Missing You

🍭 | Part Twenty One: YUI

I wake up with an ache. I look around and see that I'm in a hospital room. I clutch my chest and feel several bandages wrapped around it. What the heck is going on?

I look at the calendar in the wall opposing me. March 17.

Wait, it's Kaito's birthday! What the heck?! I was in here for a week? I start to scramble off my bed when someone suddenly barges in. My chest tightens. Why does it hurt so bad?

"Yui!" The person exclaims and immediately I see Kaito worried.

I then yell, "Happy Birthday!"

He rushes to me and hugs me immediately. What the heck is going on?

"I missed you!" He says.

"I missed you... too?" I pause and push him away gently, "Wait, what's going on?"

"Why didn't you tell me?!" He yells.

"Tell you, uhhh, what?" I ask.

"That you were suffering! Geez, Yui, I was so worried. I thought you were gonna die! You know, I can't lose you too, right?" His eyebrows furrow, "Why didn't you tell me that you needed the surgery?"

Oh no. "Well, I do take my medicine every day but somehow, gradually they stopped working. They eventually stopped working before graduation. Just my luck, right?" I look at him as if I'm making a joke but I still see worry in his eyes.

I continue, "We did take precautions that's why we scheduled a surgery. It was coming sooner or later. By the looks of it, it came earlier than expected. I never told you because I just didn't want you to worry about me that much."

"Yui, that's my responsibility already ever since that day. Look," He sits beside me, "You have to tell me things like these. Especially, if your medicine no longer works. Yui, I care a lot about you and I don't want you to disappear like thin air. You have to tell me you're suffering. I made a mistake before and I don't want you to repeat it again. Whatever hurts you, hurts me too. Also, you told me about not carrying the burden alone. Hm."

He then acts as if he's angry. I laugh and brush a strand of hair in his face.

"I'm sorry. I'm a hypocrite but thank you, Kai." I pause and then continue, "Anyway, I'm still confused. What exactly happened?"

He then told me about the heart surgery. I collapsed just before the ball and I was rushed immediately to the hospital. Luckily, my device worked and I was given the heart surgery immediately. Kai then tells me I will be discharged tomorrow.

"Yui. I have something to tell you." He says and frowns. He takes something from his back pack and hands a brown envelope to me.

I hold it in my hands but set it aside, "Hey, before that, shouldn't we celebrate your birthday first?"

"How do you suppose we can celebrate in this room?"

Before he questions me further, I notice his guitar, "Can you play something for me?"

He rushes to get it from the couch, "What song?"

"The song you were playing in the swings. I think I know the lyrics that match it."

He smiles and starts playing. I start singing the lullaby his mother would sing for him. I knew it was familiar when he played that melody to me. This guy is truly remarkable with his guitar playing. The song finishes and he sets aside the guitar. He hugs me and he seems to be crying a little.

I whisper in his ear, "Happy Birthday."

I didn't know that the days we have together were numbered.