Chapter 6
By the time they had arrived back at the cafe, it was a few minutes past 2; since they were having a late lunch, they were able to quickly find a seat and had already ordered their food. Miho ordered a sandwich with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo, Hana and Yukari both ordered a soup each, Saori ordered a Ceaser Salad, and Annelien ordered a veggie roll with chicken with a side of french fries; each of them ordered a lemonade for a drink.
"I have to say the food here is pretty good," Hana commented.
"Yeah, I'd have to try and recreate these for my home ec class." Miho said, taking another bite of her sandwich.
"Hey Miho," Saori said. "Would you mind telling us about that thing from yesterday?"
Miho immediately knew what Saori was talking about, "umm, yeah I think so." She responded, taking a sip of her lemonade. "But, before I do," she starts to say, "could you guys promise not to think bad or less of me because of what I'm about to say." She stammers out, while she wanted to trust her friends, especially since given what she was about to reveal could cause them to have to accommodate for her; but she couldn't shake the doubt that if she told them, they might think there was something wrong with her and how that could negatively impact their relationship.
Seeing how stressed this was making her, Saori reached out for Miho's hands, "Miho, I'm sorry, you don't have to go into great detail, and there's nothing that could make us think of you as anything less than our dear friend." Saori said, looking at the other girls as they nod their heads in agreement.
Relieved at her friend's reassurance, Miho gathered enough courage to say what she was about to say. "Well the thing is, I have a doctor's appointment every other Saturday," she explained as plainly and indirectly as she could. While she was glad none of her friends reacted negatively, she could see that some, mainly Saori, were confused about what she had just revealed. "Oh, but don't worry there's nothing wrong with me," she reassured, waving her hands mildly; "or at least nothing wrong physically;" and with that Miho had just confessed that she went to therapy on a regular basis.
"Miho," Hana reached and joined her hands with Miho and Saori's. "You don't have to worry about that, if anything I'm glad you decided to trust us enough to tell us. There's no way anyone could look down on you for this, especially if they knew what you went though."
"She's right," it was now Annelien's turn to join, both into the conversation and their little hand pile. "After all, you're human, just like us, and no matter how much we may try to, we can't be perfect nor are we ever gonna be. In all honesty, and I know you tried to avoid saying it, I'd be more concerned if you weren't going to therapy rather than if you were."
Yukari was the last to join, "Yeah, you always helped us be our best so something like this can't even come close to making you less amazing. So don't worry so much about it, it won't last forever and you'll get better; I'm sure of it."
Miho was feeling a lot of things: relief about keeping all that a secret, happy to have such caring and understanding friends, proud of herself for not letting her doubts get the better of her, and hopeful that maybe what Yukari said was true that the future certainly would be better and brighter. "Thank you," she said meekly, trying her best to hold the tears welling her eyes. Despite her best efforts however, her dam broke and tears flowed freely from her eyes, "thank you, thank girls so much," she said again through sniffles.