Just around one corner from the park was a small clinic.
The female doctor inside even knew Kaori Miyazono.
They both lived in the same area, though they were not especially familiar with each other.
So when she saw Yuto carrying Kaori on his back as he walked in, she instinctively assumed Yuto was Kaori's boyfriend.
Before she could say anything, Yuto spoke first and explained the matter of the girl's injured foot.
The doctor had Yuto set Kaori down on a chair first. Then she crouched down and took off the girl's shoes and socks.
Yuto watched as well.
Her foot had originally been quite pretty, but the redness and swelling at the ankle ruined the appearance.
With Yuto watching her like this, Kaori's heart grew restless. She knew there was nothing improper about it, but she still could not stop her thoughts from wandering.
"Mm, thankfully it should just be an ordinary sprain. It's not very serious." The doctor lightly touched Kaori's ankle and made her judgment.
She looked up at the seated girl and smiled. Then she stood up and went to get some medicine.
"That's good." Yuto relaxed a little.
"Mm." The girl seated beside Yuto nodded.
The doctor came back carrying the medicine. She also had a roll of gauze and a box of cotton swabs in her hands.
"After I wrap it with gauze, don't wash your foot tonight. Take the gauze off tomorrow instead," the doctor said to Kaori.
The girl obediently nodded.
Then the doctor crouched down, dipped a cotton swab into the medicine, and gently applied it to the swollen ankle.
The moment it touched, the girl winced in pain.
"Bear with it, Kaori."
The doctor's words made the girl surprised and puzzled. "Doctor, do you know me?"
"Mm, I occasionally go to your house to buy cakes too. You probably don't remember me, but I've seen your photo. So I suppose it only counts as me knowing you one-sidedly." The female doctor smiled teasingly.
An embarrassed look appeared on Kaori's face.
Her photos had always been hung in her parents' bakery, where everyone coming and going could see them.
"So that's how it is," Kaori said, sounding enlightened.
"I did see you once or twice back then too, Kaori. But at the time you were still very shy and always kept your head down. That's probably why you don't remember me. The way you are now is much better than before." The doctor spoke while continuing to apply the medicine.
Hearing those words, Kaori's eyes dimmed in secret.
But because she had lowered her head, Yuto did not notice it. He only listened to the doctor and felt moved inside.
From the short time he had spent with Kaori, she had not struck him as introverted at all.
If anything, she seemed cheerful.
"All done." The doctor had finished wrapping the gauze.
Wrapping the medicine in gauze like this would help the injury heal a bit faster.
It just made putting shoes back on difficult. The shoes the girl had originally been wearing were snug to begin with.
Now that the gauze was wrapped around her foot, getting it back into the shoe would be troublesome.
"Just change into slippers when you get home." The doctor stood up with a light smile.
The girl nodded and was about to stand up on her own. But the doctor stopped her.
"You can't put it on the ground immediately after applying the medicine."
Kaori's expression froze.
"Just have your little boyfriend carry you home again." The teasing from the older female doctor made the girl blush.
Yuto felt a little awkward.
This was the second time he had been mistaken for someone's boyfriend.
The first time had been when he was at the mall with Megumi.
"Doctor, you've misunderstood. Kamisaka-kun isn't my boyfriend..." Kaori blushed as she explained in a nervous voice.
That made the doctor's expression pause.
She looked at Yuto, and Yuto helplessly shook his head. The doctor scratched her head, an embarrassed smile appearing on her face.
"Sorry, sorry. Looks like I overthought it." The doctor who had just been gentle now looked flustered.
She gave a light cough, then chose to take the medicine and gauze and leave first.
Yuto let out a soft breath. He had said before that once he brought the girl here, he would be leaving.
But when he looked toward Kaori, the girl just happened to be looking at him too.
"Miyazono..."
"Kamisaka-kun..."
The two spoke at the same time, and both froze.
Yuto showed a slight smile, while the girl's face carried a faint flush.
"You go first." Yuto paused, then let Kaori speak first.
The girl's expression held nervousness and a blush.
"Kamisaka-kun, could you... could you help me home?" Kaori said to Yuto in a quiet voice.
Now that her foot was wrapped in gauze, she could not even put her shoe back on. There was even less chance of her making it home by herself.
When Yuto had carried her to the clinic earlier, he had already learned that her home was nearby. Yuto did not have anything else to do next.
Taking her home was not a problem.
"It's really close..." Kaori added in a low voice, as if worried Yuto would refuse.
She looked at Yuto with nervous anticipation.
Those bright, watery eyes were moving.
When Yuto gave a light smile and nodded, that soft brightness in them filled with joy.
"I'm really sorry to trouble you again, Kamisaka-kun." Kaori bent slightly toward Yuto, her face full of apologetic embarrassment.
Yuto did not particularly mind.
After reassuring the girl a few times, the doctor came back out.
After exchanging a few words with the two of them, Yuto carried Kaori on his back once more and left.
Standing at the clinic entrance and watching the two leave, the doctor could not help sighing to herself.
Those two somehow really did look well-matched.
...
Kaori Miyazono's home was only two corners away from the clinic.
Her family ran a French cake shop.
It was a refined little store, bright and spotless, decorated in a warm and cozy way.
The sign read: Ma Fille.
Kaori explained that it was French.
Yuto nodded. He could not help thinking of his own little restaurant.
Kamisaka dinner (Kamisakaya)—he had simply named it after his own surname.
Compared with her shop sign, it felt a little too plain.
"What does Ma Fille mean?" Yuto asked the girl on his back.
Perhaps because this was already the second time and she was growing used to it, Kaori was much more relaxed now than before.
At least she was no longer burying her head into Yuto's back without lifting it. The girl was still hooking her shoes with one hand, which made her look amusing.
"That... is a little embarrassing to say." The girl was too shy to answer.
Yuto let out a small breath through his nose.
Fine. He would not ask.
He carried the girl to the front of the shop. Inside, a husband and wife were busy.
There were not many customers, only two. It was still the morning, after all, and also Monday.
Most people were either at work or at school.
As for Kaori, she had taken leave, so she had not gone to school today.
Yuto had not asked why she had taken leave. He had already noticed the unnatural look in the girl's eyes at the time.
If he had pressed further, she probably would not have told him the reason anyway.
Jingle.
The girl on Yuto's back pushed open the door.
The bell hanging by the doorframe rang lightly. Many shops had such bells installed to alert them when customers came in.
Kamisakaya had one too.
It was just that Yuto usually had no need for a bell's warning.
"Welcome!" Hearing the bell, the busy couple looked toward the entrance.
The moment they saw Kaori on Yuto's back, both their expressions changed.
"Dad, Mom." The girl waved to her parents.
Then Yuto walked to a chair and set Kaori down.
Seeing their daughter like this, the couple naturally had no mind left for attending to customers.
They apologized to the customers a few times, and the customers expressed understanding and left.
Then the couple came out from behind the counter and walked over to Yuto and Kaori.
"Kaori, what happened?" Kaori's father looked at Yuto, then at his daughter's foot wrapped in gauze.
His eyes carried confusion, but also anger.
He seemed to have misunderstood something.
"Dad! It's not what you think!" As his daughter, she saw through her father's misunderstanding at a glance.
Kaori called out to him, then explained everything that had happened earlier.
Only then did the expressions of the husband and wife ease.
The father's face carried a trace of apology.
"I'm sorry, Kamisaka-kun. I was too rash just now." He apologized to Yuto for the anger he had shown moments earlier.
"It's alright. I understand."
For a parent, seeing their daughter with her foot wrapped in gauze and being carried home by an unfamiliar boy was quite a shock.
Yuto could fully understand it.
If he put himself in the father's place, he would probably have been even more hot-tempered.
"Really, couldn't you be a little calmer?!" Kaori's mother lightly smacked the father, annoyed.
Even though the father was much taller and sturdier than the mother, he instead gave an ingratiating smile.
Then Kaori's mother bowed deeply to Yuto. "Thank you so very much, Kamisaka-kun, for bringing Kaori home."
Yuto waved his hands.
Receiving such a formal bow from an elder was something he still could not calmly accept.