A/N: I wish you're liking the story!! Try imagining the sakura in this part of the story! I love it like that!

...

Ryoma's POV

Outside my room, the sakura tree is starting to regrow its lost petals. I am still staring at it while my parents are quarreling over telling me about a family's secret oyaji said that I must know. I really don't get why my parents would even fight like that, most of all, I'm not used in seeing my father wear coat and tie. Also, this is my first time seeing them shouting at each other. After five minutes, I called Ryuzaki Sakuno when I suddenly felt uncomfortable and a head ache is coming. "Is there something wrong, Ryoma-kun?" she quickly asked me. I smiled at her and I quickly felt fine after she held my hands.

"Hn," I told her and I quickly gestured a smile. She also smiled back at me.

For me, she's the best medicine for all the pain I am currently having right now. Most of all, I wanted to divert my attention to someone else than keeping myself out in listening to my parents. I quickly asked Sakuno, "Ryuzaki, what's happening? I just woke up... and here they are... fighting over something I don't understand. Do you know?"

After I asked her, her smile was lost. It seems, there really is a secret I should know but what is it? How important is it that my parents would shout at each other? For the past fourteen years of my life, this is my first time to see them having disagreements. In my annoyance, I sat up after the nurse went in and took down the pillows under my legs. I winced a bit. My legs still hurt but not too much already. The female nurse who went in spat at them and told them, "Can you both get out of your son's room if you will keep screaming at each other? You are disturbing him! Continue the argument out!"

"Uncle, Aunt... we should wait for the right time. It's better to tell him after he's back at home and studying in Seishun Gakuen, right? Maybe that time, he'll understand things out and will not act carelessly," she told them.

I pouted. There really is a secret they don't want to tell me yet. I wonder what that is. I looked at Sakuno's face and she seemed pissed off. I wonder why? Why can't they tell me?

...

Sakuno POV:

Looking at Echizen's reaction, I know I was right not to let Ryoma-kun to know about his grandfather and his true identity as the heir of Echizen Brothers Corporation. I don't know what he would feel when he learns about that secret. It frightens me that if he learns about his father's secret, he will not accept his fate. He, as an heir of one of the most important and largest corporations in Japan, I don't want to see him confused and doubting himself.

The silence was suddenly broken when he spoke to us. "Not ready yet? I'm ready! Is it about my condition? Please tell me about the secret you are all keeping from me. I know you are all trying to hide something from me! It so pisses me off that you won't even consider what I would feel!"

That's it. I want to shut him off right this moment after seeing his parents' sad faces. I looked angrily at Ryoma and I don't care if his parents see how I can embarrass him in front of them. We aren't kids anymore. He needs to learn patience and so, even I don't like to hurt him, I slapped him. After that, he painfully cupped his hands at his right cheek and I looking down at the floor. I hate what I did to him but it's the only way for him to stop asking his parents about that lethal information that will change and might give a shock to him. I quickly left a dumbfounded Ryoma shouting my name.

Nanjiroh-san followed me outside and grabbed my right arm. "Sakuno-chan, we have to tell him. It would hurt him more if he learns the truth from other people."

"Nanjiroh-san, you really are an immature father!' I screamed outside Ryoma's room. "I don't want Ryoma to be shocked! I don't want to see him cry! He has just woken up! Can't you wait until he's finally ready to get outside of the hospital? Didn't you listen to Dr. Jiroh? He will deal with post traumatic stress! If you tell him about that secret right now, it would add more pain to Ryoma-kun!"

Nanjiroh-san froze a bit but after a while, he hugged me and agreed with me. "You're right. I tried telling him after you've left outside and asked him to calm down but it seemed he kept asking for you. He needs you more than us right now. Maybe, it's the effect of the disaster that befall to both of you. He seemed so protective of you today."

"Gomenasai... if only I have the strength to protect him those times," I told him.

He smirked at me and told me, "You don't need to apologize. What he wants is you right this moment. We'll wait if that's what's good for him."

Days have passed down and he is still confined inside the hospital. Most of the time, every morning, he would scream for help. He kept dreaming about the disaster we had and I would always hold him down to calm down and tell him everything's fine now.

I'm glad his mother, Rinko-san is happy to have me with her. She doesn't bother cooking anymore. I do it for Ryoma. Whenever he eats the bento I cooked for him, his sad and pained expression will totally change with a smile. Since the accident, he doesn't have time to actually be back at school.

Also, he kept reminding us not to talk about the disaster we had. Dr. Jiroh told us that it was just normal for him to ask it. He's still afraid in remembering it anyway but it seemed he had chosen a psychotherapist to talk about his problem. He hates it whenever that psychotherapist comes. She's twenty-five years old and an Japanese American who had just finished her M.A in Harvard University.

Why?

She uses a talk therapy and she would constantly talk about haunting past he had. Well, most of us goes out of the room for us not to see his unnatural outburst of sadness.

Well, today, Dr. Yu Mirai told us that we just need to keep supporting him. She went inside again with an injection with her. She injected a chemical at him to help ease himself with his depressed feelings and there, she started talking again.

"Ryoma-kun," she began.

"Can't you just leave me alone? I don't want talking about it!" he angrily replied to her. He even threw one of his pillows at her but Dr. Yu only shrugged it off.

She sat near his bed and continued, "I am here to help you move on from that past. I know it's hard for you. Your doctors and nurses kept reporting to me that you still have recurring dreams and flashbacks of the tsunami. You even shouted once that you saw the ceiling crack even there's none. Ryoma-kun, what you need to know is a very important and lethal thing in your life. You have survivor's guilt. It's not just you who experiences what you are having. There's many of you having the same experience. You're lucky that God gave you second life. Aren't you happy?"

"How can you help me? You kept making me remember that past! If you would help me forget it, that's better than keeping me remembering that haunting past!" he screamed at her.

"Forget? That's not my goal here, Ryoma-kun."

"What? What do you want? You like hearing me scream every morning or every midnight?" he cockily asked her.

She also smirked at him while he sat on his bed. His scars are disappearing now. "No, but my goal here is you to accept your past. The waves, the train, and your bravery to save your precious gem. You sacrificed yourself for her, right?"

Slowly but surely, Ryoma started to cry. It seemed he's remembering it again. "Can't you just leave?" he asked her.

I quickly went beside him and held his hand. "Gomen, Ryoma-kun but I want her to stay here longer. Ryoma-kun, if you want to be better, I think it's better if you do follow her advices. She's here not to torment you anyway," I told him.

"No. She's here to torment me. She's using my painful memory to torture me mentally!" he cried. His clutch to his blanket tightened. He lie back down at his bed and stared at the Sakura Tree outside.

Dr. Yu smiled and when she observed that Ryoma's looking at it and it gives him comfort in looking at it, she used it to help him.

"Ryoma-kun, do you love looking at the Sakura Tree?" she asked.

"Why do you ask?" he asked her as he face her. I kept staring at the two of them.

"I like it, why?" he asked her.

"Do you know its meaning?"

"I've lived in United States for twelve years and I still keep going back there sometimes, so, when I came here, I like it the way it is. I never asked about its meaning."

She happily smiled at him and she chuckled a bit. "Now, you'll know its meaning. Listen carefully or... maybe... close your eyes and listen to your heart. With this activity I'll give you, I know that your fears will slowly drop down. Are you ready?" she asked him.

He turned to me and asked me, "Do I really have to do this?"

I grinned at him, "Just follow her."

I'm happy that I'm here to encourage him. He soon closed his eyes and listened to her.

END SAKUNO POV...
...

RYOMA POV:

"Imagine the Sakura in its full bloom and you are below it."

I obeyed her and I quickly imagined that I'm below a Sakura Tree.

"Isn't it beautiful? Its pink petals are so beautiful and so is life, Ryoma-kun. Life is beautiful."

I nodded at her words. I agree to her. "Now, in every bloomed flower, challenges are always there. Imagine that little by little, the waves of the wind and the upcoming autumn is coming. Imagine what would happen to its petals."

Of course, ever autumn the tree's leaves and its petals loses its beauty but after I imagined the wave and how the petals turn brown or maybe the petals leave the trees, I felt very sad and alone just watching how cruel life can be. No matter how beautiful life is, life will end. Life is so short. It's so unfair. Why is life so short anyway?

Then, after she had left me pondering over that realization, she spoke to me again. "Snow came over the trees and yes, it seemed the Sakura petals were lost but in every loss, there's new hope. Do not forget about the Spring Season where the ice melts and new Sakura petals are born."

She's right. In every end, there's a new beginning for everything. Is she telling me that whatever I have experienced, I can pass through them? It seemed so. I want to be just like the Sakura Tree where I can restart my life. God is so kind to give me another chance. I'll make it through this time around. I promise that in anything I do, I will persevere. I won't give up in anything now.

"Open your eyes, Ryoma-kun," Dr. Yu told me. I opened my eyes and stared at Sakuno and Doctor Yu.

"What did you learn from the Sakura Tree, Ryoma-kun?" she asked me.

"Life is beautiful but it was so short. It's unfair... why is life so short anyway?"

She smiled at me and told me, "Life is overwhelmingly beautiful but sadly, it's too short. It only means we have to thank every minute of our life and do the right things in a short span of life. Isn't life so precious, Ryoma-kun? why don't you thank Kamisama? He has given you another chance in life and be with everyone whom you care and cares for you?"

She stood up from her seat and I looked at the Sakura Tree just outside my window. I pouted and before she leaves, I thanked her. I am too tired already and so, I decided to sleep. The question is, will I ever forget... no... she said I don't need to forget that traumatic event of my life. I really do wish I would soon accept that my life has eventually changed and if I want to return things to normal, I would accept it but for the past three days, I had problems with sleeping. I seemed to fear sleep. I hate hallucinating that tsunami is still there but whenever Sakuno rushes beside me, I would soon realize that I am so dependent on them.

My team mates are also all there with me incuding my own team when I was the captain of Junior High Seigaku Team. They all helped me move on from my haunting past.

Sakuno's heat reminds me that I still have hope and I will do my best to keep living and finally, after a whole month of staying in the Hospital, I am finally ready to go back to school. I finally learned not to avoid the topic and laugh over it.

Sakuno helped me pack up my things with my cousin, Nanako with us but before I even step out of my room, oyaji, okaasan, my doctor, Ryoga-niisan, and an unknown person faced me. I am already carrying my school bag, ready to go back home and rest there more for one day but I felt an intense tension when the five of them faced me.

"Why are you all here?" I asked.

Coach Ryuzaki went inside with the Seigaku regulars facing me, too. "So it's the right time, then. Nanjiroh, why don't you start telling your son about your family's true identity here in Japan?"

I glared at all of them including Sakuno. It seemed they all know what my parents are very reluctant to tell me when I still have PTSD. Now that I'm fully recovered, they chose this day to tell me about it.

"Can't you just tell me?" I asked. "What is it you want to tell me?"

Okaasan held oyaji's shoulders like he needed her help to tell me about it and when he opened his mouth and tell me their secret, I felt a cold breeze seep through my veins. "That can't be true. It's not true!" I began running out of my room with Sakuno and Nanako behind me.

A/N: I know you already know whatever Nanjiroh told him. Thanks for liking my story! The first person who reviews this story would be given a dedication for this chapter! Than you so much! Arigatou, minna!!!