Time may heal all wounds and fade all scars, but it also takes time. Yeah, time takes time; go figure.
And yes, Soon-hee is that good with her mouth. No, you don’t want to think too much about it. I know I don’t.
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Chapter Three: To the Last I Grapple
Subject: Kim Soon-hee
To Setou Kenji:
I have recently reduced the dosage of Soon-hee’s weekly morphine injection –she was rather adamant about it, and, being the soft-hearted fool I am, I went along with it. Though she is handling it much better than she did the change to weekly injections, she might be a bit agitated when you next visit.
Also, her Foundation advocate confirmed my suspicions regarding foster care placement.
Tainaka Umi, MD
With that warning reverberating in my mind, I made my way to Soon-hee’s room one day in early October. Though it had only been a month, I had stopped thinking of the psych ward building as some sort of monolith to the frailty and despair of the human mind, and had started to think of it as Soon-hee’s home. So had she, as it turned out; she was acclimating to her new life rather well, all things considered. Still, as my visit was about to reveal, there was still work to be done.
With her possible mood in mind, I had one of her favorite nurses –a quiet, mousy girl named Koizumi- come with me with a tray for making some tea I had brought for my visit. Once she had the tray ready, we approached Soon-hee’s room and knocked on the door.
“Soon-hee?” I asked, “Its Kenji and Nurse Koizumi.”
“One moment, please,” she muttered.
I heard something shuffle on the other side of the door, then the click of the lock. Soon-hee cracked the door open and something shuffled again –presumably her. Already concerned since she had broken her usual door opening routine, I gently nudged the door open.
Soon-hee was sitting at her desk in her usual long sleeved t-shirt and blue jeans, her bare feet tapping and dancing along the floor as she sat. A Pocky stick was tucked in her mouth, the distinctive box it had come from stacked atop a small pyramid of several more. Stepping inside and giving the nurse the room to do so herself, I was able to see the papers and books on top of the desk. Her left hand was tapping a pencil against some paper, while her right drummed the rhythm of some classical piece or another against the desk. Every now and then her head shifted above her to the small frame propped against the wall, which was holding a smoothed out chocolate bar wrapper.
Once Koizumi was inside I closed the door. Turning to Soon-hee, I asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Itchy,” Soon-hee responded through partially closed teeth. Still gazing at her work, she added, “And relearning how much I hate math.”
“Never liked it myself,” I said, “Why don’t you take a break? I thought you might like some tea. Oh, and this, of course,” I pulled a chocolate bar from a jacket pocket and waved it in the air, even though she couldn’t see.
Soon-hee turned and watched the bar’s movements. After observing it sway back and forth for a moment, she chewed through her stick, swallowed, and stood up, “Sure, and thank you.”
“No problem,” I said.
“I’ll just clean up a bit first, if that’s okay,” Soon-hee said.
She turned around and immediately grabbed another stick, which she quickly chewed through as she stacked her papers and books into a single pile. Grabbing them with one arm, she used the other to shove another stick into her mouth before moving her work to her bookshelf.
“Fucking math,” she grumbled on the way.
Koizumi smirked lightly and chided, “Language.”
Soon-hee flushed lightly, “Sorry.”
I moved the chair into the middle of the room so the nurse could place the tray on top of it and watched as Soon-hee placed her work on the only free space on the shelf. The rest of it was loaded with textbooks, study guides, manga, light novels, and a roughly even mix of books from various fantasy authors and history books on medieval Japan, China, Russia, England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire. The book I had given her the previous month looked to be with her texts, which were recognizable because of all the loose paper around them.
While she moved, Soon-hee fidgeted and shuffled, and if she wasn’t doing something with her hands she’d scratch her arm or short hair. Once she had placed the book on the shelf she moved over to the desk, grabbing the box of Pocky sticks but not putting one in her mouth.
“Would you like me to make the tea?” she asked.
“I’ll do it,” Koizumi said, and went to work.
Soon-hee turned to me, her expression focused on the chocolate bar I was still holding –she had developed a bit of a snacking habit. I grinned and handed her the bar, which she took with her free hand, opening it with her teeth. When she realized what she was doing, her eyes widened and she lowered the bar from her mouth.
“Sorry,” she said.
I gave a dismissive wave of my hand and said, “Its fine. Your morning swim must’ve been intense today.”
Soon-hee shrugged, “No more than usual. Did some training after lunch, but Kosaka made me stop before I could wear myself out.”
Kosaka Yuhiko was the physical therapist/trainer that worked with her. I had met her once to get a read on her, and my impression was to not piss her off unless I wanted to be turned into a pretzel.
Deciding to be tactful, I said, “That’s a shame. You look like you could use a walk or something.”
Soon-hee, who was putting her box down on the tray so she could properly unwrap the bar, glanced up at me, “Could we, maybe? After tea?”
“I’m available,” Koizumi declared, “Though I’ll need to take out the tray first.”
“Fine with me,” I said.
Soon-hee shrugged lightly, but didn’t say anything.
A few moments of silence followed before the nurse declared, “Tea’s ready.”
Soon-hee and I kneeled down across from each other, while Koizumi occupied the only other side of the chair that was open. I took my tea as it was, but Koizumi added some sugar to hers before sipping it. In between bits of chocolate, Soon-hee added a Pocky stick to her tea, stirring it around until the chocolate melted off the thin cookie. When it had, she rammed the stick down her throat, then added honey and sugar to her tea.
Finally taking a long sip of her tea, Soon-hee sighed and, eyeing her cup carefully, said, “I’m not sure a walk is a good idea.”
“Worried people might notice you acting… oddly?” I guessed.
Soon-hee slowly nodded. Still focused on her tea, she closed her eyes and made a contented noise as she took another sip, “Good tea. Thank you for bringing it.”
“When your best friend’s wife’s best friend is a tea nut, you pick up a few things,” I declared, “I’m just glad we found out about the ragweed allergy before I brought chamomile.”
Soon-hee smirked for a moment and nodded.
Sipping her tea in between bites of chocolate seemed to relax her a bit, proving that my years preparing for the feminist invasion had managed to pay off somehow –when in doubt, give women chocolate and a hot beverage. The young woman was still a bit antsy, though, and I decided to try and convince her to go for a walk. If nothing else, it would get her out of the room for a bit.
For the time being, though, I decided to keep things casual, “So besides math, how’re your classes going?”
She didn’t answer me right away, instead staring into her tea with slightly closed eyes. After a few moments she sipped her tea, obviously deep in thought. Just how deep I realized when she mumbled, in English, “’ All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified…’”
And I like to write on my own every now and then for the fun of it.