Learning To Fly: A Saki Enomoto Pseudo-Route

Ignition :: I've Got A Jar Of Dirt

"Deep breath in, and hold."

I fill my lungs and brace myself for the cold shock of the stethoscope, but at least Nurse has the decency to warm it up first by vigorously rubbing it against his sleeve. He then places the end of it right against my scar and listens intently for a few seconds.

"Again please," he says, moving the instrument a few centimeters to the right. We repeat this process a few more times before he stands up and writes something quickly on his clipboard.

"All things considered, I'd say that looks good for now. You can put your shirt back on."

"Thanks," I mutter, reaching for the edge of the exam table where I deposited my undershirt.

"So, how has the last week or so been?" he asks, sitting down in his chair across from me while I start to redress.

"Pretty good actually," I answer him after pulling the shirt back over my head.

"Do anything interesting?"

"Not really."

"Oh? Because I was wondering how you ended up with that peeling skin on a few areas of your shoulders."

"Ah, yeah," I stammer, nervously scratching the back of my head. "I guess I did forget to mention that."

"Well, I can't imagine it was anything bad. Ended up having some fun over the long weekend before exams started, did we?" Nurse asks offhandedly, setting aside the clipboard and smiling, eager to hear whatever has been going on.

"We ended up going to the beach," I say, starting to button up my uniform shirt.

"That does sound like fun. How did you handle it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, unless I'm mistaken, it's quite a bit farther than the city to the beach," he winks. "That's quite a round trip to make in one day. You must have left insanely early and left equally as late."

"Kind of," I explain. "We planned to make it back on the last bus, but got held up. We ended up having to spend the night down there."

"That's not good," Nurse frowns, picking up the clipboard again. "Did you have your overnight bottle with you?"

I nod.

"Good! I'm glad to hear it. I figured nothing went wrong, given that it's been almost a week, but it's always nice to get some affirmation."

I briefly go over the events on our trip. I tell about how we ended up getting stuck in traffic, and spent just a bit too long while browsing around after dinner, and deciding to get a hotel room to leave early in the morning.

What I don't tell him though, is what exactly ended up happening that night. It's still really hard for me to think about how I feel about it myself.

Being with Saki still doesn't seem real; in a lot of ways, I'm surprised how little has changed. I had thought that reaching one of several large milestones in my life might have had more an effect, but then again, I guess it's hard to figure out how to react to things like that ahead of time.

We ended up checking out early the next morning, and it didn't take long to get back to Yamaku at all, at least compared to how long it took us to get to the beach in the first place. Saki spent the entire trip back resting her head on my shoulder, dozing off a few times.

It wasn't the first time she had done something like that, but this time was...different. More meaningful. More heartfelt. Feeling her relaxing against me, her warm body pressing into my side with every gentle bump was more fulfilling than any time she had done it before.

"So at this point, I need to make a statement, and I promise the quicker I get through it, the less embarrassment it's going to cause. It's up to you whether you take my advice to heart, so to speak," Nurse says, placing his hands on his thighs and pinning me with an extremely serious look that makes my face flush slightly.

Although I was trying to be vague, I really doubt I failed to give him enough details to read between the lines of my story. I have a gut feeling I already know what the subject of his statement is going to be, and it's really not something I want to get into.

"I'm not just going to come out and 'assume' you're sexually active," he begins, complete with air quotes, "but I'm going to say this anyway so it's in your mind when and if that changes."

"You're kidding," I stammer out, my face turning redder. "If you're trying to give me some sort of 'birds and bees' speech-"

"Look, I'm not trying to imply anything here. All I'm saying is if you happen to get in that situation, you have to treat it like any other strenuous activity. I know in the heat of the moment it can be difficult to slow down and do your standard mental checks, but that's a time when it's very important to do so. So far I've been impressed with how you've handled yourself with therapy and getting into shape with your swimming, so I'm not too worried about you. I'm going to finish this little speech by saying that if you ever need 'protection,' simply come here to this office and I or my staff will give it to you, no questions asked."

I sit there dumbfounded, with no idea how to respond. Eventually my brain comes up with something.

"You sound like you've given that speech before."

"Many times," Nurse says, back to his old smile. "Don't worry, it's not my business to pry, as long as there are no issues. That's what I'm supposed to say as a health professional and in my official capacity as the head of the medical staff here at Yamaku."

I swallow. "Are there any, um...rules?...against that sort of thing?"

"Nothing official, besides the 'no overnight' rule. What students do here on their own time is none of my business, as long as they're being safe. Oh, and at least making some sort of effort at discretion. Nobody's walked in on anyone else in a storage closet, to my knowledge."

"I'm surprised you're this open about it..."

"I have to be. Not much room for secrets in this line of work. I know what medications you take," he winks. "Besides the cliché of saying that you can be honest with me about anything that comes up, I'm perfectly happy with never bringing this up again if you are."

"Th...thank you," I say, giving a shaky sigh.

"No problem. Best of luck finishing the next week of exams!"

-~*~-~*~-~*~-~*~-

With a weight seeming to lift off of everyone's collective shoulders, the final bell rings. Normally everyone would be lining up to get out the door, but today a sense of exhaustion permeates the classroom.

Today marked the end of the first week of exams, and it felt particularly agonizing. It's not like we've been taking an exam every day, and next week will be no different, but it's obvious this is going to dominate the forefront of our lives until the end of July. It doesn't matter what's going on; everything else gets put on hold during exams.

Even relationships.

Saki and I have seen each other exactly three times this last week, and that was for lunch on several days. The other days, I spent my lunch period in the library desperately trying to cram a few more lines of knowledge into my brain in the hopes that any little bit would help my chances at getting a better grade.

We had talked about this before the exams started, and both agreed that it was just a way of life until the end of the exam period. We even mutually accepted that we wouldn't be going to the pool in the morning so we could get the extra sleep. Getting together in the evenings wasn't really an option.

Until today. Last time we sat together at lunch, we promised we were going to do something together after the last exam of the week was over and take at least an evening to ourselves to refresh and relax before the last week started.

With how exhausted I am, I doubt we'll be able to do much more than watch a movie on Saki's laptop. I don't mind though, if it means we get to spend some time together.

Finally, I make my way out the door and make a turn to step further down the hall, towards Saki's classroom. I see her by the entrance, having a few words with Chisato, Mitsuru, and Noriko.

"Oh hi, Hisao!" Chisato says when she notices me walking up. I give a nod to the the three of them.

"How did you fare on your exams today?" Mitsuru asks me, trying to include me into the conversation they were having before I showed up.

"I'm just glad today's are over. I'm not that great at history."

Noriko speaks up. "Oh no, we have that one next week. I'm so not ready."

"Me neither," Saki says. "Want to meet up tomorrow and spend a few hours in the library?"

"Ugh, I hate the library," Chisato snorts in disgust. "Can't we study, like, down at the Shanghai at least?"

"You know as well as I do that isn't going to work. We tried that last time."

"Yeah, and we learned what we needed to do to make studying down there work."

"You mean we found ways that didn't work."

"Hey it's science! Keep working at something and eventually you'll run out of ways that don't work. Speaking of which, how did that exam go, Hisao?"