For the past few weeks, the doctor has been doing nothing but observing the blonde for any changes to the girl's health, which to both her delight and dismay, was a staggering nothing. At this point, Mei began having thoughts of having been conned due to the lack of manifestations from the girl's supposed condition and she was already feeling a little impatient.
Strictly speaking, the girl was more than just okay, she was practically bursting with so much life that it was hard to believe any of the medical records that were relinquished to Mei by the hospital that the girl previously lounged at.
The blonde supposedly had episodes of numbness in her limbs and lightheadedness according to the medical abstract but looking at the girl who was practically floating around the manor like she was on a field trip made that hard to believe. Her doubt was so strong that she started considering whether that rundown hospital/orphanage even had a licensed physician among their ranks. Mei couldn't speak for the other days but none were present when she visited and in that she had confidence.
Checking the documents for any official signature, she noted the blonde's previous doctor to be 'Dr. Peter Williams.' She wrote the name down along with a note that reminded her to pen him a letter at a later time; hoping that the doctor could shed some light on the matter so that Mei could confirm if she had a legitimate case or Harumi managed to pull her leg yet again.
Once her concentration broke, she noticed that the room had gone silent and she darted her eyes around in search of the blonde. Though it didn't take long before she realized that the person in question was standing behind her and quietly observing her all along.
"What?" She asked the girl who nervously squirmed and noticed that she had been looking at the documents that Mei was holding.
"N-nothing. I was just curious."
Mei also noticed this about the girl. She mostly spoke fluently with others but whenever the two of them were alone and engaged in conversation, regardless of whether it's the routine questions that Mei asked or some other obscure topic brought on by the blonde, she would stutter without fail. It bothered the doctor so much that she even went as far as to write it in her notes as a possible symptom of the phantom disease that the blonde carried.
"Do you always stutter this much?" She questioned a little apprehensively.
"N-not that I know of..."
"There hasn't been a single time when you didn't stutter while speaking to me, how do you not know?" She pried deeper into the topic since at the moment it felt like this was the only actual tangible evidence that the girl was less than normal.
"That's..."
Mei watched as the blonde proceeded to nervously scratch her neck, a sign that she was feeling anxious with the line of questioning but something else caught the doctor's sharp eye and she immediately grabbed the girl's arm. Folding the sleeves of the girl's pink dress, she found an abnormally large bruise and questioned the girl about the origin of the injury.
"How did this happen?"
"I- ah, fell... down?" The blonde looked down and attempted to pull her hand away from Mei's grip as she answered.
The doctor was extremely displeased at the pathetic excuse. There was no way that bruise of this shape and size could've happened by simply falling down and she decided to catch the blonde in a lie to teach her a lesson.
"Where?"
"The stairs!"
"How many steps?"
"3?" The blonde watched her intently. "5?" Still no reaction. "10?"
"Enough, take off your clothes." Mei said sternly with full-on seriousness.
"E-excuse me?"
"Must I repeat myself again? I said take off your clothes. Now." Mei placed emphasis on the last word and she immediately started pulling at the blonde's dress, trying to get the girl to remove the articles of layered clothing that she was wrapped in.
"No, wait. Miss Aihara, please stop."
The blonde sobbed nervously at her as if she was being attacked by a rabid dog and this left Mei with a mixture of annoyance and confusion. Why was the girl being so difficult? What she didn't realize was that anyone who chanced upon the scene of her forcefully pulling off the girl's clothing would assume the same thing - she was attacking the poor helpless blonde. As fate would have it, that was exactly what Harumi thought as she entered into the study.
"AIIIIIIIIIIIHARAAAAAAAAA!" Harumi's loud voice boomed into Mei's ear and soon a strong and forceful blow landed on her head, causing the doctor to tumble over but luckily land on a nearby sofa. Massaging the part of her head that was assaulted by what she assumed was Harumi's favorite hand fan, Mei looked at her assaulter in sheer anger.
"How could you, Mei? Assaulting this poor girl." Harumi stood beside a partially naked blonde with her sleeve hanging loosely from her shoulder, prompting Harumi to cover up the exposed skin with her own shawl.
"What are you talking about?" Mei scoffed at her friend. Completely unaware of the what she did wrong.
"You were trying to strip her!"
"I saw a bruise on her arm and I wanted to confirm if there was more because she was lying about its origin." Mei glared at Harumi, disappointed that her friend thought she would ever lecherously assault someone.
"Oh..."
Silence followed as Mei continuously shot murderous eyes at Harumi while the latter tried to sheepishly play off the amount of force she had delivered to doctor's head. It didn't help when Himeko arrived and found Mei clutching at her injury. The housekeeper made sure to scratch and injure Harumi as much as she could before Mei finally couldn't stand all of the noise and ordered everyone to shut up.
An ice pack and a serving of tea later and things finally calmed down. Mei explained to Harumi that the blonde's bruises could not possibly be from falling off a flight of stairs based on the shape and size of it and with much discussion, Harumi finally agreed to try and convince the girl to allow Mei to examine her body.
"So what did she say?" Mei questioned her friend who just returned from the blonde's room.
"Well, she agreed and you should really be gentler with her, Mei. I know you're not one for nonsense kindness and sensitivity... but can you please try?" Harumi walked slowly towards Mei and plopped herself comfortably on the sofa beside Mei. She was nearly pleading at this point since this wasn't the first time that Mei had been cruelly insensitive towards the blonde.
Mei, on the other hand, slowly stood up from the sofa and gave her book to the plum-haired girl before heading through the door without bothering to answer nor acknowledge Harumi's request. The last words she heard as she exited through the large oak door were "At least call her by her name, Mei." but much like the previous statement, it went unanswered as she walked towards the blonde's bedroom.
"May I come in?" Mei asked as she knocked on the door and a soft, "Yes" answered from inside.
The doctor cautiously opened the door and closed it behind her. The rooms of the manor were designed similar to each other but this particular bedroom sported a white and pink floral wallpaper which appears to have been chosen with a younger lady in mind. The bed was a typical fourposter made of what she assumed was cherry and decorated by thick rose-colored curtains.
Off to the corner was the usual desk which was now mostly occupied by memorabilia and personal items that the blonde owned. It was odd how the girl had only been in this house for a few weeks and yet her bedroom looked more 'lived in' than Mei's. The room painted a picture of being lively, energetic and happy but that was a sharp contrast to the blonde who continued sulking on the bed - her back facing the doctor.
Even though she pretended like she didn't pay heed to Harumi's advice, Mei knew that she needed to apologize unless she wanted the blonde to continue moping around. At least now she knew that forcing the girl into anything was a bad idea and with that in mind, she decided to wait until the blonde started a conversation on her own. However, the girl must've been pretty angry because a minute or two had already passed and she didn't move nor speak.
Mei decided to wait a bit longer even though she absolutely detested wasting time. She also fought off the urge to walk up to the blonde and scold her for being so childish over the simplest of things. Sadly, she realized that such actions would most likely aggravate the situation and it didn't appear as though buying another set of desserts would fix the issue for her.
Left with no other choice, the doctor decided that Harumi's approach might be a more effective means of going about the problem and she hoped that the blonde would quickly concede into forgiving her previous actions.
"Yuzu." The name tasted bitter in her mouth. She was not fond of forming new relationships with people, platonic or otherwise. All those who remained by her side, the people she called 'friends,' were only there because they chose not to leave and not because the raven-haired girl ever cared to appreciate nor be thankful for their presence.
"I apologize about my behavior earlier. I simply wanted to check on your condition, nothing more." She plainly stated.
At the sound of her name, the blonde lifted her head and faced the doctor. She had a similar expression to what Harumi would often have whenever Mei did something that she didn't agree with, 'Ah, she's upset.' Mei realized.
"Are you upset with me?" No answer.
"Yuzu, are you upset with me?"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry." Mei apologized once more, hoping it would go through this time and they could get this over with but the girl was being stubborn and refusing to accept. She pondered on how to get the blonde to respond and came to the quick conclusion that she had next to no idea on how to deal with an adult who was throwing tantrums and so the next best option was put into action.
"If you allow me to examine you then I'll let you have one request." It was a technique often used by her fellow practitioners when dealing with children and she had no idea if it would work on the blonde but it was at least worth a try.
"Really?" The blonde turned, pouting. It worked better than she expected.
"Yes, will you let me examine you now?" She asked again.
"Promise me first."
"I promise." 'How troublesome.' Mei sighed inwardly.
When the pact was made, the blonde stood from the bed and slowly disrobed herself. Mei, being the oblivious person she was, didn't even bother to turn around nor look away, causing much embarrassment to her patient who had to spell her discomfort out for the doctor.
"C-can you turn around or at least look away?"
"Why? we're both women. I see no reason for you to be embarrassed." Cold hard logic as usual, "Rather, what's the point? It's not like I'll be closing my eyes as I examine you."
"That's... true."
Mei noticed that the blonde slumped her shoulders in defeat after the last exchange and proceeded to remove her clothing before partially covering herself up and facing the doctor. The first that she observed was the crimson that spread slowly from the girl's cheek to her neck and finally her chest and it only grew deeper in shade as Mei watched her; second was the same bruise that originally caught her attention but there was no sign of any other bruise on the front side of the girl's body.
"Can you turn around please?" She requested and the girl obliged.
Mei continued to look at the blonde's body, immediately spotting another large bruise on her back but since the girl's hair partially hid the extent of it, Mei decided to tie it up for her. Removing her own ribbon and approaching the girl, she caressed the girl's long blonde locks and tied it up in a looped ponytail. She noticed that the blonde's body had gone rigid as she did.
"Do you often get these?"
"Yes... they just appear all of sudden but they also disappear on their own."
"Excuse me." Mei apologized in advance before she touched the bruise. She wanted to check if there was any injury beneath the skin but the girl gave a high-pitched yelp as soon as her fingers made contact with the latter's skin.
"What's wrong? Did that hurt?" She asked in alarm.
"N-no. I was just surprised, that's all." The blonde hung her head low.
"Is that the truth this time?" Mei was wary of the girl's answers because she seemed to have a tendency to lie when asked about her condition and that didn't help the doctor in any way other than to hamper her progress.
"Yes, I promise."
"Good. You can put your clothes back on now."
Mei scribbled on her notebook while the blonde got dressed. The raven-haired girl carefully detailed all of her finding including the flushed skin as she noted that these symptoms were very confusing. She didn't know of a single disease that would present itself in this way and yet leave the carrier unharmed and without pain.
Rubbing the bridge of her nose, she decided to leave the hypothesis for another day, hopefully when she had more information to go on and instead chose to finish off her end of the deal, "Yuzu, about your request, what do you want?" She asked with disinterest.
"Oh, it's nothing big but if you have the time... can you teach me how to read?" The blonde asked shyly and Mei could see that tinge of red spreading across her face once more. Mei found it a little amusing that the girl would ask for something so... odd.
"Did I say something funny?"
"No, not at all." She noticed that a smile had crept on her lips and the blonde noticed it, prompting the latter to feel insecure about her request. She really did find it amusing though. She pegged the blonde for someone who would ask for something more material, like a new dress or even jewelry, as those seemed to be the common conversational topics in between Harumi and the girl.
"I just thought you would ask for something more tangible."