Their family doctor declared that Ryo was fine after seeing him the next day, and that his foot should heal in two weeks after he twisted it. Sanada finally conceded and let the couple go back the same day to the city in the afternoon, this time Sachi drove.
Upon arriving at their penthouse suite, Sachi and Ryo went their separate ways once again. Sachi locked herself inside her room with Kuma-chi, and Ryo went back to his. He needed to make some important calls to his secretary anyway.
After making the calls, checking his emails and reading some reports, he did not notice that it was already half past 6 PM when he finished.
He went outside of his room to see if there was anything he could eat. He found Sachi with Kuma-chi watching the evening news in the living room. It seemed like she ordered take out, pizza and chicken again as she was munching them while watching TV. Ryo did not say a word, nor did she even after their eyes briefly met.
He went into the kitchen and found that food was prepared for him on the table. There was three pieces of pizza, a box of fried chicken and tuna carbonara pasta. He sat down and begun eating. He finished the pasta but was unable to eat all of the pizza and the chicken so he put them inside the refrigerator. He was about to wash the dishes when Sachi came into the kitchen.
"Leave it," Sachi ordered. "I'll do it later. Just go back to your room and take your rest. You'll go back to work tomorrow after all." She was putting her leftover pizza and chicken in the refrigerator when she said this.
Ryo did not want to argue, and had no reason to anyway but when he was about to leave the kitchen, he suddenly noticed a large graze on her right arm.
Sachi noticed that he was looking at her large graze so she immediately hid her arm at the back.
"What happened?" Ryo asked her, he looked her up and down. At that moment he saw that there was also a huge bruise on her right knee.
She knew that he was looking at her wound and since she was wearing shorts she could not hide it.
"This is nothing," Sachi said nonchalantly. 'Not that you'll care, anyway,' was what she wanted to say to him. "I just tripped on a large rock back at the river bank when I was following Kuma-chi yesterday. I already cleaned it and iced this," she said referring to her arm and knee respectively.
'Could it be…from the time she was looking for me?' Ryo wanted to ask but hesitated. Instead, he said and left," Suit yourself, then."
Sachi clicked her tongue after him. She begrudgingly did the dishes and went back to her room.
"So cold," Sachi said angrily. "I got injured because of you, you know." She sustained these injuries right before her dog found Ryo. She was following Kuma-chi but she was not careful and tripped over a large rock on the ground and fell down. Her knee and arm sustained much of the blow, hence the wound and bruise. But to her, the most important thing was finding Ryo safe and sound.
That night, she had to force herself to sleep because of her anger for Ryo.
Ryo, on the other hand, found it very hard to sleep. He kept thinking about what happened at the river bank when they found him. He could not stop thinking about what happened and how she reacted to him going missing. He can't keep thinking about how Sachi flung herself upon seeing him on the ground, crying. At that moment, he could still remember what it felt hugging her small frame, her warmth, and the sound of her heart beating next to his.
Apart from his parents, he has never seen or known anyone become so worried for him that they would be reduced to tears after seeing that he was okay and alive. Probably only his mother, and now his wife who is trapped in a loveless marriage with him. He's had a few relationships before but he did not love any one of them, they were all just physical and empty relationships.
"What the hell is wrong with me?" Ryo cursed.
As if matters could not get any worse for Ryo, he even dreamed of her last night, about the same scene back at the river bank. He could not help but curse under his breath as he was fixing his tie. Nowadays, he was getting used to her not preparing his breakfast for him. Although he wondered about what could have triggered this change, however, he could not do anything about it, nor will he beg for her to make him breakfast. At least his leg was feeling a little better now, it wasn't as sore as it used to be yesterday and so he was no longer limping as much as he used to.
When he went outside of his room, she was not in the living room, the kitchen, or the dining area, which meant that she might still be in her room. He went outside of her room and was about to knock on her door but hesitated.
"What the hell am I doing?" Ryo asked himself, confused. He took a step back, got his attaché case from the sofa and was about to leave but a thought kept nagging on his mind making him unable to leave the house.
'She got injured because of you,' the thought kept repeating in his mind like a broken record that it was eating him. He took a deep sigh and went back to stand right outside her door again and was about to knock when the door suddenly opened.
It revealed Sachi still in her pajamas with a pizza in her mouth, she was about to go out to the kitchen to get some orange juice but she was shocked to see Ryo right outside of her door.
"Get dressed, you're coming with me," Ryo ordered without thinking and hesitation.
"What?" Sachi asked, surprised.
"There's no time, I'm going to be late. So please, just get dressed and come with me. You have five minutes, got it?" Ryo said and closed the door to her room for her.
"What the... This jerk. Why is he ordering me around now?" Sachi asked Kuma-chi who was looking up at her expectantly, she then opened her wardrobe to change.
After a few minutes, Sachi came out of her room dressed casually in jeans and a polo shirt. She fixed her hair up in a ponytail.
Ryo was sitting down on the sofa, pretended to look at the time on his watch and said, "Let's go." The time said it was 7:30 in the morning but he doesn't even really care.
"Where are we going?" Sachi asked after him as she put on her sneakers but he did not answer and just proceeded to the elevator.
Sachi tried to ask him where they were going once they inside the elevator but he just brushed him off and told her, "Just follow me, okay?"
When they reached the first floor, he led her down to the dining hall.
"We'll have our breakfast here starting from now," he said as he handed her a plate which she reluctantly took. "Leftover pizza for breakfast is not really good for you, you know," he even added.
'So, I can't even eat my own breakfast in peace now, too?' she wanted to ask but held her tongue because there were a lot of people.
Not only that, Ryo was picking her food for her now, too. He put eggs, strips of bacon and a piece of sausage on her plate and a cup of rice.
"This will give you more energy in the morning than bread," he said as he picked a cup of rice on a saucer from the table. He picked a table for them and gestured for her to sit down, all this time Sachi just meekly followed even though she was unsure and confused about what was going on.
'What's gotten into him now? Did he hit his head or something?' Sachi wondered back at their table. Ryo was back at the table again to get a platter of assorted fruits for two, brought it back to their table, and then he went to get freshly squeezed orange juice for them.
Sachi 's eyes just followed him in confusion, mouth slightly open.
"Eat up," Ryo said after coming back to their table to eat.
Sachi just closed her eyes in exasperation and begun eating her food.
After having their breakfast, Robin immediately got up. "Let's go," Ryo said after seeing her finish her food.
"Where?" she asked, confused.
"To the hospital," Ryo answered and led the way to the exit. His car was already waiting outside. The staff greeted them as they went out. Ryo opened the door to the passenger's seat in front for her, she got in and he shut the door closed gently after her. He then went inside the driver's side and then they drove off.
'Ah, so his leg might still be hurting after falling last Sunday, huh?' Sachi was deep in her thoughts that she did not notice that they already reached the hospital. This time, she did not wait for him to open the car door for her and just opened and got out of the car, herself. She then followed him to the Out-Patient Department. They headed down to one of the offices/clinics.
The sign to the door outside said, 'Dr. Hiro Tanaka, MD, Family Medicine. Clinic Hours: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Mondays – Fridays.'
"He is my doctor here in the city," Ryo announced and knocked on the door.
Sachi forgot her wristwatch at home but she was sure that it could not have been past 9 AM right now, she was about to say something about this but a middle-aged man with thick glasses opened the door for them with a smile.
"Good morning, Director," the man in white robes said.
"Good morning to you, too, Doctor," Ryo said with a smile. "I'm sorry for contacting you about this appointment on such short notice."
Sachi was still confused, because Ryo does not normally ask her to accompany him to his doctor visit.
"It's fine, it's fine," the doctor said brushing Ryo's apologies aside. "This must be the Missus?" he asked Ryo but he was looking at Sachi.
Sachi just smiled and gave him a nod.
"Please, do sit down, both of you," Dr. Tanaka said as he sat on the swivel chair behind the desk.
"Thank you," Sachi and Ryo said in unison.
"You said you sprained your ankle after an accident on the weekend, is that right?" Dr. Tanaka asked Ryo.
"Yes, but I'm not actually here because of that," Ryo said.
'What? Then what is he here for?' Sachi, surprised, wanted to ask this out loud but bit her tongue.
"Our family doctor back at Yamarin has already taken a look at it and said that it should heal in a week or two. In fact, I don't limp as much as I did back when I sustained it because of the pain so I think I should be fine. Instead, I want you to take a look and tend to my wife."
"What?" this time, Sachi said this out loud. Ryo ignored her startled question.
"Unfortunately, she injured herself, too, over the weekend," Ryo told Dr. Tanaka.
"Okay, what seems to be the problem?" Dr. Tanaka asked Sachi now.
"Show him your arm and your knee, we can't leave those untreated, you know," Ryo said to Sachi.
Sachi wanted to argue that she was fine, if only Dr. Tanaka was not with them, so she just obliged. Dr. Tanaka then examined her arm, she directed her to change to a hospital gown to examine her knees on the examination bed. Dr. Tanaka cleaned and dressed her wound, prescribed her an ointment, and as for her bruise, he said it should heal up just fine after a week. After treating Sachi, the doctor insisted to check and examine Ryo's ankle, he reluctantly obliged.
After their doctor's appointment, they were both silent inside the car. Sachi knew that the way to their penthouse is opposite to his way to work, and she also knew that he was already late as it is and so, because she no longer wants to impose on him, she asked him to pull over on the next bus stop.
"Stop the car right there," she said to him unbuckling her seatbelt in the process.
"What?" Ryo asked, astonished.
"You can just drop me off right there, I'll just be taking a taxi home. You go to work, I know you're already late," she said and once again pointed at the direction of the bus stop.
He stopped the car at the designated area with a sigh.
"Thanks for the ride and for taking me to the doctor's, I'll see you at home," she said, got out without even looking back at him.
He wanted to protest but decided against it.
Sachi tried her best not to look at her husband's car in front of her and pretended to look busy, as if she was looking for an available taxi to hail, she waited until he drove off before she could finally relax.
"What the hell is wrong with that jerk?" she said to herself frustratingly as she watched his car drive off. "Why are you trying to care for me now, huh?!" she yelled, uncaring about the other people around her.
***