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The whole dreadful thing had begun several months prior. Langa had first noticed it in class one day, when their English teacher had been droning on about grammar rules that came naturally to him, reason why he rarely ever paid any attention in this particular subject. Not that he was specially attentive in any of the others, what with his mind being so full of skateboarding and Reki and food, but this one was even more of a drag than the rest.
Langa had raised his hand to his mouth to cover a yawn when he suddenly heard it: a small clack sound originating somewhere near his left ear. Huh , he had thought, forgetting about it not a second later. When the second yawn that came a mere 5 minutes later was also accompanied by that noise, he frowned slightly, seemingly lost in thought. The sound, which seemed to be coming from the spot in which his jaw connected to the rest of his head, was rather unpleasant, actually, and the fact it had shown up out of nowhere confused him quite a bit. But then Reki was poking him to let him know class was over, and whatever it was he had been pondering vanished from his mind.
Three days later, he and Reki had dragged Miya over to a fast food place, despite the younger skater's protests about how unhealthy it was. Langa had opened his mouth wide to take a bite out of one of his many burgers when he stopped dead in his tracks. There it was again, that little clacking noise. He had decided by now he rather disliked it, actually; it felt like someone was cracking their knuckles, but that someone was his face, and it was, well, uncomfortable. He had managed to finish his burgers just fine, but that constant clack clack clack had made it a bit unpleasant.
After two, maybe three months of this annoyance, the clacking had abruptly stopped. Only to be replaced by something else: pain. Not much of it at first; Langa would yawn and a sharp pain would hit the left side of his jaw for about a millisecond, or he'd open his mouth really wide to eat something and the same thing would happen, but after that it was completely gone. Langa was a very out-of-sight out-of-mind kind of guy, so he always completely forgot to mention it to anyone after the fact, even if it did concern him whenever it happened. He had way more important things to think about anyway, such as: skateboarding (with Reki), hanging out (with Reki and Miya and the others, but especially with Reki), getting his grades up so he could graduate (with Reki). Y'know, normal teenage stuff.
This changed not much later, though, when he was having dinner with his mother. They were eating chicken noodles, something you don't need to open your mouth much to eat and that isn't particularly hard either, but despite this the pain still came. Not only that, but it stayed this time. Not as sharp as when he opened his mouth wide, but it still lingered there regardless.
"Mum," Langa started, staring pensively into his plate.
"Yes, Langa?"
"Your jaw isn't supposed to hurt when you eat or yawn, is it?" he asked, completely serious.
Nanako blinked at him. "What was that, darling?"
"My jaw hurts when I open my mouth..." Langa demonstrated by opening his mouth enough to fit about two and a half fingers stacked on top of one another between his teeth. "...this much."
"Since when has this been going on, honey?" his mother asked, concern evident in her tone.
Langa hummed while he tried to recall when it had all started, a habit he had picked up from Reki. "About four weeks ago?" he answered, tilting his head in uncertainty. "But before that it kept making an annoying clacking sound for like two or three months," he grumbled.
Nanako shot a bewildered look at the picture of them and his dad they had closest to them, then looked back at her son. "Langa, dear, why didn't you bring this up sooner?"
Langa shrugged. "I forgot."
Nanako sighed. "Of course you did." After a small pause, she added, "We'll get you checked out at the doctor's, yeah?"
"Ok."
~~~~~~·~~~~~~
His doctor didn't have much to say, other than giving him some pain meds and recommending he visit his usual orthodontist. Langa had worn brackets a few years back, and he had to wear a retainer at night now –to maintain the proper position of his teeth and keep them from, uh, slipping away or something like that– , which the doctor said could sometimes cause these jaw problems. Small issue though: his orthodontist was all the way back in Canada, which meant he'd have to find a new one. His doctor ended up recommending one that also happened to be a jaw expert, or something. Langa hadn't realised until then that that was a thing.
"Yeah, this seems to be an issue with your meniscus," the jaw expert had expertly explained, though Langa didn't know what that meant. He was more of a skateboard guy himself. "We'll need you to get an MRI done to make sure, though. Until then..." She paused to take a look at Langa's retainer. "This isn't what's causing your pain; it's not the type of retainer that might do that. Regardless, it's likely you grind your teeth in your sleep, so we best switch it for another that will cushion the force a bit better." Langa nodded, crying internally at the thought of having to get a mold of his teeth done again. That weird paste made him throw up every time. But the orthodontist pulled out a magic little camera to scan his teeth instead, and all was good.
Then the terrible news hit. The earliest he could get an MRI done was in a month. A month. How... How was he supposed to survive that long without...? He had been avoiding eating some things for a while now; the pain had gotten a bit too much when opening his mouth a certain amount or eating hard foods, but a whole other month...? This had to be some type of divine punishment.
His distress must have been plastered all over his face, because Reki noticed right away when they met up that evening.
"Dude, are you okay?" he asked, passing his arm over Langa's shoulders and squeezing him.
"I..." Langa sniffled dramatically. "I can't eat burgers anymore."
"Huh? What? Why's that?" Reki questioned, concerned.
After a quick explanation of recent events, Reki patted Langa's back. "Awe, dude, that sucks," he mourned. He guessed this was likely on the list of Top Ten Worst Things That Could Happen To Langa, and he was right. "But, hey, cheer up! Once you're cured, I'll buy you..." he stopped to hum as he calculated how much money he could spend on this. "...five whole burgers! How's that sound?"
Reki's grin was so bright that Langa couldn't help but smile back. "Okay,"
"Good! Now let's go try that trick I was telling you about, dude!"
~~~~~~·~~~~~~
A month and a half later, Langa was back at the jaw expert's office. The MRI scan had been slightly painful, as it had required him to keep his mouth open for a prolonged time to see what was wrong with his jaw, and he'd also almost fallen asleep laying inside the machine, but the images had turned out fine, so he supposed it had been worth it. The expert, Langa and his mum were looking at them right now, in fact.
"So, I was right," the orthodontist started. "See your meniscus here?" She pointed at a grey thing in the completely grey image. He didn't see it, no. He nodded anyway. "It's supposed to be back over here," she moved her finger diagonally ever so slightly to another grey area. "But it's moved out of its place."
She paused before continuing her explanation. "Now, the clacking sound you were hearing in the beginning was actually your meniscus returning to where it's supposed to be all on its own, but unfortunately now it's stuck way more forward than that and isn’t able to go back. See how it's sort of folded in on itself?"
It all looked the same to him. Whatever. He gave an affirmative "Mn."
"If you'll take a look over here," she pointed at another gray thing, but this time Langa thought he could make it out. "That's your jaw bone. Curiously enough, both this one and the one on your right side are smaller than they're supposed to be, which made it much easier for your meniscus to slip out of its place."
"Oh dear," Nanako sighed. "We built you wrong."
Langa gave the tiniest of smiles, while the orthodontist outright laughed. After the small interruption, she carried on with her expert talk.
"The reason you're in pain is that, without your meniscus, your bones are rubbing against each other, causing inflammation. Unfortunately..." She pointed at the blob that was supposedly the reason for his suffering. "It's unlikely it will ever return to its place."
Langa turned even paler than he already was. Never? But then- How was he supposed to...? He- Burger... What...? This... This couldn't be...
The orthodontist smiled. "Don't fret, you can go on just fine with a faulty meniscus. Many people do actually, and they never even realise because they feel no pain. That's what it's like in most cases, anyway. I'm afraid you're one of the unlucky few."
Langa's eyes darkened. What had he done to deserve this fate? Had he angered some sort of higher being? But how? By eating too many burgers? Imposible. There was no such thing.
"So, here's what I propose," the jaw expert pulled Langa out of his thoughts. "The best course of action right now is for you to get a hyaluronic acid injection. Usually, we do plasma as well, to help the bones regenerate after they've been weathered down, but you're young and still have a lot of regenerative abilities left in you, so we'll spare you that. I'm afraid the one thing I can't tell you is how many times you'll need to get the injection. There's little research for this in younger people, as it tends to happen to adults, so we'll just have to see how you're doing and figure it out along the way."
In summary, Langa had won the jaw-pain lottery. This was just straight up evil.
The rest of the appointment was spent making small adjustments to his new retainer, a bulky thing that made it hard to talk and uncomfortable to close his mouth fully, and that he'd just found out he would have to wear every single night for the rest of his life. Well. Anything to be able to eat burgers again.
When he explained his predicament to Reki that night at the skatepark, the latter's eyes shone in recognition. "Oh! It's like when people have problems with their knees and need to get hyaluronic acid injected as a lubricant!"
"How do you know this," Langa wondered, staring at his friend in amazement.
"Dude. I skateboard. Knee issues aren't rare; they come up in a lot of skating forums."
Langa nodded in understanding.
"But anyway, that sucks man." Reki said, laying on his back on top of the half-pipe.
Langa's eyes sparkled with sadness and he pouted like a toddler. "I can't even eat burger,"
Reki snorted. "I'll up the deal to six of them, okay?"
Langa beamed.
A week later, Langa left the operation with half his face asleep from local anesthesia. It hadn't been as bad as he had expected, actually. Reki greeted him with a tub of ice-cream that afternoon, and Langa thought he might propose to him then and there.
~~~~~~·~~~~~~
The jaw expert had expertly recommended that he visit a physiotherapist who also happened to be a jaw expert (Langa had never met so many jaw experts in his life) to help his jaw regain normal motion, so he did just that. Phew, that's a lot of jaws. Anyway, he'd never visited one before, and he just had to say. That woman was magic. He didn't know how, but he'd gone from being able to fit only two and a half fingers stacked on top of each other in between his teeth to being able to fit three! Of course, the effects were decreased by the next day, and he had to continue visiting her weekly for it to stick, but he had not expected it to work so well.
After their third session came some of the greatest news Langa had ever heard. The physiotherapist recommended he try eating food items he had been avoiding, in order to get his body accustomed to the motions needed for said task again.
Half an hour later, he was knocking on Reki's window. His session had been early in the morning, so his ruckus had actually woken the other boy up. Not that he minded much.
"Hey, dude," Reki yawned.
"Reki! I have homework and it's to eat a burger!" Langa exclaimed, eyes shining.
"What?" Reki blinked, still sleepy.
"The second jaw expert said to eat a burger!" Ok, that wasn't exactly what she had said, but it was close enough.
"Really? That's awesome, dude!" Reki beamed. "I guess you'll be receiving your gift today, then." He finished, winking.
And when lunchtime came, that's exactly what happened. They met up with an annoyed Miya yet again and pretty much sprinted to their usual fast food place. Reki kept his promise. Ten minutes later, he sat down next to Langa and slid a tray with exactly six burgers in front of him.
"There you go, mister faulty meniscus." He teased, messing his hair up.
Langa grabbed one of the burgers and stared down at it in near disbelief. It had been so long... Two months without burgers had been such torture he almost believed he would die. This moment didn't even seem real.
He took his first bite, and he was so happy he might actually cry. It barely hurt anymore. He could eat burgers again.
Langa was filled with so much glee he didn't know what to do with it. So he swallowed, smiled a great big smile, said "Thanks, Reki," and then kissed him on the cheek.
Reki blinked, face turning red as his hand moved to lightly touch the spot Langa's lips had just brushed against. Miya stared at them with judging eyes. And Langa, well, he was too busy eating his beloved burgers to even realise what he had just done.