友達 ( tomodachi )
— friend, companion, comrade

— ○ —

05 | f r i e n d

"Oh my God, stop staring, Haru." Akira said with his palm to his face. "It's creepy."

"But I've never seen something like this before!" Haruka replied, he was pleasantly surprised.

Akane's mother was sitting on the hospital bed in front of her daughter, holding a container filled with blessings called cookies. Akane sat with a cookie in her petite hand, munching away.

"Do they taste good?" The older woman asked, a sweet smile plastered to her lips.

"Good?" Akane raised her eyebrows. "They taste heavenly!"

"Heavenly?!" Haruka exclaimed. "But heaven doesn't have these!"

"Haruka!" Akira face—palmed again. "How are you supposed to know? As far as you've told me, you've never been to heaven."

Haruka nodded in realization. "Right.." He mumbled. "But! That won't change the fact that these things look really good."

"They're called cookies."

"Cookies!"

The brunette just sighed. He decided to head home for a while. After the red haired girl collapsed that day, the doctors decided to keep her admitted in the hospital for about a month. They wanted to keep her under constant observation so that they could do their best to improve her condition.

The house has been empty since then, because Akane's mother was also staying over at the hospital. Haruka always had to stay with Akane, so to make sure he didn't feel lonely, Akira was always there too. This made him miss home sometimes. So he decided to visit the empty apartment, just for temporary satisfaction.

"I'm going home for a bit." Akira said, to which Haruka just nodded.

As Akira stepped into the corridor, he saw a few teenagers walk towards Akane's room. There were three of them to be exact, two girls and a boy. They stood in front of the room's door and the shortest girl knocked on it.

"Who are these people?" Akira thought to himself. Curiosity got the best of him and he found himself walking back to Akane's cabin.

" Ring! " The short girl and the boy exclaimed.

Haruka hadn't noticed any of the three, so to suddenly hear the bell ringing, he was slightly shocked. But he quickly recovered and decided to listen to what they had to say.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Fukuda!" The girl greeted Akane's mother. "We heard about Ring!  health conditions, and we came to see her!" She announced. She looked confident and extroverted, while the taller girl seemed a bit shy and timid.

"That's very sweet of you." Akane's mother said with a sweet smile.

"Class Rep!" Akane's eyes were a bit wide. "Nagisa and Kimi as well?"

"Yep!" The boy, whose name seemed to be Nagisa, stepped forward with a warm grin. "How are you doing, Ring!  "

Haruka scrunched up his nose at the annoying sound, but stared at the three new figures attentively anyways. They didn't seem to pose a threat, but for Akane's protection, Haruka could never get his guard down.

"Haru?" Akira's voice called, making the said boy turn to his direction.

"Akira," Haruka said. "I thought you went home?"

"No, I came to see what these people wanted. Who are they?" Akira asked.

"They're just Akane's classmates. They probably came to see her because the school teachers wanted news about her." Haruka replied, turning back at Akane.

"I see." Akira nodded.

"I have to go somewhere, actually," Akane's mother said. "Could you guys stay here for Ring!  until I come back?"

"Sure, Mrs. Fukuda. Take your time." The girl who was the Class Representative replied.

"Alright then!" The blonde woman left the room.

"Do you guys want some cookies?" Akane offered timidly. "They're really good."

"It's okay, we ate already." The girl named Kimi said. The three proceeded to make themselves comfortable in the room. The girls sat on the bed while the male sat on the couch.

"I faintly remember them." Akira suddenly said.

"Huh?" Haruka was a bit surprised. "You do?"

"Yeah!" Akira now had an excited tone to his voice. "Their faces, voices, talking style, everything is familiar!"

"Maybe you used to know them." Haruka said bluntly.

Being a ghost truly hurt. Akira couldn't move on further, unless he finished the thing he started in this world. But sadly, the poor boy didn't remember anything about his past life. So finishing his unfinished business wasn't as easy as it sounded. He also couldn't go back to living the way he used to, so he was constantly forced to feel restricted. Because he stayed among his loved ones, but never able to go back to them.

Bringing up this topic gravely hurt Akira's feelings, but the angel was oblivious of that fact. So he continued to say, "I guess you'll remember when you finally get to transcend."

"Yep, whatever." Akira replied with a new coldness to his voice. Haruka never heard him talk like that before. He was cute, sweet and warm. He wasn't the one to roughly throw such a short reply.

"You alright?" The blonde angel asked the ghost.

"I'm fine. I'll go now." He replied with the same rude tone and without giving a chance for another question, he left.

The next several minutes, Haruka sat absent mindedly. The teenagers in front of him chatted about various things ranging from studies to the death of their close friend, but he couldn't pay much attention. He was thinking about why Akira behaved that way.

His expectation of humans were strict; he thought they would always only act one way. He didn't understand emotions, after all.

When it was time for the three to leave, Haruka started paying attention.

"We'll see you next week, then?" Nagisa said.

"Next week..?" Akane replied with much hesitation.

"Yup!" The Class Representative spoke up. "You'll be completely recovered by then, I'm sure of it!" She giggled a bit.

After several seconds of silence, Akane said, "But guys..."

"Don't worry too much about your health." Kimi said. "This tough time will surely pass soon."

Akane suddenly snapped, although only Haruka could see it. That was until the red haired girl made it known to the rest of the boys and girls in the room.

"Guys, you don't have to put up an act." She stated strongly.

"What..?" The Class Rep asked with much surprise.

"Let's face it, we all know I'm going to die soon. So you guys don't have to act like I'll be back on leading a normal life."

The females were absolutely stunned, while the male tried to say something, but failed. Silence fell upon the room. Haruka was shocked too. Akane accepted this so easily?

"You guys make it so complicated." Akane smiled a little. "Like, every living being will die one day, right? Then why not accept it? It's okay to die. So really," She waved her right hand. "You don't have to act like that."

Why did Akane suddenly say all this to her friends? Haruka had a thousand questions running around inside his brain which he desperately wanted answers to. He wanted to know how human emotions worked, how Akane felt at that moment.

And that's when the pain of realization struck him again.

No matter how hard he screamed into the girl's ears, it wouldn't even be a small whisper of silence to her.

Tears had started to prickle Kimi's eyes. So to quickly put an end to this situation, Nagisa said, "We're your friends, Ring!  We'll always hope for you to come back. No matter what the truth is, our feelings won't change."

Haruka was slightly shocked at how this boy acted. He spoke strongly, but said it all with a smile on his face. Akane didn't have anything to reply with to his words, so she just sighed.

"We'll go now, Ring!  I'll send a nurse to stay here with you until your mum comes back, okay?"

"Alright." Akane smiled bitterly. "Thank you for visiting me today."

"It's nothing." He grinned and then stepped out of the room, guiding the other females with him. "We'll come again soon."

After about a minute, a nurse stepped into the room. Being relieved of the fact that she wasn't alone, Akane decided to take a nap.

Haruka leaned back on the couch. The ache inside his chest was steadily growing. It hurt a lot, but there was no way to fix it.

Akane was really hurt too, wasn't she?

Even though Haruka was excited for the day when he would get to see her, he wanted to make all of Akane's pain go away.