kscans

Chapter 9 - Juice of Tears

A little while later, Tsukie was in Akina's room.

Perhaps Akina's mother had been told what happened by the head nurse. Seeing Tsukie with a compress on her forehead and Akina with an eyepatch over her left eye sitting side-by-side on the bed, she suddenly pressed a hand to her eyes and said, "I'm going to go buy some juice," before disappearing somewhere.

"Is Akina-chan's mom mad at me?" Tsukie asked worriedly.

"No, she's not. Whenever Mommy cries about me, she always goes to buy juice. She said a little while ago, 'You've made an amazing friend,'" Akina explained.

"Amazing?"

"Uh-huh. She said she heard you. 'Don't you dare say bad things about Akina-chan!' Mommy just stays quiet when people say bad things about her. So actually, she was a little happy."

"Oh... I see..."

Akina smiled mischievously.

"You're so cool, Tsukie-chan."

"No, I'm not. I almost got banned from the hospital. But you should get angry more often, too, Akina-chan."

Akina tilted her head. "Hmm..."

"Because, a lot of it is true, you know."

"Huh?"

Tsukie looked at Akina's face in surprise. Akina smiled brightly and said in a matter-of-fact tone:

"You see, they scooped out my eyeball. I had cancer in my eye, and it's true that it glowed like a cat's. And my fingers, well, I didn't have six, but they were stuck together when I was born. See? The fingers on my right hand are a little bent, too. They separated them when I was two. The scars from the surgery are still there."

Speaking so calmly and matter-of-factly about her own condition, Akina, who was only six years old, seemed incredibly grown-up. She had probably encountered people like those women, who gossiped out of morbid curiosity, many times before. And she had likely been hurt by hearing them. Children aren't as stupid as adults think, and they never forget the things that hurt them.

Looking at Akina's dignified profile, Tsukie's vision blurred, and the back of her nose began to sting. Akina's composure made it all the more painful. She was angry at herself for making Akina talk about such things. She was frustrated by her own powerlessness, able to do nothing but cry at times like these.

"Akina-chaaan!"

Tsukie threw her arms around Akina. She hugged her frail body with all the strength she had. The smell of disinfectant clung to Akina's body, and that squeezed Tsukie's heart even tighter.

Even though she had cried until she thought she had no tears left while hugging the head nurse, Tsukie couldn't hold them back in front of Akina. Akina was the one who was truly suffering. She felt pathetic for being such a crybaby.

A little while later, Akina played the lighter's music box, and Tsukie finally calmed down. The melancholy melody of 'Let It Be' seeped into her heart. It was as if the beautiful melody was telling her that it was okay not to try so hard.

"Well then, shall we eat?"

It was already past three in the afternoon. Akina had waited to eat lunch with Tsukie, leaving her own untouched. Tsukie hesitantly opened the bento box she had thrown earlier.

As expected, the rolled omelet and sausages were all jumbled up with the minced meat rice. Her father had tried so hard to make it this morning with his clumsy hands. Tears welled up in her eyes again.

"Tsukie-chan, can I have the egg?"

Akina picked out a lopsided piece of omelet from the jumbled bento and popped it in her mouth.

"Yummy. Your dad's omelets are sweet, Tsukie-chan."

Akina glanced at her own meal tray as she chewed.

"Okay, your turn, Tsukie-chan. Say 'ahhh'."

At her invitation, Tsukie opened her mouth. Mindful of the wound where her teeth had been, Akina cut a meatball into small pieces and placed it in her mouth. The meatball was completely cold and tasted of a mixture of tears and blood, but it was so full of Akina's kindness that it was delicious beyond words.