For this period, it was just Kusanagi and me.
I first contacted Uncle Cui to tell him the situation. Uncle Cui told me not to put too much pressure on myself and to just let things take their course. He said I could reach out to him if anything happened. Having a backup in a foreign land made me breathe a sigh of relief.
After tidying up the living room and kitchen on the first floor, the space looked exceptionally spacious and bright. Soon after, movers rang the doorbell to move Kusanagi's personal belongings to the fifth floor. All of her things were perfectly arranged without a single item missing, though I didn't see a single hair of her.
I realized belatedly that I had indeed taken on a tricky job. I walked into Kusanagi's room, which had finally been opened, and said, "Hello, it's fine, just leave it there. I'll tidy up."
I called Li Shijia to tell her I couldn't move in with her, expressing my apologies. Li Shijia said it was fine, mentioning that her landlord had lowered the rent, so she wasn't in a rush to find a roommate. She then suggested we go out for a picnic and barbecue sometime, which sounded appealing, so I happily agreed.
Li Shijia was like a little winter sun, emitting a warm and relaxed light that felt even more precious in a foreign land.
Before Mr. Kuroki and his wife left, they gave me a small booklet that detailed what Kusanagi liked and disliked to eat, as well as her physical restrictions. It was written very clearly and in great detail.
Kusanagi liked fish, miso soup, sashimi, and various kinds of tempura. She disliked natto and lettuce. Her body needed to avoid strenuous exercise, she had mild arrhythmia, and suffered from low bone density and a weak constitution, all of which required extra attention in daily life.
Her preferences were surprisingly similar to mine. I didn't even need to make a special effort to remember them; it was a truly magical coincidence.
After one glance, I had a general idea of what to do, so I went to the supermarket early to buy fish and made miso soup, waiting for Kusanagi to come home from school.
I tried to make the fish as fresh and light as possible to maximize the nutritional value. The miso soup contained tofu and seaweed, and I also made a small side of tofu and a soy sauce egg rice bowl.
"This should be enough food." I took a photo with my phone and sent it to Mr. Kuroki before sitting down to serve the rice. Kusanagi's high school ended at 6 PM, so the timing was just right for her to come home for dinner.
I was still a bit nervous—I couldn't quite describe the feeling—and could only sit on the sofa, feeling uneasy. I wondered if it would be to her taste.
She was so thin; her appetite must be small, so she really needed to eat more. Now that her parents were gone, she must be very happy, right?
The clock ticked away, second by second. 7 PM, 8 PM, until 10 PM, and Kusanagi still hadn't come home.
I stared at the food that had long since gone cold, feeling uneasy. Gradually, I started to feel angry. Mr. Kuroki and his wife had only left Tokyo today; how could she be missing on the very first day? Even rebellion had its limits!
I didn't have Kusanagi's contact information, so I could only rely on my memory to go to her school gate and search around the surrounding area.
Tokyo was dimly lit in the dead of night, but this wasn't an idol drama, so it was impossible to find Kusanagi on these unfamiliar streets. I wandered around in a big circle without finding her, and it wasn't until nearly 12 midnight that I gave up and returned to the apartment first.
I slammed the door shut, feeling very helpless.
Where on earth did she go? Was she planning to stay out all night to celebrate escaping her parents' control? No, that wouldn't do. If I didn't see her after 12 o'clock, I would call Mr. Kuroki first and then call the police.
After entering, in my anxiety, I didn't bother to turn on the lights. Just as I took off my shoes, I suddenly heard heavy breathing in the darkness.
"Who's there?" I flicked the light on and discovered a person curled up on the sofa. Kusanagi, who hadn't even had time to take off her school uniform, was lying there covered in cold sweat. Her delicate brows were tightly furrowed, and her eyelashes were trembling like a sieve.
"Where have you been so late at night?"
A young girl wandering outside in the middle of the night would worry anyone. How could she disappear for so long without saying a word!?
But soon, I noticed something wrong. Her thin, narrow frame was curled into a ball, and her delicate, fair face was flushed bright red, her posture looking detached.
"Miss Kusanagi, Miss Kusanagi!" I stepped forward to pat her shoulder, but there was no response.
Kusanagi was curled up tightly in the sofa, whimpering, her chest wheezing with labored, rapid breathing. She couldn't respond to me at all. As a medical student, I immediately concluded that these were typical asthma symptoms. But Mr. Kuroki and his wife hadn't told me their daughter had asthma. Could it be a sudden onset of acute allergic asthma?
"Miss Kusanagi, can you hear me?" I tried to talk to her again, but it was useless.
Kusanagi's slender upper body was trembling. Her usual surly and arrogant demeanor was nowhere to be found. I remembered that there was indeed a lot of pollen on the streets today, which was very likely the trigger.
"Wait here for me, I'll be right back!" Without delay, I immediately went downstairs to the nearest pharmacy to buy anticholinergic medication for treating allergic bronchial dilation. I ran back as fast as I could and, without a moment's rest, helped Kusanagi inhale the aerosol.
Kusanagi was wheezing severely, her limbs trembling uncontrollably. I held her, stroking her hair, loosened her school uniform collar a little, and comforted her softly: "It's okay now... you'll be fine once you take this medicine."
Her teeth were clenched tight, so I had to insert my fingertips into her lips to pry them open a tiny bit, and the medication went in successfully.
After taking the medicine, Kusanagi improved significantly. The airway spasm was relieved, and her breathing gradually stabilized. I lifted her into a sitting position, letting her lean on my shoulder to help her breathe better.
The usually arrogant girl was now leaning weakly in my arms, like a plucked, dying flower, deliriously mumbling nonsense.
"Mother... I... here..." Her jet-black, soft, short hair unconsciously brushed against my chin as she whispered.
My heart softened, feeling a bit bitter. She was just a child, after all.
If asthma isn't treated promptly, it can lead to breathing difficulties, hypoxia, and in severe cases, organ failure or even death. I didn't dare to imagine what kind of irreversible, serious consequences there would have been if I hadn't found her in time. I was genuinely terrified. My heart jumped into my throat, and even the hand I was using to rub her back started trembling involuntarily.
"...Who?" A few minutes later, Kusanagi came to her senses. She stayed on my shoulder for a moment, then realized my hand was on her chest. Blushing, she pushed me away with all her might.
I was shoved, causing me to stumble and fall hard onto the floor on my butt. Stars danced before my eyes from the pain. This little ingrate!
"...Miss Nozawa?" The girl's voice was trembling with uncertainty. Realizing it was really me, she quickly turned her head away, but I still caught the hint of redness in her eyes.
Her eyes were glistening with moisture, and her eyelashes were wet, as if she had just been crying.
Embarrassment and panic washed over her. She wrapped her slender arms tightly around her knees—an instinctive defensive posture.
She and I stared at each other for several seconds. An asthma attack is something hard to talk about, and since I had accidentally stumbled upon it, it was understandable if she resented me or was unhappy with me in the future.
"You bought the medicine?" After a long while, Kusanagi spoke hoarsely, her voice soaked in a thin mist of tears.
My hand was still braced on the floor, and I felt a sudden emptiness in my heart, which didn't feel good.
"Yes, I bought it at the pharmacy downstairs."
"How did you know?" Her eyelashes trembled. "No one knows about this medicine except me."
The aerosol spray was scattered on the table, enough to show the chaos that had just occurred.
"My major while studying abroad is medicine." I sighed, catching a glimpse of a red bruise on her bony, slender ankle, which must have been from bumping into something earlier.
The medicine kit was in the drawer under the living room TV. I braced myself to sit cross-legged, pulled up her lower leg, and carefully applied the cool ointment, rubbing it in with my fingertips.
"What are you doing..." Kusanagi didn't expect me to be so direct. Her lily-white leg shrank back, and she struggled a little.
"Don't move." I held her ankle, my tone gentle. "It will be finished soon."
Under the dim light of the wall lamp, I couldn't clearly see Kusanagi's expression, only that her eyes were still brimming with moisture.
So she was a stubborn and fragile tiger, I thought, staring at her ankle.
Perhaps because the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Kusanagi kept her head lowered, curled up tight in the sofa, and neither of us spoke again.
I rubbed my temples. Feeling uncomfortable was normal; after all, our relationship wasn't close enough for this kind of thing, but I was a doctor and couldn't turn a blind eye to her injury.
I had been sitting on the floor for too long and felt a bit numb. I held onto the corner of the table to stand up, frowning subconsciously.
"Hiss, that hurts..." I spoke in Chinese. Perhaps because the tone was similar to Japanese, Kusanagi understood what I meant, and her eyes flickered with embarrassment.
"It hurts so much..." I kept wailing.
"Who told you to hold me? Serves you right." She said crossly, the flush on her face not yet faded.
Fine, she really was an ingrate. I stood up, clutching my butt. The strength she used to push me was real; it seemed I didn't need to worry anymore.
"Can you not tell Mr. Kuroki?" Kusanagi said with a heavy nasal tone, carrying the distinct inflection of a delinquent girl.
"Why?" Asthma is very dangerous if not treated promptly; you cannot joke with your own life under any circumstances.
"Do you know how dangerous asthma is? If I hadn't been here today, you very likely would have..." I stopped myself from finishing the sentence. Since Mr. Kuroki and his wife hadn't informed me that their daughter had asthma, there was only one possibility: Kusanagi had intentionally hidden it.
"This has nothing to do with you." She turned her head away, her lips pressed together.
I glared at her for a moment. I didn't intend to press her further, so I walked to the kitchen, limping and clutching my butt.
"What are you doing?" Kusanagi couldn't help but ask.
"Heating up dinner for the young lady." I put the cold food into the microwave and turned on the stove to heat the soup. The flames licked up from the bottom, slowly heating the snow-white tofu.
Hearing me call her "young lady," Kusanagi's face flushed red then turned pale, and she turned her back to me. The aroma was mouth-watering and savory, and her stomach growled uncontrollably. I placed the dishes in front of her.
"Your stomach didn't do anything wrong, don't punish it." I hadn't forgiven her for that fall I took earlier.
"How did you know I like fish?"
"I like fish myself; I didn't make it for you." I crossed my arms, finally finding a bit of an elder's attitude. "Go take a shower and get to bed after you eat. You have class tomorrow."
"...Oh." Kusanagi awkwardly picked up her chopsticks and picked up a piece of fish. "Itadakimasu. I'm eating."
As she took a bite of the fish, her grape-like eyes glimmered with light, as if she couldn't quite believe it. She licked her red lips and cautiously took another bite.
"It's actually super delicious." Kusanagi stared at the fish, muttering softly.
Making fish is my specialty. Seeing her reaction, I couldn't help but smile.
I sat opposite her, propping my chin up, watching her eat. Sure enough, because of the asthma attack earlier, her throat was swollen, and she could only swallow the softest soup. The fish was tender and easy to eat; I had certainly chosen the right dishes for tonight.
What exactly was the reason? Mr. Kuroki clearly loved his daughter so much, yet such an important matter was hidden from them. I looked at Kusanagi's profile as she chewed, the outline of her straight nose, and felt that she seemed to have many secrets.
"Miss Kusanagi, I will buy masks tomorrow to keep at home. You must wear one whenever you go out for a while, and you must carry your medicine with you." I tried to speak Japanese as slowly and clearly as possible. "I won't tell your parents about tonight, but you must promise me not to let this happen again, okay?"
A lock of Kusanagi's messy black hair fell down, covering her thick, dark eyelashes.
"Hmm." She responded sullenly, which counted as an agreement.
At Tokyo National High School, students mostly came from the upper class, from high-ranking and powerful families. Their status was either wealthy or noble, the classrooms were decorated with immense elegance, and their food, clothing, and daily necessities were all worth a fortune.
A girl with apricot-colored hair walked through the hallway to the classroom next door and, familiar with the routine, sat down right on the other person's desk. The surrounding classmates seemed unfazed, accepting her somewhat ostentatious behavior as the norm.
The young girl was writing something on paper. Without looking up, she said, "Momozawa, can you move? I can't see the words."
"What are you writing so early in the morning? Let me see." The girl called Momozawa snatched the notebook from the girl's desk and began reading it with great interest.
"I thought our lead singer was writing a song, and it turns out she really is writing a song~"
"You're distracting me. Go find Inohara to chat with."
"Don't chase me away. She went to find Kyoko, so I just came over to find you."
Momozawa clicked her tongue, jumped down from the desk, and sat in the seat next to the girl. "By the way, I heard a Chinese exchange student came to your house. That's really rare. Being able to board at your place—is it that pretty older sister we met at school last time?"
The girl looked up at Momozawa. "Yeah."
"Why is she boarding? Is her family's financial situation bad?"
"Her family background is very poor. Last time, I even saw her gnawing on a cold rice ball."
"Ah, there's so much good food in Japan, it shouldn't be that bad. So, did you help her?"
The girl lowered her eyelashes, which counted as an admission.
"Could it be that your old man agreed because she's young and pretty? His wife is only under 40 this year, right? I hope he's not plotting anything crooked." Momozawa was clearly very familiar with her family situation and spoke without reserve.
"He went to Osaka and won't be back for a while." Kusanagi put down her pen. There was a red mark on her slender white finger. She rubbed it and, as if thinking of something, asked, "Momozawa, do you really think that woman is pretty?"
"She's quite pretty and looks very intellectual. I have a good impression of her. She has long arms and legs and is quite tall—she must be over 1.7 meters, right?"
Kusanagi averted her gaze, lost in thought.
"Pfft, now that you mention it, I remember that day she solemnly said you have small breasts. Hahahaha."
Kusanagi said with dissatisfaction, "Bringing that up again? Are you itching for a beating?"
"Hahahaha, don't hit me. My leg is injured; I bumped it going down the stairs yesterday. It hurts like hell." Momozawa didn't dodge but grinned and showed her leg to her, revealing a very obvious bruise.
The girl paused.
The woman's warm fingertips swirling around her ankle, the bruised skin throbbing with dull pain.
Can a doctor just rashly touch someone else's ankle? I wasn't familiar with her at all, and I found her quite annoying. Yet, she had picked up my ankle without any hesitation. In that moment, as she lowered her head, the curve of her nose bridge looked, indeed, a bit gentle.
How many years older was she than me? She looked to be just in her early 20s.
Whenever my asthma acted up in the past, it always took a long time for the pain to subside, but that night, it strangely quieted down while I was in her arms.
For the first time in my life, I lay in a stranger's arms, feeling the faint pulse at the woman's neck and her warm, gentle breath.
Thinking of this, the girl suddenly felt agitated and pursed her lips in annoyance.
"What are you spacing out for?" Momozawa waved her hand in front of her. "Fine, you don't even feel bad for me now! Seeing me bumped like this and you're completely indifferent!"
"Apply this." Kusanagi expressionlessly took out a bottle of blood-activating and bruise-dispersing medicine from her backpack and tossed it to Momozawa in front of her.
"?! Why would you have this kind of thing in your schoolbag!"
"Secret." She would absolutely never tell Momozawa that this thing was stuffed into her bag by that woman on her own initiative, nor would she say that she had originally thought the other person was a pushover, only to be outmaneuvered.
Momozawa tossed the medicine back to Kusanagi. "Forget it if you won't say. Let's call Kyoko and Inohara for lunch. I'm hungry."
"Hmm." Kusanagi touched the tip of her nose to cover up her feelings. "What do you want to eat?"
"I want sushi. How about you? Your unwavering saury?"
"Not today. I ate the best fish in the world yesterday."
"Really..."