Chapter Text
What do you think, dear listeners? Don’t you think romance is in tonight’s air? The light snowfall, the early sakura blossoms—a night for you to wrap yourself in a thick blanket and enjoy a warm cup of coffee with your lover— or watch the melting snow trickle down your window—right, right? Oh, thinking of—
Heaving a sigh of relief, Chuuya lays his head on the headrest of the car’s backseat. After a long day of back-to-back surgeries, he always tunes in to this channel. He would be too tired to watch a movie but too wakeful to fall asleep as soon as he gets home either.
So, listening to the radio on his way back home is the perfect solution. Combine it with the soft voice of the host, simply heavenly! The man is, for real, blessed with a voice that can end global warming in a beat. The soothing lilts, the quiet words of encouragement for his callers to continue with their anecdotes and the accompanying chuckles— Chuuya has never found anything this calming to his soul prior to tuning to this radio channel by accident one day and now, by design every day.
Perhaps, it’s because of his particular medical specialization that he pays so close attention to people lucky to have such a magical voice and decided to make a career out of it.
—the time we start with the set of song requests to our station... if you wish to request a song, simply drop a line to our inbox—you know the drill~!
But, of course, there have to be hurdles between him and the perfect night he plans to spend listening to his favorite radio presenter. Hurdles in the form of Kaiji— their eccentric lab technician, currently the man in the driving seat and with the most proximity to the knobs on the car stereo and old man Hirotsu riding shotgun, who wants to switch off the radio altogether.
“Kaiji! Stop fiddling with the knobs! I was listening~!”
Kaiji turns back to offer him a cheeky grin at which Chuuya lands a heavy fist on his head and asks him to face the road while driving.
—Light Snow! Perfect choice for a song for a perfect night, Naomi–chan! The first notes of the song are already on— which means ‘tis the cue for me to shut up, haha~
Chuuya smiles along with him. No, please don’t shut up! If this man hosts a daylong radio show, Chuuya would be the first to sign up.
The current time is 10:08 pm and you are listening to Gasp of the Soul, hosted by yours truly, Dostoyevsky!
It is no secret among the hospital staff that Chuuya loves listening to one particular radio show but he didn’t know why to make a big deal out of it. People are huge fans of celebrities, actors, sports players and so on—so what if he is a fan of a relatively unknown radio presenter? Okay, yeah, he might recognize him by voice alone if they ever met in the mall or somewhere even though he has no idea what he looks like. A foreigner, going by the name (and if the name he uses is his real one, a big if); apart from this, he knew nothing about the man.
He is not obsessed with Dostoyevsky, come on! Higuchi and Elise are being ridiculous!
“Chuuya–san, do you know starting today Dostoyevsky is gonna co-host with Dazai for No Longer Human? Apparently, Doppo has taken leave for a week, so Dostoyevsky... it’s gonna be.”
Chuuya looks up from the files he was going through. “And you are telling me this because—?”
“Because you like him!” He raises a brow at the choice of her words. Elise quickly pouts and adds, “His voice—you like his voice, okay, jeez! So? Won’t you be tuning in to listen to NLH too?”
“I don’t like horror shows or talk shows or whatever, so no. Moreover, it is after midnight and I will be fast asleep at the time. I can’t lose my sleep over some paranormal shit.”
Or, so he said.
At midnight, he finds himself unable to turn off the radio and go to bed unlike everyday. Technically, Gasp of the Soul, which runs from 10 to 12 every night, is over. Why does it matter to him if the man is gonna take on consecutive shows albeit for one week?
Yet, his fingers aren’t able to press the off button from where he reaches out from under his blankets. Listening to Dostoyevsky in a different genre will be fun, his brain whispers in a conspiratorial tone. Finally, he gives up. Knowing the stupid organ inside his skull, it isn’t gonna let him sleep anytime now. Damn Elise! This is all because of her! He knew very well that once she fed his brain with the useless information, it’d never be able to shut down unless he satisfies its curiosity if only for one night.
(Later on, he realizes Elise and the others knew this too, damnit!)