by VanillaMint

comments: there's some flashback in the middle. overall, this fic is quite innocent^^; please send me some comments!*beg*

on to the fic!

***

Name: Hara Toshimasa

Age(as of Jan. 200x): 27

Admitted: 20.05.02

Room #: 3-05A

======================

The cherry blossoms has bloomed. It was a beautiful day, the first cherry blossoms has greeted the spring. He looked out from the double-glazed window panes from where he sat on the bed. The frame of the bed was made of metal and the sheet on the mattress was white.

He was wearing white too; white cotton blouse and white cotton pants, and he was wearing a pair of light blue slippers which he tapped against the linoleum floor. His head was tilted a bit, lips parted and moving slightly as if he was singing but there was no sound coming out. His hair has grown longer, the colour of the dye has dulled, merging with the original black shade.

A light frown adorned his features and he tilted his head in the other direction.

“ Cherry…blossoms.”

Almost everything in the room was white. There was a chair next to the bed made of white plastic. He remembered someone sitting in it. It was a while ago. But he couldn’t recall when exactly. Was it yesterday? The day before? Last week? Hm. He can’t remember.

He felt thirsty. There was a transparent jug of water and a mug with his name written in marker pen on it on the bedside table, next to the vase of wilting flowers. He reached out with a hand for the handle of the jug. His hand trembled unsteadily. The jug fell and water spilled all over the floor.

He looked at the wet floor for a few seconds before he got up slowly and bent down. The water wet the hem of his cotton pants.

The door opened and someone came in. He didn’t look up.

“ Did you knock the water over?” Skinny hands grabbed his wrists and pulled him away from the floor. “ I’ll ask them to clean it up later.”

Toshiya nodded and obediently sat down on the bed again. Yes, he recogized this man. He always came to visit him and he sat on that plastic chair. But now he had a displeased look on his face as he moved the chair away from the wet patch.

“ Didn’t mean to…but I was thirsty.”

The other man just shook his head and went out. A few minutes later, he came back with water for Toshiya.

The cherry blossoms was in bloom. Soft pink petals fell as the spring breeze blew outside.

“ Cherry blossoms.”

The visitor nodded as his eyes followed Toshiya’s.

“ Last year, the cherry blossoms bloomed early, right, Kaoru-kun?”

“ You remember?”

Toshiya nodded.

Cherry blossom petals in a pool of crimson blood. He had used a knife. The handle felt cold in his hand as he stood watching the pool of blood but no one touched him. He looked at their faces and he wanted to explain but he was too tired and they would never understand anyway.

Toshiya turned to face his visitor and for the first time that day, he smiled. “ They are beautiful.”

Kaoru reached out and covered Toshiya’s hands with his.

“ Will you visit me tomorrow, Kaoru-kun?”

He squeezed Toshiya’s hands gently. “ Yes, of course. I visit you everyday.”

Toshiya smiled again. “ Thank you.”

The cherry blossoms bloomed just in time this year. Toshiya sat on his bed, looking at the outside world through the windows. He saw Kaoru walking down the path, the pink petals falling on his head. He saw Kaoru wave at him and he waved back. Toshiya watched the day fading into night. Tomorrow Kaoru would come again.

***

“ Go! I never want to see you again!” He cradled the crying woman on the floor.

“ Kaoru, I didn't mean to...!”

“ Go!”

***

The knife in his hand shook as he brought the tip near the skin of his wrist.

“ Toshiya! Stop it!!!”

“ Hiroshi…Hiroshi, he doesn’t want me anymore! He loves her…not me.”

He sunk into the other man’s embrace.

“ It’s alright. I want you…”

***

The bruises, the cuts, the pain…

“ Hiroshi, why do you hurt me?”

Long silence ensues.

“ Because you still love him.”

***

“ Stop hurting me…stop… Let’s end it all. I’ll say goodbye to Kaoru but I will also say goodbye to you, Hiroshi.”

The blood-stained knife dropped onto the ground from his hand. A dead man lay under the cherry blossom tree; falling petals of cherry blossoms mourning for him. Toshiya stood motionless, staring up at the sky.

Let me be free…

***

He sat on the plastic chair in his all white attire, a sketchbook rested on his lap. There was a pencil in his hand. He carefully sketched the scenery outside.

“ Cherry blossoms…”

The door to his room opened and his head turned to see the intruder. Wordlessly he returned to his sketch, the pencil etching on the surface of the paper.

“ What are you drawing?”

“ I’ll let you see when I finish.”

“ Okay. I brought you cheeseburger,” the man said as he took a seat on the bed.

“ Cheeseburger.”

“ You said you missed eating them yesterday, remember?”

“ Hai…” He drew the soft falling petals.

“ Ah…”

“ Thank you, Kaoru-kun.”

“ It’s okay.”

The wilting flowers in the vase has been replaced with red budding roses.

***

“ He’s gone,” the nurse told him.

“ What do you mean he is gone?”

“ His term has ended. They released him last week but he just left yesterday.”

Suddenly the room Toshiya was previously staying in seemed so big, too big. The nurse had replaced the white sheets with same identical ones.

“ He asked me to give this to you… ‘If the thin man with brown hair comes to see me, please give him this’ he said.”

Kaoru held the sketchbook close to his chest. He opened it as he walked out. The first few pages was empty. Then there was the drawing that Toshiya started drawing months ago. The sketch of the cherry blossom tree outside his room. Resting beneath that tree, was two figures. One resting in the arms of the other, the falling petals veiling them, protecting them from the outside world.

***

.end.

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