YEN LAM
Tokyo, January 1, 2015 9 am On New Year's Day morning, Tokyo appeared somber and dreary. A lingering tropical depression had confined everyone indoors for two days. Khac and Aki's planned outing had to be postponed. Early that morning, Haruko visited Aki at home to bring her over for a few days of play. If the weather cleared up, Haruko hoped to take her two children to visit her aunt in Kusatku, a hot spring resort north of Tokyo. The interactions between Khac and Haruko were growing increasingly dull. Khac felt like he was tending to his ex-wife as a doctor would care for a long-time patient, a patient whom the doctor had once inadvertently harmed. The impact on the patient far exceeded the harm caused to the doctor. Aware that he could never fully atone for his mistakes, the doctor could only comply with the patient's wishes, as long as it didn't involve the unattainable love he sought. After Aki's departure, Khac brewed a pot of sencha tea and took it to the study to complete the final report for the interdisciplinary research project at his hospital. He also drafted responses to emails from the students he was assisting as a master's thesis advisor.
