(REVISED)Conflicted Love (Tokyo Ghoul fanfic) (CONTINUE and EDITED STORYLINE)

(REVISED) Chapter 7- Taste

Third person POV

A month later.

Kaneki was finally discharged from the hospital. He said his farewells to the doctor and nurses at the entrance, leaving by himself since he did not want to trouble Hide or Yuki. It would even trouble himself if he saw them. 

And during the past month, he still couldn't eat much. He had forced himself to eat a little bit of every meal to help with his recovery, but he had still felt repulsive.  He could only hope that his taste buds recover as soon as possible. 

'It seemed like what happened with Rize-san was something that never really happened... But ever since then, something has been strange...' Kaneki unknowingly tightened his fists. 

He soon arrived at his apartment, finding a plastic bag hanging on his door. He took the bag into his hand and opened the door. He locked the door behind him and read the small note in the bag. The small note sounded cheerful as if an attempt to boost his morales. It was from his only best friend, Hide. 

 Kaneki retreated straight to his room. He dropped down onto his bed, exhausted. He unknowingly kept holding onto the note. But with the crazy and unbelievable, recent event, he immediately fell into slumber out of mental exhaustion. 

After hours had passed by, it became late in the night. Kaneki was awake, yet his eyelids were half open as he sat alone in the dim room. The only source of light he had was the TV in his room. 

"A ghoul doesn't have to eat much in this short amount of time in the first place. One dead body will allow them to survive for a month or two." The interview on the TV stated. 

"Mr. Ogura, can't ghouls feel satisfied eating the same foods as humans?" 

The question pierced Kaneki's ears. An eerie and icy cold shiver ran down his entire body. His eyes widened with a horrid sensation of fear as he slowly looked over towards the interview on the TV.

"Not at all. Ghouls only derive their nutrition from people. Not to mention that their tongues work differently than ours do."

'No... No...' Kaneki fully turned his head around towards the aching light. 

"When they eat our food it tastes incredible awful to them." 

"Ha... Hah... Hah!" Kaneki's eyes shook, and his hands violently trembled. His breathing became ragged. The images on the TV became distorted and blurry. 

"Urgh...!" Kaneki sprinted out of his room and towards the dining table, where he had left the bag of food Hide left him. He hurriedly opened the bag and harshly halted. He hesitated, fearful that his wild speculation could be true.

He shakily opened a hamburger package and battled against his hesitant fears. He chomped down onto the hamburger and aggressively chewed on the substance. 

"Urk!" Kaneki gagged. He covered his mouth with his hand and rushed to the bathroom. He swung the bathroom door open and threw up the horrid content into the toilet. He coughed and spat out the nasty tasting salvia stuck on his tongue. 

'No...' 

Kaneki ran back to the bag and stuffed more food into his mouth. He ran back to the bathroom and threw up the contents again. Desperate in a wilting hope that perhaps it was just the type of food that was wrong, he opened the fridge in search of his dim hope. 

Again. Again and again. 

It was all a fail. 

Every time he tried to eat or drink anything his eyes laid on, he felt disgusted and immediately felt the need to reject the foods. 

He couldn't breathe right. He couldn't think. His mind became a bigger mess as time breezed past him. His life became a mess. 

He crumbled down onto the ground and planted his head onto the ground. He sobbed and sobbed, unable to sort out his thoughts or feelings. 

The plastic bag fell off the corner of the table, barely missing his head. He slowly lifted his heavy head at the object that had just fallen. His tears made it difficult to see, but he immediately recognized the object. 

It was his favorite hamburger steak. Hide had brought it for him along with everything else in the plastic bag.

"Hide..." Kaneki sadly mumbled. He unsteadily stood up as he picked up the package. He filled up a pot with water and boiled the package in it. 

He plated the hamburger steak and cut a piece off with a fork. He hesitantly and shakily brought the piece of meat to his mouth. A part of him knew that it would be futile, but he did not want to believe in this mess of a tragedy. 

He placed the bite into his mouth and could not bring himself to chew on the meat. Tears rolled down his face and onto the dish. He slowly fell down onto the ground, using the counter as a support and silently cried to himself. 

-----

A few hours prior.

"What? He left the hospital himself?" Yuki furrowed her brows and pressed the phone closer to her ear. Her frown deepened as she leaned back onto the wall. 

"Yes... He said that he felt fine enough to walk on his own back home and said that you would not be able to pick him up." 

"I see..." Yuki held back her sigh and frustratedly brushed her bangs to the side. "I understand. Thank you." Yuki ended the call and covered her eyes. 

'I really want to see him... I was told he would be discharged tomorrow... How should I comfort him? Does he plan on avoiding me forever?' She hung her head down in silence. 

"Damn it..." Yuki dragged her hand down her face and let out the sigh she was holding in. A bitter taste stomached her senses as she struggled to find a solution.

Yuki had already received her belongings and boxes from the moving company while Kaneki was being hospitalized. She wouldn't be able to talk to him as easily in the mornings like when she was staying at his place. She couldn't visit him in the morning either since he needs rest and the travel to his apartment then to work would conflict her call to work. She couldn't even visit him after work since she would get home very late into the night or very early in the day. 

"Sigh... I will have to try to get as much work done if I want to leave early tomorrow." Yuki walked back into the office and slipped into her seat. 

Amon glanced over at her, but did not speak a word. He didn't find it in his place to question her expression of determination and grit. Especially since he knew that she wanted to be kept alone unless needing to speak for the purpose of focusing on a matter of priority. 

A/N

School. XD I am in a storm of school and club stuff lol. I'm going to continue to try to keep updating whenever I can here though! One good thing about online school though is that I can nap in-between classes :D 

I hope you guys are doing well! Good luck with the school year ^w^ 

9/4/2020