If Jealousy Could Kill

Chapter 32: Diagnosis

“Miss Sasazaki? Miss Tachibana?”

The two women’s heads instantly perked up at the sound of their last names. They saw a kind nurse smiling at them. The two women pushed themselves out of the seats, quickly moving to stand closer to the nurse who held a clipboard against her chest.

“The doctor would like to see the two of you now, please follow me to his office.”

The nurse turned on her heels, beckoning for the two women to follow. Both of them nodded, following along immediately, not wanting to waste any time. Mami kept her hands inside the pockets of her sweater, her eyes looking around the dreary white halls of the hospital. Miyuki followed close behind her, her arms by her side and she kept her eyes forward. She didn’t really want to look at any of the patients; Miyuki was not a fan of any kind of hospital. She had too many memories involving these places, most of them note being good ones.

The nurse led them only a little ways more down the hallway before stopping outside of a door. She knocked on it promptly and the three women could hear a muffled ‘come in’. The nurse obeyed, opening the door and poking her head inside. The doctor looked up when he saw her, waiting for her to speak.

“The temporary caretakers for Suzuki are here to see you,” she said politely.

“Let them in please, Shizuka.” The nurse nodded before opening up the door all the way. She stood with her back to the door, silently motioning for the two visitors to make their way in.

Both of them did just that and they could hear the nurse close the door behind them. The doctor silently motioned to the two seats in front of him. Hesitant at first, the two women made their way over to the seats, sitting down awkwardly and waiting for the doctor to speak. Neither of them had ever been in a hospital like this, they didn’t know what to do here.

“Before we begin, I want to make sure you understand that you two are temporary caretakers. It is only in time of emergency. Once we contact her immediate family, they will become the caretakers unless they sign over rights to you two, is this understood?”

“Yes, sensei,” Miyuki replied.

“But… I don’t think you’ll be getting much out of Rina’s parents or siblings,” Mami interjected. The doctor raised an eyebrow at Mami’s statement.

“What do you mean by that, Miss…?”

“Sasazaki. Sasazaki Mami,” Mami introduced herself. The doctor nodded and Mami continued. “When Rina was younger, she was a bit of a troubled student. In school, she always struggled with her grades. Even if Haru and I tried to tutor her, she could never pull her grades very high. Her mother and she would always fight about it, her mother never was happy about her performance in school.” The doctor nodded, quickly writing something down onto his pad of paper.

“Is that the only reason Suzuki doesn’t get along with her family?” Mami gulped and paused. That wasn’t the only reason at all, but Mami had never felt comfortable speaking of it. She had to remind herself though that these people were here to help Rina. They weren’t going to judge or hurt her for her past; they were going to help her.... Mami hoped at least.

“Rina also had some…issues as a teenager.”

“Issues? Please do elaborate, Miss Sasazaki.”

“When Rina was a teenager, she had a bad temper. It was very hard to set her off but when you did, she really went off. The thing is though that Rina never remembers it. She doesn’t even remember losing her memory. It’s as if none of it ever happened in her mind. This all stopped after high school though. She controlled her temper a lot better and the violent outbursts stopped.”