own, sliding the bed low enough for her to see the luminescence of the ceiling lights. Her eyes squinted and she groaned as she stretched her arms, making a little popping sounds. Her vision was blurred until she was able to discern the silver-haired man. Even throughout the few hours, she kept her fingers crossed in hopes he was the one.
"Here are the results. It's all printed out for you but just to let you know, we were not given permission to disclose the exact address of your potential mate." He handed her the thin small manila envelope which had another one of his holographic business cards attached.
Sakura shoved the envelope to the bottom of her purse then rubbed her temples with much pressure. "Dr. Yue," She tried to keep a good impression as much as possible. "Then what the hell was the point in asking me for a location?"
"Well, I would have given you an exact address but both of you didn't bother to allow that on the forms. By law, I'm not permitted to do that. Sorry Kinomoto, but I'm an honest man and I can't break confidentiality." Dr. Yue sighed and put his hand on her shoulder which allowed her to ease up. "He's in Tomoeda nearby so you'll eventually find him or maybe he'll find you." Obviously, for a man who went to med school he couldn't tell just how big Tomoeda was.
Sakura was under so much anxiety at the moment that her eyes were heavily glossed in a coat of water and trust her, she could never handle stress well. She had just spent, no, wasted five hours of her life, hadn't eaten anything the entire day, and let's not forget blew her two year's salary for this – only to figure out she was dumb enough not to read over some forms carefully! And the other guy at the end of the stick was even dumber for doing the same! She'd always be berated for not reading the directions correctly when it came to exams but this was the greatest extent.
Now she had to waste even more time (and time means money!) just trying to look for this guy all over Tomoeda and there was that fat chance he wouldn't always be in Tomoeda. Her heart was racing and for the stupidest reasons.
Because for a good moment, she really wanted to meet this guy
"Forget it." It just didn't seem worth it in her eyes anymore. What can she say? She had a tendency to give up in the middle of things.
"Sakura," Dr. Yue handed her a tissue. "You have all the information you need. Name, birth date, weight, height, eye-color -"
"So basically everything on his driver's license?" She croaked in annoyance as if she didn't get what she paid for. Not even where he works? A simple biography?
"Except the license number and picture." He gave out a sardonic chuckle and took two steps back. "And well, address."
A loud screech echoed throughout the halls of the hospital causing most of the nurses to freeze and look at each other with raised eyebrows.
Sakura stammered down the walkway of stares with a few teardrops falling from her emerald gems. She was in desperate need to punch someone or even better, have someone punch her. She made her way to the glass elevator that gave the best high definition view of Tomoeda's landscape, which she completely ignored, and relentlessly pressed the button for the first floor. Just her luck, handsome money-making Dr. Yue happened to be on the highest floor – the thirtieth, Sakura's lucky number of cats she planned to have.
Just as the elevator doors were about to close, someone abruptly made their way in, interrupting Sakura's lightly sobbing fits.
She froze for a moment to acknowledge his presence.
He was tall and broad shouldered with a tousled mop of chocolate brown hair and a set of heavy, solemn eyebrows which contrasted with his boyish grin. He looked as though he came out of a semi-casual business meeting with a crisp dress shirt and pants along with a black bomber jacket. In a nonchalant manner, he took a step inside and stood beside her and leaned down to examine her face intensely, piercing Sakura with his fiery amber eyes.
Meeting Dr. Yue and this guy in one day, she came to a conclusion that she hated being analyzed.
"Are you okay?" He asked in a concerned tone but his velvety voice was nearly enough for her to achieve ASMR.
She nodded in shock. Half of which due to his physical attractiveness and the other half because he had the decency to make contact with her.
Her eyes were still teary and puffy. Her nose was red. Her hair was a mess. She was stressed as hell. Tomoyo did say she made the best first impressions.
Holy. Freaking. Why was everyone in this building so damn attractive? The doctors, nurses, and patients were at least an 8.5/10 in her scale. It was like these people popped out of her television set. She put a reminder in the back of her mind to check if this hospital wasn't currently used for production.
"W-what are you here for?" She didn't know what she saying. Something in her unconscious was trying to make out words so on the way down wouldn't be filled with her sniffles.
"Just a check-up."
Sakura realized his gaze was hypnotized by the serene view of Tomoeda in back of her. Though he seemed cheerful at first, he had a pensive straight-face expression most of the time.
As soon as she finally put herself at ease, the elevator came to a halt for the first floor.
"Well, it was nice meeting you. Hope you feel better." He gave her a little salute and a meek smile as he made his way out.
She gave a little wave with a nervous smile in response, but as soon as the doors came to a shut, she let out a horrified gasp. She missed her stop. Sakura looked up to see where the elevator was taking her next then repeatedly banged her head on the glass exterior.
↑ Floor 30
Thanks for reading! How did you like it?
It's been so long since I've gone through CCS but I just had to after I found out there's going to be a new TRC manga out next month! *_*
Just also wanted to make clear, even though the setting is set "in the distant future" you won't feel much of a difference. Not that I'm trying to ignore it, I just don't see much of a change in like a hundred years. Where are our hover cars, huh?
Heh. Your comments or suggestions will be loved, always. ^_~