Programmed Lives - First Stage

Chapter Eight

He wasn't entirely sure that the answer he had found while driving on Mt Akagi was the right one, in any case, he found himself parking his car in the staff parking area at the biggest of the two hospitals the Arakawa owned in Maebashi.

Taking a few deep breaths, he climbed out of his car and locked the door. Then he made his way towards the hospital's entrance.

Putting on his best smile he walked to the admissions desk and introduced himself to the nurse covering the morning shift.

'I'll see if he can receive you, Takahashi-sama,' the nurse said not even bothering to hide the very obvious assessing look she was giving him.

After a few moments, the nurse hung up the phone and, with a voice that could actually give him a toothache, she said:

'The Director can see you in about ten minutes. I can take you to his office if you wish.'

'No, it's alright. I've been there before,' Ryosuke quickly replied. The last thing he needed now was being assaulted by a horny nurse at nine o'clock in the morning.

He got on the first available elevator and went all the way up to the top floor where, he knew, was located Doctor Arakawa's office. Ryosuke recognised his secretary, a woman in his mid forties, who got up from her desk the minute she saw him.

'Good morning Takahashi-sama, is there a problem with the forms we sent you?' she said referring to the forms he had to fill in so he could effectively become an employee in just a few months time.

'No Watanabe-san, everything is fine. I'm here today due to a personal matter that I need to discuss with Doctor Arakawa,' he explained.

'Ah, I see. You're lucky, he cancelled this morning's appointment because he's expecting a friend of his at quarter past nine,' the secretary informed him.

Ryosuke was going to say something else but Doctor Arakawa opened his office's and said:

'Ryosuke, what an unexpected pleasure, do come in. Watanabe-san, will you get us two coffees, please?'

'Absolutely,' she answered leaving the room.

Ryosuke took the chance to enter Doctor Arakawa's office and to revise the whole speech he had prepared.

'Firstly son, I'd like to apologise to you for my daughter's extremely rude behaviour. I hope this won't affect our professional relationship,' Doctor Arakawa started saying once they were sitting opposite each other with his desk between them and two espressos on said desk.

'Actually Doctor Arakawa, I'm here to discuss the matter with your daughter. I understand from my father that you've found her another possible candidate to be her husband, am I right?' Ryosuke asked making sure his voice was as business like as possible.

'Yes, I have, you no longer need to worry about her,' he answered and Ryosuke could tell that while the man seemed to appear more angry than ashamed of his misbehaving daughter's actions. This only fuelled up Ryosuke's resolution.

'The thing is, I am a very proud man Doctor Arakawa and, whereas at first I found your daughter's refusal quite hurtful, if not offending, I realised now that I could have looked at it under a different light…'

So far his pantomime was being successful. As he had predicted, by using the kind of language that Doctor Arakawa seemed to prefer, he had effectively attracted the older man's full attention.

'Care to explain yourself better?' Doctor Arakawa asked.

'Well, I see it more as a challenge. I think that your daughter was merely doing something that most women do as easily as breathing: she was just playing hard to get. This has made me want to see just how hard it would really be to get her.'

Oh gosh, he could have acted any more out of his character, he would have won an Oscar.

Doctor Arakawa looked at Ryosuke with his eyes full of admiration.

'Aha, not easy on the giving up, are we?'

'No sir. I can't give up so easily. After all, as doctors we can't afford to give up too quickly, if we did, half our patients would die, wouldn't they?' Now Ryosuke was finally saying something he actually believed.

'Sure, sure. That's absolutely right my son,' Ryosuke found almost funny the way Doctor Arakawa kept referring to him as 'his son' but chose to say nothing about it. Seeing Ryosuke didn't say anything, Doctor Arakawa added, 'unfortunately, as you say, I've already thought of another candidate, he is in fact due to come any minute now.'

'I know that but, Doctor Arakawa, have you thought of what would happen if your daughter pulled again one of her stunts? I mean, one thing is my father whom you've been friends with since forever and with whom, any offence is quickly forgotten. Imagine how it would be if you offended this gentleman friend of yours.'

Just by looking at the horrified look on his face, Ryosuke knew that he had him in his pocket.

'That would indeed be a problem. So, what do you propose?'

Bingo. Now he only had to say it:

'I was thinking, I'd take your daughter out for a few meals, maybe to the cinema, you know, a few dates, then I'll see if I manage to convince her to marry me. If I do, well, we get married. If I don't, I'll give up and you can still go ahead with your plan B.'

'Oh but, how long do you think it'll take? My friend's not young and can't wait forever.'

'I was thinking something along the lines of a fortnight,' Ryosuke said.

'I'm sure you can do better than that. I'll give you a week,' Doctor Arakawa replied.

Ryosuke's insides contracted rather painfully: the bastard was actually bargaining with this. Ryosuke simply couldn't believe it.

'Ten days. Give me ten days and your daughter will be the next Takahashi bride,' Ryosuke said, hating himself almost as much as he was beginning to hate the man sitting in front of him.

'Okay then. Shall I call her now so we can give her the happy news?' he said, totally freaking Ryosuke out.

'Now? She's here?'

'Sure she is. For some stupid reason she likes volunteering at the Accident and Emergency Department, imagine that,' Doctor Arakawa said making it sound as though as helping others for free was a disgrace rather than something that should be praised if not encouraged.

Ryosuke had to make a decision in a split second, so he answered the only thing he could:

'Doctor Arakawa, do you think I could have some privacy to talk to your daughter for a bit?'

'Sure, I'll leave you two here alone for a few minutes. I'll take my friend for a tour around the hospital's new section. This way I won't have to tell him that I've called him for no reason…'

With this, Doctor Arakawa picked up the phone and asked his secretary to get his daughter to see him. Ryosuke could only imagine what Akiko would think seeing him there. He only hoped she wouldn't lose it…

A soft knock on the door a few minutes later announced that Akiko had arrived. Ryosuke felt his entire body tense up as he prepared himself for the worst.

'Fath…' she started saying but, seeing Ryosuke there made her shout, 'YOU?'

'Now, now Akiko, Ryosuke has been so kind as to give you a second chance, don't spoil it by behaving like a spoilt little girl…' Doctor Arakawa said definitely not making Ryosuke's job any easier for, after seeing the look on her face, Ryosuke knew that whereas convincing her father had been relatively easy, getting her approval on the matter would be entirely more difficult.

'I'll leave you two alone while I go and meet my guest. You, behave, understood?' Doctor Arakawa said, referring this last remark at Akiko while giving her a foul look.

The second he closed the door, and whispering furiously, Akiko said:

'What in the heck are you playing at, huh? Can I know why in the heck you told your father that I was going to Africa? Do you know what…'

Ryosuke decided to shut her up the only way he thought of: he put his left hand over her mouth and grabbed her left shoulder with his right hand.

'Please calm down for five minutes. Just let me explain why I'm here. Okay?' he begged her.

She snatched her shoulder from his grasp and, after throwing at him a look full of venom, she sat down and said:

'You've got two minutes, and that's two minutes longer than you deserve.'

She was positively fuming. Ryosuke took a deep breath before saying:

'Alright then, this is the deal: I know I messed up when I told my father those things about you. I also know that I've got you into a lot of trouble and for this I beg you to forgive me. I also want to make you a proposal one that, I think, benefits both of us,' Ryosuke said.

He waited for a few seconds to see if she said anything. She didn't and he continued:

'You know that I don't want to marry you anymore than you want to marry me. However, I think I want you to marry a man who could be your father even less than that. So, what I think we should do is to pretend we're seeing each other so we buy ourselves some time to think up an alternative plan. What do you think?'

'Let me get this straight: you want us to pretend we're seeing each other?' she finally asked.

'Yes. That's right,' he answered.

'You're nuts. You're totally and absolutely demented, do you know that?' she asked and, by the way she was looking at him, she seriously had doubts about his mental stability.

'Look, I just think we should try to do anything in our power to try to get some resemblance of control in our lives. Don't you?' he asked now getting a sombre tone of voice.

'Okay, say that I accept. How do you intend to 'pretend' we're seeing each other?' she asked.

'Well, to start with I wouldn't actually mind taking you for a meal for real,' he said realising his mistake just a split second too late.

'You wouldn't mind? Oh, you really are magnanimous!' she exclaimed sarcastically.

'Let me rephrase that: I'm asking you if you'd like to go out for a meal with me,' he said, 'your choice between lunch or dinner,' he quickly added.

Her silence forced him to say:

'The alternative is that you marry a guy who's twice your age. Personally, I don't really think you have much of a choice…'

She seemed to react to that and finally she sighted and, very slowly nodded.

'If you put it this way,' she said.

'It's the only way,' he replied.

'Just answer me something, will you please?' she asked.

'Sure,' Ryosuke said.

'Why are you doing this? Is it out of guilt?' Akiko asked getting up so she could look at him in the eye a bit more easily.

'I'll be honest with you. I do feel responsible for the situation you're in right now but, that's not all,' Ryosuke said, doubtful about whether or not he should be saying quite so much.

'And what else is pushing you to do something so altruistic or, should I say, totally suicidal?' she asked him.

'To tell you the truth, I'm not sure but, a person whom I care a lot about has pointed this out to me: we both like Mazda cars and we're both going to be doctors. Maybe we should give ourselves a chance, shouldn't we?'

She looked at him for a few seconds while she considered everything. Finally, she surrendered:

'Alright then, like you said, I have very little choice in the matter and, let's face it: at least you're good looking…'

Ryosuke felt something he hadn't felt in a long time: he was actually blushing. She realised that and then, as if it were some sort of bizarre blushing competition, her cheeks managed to get a couple of shades darker than his.

Ryosuke cleared his throat before asking:

'Lunch or dinner?'

'I'd prefer lunch,' she replied.

'Alright, well, how about if we meet here, tomorrow at noon? We could go for a drive in my car later on,' Ryosuke said trying to get the situation under control.

'Sure but let's take the drive in my car, okay?' she asked.

'Okay, but I'm driving,' he replied.

'Okay. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go back to work,' she said.

'Sure, I'll see you tomorrow,' he said.

The minute she had left him alone Ryosuke let out the breath he had been holding. He lifted his hands and found them to be shaking rather violently. He didn't know if that was due to all the tension that he had accumulated during the past few days or it was due to the sheer panic he had beginning to feel.

Whatever he had got himself into; this was way bigger than anything else he had ever done.

Ryosuke had never been any more scared in his life. Not even during his race with Rin Hojo.

To be continued…