; u ; / I would like to thank the great whethervain-sama for PR-ing this.
Chapter 1
The world. Something that’s just an arm’s length away from me, yet I can never reach. I can see it, watch it change, watch everyone’s lives go on, yet the possibilities of being able to join them is zero.
Sometimes, I wonder how life in the outside word is. I’ve always spent my whole day on the bed, and I’ve never known anything much about the outside world either. I… To everyone else, I’m someone who’s too naïve for her age; I don’t know what reality is. After all, all my life, I’ve spent it behind the four walls of my room inside a hospital.
And my life… As I continue on living like a caged bird, it doesn’t change that much, so it’s almost as if I’m not even living a life at all. Every single day, I just end up doing the same routine again and again. Wake up, walk around the hospital a little, lie down on my bed, eat, wait for something to happen, and then go to sleep.
My whole existence is like a Ferris wheel, simply rotating in the same direction in repeat, never changing no matter how long time passes.
And it’s dull, this kind of living. It’s dull and colorless.
“Oh~ This room sure looks different from the others...”
Startled from the foreign voice suddenly invading my ears, I hurriedly turned my head to its source, my eyes widening.
“Hola.”
A tall female, one with a long, light brown coated hair and a smile that was far too bright to be true, greeted, her hand slightly rising up as she welcomed herself in and took a seat on the stool beside my bed.
“…Ho… la?”
“Hello.”
“Oh. Hello…” I furrowed my brows down to the middle. It slowly disappeared, however, as I continued on observing her. With our distance much smaller now, I could see her features better. Her light-colored eyes, her rosy, pale skin, silky hair… Everything. “How… may I help you?” I finally continued after the short pause between us.
“Ah. Well, I just heard from the nurses that the girl who uses this room is grumpy…” She smiled again. The brightest smile I’ve ever seen so far. “But it sure doesn’t seem like you are…”
A frown made its way on my face. “I see…” Stupid nurses.
“Still though, your room is really different from the others. Curtains, books, TVs… In the ones I’ve passed by so far, the only things they had in their rooms were simply a radio and a bed.”
Pressing my lips into a thin line, I looked around my room. She’s right. Just like what she said, it wasn’t plain like the others. The walls had wallpaper on it, there was a shelf filled with mangas my mother would buy for me, a TV resting on a table just across the end of my bed, and even a refrigerator. It felt like they were trying to tell me that everything I needed was here already. That I’m going to have to live my life here, in this room, with these things to satisfy my needs.
I smiled bitterly, “It’s special treatment.”
“Special treatment?”
“I’ve spent my whole life here, in this hospital, inside this room… So they’re trying to make me feel as comfortable as they can.” I could almost see her lift her eyebrows up from the corner of my eyes. “My life’s about to end soon too… So probably, this is their advance parting gift for me…”
She remained in silence for a while, her eyes locked on the floor, guilt evident in them.
I’m sorry, but at the same time, thank you.
I’ve always wanted to say it to someone that I’m going to die soon. I myself wasn’t sure as to why, but I wanted to say it. I wanted to share it with her.
“I’m still visiting the hospital for another check up tomorrow. Is it alright for me to come here again?”
“Sure.”
--
The next day, I waited for her. I slept extra early that night, hoping to make the time pass by quicker than usual just so that I could see her again, so I could talk to her again. I kind of enjoyed it, after all, that short conversation we had not too long ago. Most of all, the nighttime in the hospital has always been too quiet for me, and also, it’s very boring. So I’d rather sleep it away, wait for morning to come, and hope for a visitor to talk to me by then. Hopefully, for this day, she’ll be my visitor too.
Morning had already passed, but there was still the afternoon. Yesterday, she came around three in the afternoon. So even though she hasn’t shown herself yet, I still haven’t lost hope. She’ll come soon. She’ll keep her promise. Someone who looks as innocent as her– I doubt anyone like her would say something like that for a lie.
I clenched on my bed’s blanket tightly as I stared outside the window. The sun was already setting; though it was hard for me too see it, the burning honey hue of the sky was already an obvious hint.
Soon, the sky turned to black.
She never came.
Was she lying, then?
No way…
Collapsing my back on my bed as I was already too tired from sitting up and staring outside the window, I heaved out the loudest sigh I could. Of course, I shouldn’t have been too surprised if she was lying. She’s just a stranger, after all… someone who jumped in my room without permission and began bombarding me with questions.
How stupid of me, to keep my hopes up like this.
“Hey.”
A muffled voice.
I slowly turned my head to the window beside me.
“W- Wha-!?”
There she was, standing right outside it, her confident, wide grin plastered on her face as she waved her right hand at me. Noticing that she was pointing her other hand towards the window’s lock, I hurriedly unlocked it and slid it open.
“Thank you,” she spoke again, her grin never leaving her face as she moved closer to said window. “Well then, I think it would be best if you move a little bit-” Placing both of her hands on the window’s frame, she pushed herself up and rolled the rest of her body inside. “Woah, woah!” she exclaimed before falling down on me.
I let out a quick yelp and was about to shout at her for being heavy, but she wasn’t.
Well, she wasn’t too heavy, at least. Nor was she too light.
She was still crushing my bones though.
“–Off me!” I managed to breathe out while pushing her away from my stomach.
“Sorry, sorry.” She chuckled before crawling off the bed.
Furrowing my brows down again, I rubbed my stomach, still feeling her weight on it for some reason. “Why did you even use the window? There’s a door, you know…” I wanted to yell at her more for doing something so reckless, but I couldn’t. I was so happy to see that she did come that I almost couldn’t think straight.
“Well,” she pouted a little. Cute. “Visiting hours were already over, so I wasn’t allowed to come anymore. The window was the only option I had left. But hey! At least I still came, right?”
“Right…”
A smile rose on her face once more. “So… Continuing on from last time,” she trailed off, picking up the stool not far from where she was and settling it beside my bed for her to sit on, “Do you have anything you’ve always wanted to do?”
I do. Quite a lot, actually. But…
“Come on, don’t be shy.”
“Ramen…”
“Hm?” The smile on her face slowly turned into a grin. “What about Ramen?”
“I… want to try eating in a ramen stand.” I slowly shut my eyes closed, wondering how those ramen taste like. They seem to be good, or at least they do in the mangas I’ve read. I want to try them. Everything, all of the things I’ve always heard and read about. Riding a bicycle, going in a public bath, going to the arcade… “I want to see the world.”
“Then… Since we’re going to die soon anyway, shall I show you the world?”
“Eh?”
“Yes! Our last destination will be the sea! Let’s walk on its sand barefooted, feel the sea breeze, its wave… And then we can watch the sun setting down on its horizon together.” Standing up, she held her hand out to me, “The sea is always the perfect last destination. So, do you want to go to an adventure with me? To the outside world, to the sea.”
What should I do? “What are you saying?” I want to… “But that’s impossible, you know.” I want to feel it too. I want to know what color the sea has. “I’m sick… I can’t leave the hospital.” I want to go to the sea… But I can’t. I’m locked up in this hospital. So I can’t.
“Don’t you want to see the sea?”
“… I… want to go. I want to see it. I want to go see the sea.”
She grinned again, holding her hand out to me as she stood up from the stool she sat on. “Then it’s settled! I’ll take you to the sea.”
It was my first time– to see a spark of colors diving into my life. And it felt great.
It felt wonderful.
“By the way, what’s your name?” she muttered to me as we made our way out through the window.
“Ogiso. Ogiso Shiori.”
“I’m Yukiko. Kinoshita Yukiko. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
And then I noticed… her smile was the sweetest.
Topic: The world (GomaYukko) (Chapter 1) 10/25 (Read 3548 times)