I no longer care

It had been a bit over a month since Kahoru had moved back to Japan. She was working as hard as usual. Kahoru's cold demeanour had followed her to her new workplace, and her co-workers were intimidated by her, but soon come to realise her skills and efficiency.

Kahoru's role as one of the most skilled surgeons has given her an upper hand that led many nurses and doctors to come to admire her. Although she may look very unapproachable and stern, once you talked to her, she would have a calm aura around her.

It was quite shocking. Kahoru decided that because no one was willing to approach her, she was afraid that if there was an emergency, everyone would hesitate to tell her and that could possibly result in a loss of a patient's life. She tried to become more approachable after that, so that her co-workers wouldn't feel as intimidated. One nurse, in particular, liked her because how different Kahoru was to others and decided to stick by her.

Her name was Ayuzawa Reika. "Doctor Yukimura. You seem so scary from afar. Why don't you just try to be nice overall?"

"Nurse Ayuzawa, You don't know who is trustworthy these days. The world is a much crueler place than to believe it to be. I prefer to stay away from people." Although Kahoru couldn't put her trust or care in anyone, she truely cared about the lives of her patients.

...

The time she spent in the U.S. at the hospital she worked in, many nurses and doctors were afraid of her, and some couldn't stand being in her presence. They always picked on Kahoru, but she had gotten used to all the slander and assumptions. When they came to realise that their bullying did not affect her, they began to ignore her along with everyone else and with her previous experiences, she felt the need to stop caring about her personal life. It was because everywhere she went, it was the same bullsh*t every time. It made her realise that during her high school days, she was often forced into things that made her uncomfortable and was constantly picked on for her weight.

She had lost herself in an endless loop as the years went by.

...

It was Lunchtime in the Yukira Medical Group. Kahoru and Reika had decided to take their break together. As they were eating, they both chatted about their lives.

"My family owns a confectionary shop. We should go visit them later! I'm sure you'll like something there." Reika munched on her tofu while she talked. She was beeming as she was enjoying her time.

"If you want to, Nurse Ayuzawa." Kahoru looked at Reika.

"Y-Yes, Doctor Yukimura!" Reika was stiff as a board when she replied. Kahoru was bit scary sometimes.

"Why do you hang out with me?" Kahoru asked with an expressionless look on her face.

"Because I want to!" she gave Kahoru a big grin.

Kaho was stunned but she kept her composure. "If you want to leave me, feel free to. I won't be bothered by it. Everyone always leaves me, so I no longer care."

Erika's eyes went wide. "Doctor Yukimura..." She jolted up and walked over to Kahoru's side and gave her a tight hug. Her eyes started to tear up.

"N-Nurse Ayuzawa?" Kahoru was confused that Reika had suddenly hugged her. She became stiff as she did not know what to do.

Reika quickly let go and stepped aside. "S-Sorry Dr Yukimura, I went too far."

"It's okay." Kahoru looked down at her watch. "Let's go back, our break is over."

"Okay!"

The pair quickly cleaned up their rubbish and headed back to their department.

...

Kahoru and Reika walked towards the patient's ward to check on the patients.

They went to check on an elderly lady first. As they headed into a V.I.P room, they saw a couple standing beside her bed holding each other's hands.

"I hope I get better in time for your wedding." The elderly lady smiled.

"You will Grandmother." The man reassured her. The elderly lady then noticed Kahoru and Reika.

"Ah! Doctor, Nurse! I'd like to introduce you to my grandson and my granddaughter-in-law."

"Hello, Nice to meet you." The man bowed

"Hello" the woman next to him also bowed.

Kahoru stood there dumbfounded. She froze for a second but quickly came back to her senses.

"Hello. Your grandmother has been very kind to us." Kahoru bowed back.

If her eyes wasnt tricking her, the couple was Keiichi and Risa and that elderly lady was Keiichi's grandmother since she had the same last name as Keiichi. How could she have not noticed? From the way they talked, it seemed that they did not recognise her.

"Was it because I lost weight?" Kahoru thought to herself.

"We will be doing a checkup on your grandmother. You are welcome to stay." Kahoru said as she began to check on the elderly lady's vitals.

"We will stay, thank you. There are some things I'd like to talk to her about ." Keiichi replied. He took a seat next to the hospital bed with his fiance.

"Nurse Ayuzawa, please get some refreshments for the guests." Kahoru demanded.

"Yes, Doctor," Reika answered as she finished helping Kahoru; bringing a blood test tool to her.

"Ms Hasegawa, How do you feel today?" Kahoru asked as she injected a needle into the grandmother's arm, preparing to start the blood test.

"I feel a bit better than yesterday. I think I am ready to go home." Ms Hasegawa grinned at Kahoru.

"If the blood test has positive results, we will be able to discharge you as soon as possible" Kahoru responded as she finished extracting blood into the tube.

Reika had come into the room and brought two cups of hot green tea. "Here are your refreshments. Please feel free to ask me if you'd need anything else." She handed them their teacups.

"Thank you, nurse," Risa paused as she quickly read the nurse's name tag. "Ayuzawa."

"It's not a problem." Reika smiled at the couple, not noticing that Keiichi had been eyeing Kahoru's every move. Kahoru felt a gaze behind her, she turned aroud to Reika who was chatting with the soon to be married couple and had made eye contact with Keiichi. Kahoru quickly turned back to Ms Hasegawa to avoid Keiichi and continued the check up.

"Once you get discharged, please use the medicine I have prescribed you. It is very important that you take them twice a day. The blood test results will come in a week. Please use this time to rest."

"Yes, Doctor."

"I must go now. I will see you in a week." But when Kahoru stood up but Ms Hasegawa took hold her hands, "Yes see you Doctor Yukimura!" Kahoru bowed and made her way out with Reika.

As the doors closed, Kahoru heard her last name being called out by Risa. She brushed it off and headed to her next patient.

...

"Yukimura?" Risa questioned. "Is she related to the CEO?"

"You have to ask her yourself. Her last name is more common than you think." Ms Hasegawa responded as she lightly chuckled. "She is a very good doctor. You should ask for her when you get a check-up here next time."

"Okay, grandmother, thank you for telling us." Keiichi stared at the door Kahoru exited. "Why did that beautiful woman seem so familiar?" He thought to himself.

...

Kahoru and Reika finally made their way to a male patient. As she walked into the ward, the man took notice of her.

"I believe it's bath time." The man creepily grinned. Kahoru was indifferent to his creepiness and continued to work.

"Okay, I'll get the nurses to bring a warm towel and a bucket of water." Kahoru walked out for a moment and camed back with a new hospital gown.

"Once we finish bathing you, you can change into this."

The man Kahoru was taking care of was a middle-aged man, he had broken both of his ankles, arm and a few ribs in a car accident which of course made him unable to take care of himself.

Kahoru closed the curtains seperating him from the other patients in room. She took his hospital gown off and the only remaining clothing item was his underwear. Reika and Kaho started wiping down his body. Starting from the legs up.

The man was full of excitement and his eyes filled with lust, but Kahoru and Reika were too busy to notice the man's thirst for them. He watched the women but resisted the urge to assault them as he had been told behave otherwise he would be removed from hospital.

After giving the man a bed bath, the ladies put a new gown on him and left the room. As soon they were gone, he went on to relief himself.

"Doctor... Something didn't feel right. I don't think I can work with this patient anymore. He seemed a bit creepy." Reika looked at Kahoru with an concern expression on her face.

"Don't worry, I won't assign you for his next bed bath. I'll get a male nurse to do it."

"Thank you, Doctor!"

"Mm."

Kahoru would had loved to swap, but she was assigned to him, so she did not have a choice. "You can go to your next patient Nurse Ayuzawa. I will be heading back to my office."

"Yes Doctor." Reika headed off her next patient as Kahoru went the opposite direction towards her office. She stopped at the desk next to the office.

A middle-aged female nurse was on duty.

"Nurse, can you change nurse Ayuzawa's schedule with a male nurse for me?"

"Of course. Is there any problem with the nurse you are assigned to?"

"No, Ayuzawa feels uncomfortable with one of the patients. It would be better to change her shifts until he is discharged."

"I can do. I can put nurse Takeda Yukio if you'd like." The nurse pushed back her glasses with her left index finger as she typed up the change. After she finished, she turned to face Kahoru.

"I swapped their schedules around and had emailed them both about the change."

"Thank you, nurse." Kahoru slightly bowed and made her way into her office. She sat down behind her desk and checked patient records of her current patients.

A few minutes later, a knock was heard at her door. "Yes? Come in." Kahoru called out to the figure that was standing in front of her door. As the door opened, a nurse came in. "Dr Yukimura, The CEO asked you to sign these quickly. He needs to leave soon with the documents."

Kahoru thought it was strange, but she brushed it off as it was deemed to be important. "Okay, I'll sign them now." She took the small pile of papers and placed it on her table, grabbed a pen and started to sign off the papers. As Kahoru signed, She noticed one of the documents looked off. It had an unfamiliar signature on it. The nurse noticed that Kahoru was going to read the document paper but the nurse hurriedly stamped her hands on top of the papers to cover the infomation which caused Kahoru to flinch.

"Please there is no time to read them, Dr Yukimura, you need to hurry or the CEO will get angry at me."

Kahoru was stunned. "Okay." She quickly signed off the last few documents. Just as she finished, the nurse immediately gathered the documents and bowed at Kahoru. "I'll take them now. Thank you, Doctor."

Kahoru was going to say something but the nurse immediately turned around and rushed out of the door. The office went silent. "What just...happened?" Kahoru blinked in confusion as she asked herself.

...

A couple hours had passed and Kahoru had just finished checking up on her last patient of the evening. She changed back into her flower tunic and a thick Parka then went to clock out. It was a cold winter evening, Kahoru walked out of the Hospital and headed to the bus stop. She took her phone out of her pink leather tote bag and plugged in her earphones to listen to music. When her bus came, she hopped onto the bus and took a seat towards the front.

She turned to look outside, but it was too dark so she only saw her reflection. The Kahoru, she was now became someone else entirely. She looked different and instead of the sweet girl she used to be, she had become such a cold person.

While Kahoru was in the United States, she took time out to start going to the gym and she also learnt Aikido and Karate so she could defend herself if she were to end up in a sticky situation. She became quite fit over the years and looked better than she ever had been. She strengthened her mind and had built a wall to protect herself.

Kahoru quietly sighed to herself as she realised how much she changed in those few years.

The bus had reached Kahoru's stop. Kahoru hopped off and walked into a convenience store. The air inside immediately warmed up her face. Kahoru picked up a basket and wandered around the store. She threw a few packets of instant noodles and herbs into the basket, then gently placed the carton of eggs in.

She grabbed a few bottles of Asahi beers and a bottle of sake and place them in with the groceries. 'I feel like I'm missing something' she thought. As she walked one more lap around the store, she finally remembered the last thing; rice. She went to the aisle and grabbed a rice bag and placed it in the basket.

She walked her way towards the cash register and as they scanned her items, Kahoru was craving a warm drink.

"Can I get a hot chocolate please?"

"Of coruse." The lady gave her an empty cup and after her groceries were scanned, Kahoru went to make herself a hot chocolate.

"Thank you!" The lady shouted as Kahoru walked out of the convenience store. The cold air blew at Kahoru's face and her face had became cold again as she headed back to her apartment. Kahoru's apartment was quite old and was a little bit run down.

She walked up the stairs and entered her apartment.

"I'm home." she sighed in relief.