Momo❤︎Tomo [COMPLETED]

❤︎Chapter 30: Change of Heart

Fall

I sit wordlessly in the hospital waiting room with my mother, Akio, Usagi, and Tomomi and my group of friends. We'd been here for nearly 7 hours now, waiting anxiously for news. It tore me up inside to wait — to sit here staring at my shaking legs and suffer through anxiety attack after anxiety attack. My body drenched with sweat from my nervousness, cooled down like a bucket of water had been splashed on me whenever a nurse or doctor walked passed, and quickly prickled with sweat again.

"It'll be okay."

I hear it from every single person sitting around me, but it's not reassuring in the slightest. Not even when I play it in my head over and over again to myself.

"If your boyfriend is as great as you make him out to be, he's going to be just fine." Akio mumbles, fed up with not having a place to lay down. He tried laying on Usagi's shoulder and almost lost his life. He couldn't lean comfortably on me, either, way too much shaking there.

"Momoka," I hear my mother's voice in my ear. I try to listen carefully, but she sounds so far away, "The surgeon told us about how he'll go about the procedure dozens of times...it's tricky, but everyone in that room is the best in the field."

"Mm." I manage to reply. I sound shaky. Echoey almost.

That should have made me feel better. There seemed to be no calming me. Maybe it was because there was something else I was worried about..I absolutely couldn't fathom the idea of Tomomi Maruyama dying when he promised me he wouldn't.

I was more worried about....something childish.

Tomomi was getting a new heart today. It would be completely different from the one I'd known and had "stolen" in his words.

Did that not give me a logical reason to be afraid that he wouldn't love me the same way anymore? I mean, I know emotions are supposed to be chemicals or something, but, the heart was still where they all came from. What if he opened his eyes after the surgery and didn't look at me the same way anymore? It was a nightmarish idea...

Stay calm. If you can't here, then go somewhere else.

The hospital really wasn't the best place to lift anyone's spirits, so I closed my eyes and tried to think happy thoughts. I go back to a particular memory — one from just a week ago.

Tomomi and I held hands as we walked through a park, chattering about anything and everything. It seemed like we'd become inseparable — only complete when we were standing side by side.

Unable to resist the pile of fallen leaves we'd come across, we dive into it together and have a leaf fight. I still remembered the way the leaves crumpled to smithereens in my hands when I scooped them up. And the sound of Tomomi's echoing laughter surrounding me and bouncing off my ears like some kind of beautiful song.

Somewhere in the midst of our play, I find a very special looking leaf. It was almost completely green — vibrant and lovely. It had begun to turn bright red toward the center, forming a small, Penny sized splash of color.

Tomomi's operation was fast approaching. I had come to accept that it would happen no matter how often I wished it away, but my own heart still cried out about it. I wanted to forget it when we were together, to just be happy, but I couldn't. My anxiety was never ending. Everything reminded me of Tomomi and his poor, sweet heart.

Especially that leaf.

I hug it to my chest and start sobbing. I wanted to keep it forever. It was so beautiful. I was crying so hard, I could barely explain to Tomomi why.