Episode 4: Innocent night
Mishima returns to Tohto Medical University Hospital to give Midori treatment. A fair amount of pleural fluid has accumulated in her chest. She feels better after it is extracted and her fever also goes down, but Mishima tells her that she has to be hospitalised for a night so that he can monitor her condition. Unfortunately, there are no hospital beds available. And so, Mishima lets her stay in his own room for the night.
To put Midori at ease about her illness, Mishima shows images and readings taken of her liver before and after the surgery. Then, she asks to take her temperature with a thermometer. But when Mishima is unable to find one, he casually places his hand on her forehead. Midori’s expression changes as an awareness fills her. She feels secure relying on him … … His voice telling her that the temperature is normal, shakes her from her thoughts. After he leaves her alone in the room, Midori places her hand on her forehead where his hand had been just moments ago. As she stares out of the window, memories of the painful events 16 years ago come back to her.
It was the day she had visited Mishima at the hospital to tell him … … that she was pregnant with his child. However, before she could get a word in, he silenced her with the cruel declaration that he had never liked her.
After that, she collapsed at the train station from the shock of the blow and was brought to the hospital where she was told that she had lost the baby. Her father, who came to pick her up, oozed anger, wanting to know which boy was responsible for this. All Midori could do was apologise to him as he crouched down to piggyback her.
Meanwhile, Jun tries to probe the relationship between Midori and Mishima through Hirose, who has brought dinner for him and Kenta. “Why didn’t Midori tell me about Mishima-sensei?” Hirose smoothly lies that even though they were classmates, they do not get along or talk any more. Calling Mishima a nerd who had neither friends nor a good reputation, he explains that it would have been fault finding if Midori told Jun about it after the great pains he took to find a doctor to treat her. Jun tries to accept Hirose’s words.
The next morning, Jun comes to the hospital to get Midori. Both Mishima and Midori say nothing about the fact that she had stayed in Mishima’s room when he notices the pillow and bed cover neatly folded on the sofa. As they are about to leave, Jun turns to ask about Mishima’s background, voicing the surprise he had when he learnt that Midori and Mishima were ex-classmates as if in an attempt to gauge his reaction. However, Mishima claims that he did not remember their connection at first because they had not seen each other since high school graduation. “I remember livers, but I forget people’s faces,” he adds for good measure. Conscious of Mishima, Midori hurriedly reminds Jun that Mishima will be leaving for Paris and drags him out.
Midori tries to explain to Jun why she kept quiet about Mishima. But Jun repeats what he had heard from Hirose. It is because Mishima was an awful person in the past and she detested him. Midori listens mutely. A shadow of anxiety sweeps across her face but she quickly hides it. Forcing a bright smile, she confirms Hirose’s version of the past as Jun chides her. It would have been better if she told him about it instead of leaving him to imagine what it is that she cannot say. “You’re not the sort who lies. I know that best.”
That night, Jun returns home to find that his father-in-law has come over after attending a friend’s golden (50th) wedding anniversary. When Katsu wonders whether the marriage between Midori and Jun will last that long since they married shortly after they met, Jun declares that it was love at first sight for him.
Seven years ago, while Jun was at a rehabilitation centre for work, he found himself drawn to Midori’s voice and smile as she conducted a therapy session with a patient. Every green thing he saw made him think of Midori. His attempts to date her to movies or meals were flatly turned down, but he continued to persist until the day that he was firmly rejected. Midori told him that she found dating bothersome and felt happiest with her patients. Undaunted, Jun chased after her and went down on one knee, “Then we can do without the dating! Please marry me.”
Midori acknowledges that if it had not been for Jun, she might not have married anyone, and would not have had Kenta. “It’s a good thing he fell in love with me.”
The next day, Mishima is approached in the park by Aoyama Chika, the journalist who had written the article about his sudden return to Japan after 16 years. For her next story, she intends to get a scoop on the reason behind his departure from Tohto Medical University Hospital 16 years ago. At that time, there was a little girl called Yukimura Kana who underwent a liver operation but died. The surgeon was none other than the late Professor Emeritus Okakura, while Mishima, then a houseman, was charged with post-surgical care, Chika prompts. However, Mishima asserts that he left for Paris to hone his skills. There were no other reasons.
Mishima encounters Hirose outside his room bearing a lunch box from his shop. Seeing Mishima eat the fried chicken with gusto, Hirose observes that he has not changed. And yet, he seemed a different man when he came back for his father’s funeral. Realising Hirose’s true intention, Mishima points out that he and Midori are doctor and patient. But Hirose asks which doctor would go out of his way to send a mere patient to her home 150 km away. Mishima promises that he will not destroy the happiness that Midori has finally found or set foot in their hometown again. After Hirose leaves, the past replays in Mishima’s mind.
On the night after the funeral for his father, he and Midori were the only ones left. “Are you still waiting?” he asked and apologised for being too busy to make good on his promise to come for her if he became a doctor. But Midori said to forget about it. Before his father’s death, he proudly talked about how Mishima had found favour in the eyes of an eminent professor, and was chosen to be an assistant to the professor in an operation … … Midori thinks it would be wonderful to be able to save many lives through surgery. Mishima gave a bitter laugh and told her that she was wrong. Worried, Midori moved over to hold his hand as if trying to reassure and give him strength. Mishima pulled her into a hug, and then turned so that she lay beneath him on the floor.
Some time later, Sachie discovers the lunch box wrapper in Mishima’s room. Seeing that the bento shop is from his hometown, curiosity gets the better of her and she makes a call to enquire. She realises who Midori is when Hirose’s wife confirms that Midori and Mishima were high school classmates.
Turning up at the rehabilitation centre, Sachie tells Midori that she had seen her, the girl in high school uniform, in photographs that Mishima cherished just after they got engaged. “Maybe we didn’t work out as a couple because of you,” she says accusingly. Midori thinks it is all in her imagination, but Sachie counters that Mishima had returned from the airport prepared to sacrifice the career and reputation he had built, for Midori’s sake. She knows this because he came back to the hospital just before he boarded his flight, and even cancelled a VIP operation at the last minute. “It was last Friday,” she helpfully supplies. The day Midori had the pleural fluid extracted from her chest. Midori’s heart starts to sway with this knowledge.
After work, Midori makes her way to the hospital to see Mishima. She declares that she is better now and reminds him that he has patients waiting in Paris. However, Mishima coldly disabuses her of her belief.
“Did you think that I remained here because of you?
You should know me better than that.
That I’m not such a kind person.
I discard things that I don’t require.
Be it friends, teachers or classmates.”
Undeterred, Midori tells him that he was kind to her these two months. She repeats that she is better now. Even if they are not able to meet again because he is far away, she would prefer it that way. Midori cannot bring herself to look at Mishima as she says this, but the tears that she hastily wipe away betray her. Perceiving that this is not what she truly means, Mishima asks her why. “Because I’d have to lie to my husband again,” she quietly confesses.
Midori bids Mishima farewell and turns away, but he grabs her hands and hugs her tightly. Then, he pulls away to kiss her. A kiss that she returns … …
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