A Hybrid of Life and Gasoline | 命とガソリンのハイブリッド

Part 13 | Home

Friday morning, Nearly two weeks later. Towa woke up very early today. Last night he got a message from Sumire that with all the encouraging signs, the hospital would finally discharge her from their care. So that night he's preparing her clothes, selecting the comfortable ones to pack into a small bag.

Before setting off to the hospital, Towa was looking at a small but very fancy looking paper bag sitting there on the table, he was pretty nervous about that one. Despite it being a relatively common illness, something did get to him during Sumire's hospital stay.

Perhaps it was from this exact anxiety that made Towa go shopping, and one set of items he bought may or may not pissed Sumire off, so he went and got something else that he imagined would calm her down, quite a lot.

Towa picked up the paper bag and the bag with Sumire's clothes, before setting off for the Mito Chuo Hospital in his white Roadster. It didn't take long for Towa to get there, perhaps 15-20 minutes at best even with traffic. The parking lot was still pretty clear at 8.30 AM. Towa then quickly rushed to the room where Sumire was staying with only her clothes bag in hand.

Sumire was already awake when Towa opened the door, and she was talking to her 'roommate', an old lady who's been staying in the same room for months due to prolonged illness. The lady was telling Sumire a story which Towa couldn't catch, but it did make her laugh despite being painful to do, so she was fighting not to laugh too hard.

"Good morning!" Sumire greeted Towa as he's opening the door, very cheerful.

"You're already coming to pick her up? I'll be lonely from now then..." That lady said in a jokingly wistful tone, which made Sumire laugh again and Towa a bit blushing.

"Miyagi-san told me this morning that she actually used to work in Otawara, isn't that where you're from?" Sumire told Towa, who was surprised.

"You worked in Otawara?" Towa asked the old lady, who nodded.

"For 35 years at Otawara High School, yes!"

"That's my old high school."

Both Sumire and Miyagi-san's eyes were widened by that statement from Towa. It was a coincidence none of them expected.

"That's amazing isn't it?" Sumire exclaimed.

"But he's too young to have been there during my time. I retired and came back here more than 20 years ago. My son and his wife have a tea plantation in Koibuchi." Miyagi-san continued, to which Towa could only sheepishly smile back.

Towa nodded along with whatever Miyagi-san had to say while he walked to Sumire's bed to hand her the clothing bag.

"Thank you." Sumire picked the bag up to open it and checked her clothes.

"Are you really going home? Is it still painful to walk around?" Miyagi-san kept asking out of kindness.

Sumire smiled and gave an okay sign back to Miyagi.

"I'll be fine, Miyagi-san. I hope you'll get out of this place soon as well." Sumire replied.

Then she picked up the bag and slowly got up from the bed, clearly still not able to move exactly as she wanted. Towa put his arm around her as a support. The nurse already came to remove her IV drips only a few minutes before Towa came in.

"Have you been walking like the doctor said?" Towa asked.

"Yeah. Otherwise I won't heal. I'm craving for sashimi and yakiniku right now but I can't have those for another week or so." Sumire replied calmly, but there's an annoyed tone while speaking about food.