nico x lahela (dougie kamealoha md)

chapter 1

"I love you, Lahela." he whispered into her ear and began gazing into her saddened brown eyes, waiting patiently for a response.

These very four words hung heavy in the summer air, a threat to the balance between her work and relationships.

"I'm so sorry, Nico," she responded weakly, eyes locked on the lively and serene landscape below in an attempt to avoid the initiated eye contact, "I'm just so confused right now..."

The pair — Lahela and Nico — were sitting alone at Nico's favourite place: the grassy spot on the cliff, overlooking their beautiful homeland of Hawaii. Cars down below whooshed past each other; the waves of the vast ocean danced elegantly against the shore; towering palm trees swayed side to side; people, though from afar looking as insignificant as a grain of sand on a beach, crowded the streets below. The sound of home. The perfect place for a man to confess his love to a girl.

Nico followed her gaze to view the picturesque scenery below, and then turned to face Lahela.

"Listen," he hesitated a moment as he shook his head and gulped, holding her hands tightly in his, "I know it's complicated with the hospital and everything...but Lahela — what we have is real!".

"Nico, I know..." she sighed, finally turning to face him, "but it's not just the hospital itself!"

"It's Walter, isn't it?" and with that, his once flirtatious smile suddenly faded away.

Lahela stayed silent as she quickly broke her gaze in an attempt to avoid the conversation she had been dreading for the longest time — a conversation she knew would come, and a conversation she herself had initiated. Sitting with her legs bent in front and arms folded across her chest, she lifelessly buried her head into her legs. And there it was: she began uncontrollably sobbing. The patches of grass below her started gradually becoming so moist it were as if all the water from Hawaii were dumped there itself. The sounds of Lahela's sobbing, caused by the overpowering sorrow and perplexity that had been stored in her heart for too long, filled the air and blocked off all other sounds around.

The boy beside her stared, an addled expression appearing on his face — he raised an eyebrow and wore a slight pout. And then he stood up, his eyes wandering off to the picturesque view of the trees behind.

"Lahela, do you remember what I told you when I met you?" Nico began, his voice slightly quivered.

The girl slowly lifted her head up — revealing her doe brown eyes, still bloodshot with beads of tears — and turned to look at him.

He continued.

"Being at hospitals has always been my biggest fear," he said, still gazing afar, "But then I met you. And I realised maybe hospitals weren't all that bad.".

He paused.

Lahela, beside him, gaped.

"Nico...I never wanted to hurt you".

"Yeah, I know."

And with that, the slim figure that was of Nico's, began to disappear as he drifted further off into the distance.

The girl was left sitting on the grass, accompanied by only the presence of her overflowing tears in the surrounding grass.