Faking It [Tokyo Ghoul: Hide Nagachika x Reader]

Chapter 16: Hide

I wanted to ask (y/n) out. I had thought that I was ready, I had felt confident, I had felt prepared, but when the time came, I was too chicken to do it.
Now I really get how Kaneki felt...
I had an idea though. It was a coward's attempt, but it was better than doing nothing at all.
I stopped by the florist on the way to the hospital the next day so I was a little bit later than normal. I'd written a note with the flowers that asked (y/n) out. But I was still too nervous to give them to her directly.
I'll just drop them off in her room.
I went up to the information desk. The one doctor wasn't there today, probably because he'd already finished his lunch twenty minutes ago. Some perky blonde was there instead.
"Hi, I'm trying to find my friend's room number? Can you please help me?"
She started to go into all that confidentiality BS, but I cut here off, gesturing to the flowers.
"Please? It's really important that I give these to her."
The nurse blushed. "That's so cute!"
I cringed. "Y-yeah, so can you help me please?"
She nodded. "At the very least, I can tell you the floor. But if I tell you the room number, you can't tell anyone, okay?"
I nodded. "Her name is (y/n)..." Damn, I forgot to ask for her last name. "Um, she has (h/c) hair, (e/c) eyes, and she should be in the cancer ward."
The nurse typed the information in and frowned. "Sorry, we don't have a patient (y/n) registered in the cancer center. Oh, wait!" She looked up with a smile. "I know who you're talking about!"
"You do?" (Y/n)'s condition has to be really bad if even random nurses know her... "Is she being held in a private room?"
The nurse frowned slightly and shook her head. "(Y/n) isn't actually a patient here. She's Dr. (L/n)'s younger sister that comes to work with him. Not sure where you got the cancer thing, but her description matches."
I blinked to steady myself. "What? So...she's not sick?"
The nurse shook her head. "No, she just comes her for fun."
Fun? She thought tricking me into believing all her lies was fun? I couldn't speak for a long moment. Then I nodded and slapped on a smile. "Thank you, ma'am."
"Anytime!" The nurse shrugged as I walked away. "What was that about?"
***
I opened the door of the closet storage room. (Y/n) was already in there. She looked up, and I saw that she was wearing the bracelets I'd gotten her and all the other little trinkets.
I was angry, perhaps more angry than I'd even been in my entire life. And hurt, too. I'd never really bothered with girls before because they seemed so superficial, but (y/n) had seemed real to how. What a joke, that she was actually the fakest of them all.
"What are the flowers for?" she asked.
I gritted my teeth and sat down. I have to give her a chance to tell the truth. If she still lies to me...I wasn't her what I was going to do. "They're for you. How is it going? The cancer, I mean?"
She looked down. Couldn't even make eye contact with me. "It hurts. But the doctor says I don't have much more time anyway."
And she lied to me yet again. I stood up. I couldn't stand being in this stupid small cramped room with her even one second more.
"Hide? Where are you going? You don't have to be upset."
"You're right, I don't," I said in the nicest fake voice I could conjure. "Because I just found out that you don't have cancer, that you never did, that you're not even a patient at this hospital, that you just come here for fun to mess with sympathetic guys and break their hearts. Did you ever feel guilty, (y/n)? Using cancer as some kind of pickup line? Telling guys that you're dying so they'll feel as enough to come back and talk to you? Because you're right, there's no way I would have come back if I'd known what a liar you are."
There was a long moment of silence.
"Guy."
"What?"
"Guy. Not guys. You're the only one I've ever done this too."
"Fantastic. I hope you can remember the guilt you're feeling right now in the chance that it stops you from drawing in others with your lies like you did to me."
She just looked at the ground. "I'm sorry Hide."
I laughed. "You're sorry?" I put my hand over my eyes. "In my whole life, I've always been able to keep my composure, but I can't even do that right now. you're sorry? For what, telling me you were dying? Tricking me into getting you little gifts because I felt so bad for a girl that couldn't leave the hospital? It was a nice touch, pretending like you'd never played board games. Made it seem more believable."
"Not everything was a lie," she said, looking up. I guess I expected her to look ashamed of herself, or at least guilty or apologetic. Any human being would.
But she looked serious. I couldn't waste time deciphering it.
I threw the flowers on the ground after ripping off the note. She frowned, and that was the last thing I saw before I left. I wouldn't be coming back tomorrow. And she wouldn't ever be reading that stupid note I'd written when I'd been so naive to think that it was all real somehow.