His body was lying on the cold floor of the tunnel, his face illuminated by the reflections of the water. At first, I thought he had simply fallen, and naively, I said to him, chuckling:

"What's wrong? Have you been watching the fish swim so much that you forgot how to walk?"

It was a stupid joke, one of our playful ways. How I wished that were the case.

He didn't respond to my joke, which, since he always had a ready answer, seemed strange to me. Approaching and bending down toward him, I noticed his face was completely covered in sweat. I knelt on the ground next to him and called his name repeatedly, but nothing—he had lost consciousness.

I didn't even try to touch him. I didn't want to make the situation worse.

I did the only sensible thing I could: I alerted the management and called an ambulance with my phone, which didn't take long to arrive. The paramedics immediately loaded him onto the vehicle headed to the hospital, and I went with them. Yuto-kun's face had gone from pink to white in an instant... He almost looked like a corpse. My worry was extremely high. The paramedics quickly grabbed a respirator and placed it on his face while I could do nothing but sit there and watch. Once we arrived at the hospital, they rushed him to the resuscitation room. I followed them for a bit, but of course, they wouldn't let me go further.

They told me to wait in the waiting room.

Time seemed to have stopped. Together with me in the waiting room were other people—specifically, a man and a woman. They didn't seem to know each other, so each had come for different people.

Almost an hour had passed since they had taken Yuto-kun to the resuscitation room.

During that time, only a nurse had come to tell me that they had notified his family. I tried to ask for more information, but since I wasn't a relative, they didn't tell me anything.

I still couldn't come to terms with what had happened. Sitting there, I did nothing but clutch the necklace around my neck and hope that everything would be okay, even though I didn't know exactly what they were doing or what had caused Yuto-kun to lose consciousness. I hoped every second that the doctor would come out and tell me he was fine. I wanted him to wake up as soon as possible.

"AYAME!" I heard my name being called. Chika-san was running toward me. "What happened? Tell me everything in detail."

She was extremely worried, and as she listened to my account, a mixture of emotions crossed her face, ranging from dismay to concern.

"I see," she told me with a look of dismay.

Even though she was worried, I could see in her eyes that she knew what was happening. As if what had happened wasn't new to her. So, tired of waiting and tired of these mysteries, I decided to ask her directly.

"Tell me the truth... What's going on? What does he have? You know, don't you?"

"Well... the thing is..."

Chika-san was saved from my questions because at that moment the doctor came out of the room.

"The Nakagawa family?" We got up and approached him.

"Doctor, how is my brother?" Chika-san asked.

"He's stable for now. He just had a crisis, but for the moment he's out of danger."

At the words 'out of danger,' I relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Can we see him?" I asked.

"He's not conscious right now; he's sleeping. He needs rest. I suggest you come back tomorrow."

"I understand," I replied, disappointed.

"Miss Nakagawa-san, could you come with me for a moment?"

"Of course," Chika-san said before turning to me. "Wait for me at the entrance; I'll be right back, and then we'll go home together."

"Okay," I replied.

After finishing talking to the doctor, she joined me where I was waiting and we headed to the car.

Once inside, before she could put the key in the ignition, I grabbed her arm.

"Ayame?"

"Tell me... What does he have? Please," I said hesitantly.

"He... he's not very well. I can only tell you that. He didn't want you or others to know, so I won't tell you anything else. If you want to know more, you'd better ask him yourself."

So we returned home without saying anything, without breaking the silence.

The next day, after classes ended, I rushed to the hospital. I wanted and absolutely needed to see him. I had questions to ask him and demanded answers. I was so determined that I wouldn't leave without getting them. But first, I stopped by a pastry shop nearby. I wanted to bring him something to sweeten the situation, which wasn't the best.

Once I arrived, I approached the front desk and asked for information about which room he was in.

I arrived, for the second time in a few months, in front of the door to his room. Once again, now used to our strange encounters almost always linked to a hospital, I started thinking about what I would say to him. I didn't want to seem too intrusive, but at the same time, I wanted to know what problem was troubling him.

It's not normal for a person to collapse like that all of a sudden. Except for his sister, who seemed used to the situation. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that standing in front of the door wouldn't accomplish anything, so I knocked. I noticed the door was simply ajar. I peeked in and saw that he had his back to me. Like on the day of the accident, he was gazing at the outside world from the window. He was wearing a patient's gown, and the room was lit by the sunlight that was about to set.

The first time I peeked into his room, he seemed like a person simply absorbed in his thoughts; this time, instead, he seemed weak and defenseless, as if anyone could break him like a twig.

Suddenly, he moved even closer to the window and opened it. I thought he wanted to get some fresh air, but from his mouth came a heart-wrenching scream that seemed to come directly from his soul.

"GOD, WHY!!!!!!!"

He shouted until he had no breath left in his lungs, then the scream faded and reduced to a tremor. For a moment, the sunset light illuminated the tears streaming down his cheeks. As fate would have it, he turned around suddenly at that very moment. Our eyes met.

"H-hi," I said, embarrassed. It was only natural that I was... I had been spying on him in a private, delicate moment. I was afraid he would be angry with me for this, but he simply replied gently, with a slightly surprised tone:

"H-hi. What are you doing here?" He quickly wiped his wet face, trying to hold back from continuing to cry. If I hadn't arrived, he would most likely have started crying like a child.

"Well... I came to visit you. I also brought some sweets." I shook the bag at shoulder height.

"Really? Great, I was just in the mood for something sweet. I have an idea—how about we play cards?" He smiled at me, even though it was clear he was trying to be strong to hide his suffering.

"Okay."

I closed the door to the room. He lay down on the bed, and I sat next to him. He took some cards from a nearby drawer, surely placed there by the ward staff, and we started playing.

Time in the room seemed to have stopped. In the hallway outside the room, no voices could be heard. You could only hear the sound of the clock's hands and the cards we discarded each turn.

In all this, I still hadn't touched on the subject of his presumed illness, nor had I thought of a possible question to ask him.

My determination from earlier was starting to waver; I was afraid he might get angry. These were his personal matters, and I had no right to be nosy. If he had wanted to tell me, he would have done so earlier. But I wanted to know, and Chika-san had advised me to ask him directly, otherwise I would remain in the dark about the situation.

I decided to get to the point gradually.

"Why were you shouting earlier?"

"Ah, so you heard me," he replied, smiling while scratching the back of his head with one hand.

"Yes. I think I also saw some tears."

"What an embarrassing situation. It was just a little venting, nothing more."

"I see. And... can I ask what it was about?"

I knew it was related to his problem, but to have such a reaction, it couldn't be too easy to handle. Was it some kind of illness?

If he had had an accident in the past that had repercussions in the present? My question went unanswered, but I didn't give up, and after a few minutes of continuing to play, I continued with my questions.

"Did they tell you when you can leave?"

"They haven't told me yet, but if I continue to be okay, I think they'll let me out soon."

"Okay."

The conversation died there, but I didn't give up, and after a few more seconds of silence, I asked him another question. This time, I asked something a bit more direct.

"Have you had other fainting spells in the past?"

"Yes. But it's just stress."

It wasn't true. Otherwise, Chika-san would never have had that reaction in the car. I was slightly irritated that he was lying to me. I would have preferred him to simply tell me he didn't want to say.

Tired, I decided not to care anymore. On the day of the accident, when we were still strangers to each other, he hadn't hesitated to stick his nose into my life.

"Liar..."

"Mhmm?" He kept pretending not to understand. He was treating me like I was stupid.

"Tell me the truth. I know it's not that. What is it?"

"I told you, it's just a bit of tiredness, that's all."

"I don't believe you! I know it's a lie. Tell me the truth," I said, standing up.

"IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, GOT IT? STOP MEDDLING," he shouted back, also standing up abruptly.

Those words pierced my chest like a sharp blade. Even though technically he was right, hearing them said out loud by him hurt.

"You're right. It's none of my business. But I, thinking you were the closest person to me, told you about my past. I thought it was mutual, but apparently I was wrong. Sorry for bothering you with my questions."

I said with tears in my eyes, heading toward the door. I didn't manage to reach it because suddenly he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward him. Suddenly, I found myself on my back on the bed, with Yuto-kun above me. I couldn't tell if we had fallen onto the bed by accident or if he had thrown me on it. Through all this, our hands were still clasped together.

"What are you doing?" I asked without getting any answer.

"Yuto-kun?" I asked, and he squeezed my hand even tighter.

"Ow. You're hurting me." At first, I was scared. Given the position we were in, it was easy to think he wanted to do something inappropriate using force. His breathing became more and more labored, and his big black eyes became wet. I felt a drop wet my face. He was crying.

"What do you want? What do I have to tell you? I'm terrified. I live every day in fear. The fear of not seeing the sunlight anymore, of not being able to hear what's around me, of not being able to breathe fully and shout what I have inside. I'm terrified of never having a normal life. Every night I pray that the next day I can open my eyes and see my tomorrow."

"Please... Tell me. What do you have?"

With a finger of his free hand, he pointed to his head. "I have a little monster right here."

"Wh-what?" I replied instinctively, incredulous.

"I have... brain... cancer that consumes me every day of my life and that I can't get rid of."

He kept breathing heavily.

The news was so unexpected that my brain struggled to process what he had told me.

Lying beneath him, motionless, I looked him straight in the eyes. I didn't know what to say to calm him down.

The only thing I did was bring his face to my chest, gently stroking his head as if he were a child.

At that moment, given the short distance, I could smell his hair. It intoxicated me.

It took a while, but eventually he managed to calm down. After drinking some water, we sat next to each other on the bed.

At that moment, I only wanted to cry, but I managed to hold back. At that moment, I had to and wanted to be strong to support him as much as possible. I decided to be direct and ask him straight out, without too many words.

"Tell me... I want... I want to know everything."

Yuto-kun took a deep breath and began to speak.