The hospital room had started to feel like a second classroom. Not because of the walls or the bed or the sterile white smell, but because of the way we kept showing up — me, Haru, Sayoko — as if Kane Inoue's presence still anchored our routines.
It had been two days since I came alone. Two days since I sat beside her and held her cold hand, terrified to lose her.
Now, she was stable — still not discharged, still under watch, but smiling again, eating little by little, joking in that soft voice of hers.
"I'll be out of here before the weekend," she said, looking smug. She had a Band-Aid on her inner elbow from bloodwork, and her voice was slightly hoarse.
"Bold of you to assume they'll let a troublemaker like you out that soon," I teased, dropping into the chair beside her.
She grinned, pulling her blanket higher. "I'm irresistible. They'll get tired of me and beg me to go."
Sayoko and Haru arrived later that day with a paper bag full of snacks, one that the nurse immediately confiscated.
"No outside food," she said firmly.
Kane pouted. "You're killing my morale."
Sayoko rolled her eyes. "You have morale?"
"I do now. My best friends showed up with junk food and bad jokes."
Haru laughed and took a seat at the edge of the bed. "We're glad you're okay, seriously. You scared us."
The mood shifted, quiet for a second. I looked down, my fingers tightening around the chair handle.
Kane noticed. Her voice softened. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you all earlier. I didn't know how."
Sayoko's voice trembled. "You don't have to apologize, dummy. We were just… worried. You disappearing like that?"
"I didn't mean to vanish," Kane said gently. "The doctors just told me to come in that morning. I wasn't thinking about school or anything else."
Silence again, then Haru clapped his hands. "Alright. Morbid hour is over. We're here to cheer you up."
I stayed behind after they left. Visiting hours were ending, but I lingered by her bedside while she flipped through the sketchbook Haru had brought.
"I hate being here," she whispered. "The ceiling's too white. It's too quiet. I feel like I don't exist."
I leaned back, watching her. "You do exist. Right here. With us. With me."
Kane looked at me for a long time. "You're different now."
"How so?"
"You're not running away anymore."
I exhaled slowly. "Yeah. I realized I'd rather be scared with you than brave without you."
Her eyes shimmered. "You're getting good at saying things that make me cry."
"Then I'll stop."
"Don't. Not when it's true."
The next few days played out like a loop. Mornings were for checkups and blood pressure readings. Afternoons were for Sayoko's silly stories and Haru's card tricks. Evenings were just for me and her.
One evening, Kane closed her eyes while I was reading something aloud.
"You asleep?" I asked.
"Nope."
"Want me to stop?"
"No. Keep reading."
So I did.
Even as her eyelids drooped and her breath evened, I kept reading. My voice was barely above a whisper, but it filled the quiet room.
I stayed until the nurse tapped gently on the door. "Time to go."
I nodded, stood up, and looked back one last time. Kane was asleep, but peaceful.
I didn't say goodbye. I just whispered:
"See you tomorrow."
Chapter Fourteen: The Walk Home
The day Kane Inoue gets discharged, the sky is ridiculously blue.
It feels wrong somehow — like the weather should understand that something fragile is being let back into the world and soften itself in response.
But instead, the sun is loud. Warm. Bold.
"I'm finally free," Kane declares as we walk through the hospital's automatic doors. She's holding a small duffel bag in one hand, her discharge papers in the other. Her steps are careful, but there's a quiet victory in every one of them.
Sayoko and Haru practically explode with joy.
"You look like hell," Haru says with a grin, which earns him a punch to the arm from Sayoko.
"I look amazing," Kane counters, smoothing down her hoodie with mock elegance. "I am radiant. I am reborn."
"You were gone for a week, not reincarnated," Sayoko snorts, but I catch the way she subtly stays close to Kane's side, just in case.
We walk her home.
No taxis. No bus.
Kane wanted it this way.
"I missed the wind," she says softly, her hand reaching out toward the sky like she's touching it.
I trail a little behind the others. Watching. Taking in every laugh, every smile, every breath she steals from the world like she's hungry for it all.
She glances back at me.
"You okay, Yuki?"
I nod. "Yeah."
"You're being quiet."
"I'm letting you talk."
She laughs. "Weirdo."
We stop by the corner convenience store. Kane insists on buying peach candy. Says it tastes like childhood.
As we keep walking, she offers me one. I take it. The candy is too sweet, clings to my tongue, but I don't complain.
Everything feels like a memory before it's even finished happening.
At her doorstep, Kane hesitates.
For a second, no one moves.
Then she turns to us — to Haru, Sayoko, and me — and says, "Thank you. For not leaving me behind."
Sayoko hugs her first, and Haru awkwardly pats her back like she's made of glass. Then she turns to me.
I don't hug her.
I just reach out and brush her pinkie with mine.
She hooks it.
Like before.
Like always.
"Rest well," I say.
"You too," she murmurs. "I'll see you at school soon."
And somehow, that tiny sentence means more to me than anything else she's ever said.
As her door closes behind her, I stare at the spot where she stood, clutching the empty wrapper of the peach candy in my pocket like it's something worth holding on to.