people who can decide their future

The next morning, Nagumo shows up with Koharu’s breakfast. He says, “It’s poisoned,” hands it to her, then leaves without elaborating.

While Koharu eats, she gets a DM from Kerochan. This ruins her day. Hello, Koharu! We’re so worried about you! How have you been?

Koharu responds hours later after she takes out her ill mood on Nagumo and he responds in kind. Hiii! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ I’ve been great! I’m sorry for the late response! Physical therapy was exhausting today… This is, unfortunately, not a lie. Even “walking” for ten minutes feels like a high-intensity workout.

I’ve heard it is, replies Kerochan almost immediately. Does this woman have nothing else to do with her life or what? Is she one of those losers that’s glued to her phone sixteen hours a day? Are you alright, though? Koharu paints her nails instead of responding. She isn’t even halfway done when Kerochan adds: I’m sorry if I’m being too pushy. We’re just really worried about you. You have been active recently, but you’re not responding to anyone’s messages.

Koharu lies: My hands hurt due to therapy so I can’t type right now, sorryyy! (＞﹏＜)"

At this point, she’s just waiting for the sun to set. Once it sets, she’ll wait for dinner. Once she eats, she’ll wait for her nighttime routine. Once she’s clean and comfy, she’ll wait for her circadian rhythm to take mercy on her. It’s been this way for a month and a half now, and it’ll be this way for another month and a half. Then she’ll go back to Tokyo.

She’ll be able to walk again, feed her pets, and go to her favorite restaurants. Yay!

She won’t fall asleep to the sea’s lullabies anymore, nor will she knit with Mr. Oda again, try Matsu’s cooking, hear Eguchi’s laughter, or…

But that’s fine. She can worry about later.

Koharu almost squeaks when the phone rings and it’s Kerochan. Why is that stupid idol so pushy? Is she secretly Kerochanfan? What kind of loser would name an alt after herself?

After the third ring, Koharu takes the call. “H-hi?”

“Koharu! Hi!” Kerochan’s voice remains unbearably squeaky, it seems. “Since you mentioned that your hands are hurting, I figured that a call would be easier!”

“...hi. I still have to hold it, though.”

“That’s fine! How about you turn the speakers on?”

Koharu presses the button next to the bed for the first and final time, then complies. “Done. A nurse just walked in to tell me that they need to run some tests, so we might not have much time.”

“Oh.” Kerochan sounds sad. She’s also fake. “Then I guess I’ll cut to the meat: please be careful with what you’re posting.”

“Why?”

“I know you have more leeway than a lot of us, but even you can get in trouble with something like ‘people who can decide their future are lucky’. There are rumors floating about that man that keeps talking in the background of your streams, too. You’re not… cheating on Yukida, are you?”

Oh, great, another person who thinks that Koharu is dating that monster. Thankfully, Nagumo walks in, though he knows better than to do so while talking. Koharu points at the phone. He’s not amused. “Ah, I’m sorry, it looks like the nurse is here for my checkup. Mr. Nurse, say hiii!”

“Hiii,” replies Nagumo with the enthusiasm of a gravedigger. “You seem busy, Ms. Fujinomiya. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“But–”

He shuts the door. It’s because she used the button, isn’t it? Or because he enjoys torturing her like everyone else? “...yeah,” says Kerochan. “That one.”

“He’s forty with a wife.”

“I’m not saying he’s not, but he sounds a bit… young? Also, why is it always the same person?”

“Because these sorts of clinics are understaffed, obviously. It’s hard to tell if you’ve only attended luxury hospitals in Tokyo, so I don’t blame you for not knowing about it. Thank you soo much for your advice and your kind wishes. I’ll keep them in mind.”

Kerochan is quiet for a moment. “Alright. If… if possible, can you please reply to the rest of the crew?”

“I will!” Not.

“See you in a couple of months, Koharu. We all miss you dearly. I hope you have a great rest of your day! Let’s try to stay in touch, alright?”

“Of course!” Not. Koharu hangs up. Wench.

Moments later, Nagumo walks in. “Why are you like this?” He asks.

“Not now, Nagumo.”

“Then why did you call me?”

“Emergency. You’re dismissed.”

“No I’m not.” He kicks the stool of doom from under the cot before sitting on it. “Ms. Fujinomiya, why are you like this? Someone called you because they’re worried about you and that’s how you talk to them?”

“Nagumo, why don’t you mind your own business?”

“I am.”

Koharu hides under her blanket #6. The protection ward isn’t as strong, but it’ll have to do for now. It’ll hide her face, at least.

“And what I mean by that is, I’m the supposed forty-year old nurse with a wife. The last thing I don’t interrupt me want is getting into trouble for your antics. Again. Can you just say that Nagumo Sr. got a heart attack and died?”

“No,” Koharu mumbles. “That’s cruel.”

“He left his wife for a Brazilian model.”

“That’s mean.”

“He got fired for severe protocol violations and is desperately figuring out how to feed his dogs. And his wife, I guess.”

As if Koharu needed any more proof that Nagumo is a filthy dog lover. “I’ll just say that he transferred, but… wouldn’t someone have to replace you? Oh, a voice chang—no, they’ll figure out it’s you. Eguchi has a song cover channel, so they’ll figure out her identity if I ask her to do it instead.”

“Please don’t get anyone else involved in this,” Nagumo says. He has his arms crossed, as usual, and he taps one of them with his finger. Koharu wishes she was that arm, or that finger. “What if Nagumo Sr. transfers instead? You could even say that this happened because of the streams, and then you can do your fake crying thing.”

As insolent as he sounds, she’d take warden Nagumo over robot Nagumo any day, and he knows it. “I’ll think about it. It should be fine, but… I’ll ask a friend if it’ll work.”

Dearest Koharu, we both know you don’t have any friends. Her dad’s text echoes in her ears, amidst a silence that screams the same thing, this time from Nagumo. Crawling out would be a mistake.

“Sure. Ask your friend.”

“Nagumo?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think it’ll work?”

This disarms him. Koharu wins. She doesn’t, but that’s what she tells herself anyway. “Ms. Fujinomiya…”

“I know. I was kidding. I don’t have any friends here.” ‘Here’ being ‘reality’. Koharu swallows because there’s a strange ball growing in her throat. “Sorry to bother you. Take care.”

“I will, but… you too. Please. Not just physically.”

“I will, but… fine. Fine! I’ll talk to Kerochan and the others if you take me to that cliff.”

That makes him laugh, a startled, sweet sound he fails to suppress in time. “Would you stop using your own health as a bargaining chip?”

“No.”

“Ah, of course.” This is where she’d expect a ‘see you later’, but silence does the speaking, and he knows it.

***

The internet is not thrilled to hear about Nagumo Sr.’s untimely demise.

NOO MR. NURSE

Your hot voice will be remembered. (╥﹏╥)

That poor man probably got “convinced” to do it by his superiors.

Koharu can’t even make a crying motion with her hand. Nagumo Sr. doesn’t even exist, yet she feels bad for him anyway. “Yeah... I didn’t think he’d get in that much trouble. He was a cute old man who barely knew how to download apps. He always thought that I was calling someone.”

mr. nurse :( I’m still not convinced that he was forty but that sounds very sad

You should know what the internet is like!

“I thought I did, but…”

The scandal with the caretaker using that rich politician’s son for money probably made it worse. You have to be careful, Koha-chin.

“I will! From now on, I’ll make sure that I’m always alone when I’m live, just in case. But still… I wish I could do something else.”

You’re always so kind ♡( ◡‿◡ )

“No, seriously. I can’t show this place to avoid getting more staff into trouble, but it could use some help. Did you guys know about the national crisis regarding medical care?”

If they want more doctors, they can start by treating us better. Do you think I WANTED to sell insurance instead of working in my field? At least I can sleep this way.

RIIIIIGHT

you didn’t help by getting your boyfriend fired lol

…there he is, Kerochanfan. “Exactly,” Koharu says, flipping the bird behind her phone. “I’ve seen how hard they work. I even heard one of the employees here collapsed recently. I know I couldn’t change how things work even if I gave away all of my money, but… I keep seeing all the junk I have, and thinking ‘what if I’d bought something useful instead’? What if everyone did the same? It won’t happen, but we can’t get to a million without enough ones, if you guys get it…”

She doesn’t see the comments, mostly because Kerochanfan and his ilk have infected it. Koharu’s white noise machine whirrs in the background.

“We’ll see.”