Chapter 51
The hospital room was quiet.
Only the mechanical hum of the life support system echoed impassively within the silence.
"Damn it, Kobashigawa... The presentation was a disaster because of you..."
Tanaka, Kobashigawa's colleague and close friend since high school, looked down at his bedridden friend whose face was pale as a sheet.
"Now I really get how valuable you are to our company... So please... wake up. Without you, everyone's down."
Naturally, there was no response.
He was run over by a black luxury car and left unconscious in critical condition. The doctor had said, almost as an excuse, that the fact he was alive was close to a miracle.
"Don't tell me you're planning to follow Kanae-chan too?"
Tanaka's monologue continued.
"I knew you couldn't really love anyone properly after that girl died. You never admitted it, but I knew. 'Lady-killer,' my ass. You kept getting hurt every time you dated someone..."
The more Tanaka looked at the sleeping, expressionless Kobashigawa, the more he started to look like his usual brazen self, which irritated him. Whenever Tanaka got serious, Kobashigawa would pretend not to listen or throw in snide remarks. He always acted like he had everything figured out.
"Also, the game where you guess the nipple color before undressing a girl—our female coworkers heard that and were totally creeped out. And it's not even a real bet, since only you can verify it. You're such an idiot. Smart, but a total idiot."
Tanaka thought he saw a slight twitch at the word "nipple." He stared intently at Kobashigawa. No change. The tubes from the respirator and IV drip looked painfully out of place.
"Big boobs. Nipples. Slender beauty. Thongs. Underboob. Insertion. Virgin. Fusion. Masochist."
Tanaka calmly listed off every obscene word he could think of that Kobashigawa might like. Just maybe, he thought, but still there was no reaction.
"By the way, about that sales rep job at Company A you were gunning for—sorry, I snagged it. I've already got a dinner date lined up. Tough luck."
No reaction from Kobashigawa.
"Tanaka-san?"
Suddenly called from behind, Tanaka quickly turned around.
At the hospital room's entrance stood Sasaki, one of the presentation team members, wearing a puzzled expression for some reason.
"Tanaka-san, do you have a fetish for saying dirty words to unconscious people?"
"No, Sasaki-chan, that's not it. This isn't that kind of thing."
"That kind of thing?"
"No, I mean... how should I explain this..."
Tanaka panicked a bit, feeling judged by the young, pretty, cool-type woman.
"Really?"
"I was just experimenting to see if he'd react to dirty words."
"Ah."
Sasaki seemed to accept that explanation.
If that explanation made sense, then Kobashigawa must have always been an idiot who acted like a pervert. A certified fool.
The two tidied up Kobashigawa's hospital room, changed the water in the vase, and chatted for a while. The main topics were about Kobashigawa and the presentation they'd been preparing. The conversation flowed loosely and randomly. When it came to Kobashigawa, they never ran out of things to say.
Even the company treated him like a misfit, but his sales skills and presentation abilities were top-notch. He lacked leadership and coordination, but his genius ideas and communication skills made him a valuable asset to any team. He used to call himself a "super handsome elite salesman," which made his teammates appreciate him a little less.
"I've been thinking—if Kobashigawa-san were a woman, he'd probably be insanely popular."
"Him, a woman? I've never even imagined that."
"Someone from another department said they once saw Kobashigawa leaning against a window, spacing out. They said his face looked like a girl's at that moment. And now that they mention it, depending on the angle, his face does look kind of androgynous."
"Well, maybe so..."
Tanaka said as he gazed at the bedridden Kobashigawa.
For a twenty-nine-year-old, his face didn't have a single wrinkle.
"A girl with this personality and skillset—wouldn't that be amazing?"
"She'd totally have me wrapped around her finger."
"Right?"
"If he possessed someone, that'd be dangerous."
"That would be insane. She'd definitely be a total knockout."
"Yeah, I kinda get that. He's a perfectionist in weird ways."
"He's always joking around, but he's actually really hard on himself."
"An idiot, though."
"And a pervert."
They laughed together at that. For a moment, it felt like the bedridden Kobashigawa was yelling back, "Shut up!"
"No matter where he goes, he probably causes some kind of trouble."
"Yeah. Like he's breaking common sense wherever he is."
"We've been shattered by him more than once..."
"It's frustrating, but he's a genius. Not that I'd ever tell him that."
"If you did, he'd just get cocky."
"How does someone look smug even while unconscious?"
"Seriously."
"It's like he'll sit up any second and go, 'Just kidding—gotcha!' or something."
Tanaka and Sasaki chuckled, then looked at Kobashigawa and sighed.
His face was still pale.
"Tanaka-san... what are the chances of Kobashigawa-san waking up...?"
Sasaki asked hesitantly.
"Zero point zero zero one percent."
"Z-zero point zero zero one percent...?"
"That's one in a hundred thousand."
"So one person out of a hundred thousand woke up?"
"That's what they say. Calling it a miracle makes more sense."
"I don't like putting it this way, but honestly, it's hopeless."
"Even so, I still believe in him."
"Yeah... me too."
Tanaka stared seriously at Kobashigawa lying in bed. Sasaki, the realist, looked back and forth between Tanaka and Kobashigawa's sleeping face, unsure whether to feel sad or laugh, and let out an ambiguous smile.
In the hospital room, only the sound of the heart monitor echoed with a steady rhythm.