The next day arrived faster than expected. Taiga couldn't fall asleep last night before 2.30 AM, he just couldn't close his eyes and let strange dreams fill his mind, distract him from the reality. The only thing he could think about was everything he had experienced earlier that day. All the stories he had heard, all the scenarios he had made up of what there could be ahead for him.

When the sleepiness finally took over him, he lost his consciousness and laid in his bed like a dead body, motionless, breathing really silently, not thinking about anything anymore. He enjoyed the softness of his bed, the warmth of his blankets for a few hours before his alarm clock welcomed him to the new day with its sharp, loud voice that forced the red haired male to get up immediately. No one in the house could stand the sound that was loud enough to wake everyone up, no matter where they were sleeping.

With his eyelids glued together with sleep, he pulled on a white hoodie and his jeans he had left on a chair yesterday night, had left them there to wait for the next morning. He didn't have to walk to his closet, didn't have to waste any time choosing clothes in the morning. He could walk straight to the kitchen and enjoy a cup of coffee while glancing through the pages of yesterday's newspaper.

He had time for that, thanks for the preparations he had done yesterday.

As the clock kept on running, not willing to stop for even a while, he soon had to leave, had to cover his feet with his shoes, jump in the car and wait for his mother to give him a ride to the hospital.
It would have been so much easier if he could have gone with his father, but no, their shifts were so different. And his father had to spend way more time at the hospital than him. He had to wake up in the middle of the night, and sometimes he came back after being away over 15 hours.

It was pretty sad, Taiga thought as he followed with his eyes how the surroundings passed by when the middle-aged woman rushed towards the hospital with her car, with his son sitting next to her.
It was pretty sad that it had always been like that, since the redhead was just a little kid. His father had never any time for him. He rarely was able to have holidays even a few days long. They never did anything like normal families did. They didn't travel, they didn't spend their free time together, not by watching TV, not by eating their meals together, not by playing any kind of board games.

As the years passed, Taiga got used to spending all his time alone. He didn't anymore even know how he could have shared his time with anyone. He had grown up alone. But he still wished he had had parents that had played with him every night.

But now he had a job where he could interact with other people. With some good luck, he could probably get some friends, too. If he had a super good luck, he could maybe even find someone who could fill his life, who he could share his future with. Maybe he could ask Hyuga or his childhood friend Tatsuya for a coffee someday, ask them about their life and maybe ask them to introduce some
of their friends for him.

Maybe someday.

"Thank you for the ride," he thanked his mother as he stepped out of the car, slammed the door behind him. With now knowing where to go, he walked straight to the dressing room carrying his bag with him. He changed his outfit to his working clothes. It wasn't even 7:00 AM yet and he had already changed his clothes twice that day. It felt a bit frustrating.
He put his bag in the locker before heading straight to the block-C. With the keys that had been given to him, he opened the locked doors.

"Good morning," Taiga greeted the patient with dark green hair, sitting on his bed, just staring at the wall right in front of him, holding a brown stuffed bear close to his core. Its other ear was almost ripped off. Some of its insides were bursting out from the little hole.

The male slowly turned his face from the wall to the nurse standing at the doorway. You could still find some slight shades of nightmares he had seen through the whole night from his eyes. Those nightmares had continued for thousand moments even after he had opened his eyelids.

The redhead tried to be calm, tried to be careful with Midorima right now. He had no idea if the patient saw him replaced with some strange creature from his nightmares. He just stood there, waiting for a response, for a sign from him to allow him continue.

With a short snort escaping from his nose, Shintaro closed his eyes which were framed with beautiful, long eyelashes. His hands were shaking as he squeezed the animal even closer to himself. Even if he felt unsafe, he succeeded on looking completely calm on the outside. Maybe it was because he was so tired? Maybe his body just had no energy to show it all he was experiencing behind his cover?

"Morning," he responded silently, turning his face away again. After some seconds, he threw his blanket away, now placing his bare feet on the cold floor. The redhead kept his gaze at him, not letting his eyes meet anything else for even a quick second.

"The breakfast is being served soon. I recommend you to get up and change your clothes. If you want to, you have enough time to have even a quick shower," Kagami told with his straight face. Every word came out of his mouth like they had been from a book he had been reading every day, every night, every morning, every evening like he had been memorizing it, like it had been the only mission for his life.

Midorima ignored his words almost completely. He just stared at his feet, thinking that he should do something for his toenails. They were slowly getting too long. In no time, they would be long enough to make a hole in his every pair of socks. Then he couldn't use them anymore. He should walk around with bare feet. And then he would get sick.

"...Is Takao awake already?" he asked silently after a while.

Taiga tilted his head gently, raised his eyebrows as his eyes filled up with confusement. Takao? He didn't remember meeting anyone called that.

Was it some nickname for someone?

"...Who?" he asked for an adjustment.

"..That idiot from the last room on the left. Is he awake?" he continued asking, not turning his gaze away from his toes.

Kagami stood there for a while but didn't come up with anyone. "Yeah. Everyone is already awake," he decided to answer.

Hearing it made the green haired male slowly stand up. He finally turned his face to the nurse, not seeing him clearly without his glasses, but he, however, tried to look at him, stare right inside his soul.

"You can leave now," his words sounded so cold it almost felt like the winter was getting quickly closer.

For a few seconds Kagami hesitated. He gave him a little nod soon, and without saying a word anymore he walked away. He appreciated his privacy, let him change his clothes alone, not standing there for the whole time.

"Oh, Kagami-kun!" a bright voice of a woman called him at the same second as he stepped out of Shintaro's room. A young woman, maybe just some years older than Taiga was almost running to him, holding a bunch of papers close to her chest.

Being about two heads shorter than the redhead, she had to tilt his head a lot to be able to look him in the eye. She smiled with his slender lips, her dark haired pulled to the back of her head, for a long ponytail. She had no strands hanging in front of her forehead. "Could you come and help you with the breakfast service today?" she asked smiling. Kagami couldn't help but stare at her for a few long seconds.

She acted like they had been friends for a life. But he had never seen her before? Being treated that warmly made the male freeze for a second.

How did she even know his name?

Okay, Hyuga had probably told her about him.

"...Sure," he muttered a short answer, hesitating slightly.

She smiled even more widely as he reached for his other hand with her right palm. She grabbed his wrist and started to pull him after her gently, not being able to wipe that smile off her lips.

"Thank you so much, Kagami-kun."

A coffee break. 10:29 AM. Kagami was sitting in the almost empty cafeteria, holding his mug in his other hand, glancing through the newspaper of that day. His eyes found no interesting articles there. But he just needed something else to concentrate on as he was enjoying his coffee. No, he wasn't that kind of a person who could stop completely for a while, concentrate on doing just one thing at the time.

"Morning," a familiar voice said as the door opened. The redhead immediately raised his eyes from the paper, now staring at Hyuga who walked in, wearing his white, long coat. It had probably been a bit busy morning for him. At least you could think so as you saw his black hair which was just a pure mess that morning. He apparently had had no time to even comb his hair.

"Morning," Taiga responded, pushing the paper away from him. He had now something else to focus on.

He followed silently how the doctor poured one cup of coffee for himself, followed his slow moves as he walked to the table, eyes filled with sleepiness. "Has everything went okay today?" he asked, sitting at the opposite side of the table as the other male.

Kagami just gave him a little nod. "Yeah. No troubles. Everything has gone well." he said silently.

"Mmh... That's great..." the black haired male muttered, now closing his eyes so he could concentrate better on the taste of his black, steaming coffee.

A short silence fell between them. Even if he had said that everything was alright, he still had lots of questions on his mind.

Who was that woman? How did he know him? What had Hyuga told her about him? Why was she acting so warmly? Was it just part of her nature?

Who is Takao? Even if he had been looking the whole morning for someone named like that, he couldn't find anyone. Was he some doctor? Or was he Midorima's sibling or something? But if he was something like that, why had Shintaro said that he lived in the last room on the left?

He glanced at the clock quickly. He had no time to ask too many questions.

"...You know, there's something that has been on my mind for this morning," he started, still thinking what he should even ask and how he should put it in words.

Hyuga placed his mug on the table, looking at the other male with his eyebrows slightly raised. "What is it?"

"Who is Takao?" the redhead asked after four seconds of thinking, now staring right in the dark eyes of the doctor. "Midorima told me about him today, said that he lives here, but I don't remember that I've met anyone called that. And when I went to check out the last room on the left, where he said he was living in, it was just empty. Nothing in there," he said, confusion written all over his face.

Hyuga sighed deep and lowered his eyes slightly. "Takao, huh?" he mumbled silently. "There is no one named like that," he put his answer shortly.

"Takao is just an imaginary friend of his. If Midorima starts talking about him, don't actually care about it, just act along," Hyuga started explaining. "We did some research as he first told us about him, Midorima's mother told us that he really has had a friend called Takao. But he died when they were both six. He got run over by a car. But Midorima never understood it. He continued living as it never happened. And maybe it never actually happened to him. See still sees his friend, he still feels him, hears him. He is real for him. And just like he said, for him, he lives in the last room on the left," a slight smile without any actual emotions was covering his lips.

Hearing a story like that made Taiga go completely speechless. He couldn't move even one of his muscles.

"...But I think it's time to go back to work. I'll look forward to working with you today, Kagami-kun," Hyuga said as he stood up, holding his empty mug in his hand.

He had left the cafeteria before Kagami managed even stand up.

He didn't expect hearing something like that.

It seems like you learn something new here about the patients every day. He couldn't even imagine what kind of stories he would hear later.