Chapter Text
Guren doesn’t really know why he fucked up so bad with Mahiru. Days after his divorce, he just sat beside a window in Sayuri’s cafe thinking on how everything went wrong even if what he was probably doing things right. No matter how much he thought about it, he could never figure out the reason as to why Mahiru would want to leave him. He was a successful young doctor with all the extended MD’s and PhD’s, he didn’t look that bad and he has the money to support Mahiru and his needs. That should be okay for a stable relationship. Well, Mahiru did say that she hates his guts but that would be a very low reason for her to actually go through all the trouble to divorce him.
He sighed roughly, running his fingers on his hair. There was nothing else he could do now. He and Mahiru are finished. Well, there are perks to being single. Guren wouldn’t have to hear Mahiru’s constant nagging and complaining and he wouldn’t waste any more money for her beloved make-up.
Then again, Mahiru doesn’t need make-up to be beautiful.
She cooks well too.
And---
“Ah, God. Fuck this life.” Guren shook his head, trying to erase the image of Mahiru forming in his mind before he ends up throwing his desk out of the doctors’ lounge.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. He needs to get to Sayuri’s cafe and get some good old black coffee.
“You’ve got it rough, don’t you, Guren?” Goshi said before placing a heap of folders on Guren’s desk.
He didn’t really want to talk to anyone at the moment. Let alone Goshi. Knowing him, he’d bring up his recent divorce in a second before he could head to the door.
“Mahiru really left.” Guren wants to jump of a cliff.
He glared at Goshi, mentally stabbing him and hoping that the blonde would at least notice the uncomfortable atmosphere made by bringing Mahiru into the conversation. His patient barely survived after cardiac arrest and now Goshi was bringing up his stupid excuse for a wife. Ex-wife at that.
“Go jump off a cliff, Goshi.” He said, his words filled with venom as he stood up and took his coat from the rack.
“Oh, going to Sayuri’s cafe?” Goshi asked, eyeing Guren as he headed for the door.
Guren didn’t bother on replying.
x x x
Escaping the hospital is like escaping from hell, Guren concludes. Aside from it smelling like death, Guren was one of the people who had to exterminate death itself or he’d have to deal with a truckload of feelings.
Fuck guilt.
Patients are always full of surprises. One minute they’re “Oh hello doctor!” while drinking a cup of tea being stable and all and two minutes after they would be suffocating and suffering from cardiac arrest. Guren hates that. Why? Because if the patient dies, he can’t wave his scalpel like Harry Potter’s magic wand and bring them back to life like some kind of necromancer. He couldn’t even keep Mahiru beside him let alone bring the dead back to life to satisfy humanity’s paranoia for an apocalypse.
The thought of Mahiru made his stomach churn. He cursed at himself for thinking about her and when the sudden chill of winter air blew his scarf away, he screamed a curse out to the air.
Mahiru held out a scarf in her hand. It was lilac, like her silky hair. She wrapped it around his neck and for a second he could smell Mahiru’s smell of lilies on the piece of fabric.
“Merry Christmas, Guren.”
He smiled at her, his fingers brushing her bangs out of her face.
“I love you”
The train of thoughts was then cut after hearing a digital ring from his pocket. He fished for his phone and saw Yuu’s name on the screen. For once, he thanked the boy out loud for bringing him back to the reality that Mahiru fucking left him.
“What?” He asked through the phone, not bothering on greeting.
“Yeah, Guren, can you get me a cheesecake or something?” Yuu’s voice came out of the phone with the most boring tone. He could hear curses in the background as well as car crashes and Guren was so sure that he was watching Fast and the Furious again.
“Do you even know what time is it, Yuu?” He asked his nephew, making his way to the parking lot.
“I don’t know. I know it’s night time. Just bring me cheesecake.” He said after a pause and Guren could imagine Yuu shrugging at the statement. “It’s not like you’re making a habit of cooking for me anyway.”
He hung up before he could even reply. He was in front of his car so he shoved his phone back into his pocket and sat on the driver’s seat. Once he closed the door, he sighed once again, resting his head on the wheel. Currently, his life was a mess. A fully loaded wreck. If he and Mahiru were divorced, Guren’s brother died along with his wife in a plane crash. Guren would think that it was better that way though. At least they died together and his brother didn’t experience the heartache of losing someone, same goes to his wife.
Everything would be bearable if they didn’t leave their fucking brat of a son behind.
Yes, Yuu’s a brat . A brat that needed to be spelled out in all caps and bold letters because he really is indeed a brat. Well, all teenagers are considered brats but Yuu was the bratiest he had seen above all the brats. His nephew does nothing more but sit around the couch and watch action packed films with all the blood and gore and unwanted sex.
And now he wants cheesecake.
For the nth time of the day, Guren cursed and drove to the local supermarket to buy Yuu’s fucking cheesecake.
x x x
Apparently, the the barcode scanner in the supermarket broke down the moment he placed the cheesecake on the counter. Guren had been preventing himself from screaming and blaming his nephew for the stupid request of a cheesecake. Before he could even give up and leave because fuck Yuu and Yuu’s cheesecake, they managed to fix it in the last second and now he was on the entrance of Sayuri’s cafe carrying Yuu’s cheesecake because who knows what kind of people would break into cars for good cheesecake. No, he wasn’t going to that much trouble and in no way is he going to listen to Yuu’s nagging about him not being a good uncle.
“You’re late today, Guren.” Sayuri said smiling at him as always. A sudden thought lingering in his mind as to why she was still single. He quickly erased it in fear that Mahiru would suddenly pop up into his mind.
“I had to buy the brat’s cheesecake in the supermarket.” He said before taking a seat at the nearby window.
Shigure went to his table to take his order. He asked for the usual black coffee that he always wanted and surprisingly, a blueberry muffin.
“Not wanting a blueberry cheesecake?” Shigure commented as she jotted down Guren’s order.
“No, I was stressed enough to buy my nephew’s cheesecake. I can’t possibly---” He stopped in the middle of his sentence like he was hit by truck. He then realized: he could have just bought a cheesecake in Sayuri’s cafe rather than going to a supermarket with a broken barcode scanner. “God, I hate myself.” He said, burying his face in his palms.
Shigure patted him on the shoulder, not saying anything but the act gave him a little bit of comfort until she left.
It was awfully cold in Sayuri’s cafe and for the first time, he asked Sayuri to turn up the heater, in which she did. He stared outside the window at a daze, observing the snow blanketing all the streets in white. It would have been a beautiful night if his patient never had a heart attack, Yuu never had asked for cheesecake and Mahiru never left him.
Fuck. Mahiru. His stupid, conceited excuse for an ex-wife named fucking Mahiru.
He pursed his lips. He wanted to bang his head on the table all of a sudden.
“Why are you putting so much sugar on your tea?” Guren asked her, irritated, thinking that she might come in contact with diabetes if she continued putting eight cubes of sugar to a single cup of tea.
Mahiru looked up at him and smiled, mixing her sweet tea before him.
“Why don’t you put any in your coffee?” She giggled, taking a sip and Guren swore he could already taste the sugar.
“It ruins the bitter taste.” He took the cup and took a sip.
She hummed, questioning his statement but no words escaped her mouth. She took a spoonful of chocolate cake and it went for Guren’s mouth.
“Ahhh.” She chanted and Guren ate it. “Well isn’t that one sweet, right Guren?”
“Guren,” He was snapped out of his memories when the smell of coffee entered his nostrils along with his blueberry muffin, this time served by Mito. “Coffee’s here.”
“Thanks.” He said before taking a sip. He took a glance at Sayuri cleaning the cups behind the counter and for a moment, she smiled at him. He went back to sightseeing outside the window, pretending that he didn’t see her.
The snow was everywhere. Not just that, he could barely see anything through the window anymore due to the moist and he swore that the snow wasn’t that heavy before he remembered Mahiru feeding him cake.
“The snow’s gotten pretty heavy huh.” He heard Mito say.
“Ah, yes.” Sayuri nodded. “Goshi did say that there are a lot of people in the hospital diagnosed with influenza. Must be because of the snow.”
Sayuri was right about that. Many people were already complaining about influenza like it was a plague in the hospital. Because of that, workload seemed to double upon his shoulders and he was an effing surgeon to be precise and he was treating influenza.
“I should probably go now.” Shigure said after returning the used cups back behind the counter.
“Oh, that’s right. Your house is pretty far from here right?” Mito said and Shigure nodded at her.
“Well, you can go now Shigure. You’ve worked hard today.” Sayuri smiled, nodding her head.
With that, Shigure bowed to both of them and to Guren before changing her clothes and gathering her stuff. Within minutes, she was out of the store and running to the nearest bus stop.
Sayuri eyed Guren afterward, expecting him to somehow talk to her.
“No, I’m not over it and I’m staying in this cafe until I am over it for the night.” He sighed and Sayuri only offered him another cup of black coffee after noticing that Guren had already finished the first one.
“In the house.” She laughed and went back to her station even if there weren’t any more people in the place.
For minutes, he just sat there, staring at his coffee and taking occasional sips every now and then as well as leaving tiny little bites on his blueberry muffin. For a moment he regretted not ordering a blueberry cheesecake but then he was suddenly reminded of his brat nephew that the regret suddenly melted, Guren finally satisfied with the muffin.
After finishing his second coffee, he said good bye to Sayuri and Mito, thanked them for the coffee and went out of the store with Yuu’s cheesecake in hand. His car was covered in snow and he let out a curse when he opened the door and snow dropped all over his head. He sat on the driver’s seat and fished for his keys but he felt his phone first and read Yuu’s spams as to where his cheesecake was.
Damn, his uncle could have died out of frostbite and Yuu would only care about his cheesecake while that brat teenage nephew of his would be lying down in the sofa doing who knows what in the house.
He finally found his keys but when he tried to turned the engine on, it died the moment he turned the key.
“What the...”
He turned the key again and again with the same result. Great. His car wouldn’t start. Just great.
He swallowed the urge to scream and ran back to the cafe. Sayuri was still there, arranging the cups and saucers but Mito seemed to have left already.
“Guren?” Sayuri said, surprised that he came back. “Did you leave something?”
Guren shook his head and went back to his seat a while ago.
“My engine won’t start.” Guren sighed. “Just my luck.”
Guren finally regretted not going with Shigure to the bus stop when the snow wasn’t that heavy yet.
“I’ll call Shigure.” Sayuri said heading for the phone. “She might know if there are still buses this time of night.”
Guren muttered a small thank you before resting his head on the hard oak table. Just his luck. Just his luck. First the patient, second Yuu's fucking cheesecake and now this.
“Guren,” Sayuri called, “Shigure said that there won’t be any buses until 11PM, when they clear up the snow in the road.”
Guren cursed again. 11PM. An hour. An hour before he could get home. Then again, there would be no one but Yuu in the house and Guren was sure that the boy wasn’t waiting for him. He would be worried more about not having movies to play on their HD TV than Guren coming late for the night.
“You can stay here until then.” Sayuri said after putting down the phone.
“Sorry about this.” Guren replied, scratching the back of his head.
“No, it’s fine. I have to take the bus myself.” She let out a light laugh before she opened the register, counting the money and rechecking their sales.
Guren didn’t reply. He didn’t order coffee either, he figured two for one night was enough. For the remaining time, all he did was spin himself on the high chairs in front of the window and long straight table out of boredom while constantly reading Yuu’s texts. No, he wasn’t going to reply to them. Let the brat wait for his precious cheesecake until early morning.
In the middle of reading Yuu’s fifteenth text filled with at least ten curse words, the bell from the door rang as a man entered the shop dressed in a navy blue trench coat and a thick cream knitted scarf.
“Good evening.” He said, his voice bouncing off the empty shop.
Guren went back to read Yuu’s text but before he could even read the next word, Sayuri came out of the counter with an order slip and a pen in her hands.
“What a surprise!” She said, the usual friendly smile plastered on her face. “Good evening, Shinya-san.”
Shinya?
“It seems that you’re still here in this kind of time, Sayuri-chan.” A laugh escaped from his lips. “I never knew the shop opened this late.”
Sayuri shook her head. This time, Guren continued reading Yuu’s texts and turned his back against the two friends? Acquaintances? Whatever Sayuri and that so called Shinya were, so he could go and curse the snowfall outside the window.
“No, the shop should be closed by now.” He heard Sayuri say. “The snow’s heavy and we’re waiting for the bus to come by here at eleven. I mean, Guren’s also here so why not?”
Guren flinched at the sound of his name. God, why did Sayuri have to do that? He had no time to meet new friends.
He could feel Shinya look at him even if he has got his back turned against him. Guren sighed afterwards and finally turned around, bowing, acknowledging Shinya’s presence.
“I’m Shinya.” Shinya said, taking a few steps forward and extending his hand towards him. “Nice to meet you.”
His eyes were blue. It was the first thing Guren noticed about him. Then came the silver hair.
“Guren.” He took his hand and shook it before letting go and avoiding his cheerful gaze. “Nice to meet you too.”
Guren spotted Sayuri at the background smiling at him and he could only return a forced smile back.
“Shinya-san, why don’t you take a seat? I’ll make some coffee for you.” Shinya agreed to her suggestion and sat a seat away from Guren to his right.
Minutes managed to pass by and both he and Shinya didn’t even exchange any words for each other. Guren tried to ignore the awkward atmosphere and wished for Sayuri to hurry up with Shinya’s damn coffee so that he wouldn’t have to think of a conversation.
“So,” He heard Shinya say, turning his head towards Guren. “You’re a doctor.”
Guren raised his brow. Did Sayuri tell him? No, Sayuri would be too nice to actually mention Guren to Shinya. Maybe he treated him? Some influenza related case that he didn’t know about or probably forgot about when he was prescribing the same kind of medicine to every case?
“You still have your stethoscope around your neck.” Shinya laughed and pointed to the metallic instrument around his neck.
God. It must have been covered by the scarf earlier before the wind blew it away. Guren suddenly reached for it and felt its cold metallic figure before feeling a heat of embarrassment reach his face. Why didn’t Sayuri point it out? Or Mito? Or even Shigure? He pinched the bridge of his nose and swallowed the urge to actually walk home, give Yuu his cheesecake and sleep for the next twenty years.
“Well, you couldn’t really focus on what you’re wearing if the hospital is filled with influenza.” Guren commented and Shinya laughed at the statement.
Shinya loved to laugh....and smile. Guren concluded.
“Well, even without the stethoscope, I would’ve known that you’re a doctor right away.” Shinya replied, resting his chin on his palm. “I often see you in the hospital.”
He sees me? In the hospital?
“You infected with influenza or do you work there or something?” Guren asked, trying to remember Shinya’s face in his memories. Maybe a nurse or a doctor or one of Goshi’s stupid friends he hangs out with in the hallway. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to match Shinya’s face with any of the workers.
“No, I have a friend who’s hospitalized there for a while and I just visit often.” He said fixing his cream scarf and for a while, Guren misses his scarf wherever the wind took it and he felt his head ache at the thought that it might have been brought to Mahiru. “You’re Dr. Goshi’s friend, right?”
He blinked a few times at him.
“You know Goshi?” Guren asked, slightly surprised.
“He’s my friend’s doctor.” Shinya replied.
That made sense.
The talk was then cut short when Sayuri arrived with the cup of coffee that she offered.
“Thank you” Shinya said taking the cup and sipping its contents.
Sayuri then said a “you’re welcome” to him.
“Shinya-san, it still surprises me that you’re here at such a time. Did something happen?” She asked, her voice filled with curiosity.
“Well I was going to go home but none of the buses passed by and I saw the store light open so why not?” Shinya replied with a gentle smile. “Then I find out that both you and Guren were waiting for the bus too.”
At least Shinya’s having some luck.
“Then let’s wait for the bus, the three of us.” Sayuri’s face lit up. “Is that okay with you, Guren?” He nodded after the question.
Sayuri went back to count the sales leaving both Guren and Shinya alone for the time being.
Shinya’s a writer. Guren found out after Shinya told him while sipping the hot coffee. Apparently, he met Sayuri when he was doing a feature about her coffee shop for a magazine. Afterwards, Sayuri seemed to give him free cakes when he orders coffee like how she offers free coffee to Guren after his first cup.
“A writer eh?” Guren said, mostly to himself.
“Humpty Dumpty was a canon.” Shinya said almost out of nowhere.
“Wasn’t he an egg?” Guren raised his brow, not even knowing what Shinya was talking about.
First off he was about jobs, next he was about writing and now he was about nursery rhymes and the conspiracy that Humpty Dumpty was a canon.
“Nope, he was a canon.” Shinya laughed at this. “ In the English Civil War, Humpty Dumpty was a canon on top of a wall but the wall managed to break because of the enemies and Humpty Dumpty fell down. The men tried to take Humpty Dumpty back to the wall but it was too heavy to do so. Thus, all the king's horses and all the king’s men, couldn’t put Humpty together again.” He sung the last part.
Guren would have preferred Humpty Dumpty to be an egg. He had to be an egg. It was all in the books and nursery rhyme videos and now the tale has gone so boring because now, he had to be a canon.
“Why the hell are you telling me this?” Guren asked, slight curiosity in his voice.
“Well, I’m a writer, I’m supposed to know stuff like that.” Shinya laughed.
Guren only nodded. Writers do have a weird knowledge tank and all knowledge he has is how to open up a human heart without killing anyone.
“Russia has a larger surface area than Pluto, can you believe that?” Shinya said in awe. “I’m writing a novel taking place in Russia. So I had to at least know these facts.”
Guren then wondered why the fact that Russia being any larger than Pluto in any way would help Shinya in his novel.
“I had a conference there once.” Guren said without thinking.
“What? in Pluto?” Shinya scoffed but in a non-offensive way. Guren didn’t even know that a scoff could be used other than hurting people's pride and feelings.
“No, in Russia.” Guren corrected.
It was then that Guren noticed that Shinya was staring at the stethoscope around his neck. Blue eyes with a piercing gaze on an instrument like it was foreign.
“How does it feel using that?” Shinya pointed to the stethoscope.
Guren took it off, letting Shinya see it clearly. It was just a stethoscope. It wasn’t anything special but Shinya stared at it like it was something more. Perhaps for his novel.
Without even thinking, Guren put the earpieces on his ears and grabbed the chest piece as if Shinya was a patient in the hospital.
“We just use it like this.” Guren said before he placed the chest piece on the top of Shinya’s chest. He couldn’t hear anything of course, the clothing was too thick.
You’ve got the chest piece on Shinya’s chest, idiot.
With sudden realization, Guren pulled the chest piece away almost immediately, though Shinya didn’t look like he minded and only gave off a smile in return.
It was then that Guren started to doubt not hearing anything when the chest piece was on Shinya.