Flowers

Kakeru had a stressful day at work. The trial wasn’t going as planned. The witness on the stand won’t cooperate with him and his defense team. And the prosecutors added evidence that he and his team weren’t aware that even exist! At least on the plus side, the judge agreed on some of the statement that Kakeru made. Despite that, the judge thinks there not enough evidence to convict the defendant. So, the judge decides to end the trail for the day so both the defense and the prosecutors can investigate for the case.

By the time Kakeru left the law office for the day, it was close to 6pm. The sun was starting to set and the temperature was cool, but not cold enough to not have to wear a winter coat. Kakeru took a scroll down the city as he see people walking home from work, from running errands and saw students who were just got out of any after school extracurricular clubs that they were in.

He walked by a floristry and saw some of the fresh flowers that were on displayed. One of the flowers that caught Kakeru’s eyes was some Pink Gerberas. He knows that it’s his wife, Kanata’s favorite flowers as he recalled the time she explained him the meaning of the flower and why she likes them.

That Pink Gerberas represent grace and gratitude. To remind that there is still beauty and kindness in the world and to show the person their appreciation just by being there for them. She likes them because not only from their meaning, which she likes, but it’s also pink, her favorite color.

This made him smile a bit as looking at them made him appreciate his job even though it can be tough and the law system in Japan are against him and the defense team unless they can find the defendant not guilty.

So, Kakeru went in the store and buy a bouquet of Pink Gerberas. His face turns red when the florists thanked him for his purchase before leaving. Even if he’s one of the best lawyers in Japan, he still gets nervous around people from time to time!

Kakeru then headed to his house that he and Kanata live. He went inside, took off his shoes in the genkan before seeing a smaller pair of shoes that was next to his tennis shoes. This means that she’s here. Knowing this, he announces that he’s home from work and have something for her.

There’s nothing but silence in the house. He calls her name again and gets nothing from her.

He went to the living room and see that it’s nearly dark as the sun disappeared for the day and is replaced with the night sky. She’s not there either. He checked the kitchen, laundry room and the backyard to see that she isn’t there either. He gets annoyed and wondered where his wife could be!

Then he remembers that she had to work a 12 hour shift at the hospital today. This caused him to conclude that she must be in their bedroom, asleep from standing, moving around and operating on patients.

Kakeru went upstairs and opened the bedroom door open to see Kanata, sleeping in their large bed. Well, it’s large for her, but its bit small for him due to the fact he’s over 180cm tall and she’s 135cm tall. Then it doesn’t help that she looks young for her age and the two sometimes gets weird looks from strangers whenever they walk around, holding hands. Seeing her asleep makes him feel at ease…well before his stomach starts to growl. He thinks he should cook dinner as he had only an apple for lunch and guess that Kanata had a small meal at work too.

So, Kakeru slowly closes the door and heads downstairs to the kitchen to get a cup from a cabinet, fills it with water and puts the flowers in the cup. He then opens the refrigerator, grab some food and put them on the counter. He also grabs a cutting board, knife, a frying pan, spoon, some spices and oil, so he can start cooking dinner.

Kanata wakes up from sleeping as she too, had a hard day at work. She was in a 5 hour operation, performing surgery on a woman who had stab wounds from getting attacked by her ex-boyfriend. It didn’t help that the woman kept losing blood and her heartrate kept going down. At least the woman is expected to be okay and her ex-boyfriend was caught and charged with assault.

Later on, one of the patients woke up in the middle of an operation and they were forced to stop and tried to put them back to sleep so they can continue. Thankfully, the operation was a success and the patient stayed asleep for the rest of the operation.

Being a surgeon is hard work, but can be rewarding whenever lives can be saved and that the patients can get to go home after recovering from surgery. After all, it’s one of the reasons why she became one thanks to her adopted father saving her life when she got into a car crash when she was younger and nearly died from it.

Then she smells food. She smells the spices, the pork and the noodles that are being cooked on the stove in the kitchen.

“Kakeru must be cooking yakisoba for dinner”, Kanata thought to herself.

She then yawns and stretches before getting up and putting on her favorite green slippers. She leaves the bedroom, walks downstairs to the kitchen and sees that Kakeru is indeed, cooking yakisoba.

Then she notices a bouquet of Pink Gerberas on the dining table, which it wasn’t there this morning.

“Are those flowers supposed to be for me?” she asked breaking the silence in the kitchen, which startled Kakeru and nearly caused him to drop the spatula that he used to cook the vegetables.

He nervously turned around and said yes before turning back towards to stove.

Kanata walked to the dining table and looked at the flowers, seeing that they’re fresh as it was just recently been picked from a field.

“They looked very nice”

“Th-thanks”, said Kakeru who was trying to keep his posture and try not to drop the spatula.

Kanata looked at him and sees him shaking as he’s cooking.

“What’s wrong?” She asked him.

Kakeru’s shoulders dropped and sighed before telling her the truth.

I had a stressful day at work”

“Well, I have a stressful day at work too”, said Kanata.

“At least you didn’t have the prosecutors’ present evidence that you weren’t aware that existed. Like, it nearly threw my case out of the window!”

Kakeru complain about the trial as he continued to cook. Kanata decided to help out by setting the table, pouring a pitcher of water from the sink to the table and cleaning up the counter as they talked about their day.

The two then sat down to eat dinner. Kanata normally doesn’t like unhealthy food, like yakisoba, as it’s fried and it’s too greasy. The one that Kakeru cooked however uses rice noodles and vegetarian oyster sauce, which makes this healthy.

“Why did you buy the flowers?” Kanata asked as she took a sip of water.

“I was walking home from work and walked by floristry, where I-I saw these flowers. And I re-remembered that you like this type of flowers. So I b-b-bought them for you!

“What, you don’t like them!?” Kakeru nervously told her, worried that she might not like them.

“No, no Kakeru, I do! It just, it’s not too common for you to get flowers. That’s all” Kanata calmly reassuring him that he didn’t upset her.

“I think they look nice anyways.”

Kakeru smiled that he did his job of making his wife happy, “I’m glad you liked them.”

“So, I’m off this Saturday…” Kanata said in changing the topic.

“…and I’m planning to go to a museum, where there’s an exhibit on your favorite author. And I think you might like that.”

Kakeru smiled once more on what he heard and said that he would love doing that.

The two continued to talk as they ate their dinner and when they weren’t eating, Kanata looks at the Pink Gerberas that is in the center of the table and smiled on how appreciate her husband is to her and the jobs that they have.

Their jobs maybe stressful, but at least they have each other to relay on at the end of the day.