Hospital Visits

The illnesses her parents had were of different varieties, but they were both genetic. According to Ringomori, they came and went within the years of their lives, until it eventually got the better of them. I was worried for her, but her lightheartedness in the hospital room she stayed in put me slightly at ease – granted only marginally.

Her admittance to the hospital happened on Thursday while I was at therapy; those pointless sessions proved to be a mistake. Due to her genetic inferiority, her cold had transformed into something "a bit more serious" according to her. Out of her family, she was the most healthy, so there was little belief that it would develop into something fatal.

"She's registered to stay here for the next three weeks," said Dr. Takashi. "We're just going to run some tests and keep track of her body's behavior to see how well it can combat the transformed cold."

I was still grounded and – due to the lack of urgency – wasn't allowed to visit her. Obviously I wouldn't obey those rules, and sacrificed my occasional time with Daishi and Ms. Ashikaga after school to head to the hospital instead. I stayed far longer than at Daishi's house, and I had an inkling that the caregivers knew to an extent what I was doing, but no one did anything about it.

One of the ways Ringomori and I spent my visit was by playing D4Dream. I sat next to her and she sat up in her hospital bed. Next to her was a plate of sliced apples that I had bought from the grocery store on my way.

"Oh my days, I can't seem to full combo anythin' now. I either miss one of the swipe notes or accidentally double tap and mistime another."

"It’s been a month since we last played," she said, biting an apple slice. "Maybe you should start off on the hard levels, going in at expert hasn't proven efficient."

I failed at another combo and decided to take an apple slice while asking her how she was feeling.

"I'm perfectly okay. My body has handled these types of situations almost every winter. I thought I would avoid it this time with Takashi-sensei saying I was doing well during the summer, but I should still be able to get through this without worry."

My eyes followed the tubes that connected the insides of her body to a metal rack with bags of strange liquids. I knew what kind of treatment she was getting, but that made me realize the extent of the situation.

"You'll be here durin' Christmas, won't you?"

"That’s unfortunately true. I'm sorry that we won't be able to celebrate because of it."

I sat up in my chair and leaned closer to her.
"It's not your fault, Yoru-chan. Even if you weren't in the hospital, we'd still be grounded anyways. Plus, we wouldn't be who we are if we celebrated things normally. I'll bring you a present, which will be my perfect apple cake."

She didn't bother to conceal her skeptical laughter as a response to my ambiguous declaration. She was lucky I liked her, or else I would have baked a pie instead and smack her with it. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought of it during that moment.

"Even if it's not perfect, I'll graciously accept any food you make nonetheless," she said.

She'd be right.

➼ ➼ ➼

One weekend I visited her with a companion, Daishi. He had just left a shift and I snuck away to request him to bring over a slice of the pie shop's apple pie. I had thought my two friends wouldn't interact much, but they found a commonality: Delilah, they both viewed her as a sister. Speaking of, there were days where I'd run into her and Dr. Shizuko too.

One anomaly I saw was a group of girls entering the hospital as I was leaving. They wore the same school uniform as Ringomori, but I hadn't known if they were there for her.

Another anomaly was on a day where it was just the two of us. I finished cutting up a few more apples and turned them to apple rabbits, per her request. When I presented the plate on her lap, she thanked me with a choked voice.

I looked at her and she was staring with puffy eyes and tears trickling down. I panicked, but before I could even ask what was wrong, she said,
"Don't worry. I'm crying for a good reason."

She put me at ease with her reassuring smile. Before, that smile was rarely seen, but I felt like every time I was with her, it was there. It was quite infectious too, because I had caught myself replicating it out of pure instinct.

She wiped her face and said, "I hadn't realized how many people really…cared for me. My father, he had visitors like my mother and me along with you and your family, but I don't remember a time when his coworkers or friends visited. As for my mother, her only visitor was me, and I was scared of going to hospitals at that point due to the trauma from my father and you."

She requested some water to replenish her drying throat. While she drank, I asked, "It was like that for you too, wasn't it? All those times you were admitted before now."

She nodded.
"The only visitors I had were the caregivers. Sometimes Shizuko-sensei and Delilah would visit, but they were busy with work and school, so I never had a constant flow of people coming to see me. But…now I have them, along with Ashikaga-kun. It's funny, one day he brought his mother with him and she pampered me and Delilah as if we were her daughters."

"She's the carin' mom everyone wants in life. We had those too, but I'm happy that Daishi-kun can have his for longer."

"It wasn't just them who visited. I also had a few classmates come visit me with confectionery snacks. I had spoken to them a few times for group projects and such, but I never expected them to take the time out of their day to visit me."

She then brought her right hand from underneath the thin blanket and presented it to me. Her palm was upwards and she requested my hand in return. I surrendered it to her.

"Most of all, I have you visiting me. The light––no, the apple in my life that I never want to rot away. You being here is the cherry on top."

"I'm sure you could've used an apple pun there," I said.

She giggled. I felt the comfort in her fingertips, I saw her delight.

"I will say, I'm slightly jealous since I never had this many visitors when I was in the hospital."

"It's not my fault you scared away the only one who ever did. Next time, remember better and I'll visit more."

"Alrighty then. I'll do the same," I declared. "I'll never stop visitin' you."

She used her left hand to grab an apple slice then took a bite. That prompted a memory to emerge.

I asked, "Do you remember what we talked about on Mt. Maruyama?"

"Umm, can you clarify when?"

"We were sitting on a ledge made of stone at the peak of the mountain, and you gave me an apple and said that apples are sometimes seen as a symbol of knowledge and wisdom. I didn't think it at the time, but you're right. They brought my memories back better than anythin' else."

"Ah, I do remember that. I also remember saying that the symbol of apples varied. Some believe it's a sign of temptation and sin and even death."

"There's a way to deduce it, though. Apples symbolize everythin' and anything. The symbolism depends on the person's life, so I see it as knowledge because of my circumstances, but you've probably seen it as somethin' different."

She pondered, trailing her gaze across the ceiling tiles.
"I don't have a single meaning in mind right now, but I'd love to figure it out soon."

"Make sure to tell me when you do."

I threw away the bare apple cores in the trash outside her room and grabbed a couple cans of tea from the vending machine in the hospital hallway. On the way back to my room, I overheard some nurses talk about the news and notorious bank robbers.

I turned the TV on in Ringomori's room and it was reported that one of the robbers was caught in Ishikari, a city north of Sapporo.

She said, "Now that they've caught one member, they might broker a deal with him to catch the others during the next robbery."

"I hope the robbers are caught swiftly. The police won't catch them in a car chase without a miracle."

The news went to commercial break, and an advertisement of the upcoming New Year's Day shrine visit was shown. It segued us into the next topic of conversation: Figuring out what to do after she was discharged from the hospital.

"I'll be out on New Year's Eve, which is perfect because I want to spend as much time with you as possible, all year-round."

"From the very beginnin' to the very end? Then let's meet up at CLARIS before midnight and walk to a shrine together."

"Okay."

➼ ➼ ➼

On that New Year's Eve night, I put on my RONDselia windbreaker and prepared for our first outing of the new year. She was currently at the Shizuko household so that Dr. Takashi could help with a kimono fitting; she didn't have the need to wear one until now. I arrived at the pie shop first and decided to wait.

I waited.