Chapter 5
✦ ✦ ✦
Kento began to visit Miyashita Clinic every day to see Orihara. Much of it was because he felt awkward to be in the same room as Tomoya, who was steadily advancing his career. Another part of him had started to see Orihara like an upperclassman to look up to, especially after learning that Orihara had suffered the same troubles as he did.
Orihara had consultations until five o’clock, during which Kento studied and did his homework back at his dorm. Once the clock struck five, he went bursting out the door.
Orihara seemed to appreciate his company as well, since he lived alone. Soon, he began inviting Kento over for dinner.
Thankfully, Kento did not get in trouble for being away for days without permission. Apparently the dorm had found it unnecessary to give him a warning, since he was only visiting the school doctor. The dormitory head, in fact, was the husband of the school nurse, Mrs. Fujimoto.
One day, Orihara explained to him why that was.
Until a few years ago, Fujimoto had been a nurse at Miyashita Clinic. She loved children and took good care of Orihara as well. Once her own daughter became a nurse and left home to be independent, Fujimoto took the leap to go back to nursing college to become a qualified school nurse. She chose this path in hopes of taking care of many more children. Although Miyashita Clinic suffered from her loss, in a convenient turn of events, Fujimoto’s daughter got married, left her job at the hospital, and began to work at Miyashita Clinic instead.
On the other hand, Fujimoto’s husband, a long-distance truck driver, had gotten into a collision which left him with retinal detachment and deteriorated vision. He was forced to retire from his job.
Luckily, Shonan Private School happened to have open positions for a live-in dormitory head and a school nurse. Both Fujimoto and her husband took the chance to make their career changes.
“That’s why both my uncle and I owe Mrs. Fujimoto a lot. If she asks me to make a house call, I can’t say no.”
Orihara smiled at Kento, who was over for a visit.
“But not many people have both a school nurse’s license and a regular nurse’s license. It’s incredibly helpful to have Mrs. Fujimoto around.”
Orihara explained that school nurses were not quite as qualified as doctors or nurses, which meant they were not allowed to perform medical procedures.
“A regular school nurse wouldn’t be allowed to carry out medical procedures, but since Mrs. Fujimoto has a nurse’s license, she can help me give needles.”
“Wow, really? I always thought school nurses were doctors, but I guess they’re completely different.”
“A school nurse’s job is to protect the health of the students, not to make their injuries or illnesses better. Their job is actually completely different.”
Apart from a school nurse, Shonan Private School also had two counsellors to take care of students’ mental health. They lived off-campus and worked in shifts at the counselling room.
Kento had yet to go to counselling room. He was usually bursting with energy, so he often visited the infirmary more frequently to get his cuts and scrapes treated. He remembered Fujimoto treating his wounds, and asked, “But school nurses are still allowed to wrap bandages and disinfect wounds, right?”
Orihara laughed again. “That’s household medicine, so everyone’s allowed to do it. If you were a child and you scraped your knee, your mother would be the one to disinfect it and put a bandage on it, right?”
“Oh, right.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Nurse Nakagawa often prepared dinner for them, but “preparing” only went as far as laying the ingredients out. Kento endured the first few meals cooked by Orihara, like his soggy stir fry and undercooked curry, but before long, his patience snapped.
Kento spoke up one evening as Orihara clumsily wandered back and forth in the kitchen.
“I’ll make dinner,” he offered. He walked over and took the knife from Orihara. “I thought you’d be good at cooking since you said you lived on your own for a long time. But you’re not. I don’t believe it!”
“It’s not that bad, is it? It’s still edible.” Orihara looked uncertainly at him in an apron.
“It’s edible, yeah, since it’s not rotten. But it tastes like crap!”
Kento kicked a dejected-looking Orihara out of the kitchen and into the living room.
“You can go study or something, Doctor.”
Cooking came as second nature to Kento. He had grown up with outdoorsy parents, and they had camped often when they travelled. He wasn’t the best at making complicated dishes, but he was always looking for ways to get the best taste with as little effort and time as possible.
He saw the bag of bread crumbs, eggs, and two thick slices of pork chops sitting on the cutting board and deduced that Orihara was going quite beyond his abilities by attempting to make breaded pork cutlets.
“I can’t believe this. You’re overestimating yourself. I bet you anything you’d probably end up undercooking it. And look: the bread crumbs are moldy!”
He rifled through the cupboards and found a box of corn flakes that wasn’t expired.
“I’m going to make Wiener schnitzel,” he announced. This would only use a small amount of oil, which meant less to clean up and less harm to the environment.
He ran the knife into a few spots on the pork chops to cut the tendons, then began tenderizing it with the back of the knife. When the meat was well flattened out, he dipped it into the beaten egg mixture, then coated it with corn flakes that he had ground into crumbs.
“With a side of potatoes, of course.” He cut a cross into the whole potatoes before wrapping them in plastic wrap and putting them into the microwave.
“Now for a little colour.”
He found a can of peas, which he drained and doled out around the potato, letting their heat warm them up.
“Done!”
Orihara took a bite. “It’s delicious,” he exclaimed. “Kento, you’re amazing. Now I can see why your parents trusted you to live by yourself.”
Kento beamed proudly, sure that he had impressed Orihara. “You’re pretty bad at cooking for someone who’s lived by himself for so long,” he quipped.
“Can’t deny that,” Orihara ducked his head sheepishly.
“Where’s your hometown, Doctor?” Kento asked while he was at it, since the topic had never come up before.
“Kanazawa,” Orihara answered as he poked at his potato. “I’ve been living out here since high school, but I never had to cook for myself since I was living at my uncle’s place. In university, I was too busy to cook, so I just ate out. To tell you the truth, I’ve only started my cooking routine recently.”
“What? So all of those times you fed me, you didn’t know what you were doing?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Orihara said, laughing, which made Kento burst out laughing along with him.