"Pearl Girl" Episode 7 [Dentist]

[Dentist]

Ryo messaged me every day, saying things like how he was into convenience store bread lately, or how it was too hot for June, or how he passed by someone who looked like Naho and felt lonely when he realized it wasn't her.
I created a separate account under a man's name to check on Ryo every day. On days he didn't post anything, I would visit the accounts of women he had tagged or left comments for in the past, imagining and despairing that maybe one of them was the one spending time with him now. Whenever I found a woman who posted on her timeline that she was out drinking with Ryo, I would calm myself down every day by telling myself that she was ugly anyway, that since Ryo hadn't written anything on his own account, she wasn't anyone special, and that she was just like me.

Meeting Ryo gave me a reason to leave the house, but my life itself didn't change. I would wake up and immediately open my smartphone to check if there was a reply from Ryo, then get out of bed, turn on the TV, and press the power button on my game console.
The hunting game I've played for over 2,000 hours has long loading times. Until now, every time it started loading, I would smoke an e-cigarette and play a puzzle game on my phone while waiting for it to finish. Lately, by the time I finish checking if the message I sent to Ryo has been read or if he has updated his social media, the loading is already over. When he hasn't replied but his social media has been updated, I fall into a deep depression. I worry about how much time passed since his last reply, how many hours was the longest he ever went without replying, and I feel my heart go cold with the pessimistic thought that if he exceeds that time, he might never contact me again. Once I start hunting monsters, the presence of my cold heart gradually fades, and the higher the difficulty, the more I can immerse myself in the game and forget. My hunting skills keep improving.

There are special chopsticks for snacks that let you eat without getting your hands dirty while holding a controller, and since I found preparing and eating proper meals to be a hassle, I made potato chips, rice crackers, and gummy candies that I ate while gaming my main source of energy.
When I fail to dodge a monster's attack and my HP hits zero, I respawn. Just as I felt my concentration slipping, I picked up a rice cracker and bit into it, and the sound of a "crunch" stopped my thoughts. When I slowly explored the inside of my mouth with my tongue, a sharp pain shot through my lower left molar. I spat the cracker into a tissue, went to the washbasin, and looked inside my mouth to see that my lower left molar, which had never hurt before, was about a quarter chipped. I've had a terrible diet for years, but I had never had a cavity before. Looking at the chipped molar again, I was horrified, as it looked so grotesque that I couldn't believe it was part of my own body.
I hurriedly looked up dentists online and found one a five-minute walk from my house that had an opening tomorrow at 11:00 AM. I booked it immediately, thinking how glad I was to be a NEET at times like this; I had no plans, any time was fine, and I just wanted to get it treated as soon as possible. As I felt my impatience growing, I gripped the controller again. While hunting monsters with my tongue pushed to the right, the chipped tooth gradually left my mind.

I was glad they had an opening and thanked God. I headed to the dentist with a light step, but when I opened the door, the unique smell of the dentist's office caught me off guard. I was terrified imagining what kind of painful treatment I was about to undergo, but I couldn't give up on the treatment and let the tooth rot away.
First, they took an X-ray and explained the current situation and the treatment plan. Even though it didn't hurt at all until it chipped, it was apparently a large cavity, and they told me they would treat it with a crown. Machines were going in and out of my mouth, and I couldn't see what kind of machine it was or what was being done. The high-pitched whirring sound intensely fueled my fear, but I didn't feel any pain at all, and today's treatment ended.

They told me it would take two weeks for the crown to be finished, so I should come back in two weeks. I made the appointment for exactly two weeks later and left the dentist. Even when I touched my lower left molar with my tongue, it didn't hurt. The inside of the tooth that had been exposed until just a moment ago was neatly sealed, as if nothing had happened.
When I looked at my smartphone, there were two new emails. One was the message I had been waiting for from Ryo: "I want to see you this week." A smile spread across my face unconsciously as I stared at the screen.
The other was a message from Fuka with a URL and the words, "I want to go to this afternoon tea." When I opened the URL, it was for a peach-themed afternoon tea being held at a hotel in Roppongi, and the shortcakes, tarts, and mousses all looked so cute that my heart leaped. Today is a very good day.

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