Chapter 129 – Sakaki Sui

 

Sui’s Pov

 

It felt like I was sleeping for a long time, but at the same time, it felt like not a long time had passed.

 

I didn’t remember falling asleep at all. I remembered that my body was in a really bad shape that day, I got tired after a short walk and even going up the stairs felt like a chore. Suddenly, my chest began to hurt and after that, it was all blank.

 

I woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling and an unusually heavy body. It was at that time I realized that something big had happened. I looked around and realized that I was in a hospital room. The window was slightly opened as a gentle breeze came in through that gap.

 

After a while, I managed to move my fingers. I still couldn’t move the rest of my body though, including my jaws. Not long after I could start to move my jaw and mutter some words. It was a bit painful to do it though.

 

“Ugh… Ouchies…”

 

My throat was dry. The voice that came out of my mouth sounded like a growling of a weakened monster.

 

While I was making that kind of sound, someone who looked like a nurse came in.

 

“G-Good mooorniing…”

 

When I greeted her, the nurse screamed as if she had seen a ghost and stormed outside the room.

 

Not long after, people in white coats came in one after another, asking me a lot of questions like if I could remember my name or not and many other questions that I didn’t understand. I didn’t have the chance to ask them about what was going on because of their barrage of questions.

 

After it was done, the doctor told me that I had been asleep for three years.

 

“Three years?… Three years have passed?…”

 

It sounded so unrealistic that I suspected the doctor was trying to mess with me. It wasn’t until my family arrived that I realized that he was telling me the truth. My parents looked the same, but Ugin had clearly grown up.

 

“Big brother!!”

 

She cried out and clung to me. I finally accepted this as reality,

 

Three years had passed.

 

What happened to school? How was Ugin doing all this time? What happened to my friends? Why did I fall asleep in the first place? Questions started to pop up in my head one after another. I wanted to comfort Ugin, but I couldn’t since, let alone moving my body around, I couldn’t even think properly anymore because my head started to hurt.

 

Then, Ugin told me everything.

 

One day, I collapsed due to high blood pressure and went into a coma due to severe brain damage. The doctor was surprised after seeing my condition when I woke up. They said that people who just woke up from a coma usually had problems with their ability to speak and calculate. Oftentimes, they would also have trouble thinking like a normal person. But I had none of that.

 

After that, the doctor gave me some time to calm down. He probably realized that my head started hurting again from the massive amount of information I just received.

 

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Ugin answered it. I thought another doctor was coming in, but to my surprise, it was Arina.

 

I didn’t know how to address her. Three years had passed and she had become a beautiful woman. The mature aura she exuded made me lose my words.

 

“Yo… It’s been a while… Is the Earth safe?”

 

And so, I decided to throw a joke at her like I always did. At that moment, she broke down in tears.

 

She must have been waiting for me for a long time. Seeing her in tears like this made me feel incredibly guilty. Strangely enough, though, it didn’t feel like we had grown apart, even though three years had passed without us talking to each other. Maybe I met her in my dreams during the time I was asleep? In any case, the warmth of her body was familiar to me.

 

Ugin was a freshman at her university while Arina was in her third year. And there was me, an unemployed twenty one years old.

 

The more I learned about the current situation, the more worried I became. Obviously, because of my condition, I dropped out of school, becoming a child in an adult body, a mere helpless going-home club member. I sat alone in the darkened hospital room while thinking about the future.

 

I had caused my family a lot of trouble and worry. When I thought about the cost of my hospitalization, I felt a sharp pain in my chest. The world felt like it was collapsing on me. How should I live my life from now on?

 

“My body feels heavy…”

 

After that began my rehabilitation period.

 

The doctor helped me regain the muscle strength I had lost. Every single movement I made brought me nothing but pain. Every time I looked at my battered body, I was once again reminded of the reality that three years had passed. And so, I worked hard to make up for those three years that I had lost.

 

One day, Arina came to see me.

 

I didn’t know why she came to see me. Maybe she wanted to tease me because she did nothing but sit on a chair while grinning at me. She looked like she was in a good mood. It actually scared me because I was so used to her grumpy and emotionless face. At times, she would approach me and support me while playfully teasing me by poking fun at my current condition.

 

“So, you’re a writer now?…”

“Yes, I’ll bring you the book next time. Don’t ask me anything about the title, though.”

“Can’t you just show me what it looks like on your phone? My phone is still at home…”

“Don’t wanna~”

 

During my break period, I talked with Arina.

 

We hadn’t had much time to talk because of my condition, so this was our first real conversation in three years.

 

“Three years have really passed, huh? …When I first saw Ugin, I wondered who she was… My parents haven’t changed much but both you and Ugin have changed drastically… That was when I realized how much time has passed…”

“It felt like a long time, but to me, time just flew by quickly. Our high school days felt like it happened a long time ago… By the way, I’m living by myself now. My place is near Hirose River, a walk away from Tohoku.”

“As expected, you managed to enter that university, huh?”

“Mhm. When you’ve recovered enough, come and visit me at my place, okay? We’ll celebrate it together.”

“Visiting an older woman’s room is still beyond my capability. Let alone THE Arina-sama’s room. I’ll faint the moment I breathe the air in it.”

“What older woman? We’re the same age.”

 

She smiled before taking a sip of her tea.

 

Why was she here anyway? Why did she come all the way here to see me?

 

She was a third year student in her university, it wouldn’t be strange for her to have a man or two in her life. With such a pretty face, the men in her university would never leave her alone and among them, there should be one or two men that she fancied. Yet, here she was, sitting without a care as if it was a natural thing to do. Not to mention that she was bawling when she saw me waking up for the first time.

 

Could it be, she still liked me even after all these years?

 

The feelings she had told me from that summer… Were they still there?

 

“What are you thinking about?”

 

Of course, I couldn’t just ask her about that. Rather, I was unable to.

 

“By the way, I remember everything about you.”

“Ah, right, you forgot about me, did you? So, is everything okay with you now?”

“Yes. All my problems are solved, you don’t need to worry about me.”

“I see. The girl with a venomous tongue has grown into an outstanding woman now. The Arina Rehabilitation Project is now finished.”

“Now, that’s a nostalgic term. Looking back, everything we did back then was silly, but it was really fun. You saved me. I was always looking forward to your antics whenever after school came.”

“Liar. You always looked like you were in a bad mood back then.”

“That was because I was a tsundere.”

“There was no dere in you. It was all tsun.”

“I still had one regret though. If only I was more honest back then, we could have done more things together…”

 

The doctor was looking in our direction. I guess my break time was over.

 

“Come here, let me help you. Get back on your feet soon, okay?”

 

Arina supported me standing up. By the way, I had no leisure to get excited about being touched by her. Just trying to stand up normally required all my concentration.

 

I walked in pathetically small steps toward the doctor’s direction.

 

“I’ll be waiting for you, okay?”

 

Arina called out from behind me. I slowly turned my head to look at her.

 

“Thank you for stopping by. You should go home quickly, sensei. You have a lot to think about for your next story, don’t you?”

“I’m not talking about that. What I’m trying to say is… Your answer… I’ll be waiting for your answer…”

 

She gave me a small wave and walked away.

 

No way… Did that mean she had been waiting for my answer for three years? Why did she do that? It wasn’t even certain that I’d wake up one day.

 

No other choice then. I’d have to do my best to get better. For my own sake and for her sake. I have to answer her properly this time.