My eyes flutter open. I feel a soft, warm breeze on my face. I feel the heartbeat of Tsubaki. She's carrying me... Watari is walking by our side. The sun is setting, and a gentle, purple hue is cast upon us whilst the petals of the cherry blossoms fall, swirling to the ground in a cascade of light. My face stings, dried tears staining the flushed skin. The colour of my world is faded, almost monochrome. How can the smallest moments be so beautiful, yet so tragic?
"Tsu, are you sure you don't want me to carry him? You look worn out." Watari' s voice calls out. That's odd... he doesn't usually sound so concerned about anyone, well, apart from when Kaori... um - he mostly just sounds like an idiot.
"Watari, I told you already! I've got this. We've been carrying eachother around since we were little! And stop being so loud, you're gonna wake him up!" I hear Tsubaki snap back. It's strange, there's something unusual about her tone too. Maybe I'm just going crazy.
"Seriously? You're the one who's yelling!"
"Guys, I'm awake. It's fine." I murmur, still emotionally drained.
"...oh." The duo reply in harmony.
Silence follows, enveloping the the lightheartedness that had been.
We continue down the street, until a voice finally speaks up.
"...So, Kousei, you up for visiting Kaori? Her surgery should be over by now. she's gonna want something sweet, we can swing by a bakery too." Watari suggests.
"What's the point... We're all just going to find her dead." I reply, tears starting to reform.
Watari and Tsubaki suddenly halt, the expression of shock plastered on to their faces. I get down from Tsu's back, and turn away. Both are visibly tearing up, and the male clenches his fist.
"Oh, what the Hell Arima! Is this what you've been all depressed about? Huh? You are supposed to be Kaori's friend! You have to be optimistic for her! If she knew you said something like that, she'd kill you! There is a chance she survived that surgery, and we have to have faith for her! I love her Kousei, and I know for a fact you feel the same way! I've seen how you look at her, especially up on that stage when you played together. It was like I was watching your love for eachother bloom right in front of me. I may be no musician, but when you are making music, your heart is an open book." Watari bursts out, his emotion falling from his face in liquidated form.
"Kousei, Honestly, I'm speaking for both Watari and I, but Kaori needs you most. It's you she ran to when she needed an acompanist, it's you she ran to. Not Watari, not me. Kaori needs you. It's time you beleive in her. She pulled you from the bottom of a dark ocean, she crashed through your heart. Despite how I so dearly wish it was I that helped you, I can't change the past, and you can't just leave her. I love you, okay! But that doesn't matter, because right now, Kaori needs you." Tsubaki cries.
My eyes go wide. Tears fall. Tsubaki loves me? Kaori needs me? Watari wants me to be there for her? Why me? I'm not worth anything... I'm useless, a pianist who can't hear his own notes. A boy who is stuck in the dark. The human metronome. If I'm soulless, then why do I feel this way?
The sun has almost fully set. The purple hue has turned dark violet. The lush pink petals still fall. The first stars are visible, bright in the clear night sky. It's pulchritudinous; however, in my eyes, the world comes through as black and white, Just how it did before I met her. When I was with Kaori, the world was vibrant, emotional...breathtaking. The colourful world I had seen but a day ago, seems to be nothing but a distant memory. A mere figment of what was once reality...
I can't breathe. My lungs are failing. I see spots, and then, nothing. My world is black. My world is gone.
"Kousei! Wake up! Watari, his breathing is out of control! We need to get him help! Call an ambulance!" Tsubaki shouts, shaking my limp body. I can barely hear her muffled voice...
"I'm on it!" Watari yells in response.
"Come on Kousei, just breathe."
