Chapter 8: 18 hours to Foreshadowing
Celebratory dinner and drinks ended slightly past 10 pm, but Reina was determined to carry out her private resolution stubbornly, so she pushed a confused Maki into her room and marched down the hallway to her own quarters.
Reina’s mood got progressively darker as the distance between her and Maki grew with every step. She didn’t even know whether she was angrier about- having to part ways or her weak neediness.
“This is a good thing,” she muttered repeatedly to herself as she trailed past the cluster of rooms allocated to her and her batchmates. They rarely closed their doors, unless privacy was needed, so Reina veered into Sayu’s open room with a quick rap on the doorframe.
The sudden appearance of Reina in her space made Sayu jump, “Nani, Reina?”
“Do you think I’m pathetic?” Reina asked, flopping onto Sayu’s bed unceremoniously.
Sayu stared at Reina thoughtfully for a few moments, trying to analyse the abrupt question. “Are you talking about how your mattress is still in its original plastic wrapping?”
She was the one person who would never sugarcoat her opinions and Reina appreciated that. “Or the fact that you’ve been surgically attached to Dr. Gottsuan’s fine ass the past week?” But candor had it’s limits, so Reina just glowered at her friend.
Reina buried her head under Sayu’s pillow and groaned, “I’m pathetic. Please tell me only you noticed and not the whole goddamn hospital?”
“Actually, we’ve been too busy to notice you,” Risa piped up, leaning against the doorframe, dressed in her footie pajamas, complete with tail. “Tsuji-san asked us if we wanted in on the betting pool for the both of you, was how we realized.”
Ai was glued to her pink Nintendo DS, but somehow negotiated her way into Sayu’s room and onto the recliner. Eri trailed in after her and shuffled sleepily over to Sayu’s bed, climbing in next to Reina and spooning her.
“Reina, you know we love you right?” Eri mumbled into her hair. “Please don’t sleep with- I mean, have sex with Gottsuan. Not until Thursday. ‘Cos that’s when Dr. Fujimoto has her bet ‘til-“
The Fukuokan smacked Eri in the face with a stuffed animal and rolled off the bed. “You guys suck. I’m going to go pack my room now.”
“Do you need help?” Ai asked absently.
Reina waved them off and crossed the hall to her room, shutting her door firmly behind her. Risa was still hugging Sayu’s doorframe, a contemplative look on her face. “So. This was officially the worst intervention ever.”
“This was an intervention?” Eri and Sayu asked at the same time, puzzled.
The sound of footsteps coming down the hall made Risa peer out. Her eyes widened as she saw Maki making her way over to them.
“Good evening, Dr. Goto,” Risa greeted as Maki neared. The room’s occupants sat up startled, as the senior resident appeared next to Risa at the doorway and they each mumbled a greeting.
Maki nodded at them, and regarded Risa’s pajamas with an odd look. “ Uh, is Reina-?” She trailed off, glancing around the room where the rest of the interns were hanging out in, not seeing her intern.
Niigaki just plodded up to Reina’s door and started rapping sharply on it, “Oi, Reina?”
“Fuck off. I’m unpacking.”
Risa just shrugged at her senior, chuckling awkwardly, “Heh, I guess she’s busy.”
“Um, Reina?” Maki said tentatively. An exact total of two heartbeats passed (Maki was counting) and Reina threw her door open, yanked Maki into the room and slammed the door shut again.
“So, who bet for tonight in the pool?” Ai asked, still engrossed in her game. Risa yawned and shuffled back into her own room, her tail dragging across the floor behind her.
-----
The cafeteria was surprisingly busy- serving supper/breakfast to the 3 a.m. crowd consisting of mostly pre or mid-shift staff.
Sayu smiled in thanks at the server who placed a plate stacked high with banana pancakes onto her tray. Behind her, Risa was carefully balancing mugs of coffee on her tray, moving slowly to their table as not to spill anything.
“Do you think we need to wake Reina?” Ai asked, while ‘fixing’ their bowls of bland oatmeal with a generous drizzling of maple syrup and various other condiments.
Sayu dished out the pancakes, leaving some aside for their absent batchmate. “I tried knocking on her door this morning, but there was no response.”
“We should call. You really don’t want to be late reporting in to Fujimoto-san,” Eri warned ominously.
“Why did all our senpais decide to leave us with Fujimoto-san anyway? And why is Gaki-san the only one who gets to avoid it?” Sayu complained.
All the senior residents, save for Miki and Rika, had the day off and everyone decided to leave the care of Ai, Sayu and Reina to the eviller of the two choices, for some reason.
“That’s ‘cause I’m just lucky like that. Mou, Ai-chan- stop that,” Risa complained as Ai stirred a spoonful of grape jelly into the sticky mixture.
“Shh. I’m cooking.”
Ai held up a spoonful of her oatmeal, staring intently at Risa’s lips with her own mouth half-open as if to will those pursed lips to accept her concoction. Risa gave the offering a suspicious look, but obliged her friend and consumed the brownish-grey oatmeal without complaint.
“Oishii?”
Risa shook her head, but opened her mouth for a second spoonful anyway. She dialled Reina, propping the phone on the table and turned on the speaker function. Midway through the third ring, Reina picked up, short of breath and panting heavily, “I’m- coming. Wait,” she growled. They heard Maki’s voice calling for Reina and the line disconnected abruptly.
Everyone in the vicinity stared at their table, shocked and Sayu broke the silence by laughing and clapping her hands gleefully, “Omoshiroi!”
The doors to the cafeteria were flung open and a sweat-drenched Reina stomped up to the table. Ai slid a bowl of oatmeal over and Reina dug into the unappetizing mush without a word.
Risa cleared her throat, eyeing the fuming Reina, “So, that was quick.”
“What’d you do? Run here?” Eri asked. Sayu snorted and started ssexy beasting again.
Reina ignored her friends. She had once again woken up with Maki, albeit in her own room, and the senior resident had dragged her out for a jog before her shift, claiming that it would ‘energize’ her for the long day ahead. Although she was allergic to most forms of exercise and recreational sports, their ‘leisurely jog’ turned out to be a sprint race around campus due to their competitive natures.
“Oishii, Reina?”
Sayu giggled, “Was Goto-san oishii?”
“Uruseiyo,” Reina growled, to the amusement of her friends. “I think I need a shower. I’ll see you guys there.” She pushed her empty oatmeal bowl aside and left quietly.
Eri tapped at her watch, “Half an hour ‘til we have to report in.”
“I’ll follow her back to the dorms,” Risa offered. “My shift doesn’t start until seven anyway.” Various items of food were neatly gathered and shoved into her arms for Reina.
Reina didn’t get very far, tired from the exertion earlier. Risa caught up easily and passed over a rolled-up banana pancake, “Here, Sayumi says she’s sorry for teasing you.”
“We didn’t sleep toge- have sex, you know.”
“I know, you know better, right?”
“Not that I don’t want to,” Reina mused.
“It’s not a good idea to get involved with your sempai, Tanakacchi.”
“Why not?” Ai’s voice startled the both of them and they whirled around to see her following them.
“What are you, a damned ninja? Why were you walking behind us so quietly?”
Ai skipped forward and linked arms with the both of them, “I don’t think Reina sleeping- having sex with with Goto-san is anyone’s business except their own.”
“I think we should stop saying sleeping- having sex like it’s a subcategory. I can tell what you mean by the context of the sentence.” Risa deadpanned.
“I don’t even know if she likes me- wants to sleep with me. In a sex way,” Reina clarified.
Risa shook her head at that, while Ai giggled, “Who wouldn’t want Tanaka Reina in a sex way?”
“Stop encouraging her, Ai-chan. Aren’t you worried about repercussions at work, Reina?”
“Well, the way things are going, I think it doesn’t even matter if they’re not actually sleeping- having sex. Everyone seems to think they are anyway.”
Reina frowned and whirled on Ai, “Who? Who thinks we’re sleeping together, in a sex way?”
Feeling a headache coming on from the conversation, Risa was beginning to regret her decision to accompany Reina back to the dorms, “All I’m trying to say, Reina, is that I don’t want there to be any sort of repercussions from your dalliance with Goto-san.”
A beat. “Oh wow, how long have you been waiting to use the word ‘dalliance’?” Reina and Ai laughed at Risa’s exasperated look.
“Okay, good night. I give up.” Risa threw her hands into the air and made her way back to her room, shutting the door firmly behind her.
“Good night!” Ai called cheerfully, “See you in 18 hours!”
-----
“I have four rules. In case Kame here neglected to brief you girls properly, listen up, because I’m not going to repeat myself.”
Ai peeked over at Eri, who was standing at attention next to Miki, an inscrutable look on her face. She supposed it was the turtle’s ‘game face’- being attached permanently to the most terrifying senior resident in the hospital would make anyone develop a defense mechanism.
“Number one: my word is law. If I tell you to do something, you do it. If you don’t get why, you ask *after* you’ve done it,” Miki enunciated clearly.
She turned to walk out the staff room, heading out towards the emergency room. “I hope you all had a good break yesterday, because it’s going to be an 18-hour long shift today.” Miki regarded them closely for signs of flinching and continued, “You’re grunts, flunkies, bottom of the food chain at Asa UH- you do everything asked of you until you drop and you don’t complain.”
Miki indicated toward the on-call room, “Rule Two: you sleep when you can, where you can. Good luck fighting me and other seniors for a futon. Which brings me to Rule Three: If I’m sleeping, don’t wake me unless your patient is actually dying and the dying patient better not be dead when I get there. Not only will you have killed someone, you would have woken me for no good reason. We clear?”
She whirled to face her charges for the day, “Questions?” Ai, Sayu, Reina and Eri glanced at each other.
Reina lifted her hand, as always, the first one to ask anything, “Hai! What’s Rule Four?”
Miki thrust a questioning look at the stone-faced Eri, who answered immediately in a surprisingly clear voice, “When Dr. Fujimoto moves, you move.”
The senior resident smirked, glancing at her buzzing pager. Miki started running towards the emergency room, gesturing for her flock to follow, “Itteru zo, teme!” (Let’s go, ya bastards!)
“Hai!” The four interns ran after her, steeling themselves for what would undoubtedly be the longest shift of their lives.
-----
Aibon yawned, her elbow bumping against Nono’s head as she stretched, rousing the other girl as well. Nono muttered unintelligibly and snuggled deeper into the warmth of the blanket.
“Asa dayo, Non,” Aibon shook her friend’s shoulder gently.
“Five more minutes,” came the grumpy reply.
Sitting up on the bed, Kago regarded her almost empty room blearily. Suitcases and sealed boxes were stacked neatly by the door, the culmination of her years in university and residency. It would probably take two trips to move everything into her new apartment. She had mixed feelings about today, both looking forward to being able to assert some independence and trepidation about leaving the safety of the communal residence that she had grew up in and come to call home.
A screech startled her and Nono sat up from bed suddenly. As if on cue, the both of them started cackling loudly as more commotion from the hallway filtered in. They scrambled off the bed and threw the door open, giggling like maniacs. A wall of foam spilled into the room, burying them under the white bubbles.
“Kaaago! Tsujiiii!”
“Who’s that?” Nono asked her friend, who shrugged. They laughed as they saw people trying to push the invading bubbles out of their rooms in futility. The fuss and noise would wake those who were still sleeping and they’d end up having foam invade their rooms as they opened their doors to find out what the disturbance was about.
Rika appeared before them fully-dressed and covered in white froth. “I swear, if I’m late for my shift…“ she threatened, eliciting a fresh bout of laughter from the two.
Aibon grabbed Nono’s arm and they waded through the mess down the slippery hallway, past the foam machine that had been steadily churning foam all night. One last time, Aibon thought fondly as they both raced up the fire escape stairwell to wreck more havoc on the senior attendings who lived upstairs.
One last time.
-----
Peeking out onto the trauma floor, Iida observed the new surgical interns as they were running after Miki harriedly. They were a good bunch, she noted with a satisfied smile.
Tsuji passed her and waved happily, a goofy grin on her face. The ruckus she had created that morning had put her in a better mood than usual. No one was spared that morning- Kago’s legendary last morning in Asa’s dorms was truly one for the books. Kaori glared at Nono dourly- she could still smell the maple syrup in her hair despite numerous shampooings.
Satisfied that everything at the pit was running smoothly, Kaori sauntered into the break room, greeting Kei who was poring through a stack of books and refering to her own handwritten notes from time to time.
“So, are you making any headway on your Psych case?”
“I like how you don’t emphasize your puns anymore.” Yasuda made a hand gesture to stress on the word ‘emphasize’, her eyes still glued to her book.
“Just showing some growth, I think.” Kaori replied, smiling placidly.
Kei’s head snapped up suddenly and she stared at the surgical chief, wide-eyed, “No way.”
“Nani?” Kaori regarded her friend warily.
“Shit.” Kei shuffled through her notes. “You. Your goddamn oracular puns!”
Yasuda leapt up and kissed Kaori full on the lips, “Thanks, Kao! I’m going to look for Rika-chan now!”
“You’re- welcome?” But Kei had already vacated the room with a flurry of papers, leaving behind a confused and mildly repelled Kaori. “Wonder if I should warn Ishikawa?”
-----
“Turns out, no one actually thought to put him through full medical scans before sending upstairs to the psych ward,” Kei explained, as Rika perused the files.
“Well, his prior medical history since adolescence shows ADHD and borderline psychosis. He’s been on meds for 7 years- there’s no reason why you would think it was otherwise. Especially since he showed up at your ward as a drug-dependency case.”
“Yes, but I’m beginning to wonder if it really is a psychiatric condition anymore. He has mild seizures occasionally and shows extreme sensitivity to noise during that time.”
Rika looked at Niigaki who was observing this intently, “What do you think?”
“Common comorbid conditions- epilepsy and substance abuse would create some variance in-“ Niigaki glanced at the patient’s records for a name, “Hiro-san’s diagnosis.”
Rika smothered a small smile at that. “She’s right, Kei-chan. I don’t see any neurological reason to order up expensive scans just because you have a hunch.”
“What if there was a growth?”
The neurosurgeon’s interest piqued, “What if there was a growth?”
“That would show on the CT scans.”
“That would show on the CT scans.” Niigaki repeated dutifully.
A thoughtful look crossed Rika’s face as she pondered this, “How- mild- are his seizures?”
“Not entirely debilitating, but he’s Code Browned twice.”
“What’s Code Brown?” Risa asked.
Her sempais regarded her indulgently, “Ah, the naivete of medical students. How I miss it.” Yasuda smiled.
“Loss of bowel control, Risa-chan. We have wonderful code colors for every situation in this hospital.”
Risa grimaced at that, “Oh, wow. I don’t want to see that.”
“I think everyone should experience a Code Brown up in the Psych ward once in their life. It’s not just a matter of cleaning an embarassed patient and their bed. Psych cases are a lot more, creative, with their biowaste than most other patients.”
Rika smiled, not at all pleasantly, “Dr. Niigaki has never been up in the Psych ward, has she?”
An impending sense of dread filled Risa. “Like a tour?”
“Like a- ‘you’re handling this case’, Doctor.” Rika handed the patient’s records over to her, “Assess him and do his labs. Congratulations, you’re flying solo on this case.”
“Uso!”
Yasuda laughed, “Come on, Niigaki- I’ll take you upstairs.”
-----
Sayu staggered down the hallway, her arms laden with case files and lab reports. Carefully negotiating her way into the lift, she eyed the panel of buttons and sighed. Sticking a pinky out, she tried jabbing blindly in hopes that she’d get the right floor.
“Need help, little lady?” A voice burred out, close to her ear. Sayu gave a startled yelp and would’ve dropped her files if not for Eri’s steadying hand. “Going up?” Eri pushed a wheelchair into the lift and pressed the button for the third floor.
“Eririn!”
“Here,” Eri gestured for Sayu to place her load of files onto the wheelchair. “Next time, use these. Once, I had so many files, I actually needed a gurney to carry all of them.”
“You’re such a lifesaver. What would I do without you?” Sayu pretended to swoon, clutching at Eri’s arm and pressed a playful kiss onto her friend’s cheek.
“How’re you doing with these?” Eri asked as they alighted at the third floor, heading for the patient wards.
“Okay so far. I’ve gone through all of them and sorted them out to ‘good news’, ‘bad news’ and ‘need more tests’ piles.”
Eri laughed, “Really? I do that too! And I always deliver my ‘bad news’ ones first so that the ‘good news’ ones cheer me up after.”
“Well, technically, bad news for them means good news for us. We’ll get to recommend surgery and maybe get to participate. It’s good news all ‘round, actually.”
Eri considered her friend with a pained look, “You know, sometimes, it’s like I don’t know you anymore.”
“Yes, you do,” Sayu replied.
Grinning at Sayu, Eri pushed her off in the direction of the wards, “Good luck, Sayu. Ganbatte!” she called over her shoulder as she jogged back to the lifts.
“Ganbarimasu!” Sayu clenched both fists and pumped them in the air. Gripping the wheelchair handles, she flipped open the first file and made her way to the patient’s room to deliver the bad/good news. “Yosh! Minimally invasive endoscopic pituitary surgery, come on!”
-----
“Call it.”
“Time of death: 12:32pm,” Reina sighed, staring down at yet another accident victim that morning.
“Dr. Reina? We need you in here,” a nurse called urgently from the next trauma section.
Reina yanked her bloodied gloves off violently and threw them into the biowaste bin. “Give me the bullet,” she barked as she entered through the adjoining door.
“Nitoh Asuka, 42-year old male, sudden cardiac arrest, he’s asystolic.” The trauma team was working on the limp body of the patient as Reina studied the heart monitor.
“What the hell? Another DOA?” Reina snarled. Someone passed her the chest paddles, and she applied them to the patient with a jolt.
“No response.”
“Charge to 220,” Reina called.
Another jolt.
“No response.”
“Dammit.”
“Call it, doc.”
“That’s all I’ve been doing all fucking morning. Time of death: 12:56pm.” Reina felt hot tears of frustration sting behind her closed eyes.
Miki barged into the trauma room with Eri in tow, “You. Goto’s flunky. I have 6 families outside piled up asking about your cases. What the hell have you been doing?”
“Dealing with these damnned DOAs you keep sending my way.”
“What did you think trauma code duty meant, genius? Go out and inform the families now- don’t you dare do all six at once.”
Reina balked, “I’ve never… I can’t-“ she stammered.
“Kame, go show her how its done and then she can do the rest. Come straight back after,” Miki snapped impatiently.
“Hai. Come on, Reina,” Eri tugged Reina out towards the waiting room.
-----
Ai kept up pretty well thus far. Dr. Yoshizawa was no slacker, so the breakneck pace Dr. Fujimoto was putting them through didn’t phase her in the slightest. But she was now staring at the pile of a dozen admissions forms or so with a look of mild revulsion on her face.
“Look, you’re a doctor, these are diseased penii. Deal with it.” Miki thrust an entire box of surgical gloves into Ai’s hands and moved to assist Nono with a gurney being pushed down the corridor.
“I’ll stay and help Dr. Takahashi,” Eri offered.
“Fine. Go check on the code team after,” Miki called over her shoulder.
“Why is our team getting all the rectal and genital exams? There are so many other medical residents on duty,” Ai grimaced, shuffling through the forms.
Eri sighed, “Well, it’s a long story- but basically, Inaba-dono caught Fujimoto-san messing around with her nurses and now we get assigned every undesirable case in the hospital.” She pulled a set of gloves out and peered out towards the waiting lounge, murmuring absently, “You know, I think I’ve seen some of these guys before at the sex shop.”
“How do you do it, Eri?” Ai asked.
“Well, you just ask them to take their pants off and show you-“
“No, I meant, how do you deal with all this and Fujimoto-san everyday?”
“Like how what?” Eri mentally reviewed the day- it had been good. Work had kept them all busy enough that Miki hadn’t asked for anything outrageous, like the roasted pig trotter Eri had to scour half the city for last week.
“Never mind. Let’s just do this,” Ai drew a deep breath and steeled herself for the ordeal ahead.
-----
“Oh my god. Couldn’t you have found an apartment with a lift, at least?” Yossi huffed, sweating profusively as she struggled up the stairs, hefting the large box in her arms.
Aibon peered around her armful of pillows and stuffed toys to give Yossi a sweet smile, “Not unless you plan to fork out half the rent, Tou-chan.”
“Oi! Hurry up, I’m starving!” Maki yelled from upstairs, waiting for Aibon to open the door to her flat.
The off-duty senior residents moved the last of Kago’s belongings into her new flat. It was bare but clean, a few throw pillows and a rug made up the entirety of the living area.
Yossi distributed the bento boxes for lunch as Maki passed around bottles of cold beer, chugging on one herself. They ate their late lunch in silence, hunger winning out against conversation.
“Ahh,” Aibon exhaled, flopping back into a large throw pillow, her belly sated. “Thanks for helping me move, guys.”
“You’re welcome. It was our day off anyway,” Yossi replied. Maki waved lazily from her spot on the floor, half-snoozing already.
They ended up falling asleep amidst unpacked boxes, enjoying the gentle breeze of spring.
-----
Reina sank gratefully into the mattress, physically and emotionally worn. Sayu was already fast asleep in the bunk bed above hers, the both of them taking the opportunity to rest in the on call room. Miki was at a meeting. Ai was keeping an eye on the pit, while dealing with her consults. It was a good time to catch some rest.
They were more than halfway through their 18-hour shift and everyone now looked at Eri with newfound respect. Having to deal with both Fujimoto and the kind of cases they seemed to attract was, to say the least, taxing. Eri was literally everywhere, all at once, smoothly handling everything that came her way.
At lunch, Eri told Reina that she had gotten on Miki’s bad side, for some reason, which was why she was assigned code duty for the day. Ai gave a very unladylike snort at that and made a remark about which side of Miki’s she’d gotten on to warrant her assignment for the day. They ended up just chalking it all up to Fujimoto being hell-spawn and soldiered on. Just a few more hours and they were done anyway.
‘It’s no use.’ Reina tossed irritatedly on the bed, physically exhausted, but just unable to fall asleep. Pulling out her mobile phone, she scrolled down to Maki’s name, staring at it for a long while before punching the call button. The call went to voicemail and Reina sighed.
Reina clambered up the ladder and into Sayu’s bed. “Scoot over,” she poked the sleeping girl.
Sayu didn’t even open her eyes as she moved to make space for Reina, who promptly snuggled up to Sayu. She pressed her ear against Sayu’s back, concentrating on the comforting sound of another person’s heartbeat.
‘Sounds different, though,’ was Reina’s last thought before falling asleep.
-----
Miki was hard at work transcribing her own scrawled notes onto the whiteboard in the meeting room as neatly as she could, checking her electronic dictionary from time to time. The last thing she needed were wiseass remarks about her kanji from the peanut gallery. It already pained her to need to ask for help from these people.
Rika and Risa were the first to arrive, seating themselves around the conference table.
“Mikitty, kore nani?” Rika asked, squinting at a diagram on the board. “Onigiri?”
“Imo?” Risa hazarded a guess.
Miki glared at them in irritation as Eri entered the room.
“Ah, Coxsackie virus.” Eri said almost immediately when she saw the drawing.
“Hora!” Miki raised her chin triumphantly and smirked at her detractors.
“It figures that Eri would be the only person in the world who’d recognize it,” said Risa with amusement. “This girl failed half her papers one semester because not a single professor could identify her diagrams, even with labels and footnotes.”
Eri turned sheepish eyes at Risa, “Gaki-han!”
“Don’t worry, Kame. Our talents will never be appreciated until we’re dead, like Picasso.” Miki declared dramatically.
Kaori was the last to arrive, closing the door behind her, “Who’s dying? Fujimoto, nani sore? Shiitake?”
-----
Aibon’s housewarming party was in full swing. The lack of furniture was compensated by the over-abundance of liquor.
Everyone was already drunk by the time Miki arrived. She passed a bottle of tequila over to Maki. “Where’s Aya-chan? I thought you guys were hanging out together today,” Miki asked.
Maki shrugged, “I dunno. I tried calling, but no answer. I guess she’s busy or something.”
Rika was sitting alone at the balcony, dangling her legs out through the railing bars. Yossi grabbed another bottle of beer and made her way over to Rika, sliding the glass door close behind her and shutting out the noise of the party within.
“What’s up?” Yossi asked
Rika sighed, not even looking up at Yossi, “Just down. I think I made a crucial error and now my patient’s still in a coma. I shouldn’t have hesitated so long with recommending the surgery.”
Yossi sat down next to her, passing the bottle of beer over. “Don’t get all negative, Ishikawa. Have you run him through CT or MRI?”
“Scheduled one for tomorrow morning. We need to hire more tech girls- there’s a backlog the size of my penis.”
Yossi craned over to look at the cluster of empty bottles beside Rika. You knew Ishikawa was utterly smashed when she started referencing her (nonexistant) penis. That, and referring to herself as ‘ore-sama’. Rika tended to be a non-drunk- meaning, she would never appear drunk in the slightest until you spoke to her.
“You okay there, Rika-neesama?” Yossi patted Rika’s head, which was resting on her shoulder.
Turning to Yossi, Rika had a serious look on her face as she leaned in closer. “Yossi,” Rika whispered.
“Yes?”
“Let’s go out and do something fun,” Rika smacked Yossi’s thigh, laughing.
Yossi blinked, her racing heart confused at the sudden shift in emotions. “What? No.” Drunk Ishikawa is never to be let out in public. The Chief actually posted a memo on the board following the debacle that was Ichii Sayaka’s farewell party.
“Oh, come on- it’ll be hilarious.”
“The last time you said that when you were drunk, Kei-chan had to bail our hungover asses out of jail at six in the morning just in time for patient rounds.”
Frantic rapping on the balcony sliding door made them look back. Yaguchi had stuck an entire pizza face-first onto the glass, mouthing the words ‘have some’ while pointing at it.
“Oresama wa pizza ga daisuki!”
It was going to be a long night, Yossi sighed.
-----
“I’m home.”
“Okaeri- you look beat.” Risa closed her textbook and glanced up at the clock which showed 22:30.
“Why aren’t there any male doctors in this facility? You know, it’s just occurred to me just now. “
“Only just now?” Risa regarded her friend with amusement.
Ai took the bottle of vodka from the mini-fridge, and as an afterthought, pulled out a carton of chocolate milk as well. She drank first from the carton, and then took a gulp of vodka.
“So, how was your field trip with Hell’s Resident? Or do I even need to ask? I saw Reina running around pretending not to cry.”
“It can basically be summarized into two words- Scrotal. Warts. No wait, three words- Outbreak.”
Risa grimaced, “How bad was it?”
Takahashi poured the remaining chocolate milk into the vodka bottle and chugged the concoction before responding, “Towards the end of the shift, the entire emergency floor started paging me as Dr. Bukkake.”
“Is that the last of the milk?” Risa asked, reaching for the vodka bottle and taking a swig for herself.
“You know, just because Fujimoto-san’s behaviour gets her on every shitlist in the hospital, poor Eri has to deal with it too. I’ve just been with her for a day and it’s been- ugh.” Ai took a long pull out of the bottle.
“Can’t be as bad as my glamorous solo case- my patient enjoys the art of calligraphy, using his bodily waste.”
“You know, if I don’t ever handle another penis in my life, I’ll be happy. One of the patients actually asked for my number, mid-inspection.”
“Kimochi warui! What did you do?”
“I told him we needed to burn the warts off with acid or liquid nitrogen. He passed out.”
Risa laughed, “That’s my Aichan. C’mon, you guys survived 18 hours of hell- let’s go raid the dining hall pantry and share the joy that is vodka and chocolate milk with the rest.”
“I don’t know if the rest of the girls are up to it.”
“More joy for us then.”
-----
Aya woke up with a start. It was dark out- she glanced over to the digital clock on her nightstand noting that she’d slept nearly an entire day away. She sat up and winced as her head throbbed painfully from oversleeping.
Yawning, she flipped on the light to illuminate the room and rubbed the sleep from her eyes and face and was shocked as her hand came away sticky with blood.
Her heart stopped as she stared down at her blood-covered pillow. “Oh, shit.”
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Did you know: Residents can have crazy shifts up to 24 hours long. (but not as long as Rika's non-existant magnificent penis)
Topic: On Call [Chapter 12- 7July] (Read 37757 times)