WARNING: Hospitals, implied trauma, referenced rape
-4/17, SUNDAY, MORNING, YONGENJAYA BACKSTREETS
Picking out a long sleeve lavender colored blouse and a short black skirt with sheer gray tights, Airi got changed and readied her bag. She placed a stack of colorful paper inside along with her keys and put on a pair of black heels, setting off for the train. She didn't want to be late today of all days.
Her phone rang and she stopped, taking it out.
Ak:You're going to the hospital today, right?
Ak: Can you meet me at Leblanc for a second?
Ai: Sure.
She turned the corner instead, seeing Akira stand in front of the cafe. He was dressed in a black sports jacket, white shirt, and blue jeans, holding a small bouquet in his hand.
She blinked. Those were daisies. Was he..? "Hey." She greeted quietly, walking up to him.
He turned to her with a small smile. "Hey. Sorry for calling you out here so suddenly." He held up the bouquet up to her. "I wanted to ask if you were willing to give these to Suzui-san for me."
Her eyes widened. She was right. Daisies were gifted to wish a person to get well, after all. "Eh..? Why don't you give them yourself?" She tilted her head. "I think she'd be happy to know you cared enough to give flowers."
He shook his head. "I don't really know her, so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to visit...But," He paused, looking away. "She talked to me once a couple days ago, telling me not to worry about the rumors...I want to thank her for that, at the very least."
Smiling softly, she accepted the bouquet. "Got it...Shiho-chan sure is a nice girl, isn't she?"
He nodded. "She didn't even know me but she supported me anyway. I guess it's because Takamaki-san goes through the same thing with rumors..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Anyway, thanks for doing this for me. I'll...see you tomorrow?"
Airi smiled. "Of course. See ya." She waved as she walked past him to the station.
She traveled to Shibuya in silence, gazing ahead somberly, gripping the bouquet carefully in her hands. It was really kind of Akira to get a gift for Shiho, even though he didn't really know her. A passing comment like that had impacted him enough to wish her a speedy recovery.
Her eyes darkened. What had she herself done? Nothing. It all only ended in failure with her. She probably didn't even deserve to be visiting her in the hospital like this.
"This is Shibuya. I repeat, this is Shibuya. The time is now 11:12AM, the next stop is..."
Getting out of the station, she took out her phone and called Ann. After a couple of rings, the call went through. "Ann-chan? It's Airi. I'm here in the station square. Where are you?"
"Here!" She heard from behind her.
Turning around, she saw the model walk up to her. She was wearing a red and white sports jacket on top of a lavender button up and a white skirt. Her long legs were clad in black tights, ending with red converses. She had a small plastic bag around her wrist, holding something round inside. "Ready to go?" Ann asked quietly, a depressed expression painting her features.
Airi nodded, putting her phone away, and the two walked in silence through the bustling crowds of Tokyo. The city was loud and its people were noisy and full of life, yet for the two of them, it was all muted by the grim situation they found themselves in.
A few minutes later, they arrived at Ito Hospital. Walking through the automatic doors, the smell of antiseptic burned their noses. "Welcome to Ito Hospital. How may I help you?" The receptionist asked monotonously, looking at the two through her round glasses with blank eyes.
"We're here for Suzui Shiho." Ann answered quietly, looking uncomfortably around at the waiting room filled with sick patients. Nurses walked around mechanically, writing on their clipboards and hooking some on IVs. Not a single person other than the receptionist spoke in the large entrance way.
Typing on her computer, the receptionist nodded. "She is in room 203. Visiting hours end at 8 P.M." She droned, directing them to the nearby elevators lethargically.
"Thank you." Airi nodded politely, and the two students rode the elevator up to the second floor.
Slowly walking out into the somewhat bare hallways, she felt the dread creeping up her back. She didn't want to see the results of her failure. To see with her own eyes that she couldn't save her. She might as well have pushed Shiho off herself...
They stopped in front of the door of 203. Taking a deep breath, Ann turned to her companion. "Are you ready?" She asked quietly.
Airi tightened her grip around the strap of her bag. Was she ready? No. She would never be ready to see the broken body of another friend. "Yes." She lied, sliding the door open.
The sunlight shone through the open window, white curtains fluttering from the cool breeze. A slow consistent beep echoed throughout the room, emanating from the ECG monitor. A faint hiss could be heard from the ventilator, hooked up through a series of tubes connected to the patient tucked in the bed. Silently, they walked up to the cot where Suzui Shiho laid, unable to wake up.
Biting her lip, Ann grasped a limp hand, the only appendage that wasn't bandaged, and sat next to the comatose girl. Airi stayed near the foot of the bed, refusing to gaze further than the report on the bed frame. She placed Akira's flowers in a nearby vase, already filled with water.
"Hi, Shiho." Ann breathed, voice shaky.
The patient remained silent, the only sound she made came from her faint breaths, her chest rising up and down slowly. Most of her face was wrapped in white gauze, some having splotches of red.
Gulping, Ann trembled as she drank in the array of bruises and bandages. A drop fell, then another, as tears streamed down her face, hitting the back of her hand. She cried silently, never letting go of her grip on her friend, afraid that if she did, she would slip away.
Her heart wrenched at the sobs emitted from her friend and Airi closed her eyes, trying to keep her own tears at bay. Tightening her grip on the clipboard, crinkling the paper, she inhaled shakily.
Opening her eyes, she blinked away the moisture, and reread the report again. Broken femur, fractured ulna, and three cracked ribs. Her left shoulder had dislocated, however the hospital already took care of it. Her spine was a little more worrying. The report said two discs had been pushed out of alignment, and was fixed in surgery. All injuries had been set and bandaged, and the only thing left was to wait.
"Is she going to be OK..?" Ann asked hesitantly, turning her tear filled eyes at her.
Airi sighed heavily. "Physically, someday. Mentally...I don't know." She shook her head, guilt marring her features. No one can tell when a coma patient would wake up, if they ever would wake...
Ann let out a shaky sigh, closing her eyes in anguish. "Why won't she wake up…?" She whispered, a scowl growing on her lips. "Why didn't she tell me?!" She shouted, a fresh wave of tears dripping onto the linoleum floor. "Shiho, you idiot!" She spat venomously. "You didn't have to take your life over that asshole! You selfish bitch! You..." She choked, shoulders trembling. "...Don't leave me." Her voice hitched, face twisted in agony.
Taking a shaky breath, Airi turned to look and her heart broke. She mourned for the unresponsive person who laid brokenly in bed, she mourned for the sound mind of a beautiful girl, she mourned for the shattered soul who continued to stay silent. She mourned for another friend.
Her strength left her, and she collapsed on her knees. Clenching the cold sheets with her hands, she buried her face in them to hide her sobs. 'She's still alive she's still alive she's still alive...' She repeated to herself. The two girls cried, praying for their friend's health, and more importantly, her regaining consciousness.
Sighing heavily, Airi collapsed on a chaise, an arm shielding her eyes from the lights.
Today had been a long day. Too long.
After crying their hearts out, Ann had taken out a small duck plush from the plastic bag. She told her that it was from Ryuji who gave it to her last night when they went home. That he hoped it would brighten Shiho's day when she would wake up. Placing it on the night stand, she clapped her hands twice.
She then spoke of how this all started last year, when Shiho got onto the volleyball team. She was so happy that Ann would go and watch her play. That was how Kamoshida had noticed her.
Airi had told the model about what had happened up on the rooftop, and the reasoning for it. She told her how Shiho had broke down, confessing that the teacher had been touching her, beating her, and finally raped her. How Shiho endured all that for Ann, until that last act finally broke her.
Ann had been so angry that a nurse had come in to warn them about the noise level, or else they'd be kicked out. Quieting down after being reprimanded by the staff, Airi silently pulled out a stack of colorful paper, and began to fold. Seeing what she was doing, Ann joined in, and the two folded paper cranes together for several hours, keeping Shiho company.
They hoped to finish a thousand of them soon.
They finally parted an hour later, unable to stand being in the room, and Airi went straight to work. Her boss noticed her bloodshot eyes, but didn't say anything, only handing over a bouquet of daisies and peonies with an understanding smile at the end of the shift.
Tearing up from the gesture, she thanked her boss profusely, quickly walking back to the hospital to put them by Shiho's bedside. Her boss had given her a way to apologize, even if it was such a small gesture.
Her mother was there when she entered the room, and Airi was overcome with shame and guilt. This woman in front of her had almost lost her daughter because of her. Placing the flowers into the vase, she got on her knees and prostrated on the floor, asking for forgiveness for not being able to save her daughter.
More tears dripped as she explained how she had Shiho in her hands and she was too weak to pull her up, too weak to handle the scratches her daughter put on her wrists and palms. If she was stronger, her daughter wouldn't be here right now, unresponsive.
Suzui-san looked at her silently, her face unreadable, before she got on her hands and knees as well. She asked for forgiveness, for not saying anything when her daughter became more depressed, for when she saw the bruises but didn't ask, thinking it was just volleyball practice, and when she saw the light extinguish in her eyes. The older woman broke down, saying she may as well have killed her daughter herself. She didn't deserve to be called a mother when she couldn't even help her baby.
Airi had looked at her in shock. It was the exact same thing she accused herself of. She realized that everyone that had looked on at Shiho's deterioration without doing anything, had really thought of themselves as the noose around her neck. Her lips trembled, and she hugged the sobbing woman.
In the end, she comforted the mother with her reasoning, and that instead crying about it, they should instead do their best to make sure Shiho was comfortable, healthy, and happy, even if the black haired girl herself might never reach the latter.
They owed her that much.
With one final bow, the class president left the mother and daughter, and headed home. Though many people had looked on curiously at her red puffy eyes, no one cared enough to ask. She made it home alone.
Crying so much in a span of a few hours had thrown her emotions on a roller coaster, going up and down over and over again.
She sighed tiredly, her head throbbing from the excess hormones, eyes burning from all the tears shed earlier. 'School's tomorrow, as well as Kamoshida's Treasure.' She reminded herself, groaning.
Reluctantly, she got up to take a bath, her muscles screaming at her. Turning off the faucet, she submerged herself in the hot water, sighing in relief as her migraine dissipated.
After her bath, she put on her pajamas, and with a hesitant hand, picked up the dark cherry wood cello. Taking a deep breath, she slid the bow against the strings shakily, her fingers now unused to the grips.
"You used to play? Why don't you play now?"
"Why would they do that?! They're so mean to you, Ai-chan…"
She softly played G. Faure's Elegie, releasing her anger and sorrow through the deep melody, one shaky note at a time.
It was all she could do to not break down again.
-One thousand paper cranes is a popular folklore in Japan, popularized by the story of Sadako And The Thousand Paper Cranes. If you fold 1000 paper cranes, your wish comes true. It's usually used when dealing with illness/hospitalized people.
-Prostration in Japan is a very serious gesture asking for forgiveness.