Haru: A Story Of Courage

How Long One Can Wait?

Chapter Two: How Long One Can Wait?

Kira’s POV:

It has been 2 years since everything and a lot has changed really. Hinamouri entered a coma and is in the hospital. We moved to my grandparents mansion which the rest of my family; Oji Herado, Oba Nami, Oba Sami and their families also live. Our parents chose to live in another house even though our grandparents refused, my parents explained to us when we were younger that they didn’t want the luxury life but rather something simple and peaceful. I now study architecture in the university of  Tokyo and since Tokyo is 1 hour and 29 minutes away from Fujioka, so I just drive every day and the twins are studying medicine at the university of Gunma. We visit Hinamouri whenever we can, we bring our home work and achieve it in the hospital and we also talk to her about our daily lives, you know because they say a comatose patient can hear you. It took us at least one year to get back to normal, me and the boys took therapy for a while because our grandparents said we had to even though we refused but we stopped after a brief time.  

Kon’s POV:

Tonight we were at the hospital visiting Hinamouri, after the accident Hina chan got head injury and entered in a coma. In a week, it will be her birthday and I hoped that she would wake up then, the doctor says she’s improving and responding well to treatment. Since me and my brothers visit Hina a lot, we spend our days here doing our home work, im supposed to write an essay about something but I somehow got lost staring at Hina and thinking deeply over the last two years. Our Ojiichan assigned someone special to take care of our sister and groom her, she looked pretty as always; brown hair brushed neatly, face pure and peaceful, the only problem is that those adjectives describe a dead person in their coffin, they don’t describe my soon to be 15 year old baby sister. I wish I could just shake her from her sleep but I already tried that when no one was around, it didn’t work. I started shouting in my head to her to wake up hoping that there would be an invisible telepathy between us: Wake up Hina! Please wake up!. But it didn’t reach her, it reached my twin Kin. He placed his hand on my shoulder, gave it a slight squeeze and said: “Soon Kon, soon enough.”

 I sighed and returned to writing.

Kin’s POV:

Today is the birthday of Hinamouri and we all hopefully sat down in the chairs with the table in the middle that had a cake upon it, on the cake was written: “HAPPY BIRTHDAY HINAMOURI <3”. Me, Kon, Kira, Masoumi and Nobu were there. Masoumi let out a loud sigh, got up and walked over to Hinamouri’s bed. “COME ON, HINA CHAAN.” He says loudly and quite obnoxiously. He started shaking her and pinching her cheek and squeezing her nose saying: “Poo bear, come on waaaake up! Not too hard, just open your eyes.” He kept insisting that Hina wakes up. I swear I still didnt understand how she can she tolerate Masoumi, he’s really loud and whiney.

 “Poo Bear?” Kin asked.

 “Yeah, that’s her nickname to me and since she loves Winnie the Poo, I called her Poo bear.” Masoumi answered.

I was startled by the voice of a really high pitched girly scream when I looked around, I found Masoumi with a shocked face on him.

“What’s wrong?” I asked annoyed.

 He started stuttering while staring down at Hina and he couldn’t say anything.

“What?” I asked again.

“Po-Poo Bearrr… She she is a-awake.” He rambled. We all ran to the bed but it just turned out it was a joke.

 “Don’t joke like that Mass, its not funny!” Nobu grumbled.

“I’m not!” He exclaimed loudly. “She was awake I swear, her eyes were fluttering and she was gazing at me!!” He said even louder.

“You don’t have to be so loud Masoumi kun, are you sure?” Kira asked.

“Yes, I am”

We called for the doctor and he explained that regaining consciousness is not instant: in the first days, patients are only awake for a few minutes, and duration of time awake gradually increases. This is unlike the situation in many movies where people who awake from comas are instantly able to continue their normal lives. In reality, the coma patient awakes sometimes in a profound state of confusion, not knowing how they got there and sometimes suffering from dysarthria, the inability to articulate any speech, and with many other disabilities.

We were all relieved by the news that she was awaken even though it was just for a little bit. Right now, I’m in my bedroom with Kon, a while ago, me, Kon and Kira were all telling stories that we already knew to each other, laughing and tearing up from memories. Kira excused himself saying we all needed to sleep. Me and Kon stayed silent for a while until I broke the comfortable silence by saying: “Kon, I know you’re sad. You can run to the bathroom now to sob.” Kon ran to the bathroom as I  completed the sentence, when it came to the both of us I was more efficient in bottling up feelings and hiding them. I laughed at the thought of Masoumi screaming like a girl and the look on his face was completely priceless.

“How long can one wait for you Poo bear?”