Chapter 10

I was stunned by her sudden collapse. I didn’t want to believe what I just saw. I don’t know how long it took me to come to and help her.
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A searing pain appeared on my left cheek. I didn’t react and just blankly stared at the hand that inflicted the pain.

“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!” the nurse scolded me, her voice sounded more scared than angry. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to keep her from getting sick again?”

We were back on the second floor. The nurse was scolding me in the corridor while a male doctor checked up on the little girl in her room.

I carried the girl back to her room when I found out her body temperature was higher than normal. The fireworks kept going, tainting my vision of her, as I carried her in my arms, with different colors. A part of me felt that the fireworks were supposed to stop at that moment. But it kept going, uncaring to the girl’s situation.

I recalled what I heard from the doctors before. As long as she didn’t get sick, her body’s strength will continue to increase and she will have a better chance of surviving the operation that could get rid of her illness once and for all. But if she gets sick, her constitution resets.

I clenched my fist tightly, hoping that it would hurt. I wanted to punish myself for what I just did. “I’m sorry…” was all I could say.

The nurse just shook her head and entered the room. I felt helpless. I leaned my back against the wall beside the door and let my legs give away. I sat on the cold floor waiting for any news. “I’m sorry,” I repeated in my head. A million apologies wouldn’t be enough.

Minutes later, the door opened a little and I saw the doctor looking around from the door.

“Yuu-san?” the doctor asks, upon seeing me.

I nodded, wondering how he knew.

“She’s looking for you. Do you want to come in?”

I nodded again, stood up, and entered the room. She lay there with a breathing apparatus, connected to a ventilator, on her mouth. I wondered why there was a need for that if she only got a fever. Was it more serious than I thought? I wanted to ask the doctor or the nurse, but when the girl opened her eyes, I wanted to talk to her more.

“Yuu…” she called. Her left hand rose weakly, as if to reach out to me.
I approached her as the other two headed for the door. Sitting down, I held her tiny hand with both of mine and pressed it against my forehead. “I’m sorry…”
“Reika,” she whispered.

I looked up to see her face, wondering about what she just said.

“That’s my name. It’s written with the characters Rei (beautiful) and Ka (flower).” She wrote the two characters on my hands. “It’s the only characters I know.” She gave a small laugh.
I gave her a weak smile. “That’s a lovely name,” I cried.

Seeing her like that: so weak, so fragile, made my chest hurt. I couldn’t help but cry for her. On the other hand, she didn’t show any signs of sadness. Her face looked peaceful.

“I’ve decided to take the surgery next Friday,” she said.
Her sudden decision shocked me. She’s at her weakest moment. Taking the surgery by then is almost suicidal.

“Please don’t. If you take the surgery then, you’ll…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. The thought alone frightened me.

She only shook her head, while smiling. She didn’t seem like she’ll change her mind. Looking at her expression, a part of me believed she could survive it. She looked so sure, unwavering. During that time, when her body was at its weakest, her heart was at its strongest.




The second paragraph happened sometime after the first paragraph. The Italicized paragraph happened before the second paragraph.
The characters for the name Reika are Rei (麗-Beautiful) and Ka (華-Flower). Unable to read, those two characters are pretty much the only characters Reika knew.