Chapter 11

After dinner, Orihara got to work on the computer. He said he was aggregating all of the cases he had handled at the university hospital.
“It’s a system called physician certification, and you have to submit a report that summarizes all of the cases you’ve handled at the university hospital. You need to do it to be certified as a surgeon,” Orihara explained.
Kento decided to put on his headphones and listen to DZ’s new song on his Walkman. He wouldn’t be background-dancing for them for some time, but he still wanted to do whatever he could to prepare.
“Kento, do you still go to your management office?” Orihara asked. “You come here almost every day, even on weekends. I don’t see you going over there much anymore. You might not be able to dance, but you should still take some acting lessons or do some voice training.”
“Yeah, I know, but…” Kento took off his headphones and answered rather carelessly. “I’m not scheduled to debut anyway, so the voice instructor doesn’t take me seriously. All he does is tell me to sing from my belly. I’m starting to get sick of it.”
“From your belly? Is that a vocalization method?” Orihara tilted his head slightly.
“Probably. I think he means I have to put air in my belly.” Kento thumped his belly over his T-shirt.
“Hmm, I don’t think that’s quite it.” Orihara cocked his head again. “Kento, have you ever heard of abdominal breathing?”
“Of course I have.”
Orihara opened a medical book that was lying nearby and brought it over to where Kento was sitting on the sofa.
“When you inhale, this part called the thorax ? the part surrounded by your rib cage ? expands, and lets air into your lungs. This other part, called the diaphragm, is also important.”
Orihara pointed at a page with an anatomy chart.
“The diaphragm is the muscle that separates the chest and abdomen. When you use your diaphragm effectively, it’s called abdominal breathing. It doesn’t mean the air goes into your stomach.”
“Oh, okay. When he said I had to let my belly swell, I thought he meant I had to put air into it.”
Orihara managed to repress a laugh and keep a straight face while he continued to explain.
“You have to concentrate on using your diaphragm. That way, you’ll be able to get more air into your lungs.”
Kento lowered his gaze onto his stomach. “How do I move my diaphragm?”
“Let’s see....” Orihara thought for a moment, then said, “Open wide and breathe out as much air as you can. So much that you can’t exhale anymore.”
“Okay.” Kento inhaled deeply before exhaling as much as he could.
“Once you think you can’t breathe out anymore, purse your lips and blow like you’re blowing out a candle. You should be able to get more air out.”
“You’re right!” Kento exclaimed with wide eyes, once he had exhaled with pursed lips. He had exhaled until he felt like he had emptied every cubic centimeter of air from his lungs, yet he had still been able to breathe out a lot of air from his chest.
“Did you feel your abs flex when you did that?”
“Actually, come to think of it, I did!” Kento nodded. It was exactly as Orihara said.
“That’s your diaphragm and abdominal muscles working. Your diaphragm borrowed power from your abdominal muscles to push up your lungs, which made you breathe out more air. When you inhale deeply after that, you can take in more air than before.”
“Uh-huh.”
Orihara explained with a simple analogy.
“It’s like a sponge. If you wring it well, it’ll be able to absorb more water than if you only wrung it a little.”
Kento exhaled again like he was told. He pursed his lips and expelled the last bit of air from his lungs, then inhaled as deeply as he could. He felt his abdominal muscles working harder.
“Consciously keep up the abdominal breathing, and soon you’ll get more used to using your diaphragm effectively.”
Kento nodded enthusiastically at Orihara’s words.
“You’re right, this is amazing! You have this scientific way of teaching. Guess it helps being a doctor!”
“Actually, no,” Orihara said, laughing as he shook his head. “Remember I used to be on the track team? I learned abdominal breathing from my coach.”
Kento looked at him with renewed admiration.
“But still, you’re pretty amazing, Doctor.”
“I suck at cooking, though,” Orihara added, and Kento burst into laughter.