I Love You (Ennotana)

Bonus Chapter

As a belated birthday gift to the amazing character that is Tanaka Ryuunosuke, I wrote an alternate ending that goes to right after his "last" interaction with Ennoshita. ~enjoy~

See you tomorrow Tanaka thought the next day as he was holding his breath on the way to the hospital. Last night, he thought Ennoshita had actually died, and he was at a funeral service for him. But after placing the flowers down, Tanaka awoke in a cold sweat, afraid that he lost a friend that he cared about. He sent him a quick message but didn't think he would see it, which he was right about.

When he arrived at the hospital and saw Ennoshita in the bed, he let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't gone yet.

"Hey Ennobro," Tanaka said, carefully opening the door and walking into the room. Ennoshita looked pale and tired, and there were petals scattered on the sheets.

"Hi," he greeted. His voice was gone, probably from all the coughing that happened. "You look out of breath, is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I just had a bad dream last night, but now I'm fine," Tanaka reassured.

Ennoshita had no idea what he was talking about, so he just nodded his head, as Tanaka took a seat next to him. They sat in silence for a little bit until Ennoshita decided to break the ice.

"I have a question that hopefully you don't mind me asking," Ennoshita said.

"If you're here to ask me if I'm only here because I feel bad for doing this to you, I'm not. I'm here because I want to be," Tanaka responded.

Ennoshita could feel his cheeks heat up a little at that response. "That's not what I was going to ask, but I'm glad you're here without guilt." He asked his question in a slow and quiet manner. "This might sound selfish to ask, but...If Kiyoko didn't exist, or rather, you didn't see her as a friend, do you think I could have ever had a chance with you? Even right now?"

Tanaka tilted his head down to think. He never gave it much thought. But reflecting on the relationship he and Ennoshita have, he was always extra caring and attentive compared to Noya or his other really close friends, and going further than a friendship might actually work, the only problem was Kiyoko did exist and he fell in love with her, and he is also starting to believe that he has a chance with her and he knew if he wasted it, Ennoshita would probably just feel bad about it.

After going back into reality, Tanaka gave his answer. "Yeah I think so. But I feel like a jerk when I say that I love Kiyoko because if I did fall in love with you, you would be saved."

"Don't feel bad for me," Ennoshita said strictly. "Because that helped me."

"What do you mean?" Tanaka asked, confused.

Ennoshita let out a breath, "I think I'm going to get the surgery to get these stupid flowers out. I know I said I didn't want to but I'll be fine seeing how happy you and Kiyoko are."

"Are you sure? At least we'll still be friends," Tanaka said.

Ennoshita nodded. "I can live with that. I'll still be able to be with you, even if it's not exactly the way I hoped for it originally." 

Still able to be with you Tanaka repeated in his head.

 Tanaka sat up, tears rolling down his face. Dreams like these have been appearing in his head like this for a while now. He's convinced that this is either his inability to cope from what happened, and these dreams are preventing him from moving on, or maybe that his feelings are starting to die for Kiyoko and instead, blossom towards Ennoshita. He wiped his tears from his face and laid back down. Either option didn't matter anyway. Ennoshita died from hanahaki disease a year ago, and Tanaka blames himself for it.