Love Me Bitterly Loath Me Sweetly

Chapter 26 *I'm Grateful* Orihime

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I open my eyes to find Rangiku-San at the end of my hospital bed.
"She's awake. Gin, She's awake. Do we need to get the nurse?"

'She's worried about me.' I think distantly.

"Oh Thanks God. Thank God." Rangiku-San reaches up and puts her hand on my forehead. For some reason it reminds me of Misaki-San. She leans forward and lightly strokes my cheek. For some reason this makes my eyes fill immediately with tears.

"Oh my little girl." She is leaning over me, as if to shelter me from further surprise attack. I smell her perfume. "Oh, Hime." She mops my tears with a tissue.

"Ngungg." I swallowed over the words. It took my brain to process how to speak again. "I.. I.." I never thought that speaking could be this difficult but I formed the word. "I ngever wanged--"

"I know. But you could've called for help, Hime, we couldn't--"

"Not now, love, eh?" Uncle Gin touches her shoulder.

Her words tail off. She takes my hand.
"When we saw you at the scene, yesterday, all in blood and unconscious. Oh. I thought--- I didn't know---" she's sniffing again, her handkerchief pressed on her lips. "Thanks God you're okay."

"Of course she is." Gin says taking my another hand. "Although I'm proud of you but you need to take care and your hair.."

I remember cutting it, I wanted to cut my hair for a long time.. because it reminded me of Tatsuki-cha's pity. That was the reason why I had grown it in the first place to show my trust in her, but this time, I'll grow it for myself.

"Don't worry I'll give it a nice trim Gin." Rangiku-San says.

"How's thge littgle ggirl," I whispered willing the words out.. I can't think what else to say. I was worried about her.

Uncle Gin leans closer, and then I see how his eyes have grown a little watery. How his smile is a little wobblier than usual. Rangiku-San smiles sadly, she dabs at her eyes and then again at mine. "She's fine." She says squeezing my hand.

"Sorry." It is then i realize they thought I was going to die and a sob bursts unannounced from my chest. I shut my eyes against the hot tears and feel his large, strong-roughened palm around mine.

If back in the day, I had died, many people would've get along with their lives without feeling my absences, but, now that I think about it-- lot of people will be sad if I had died. "I--I wwas sho recg-- reckless."

"We're here, Hime. It's all right now. It's all going to be okay." Uncle said.

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I had stitches to close off the deep cut under my right chest. Doctors says that there's nothing to worry about and I can't seem to move very openly because the stitches could open up easily. Whenever I move the pain comes in the form of somebody poring salt on my wound. 'Who was that person and he knew my name? And why do I've a feeling that I've seen him before? If my vision wasn't blurry at the moment.'

Rangiku-San brought homemade food to the hospital everyday for the passed two weeks just like my friends, the only exception was that they brought in flowers and it looked less like a hospital room but more like a flower boutique.