Chapter Text
Rin Matsuoka
I could fall asleep right here, right now, in this wheelchair while being pushed through the hallways; I didn’t sleep at all for the past couple of days and I can’t wait until I’m lying in my own, comfy, hospital bed in my homey room.
I never sleep a lot when I’m lying in the Intensive Care. I have bad memories of that place; weeks on life-support, hearing the news that dad passed away, pain and only pain.
So I’m now really glad I can go back to the place in the hospital where I feel happy, and calm. The place where I ran into Makoto and Haruka for the first time, and the place where Nagisa sprayed cola from his nose and Rei got drunk on candy. The place I spend more days than I spend at home, and the place where I met the guy I’ve fallen for; the place I call home.
So when Nurse Kato pushes me through the doors, and I roll through the hallways of my department, I feel extremely relieved.
Only one more turn and then I’m home, I think to myself. I can see my friends again, and I can hug the guy I love for as long as I possibly want.
“We’re here,” Nurse Kato says, stating the obvious because my name’s written on the sign next to the door; and I can’t possibly not remember my own home. “You’re ready?”
She sounds like she’s up to something, because normally she would never ask whether I’m ready to go into my own room. She knows I’m always looking forward to crawling underneath the blankets and hug my pillow until I fall asleep in my nice room.
But now she’s asking me whether I’m ready to go in? Why?
“Yeah, of course I am,” I reply, definitely sounding hesitant.
I wonder if she’s asking it because something happened; what if something happened? What if I go inside and Sousuke’s not there, or he’s doing very bad?
A lot can happen in a few days, and Nurse Kato didn’t mention him even once.
I look down at my lap and clench the blanket that is draped over my legs while telling myself that it’s going to be alright, over and over again.
I hear the door slide open, and I feel the wheels of my wheelchair struggling to get over the little doorstep, but I don’t dare to look. Because what if I open my eyes and see Sousuke lying in his bed on life-support? Or even worse, what if his bed is gone completely.
I swallow and it feels like my heart is going to explode right here and now.
But then I hear a giggle, a high-pitched and soft giggle; Nagisa.
What is Nagisa doing in my room? I immediately wonder, and my eyes shoot up before I can keep myself from looking up.
My mouth opens in surprise when I see what my room looks like.
The room looks nothing like it did when I left it a couple of days ago; it’s filled with pink and blue, red, green and purple origami creatures and there’s a huge banner pinned to the wall.
The banner has huge letters in rainbow colors written on it, in what looks like Haruka’s handwriting, and it says, “Welcome back, Rin!”.
The huge letters are surrounded by little drawings of animals and party decorations and confetti; it looks so cheerful and colorful.
I look at my friends, who are standing pressed up against each other, all of them are smiling wide. Makoto’s holding Haruka’s hand tightly as they smile and mouth, “welcome back”.
Rei readjusts his glasses and hands Nagisa big, colorful card.
It looks handmade, but I don’t know who drew the little animals and hearts on the front.
“Thank you,” I whisper, my voice breaking in the middle of thanking them for the warm welcome, and I open the card.
There’s many writing in there and I can make out everyone’s handwriting in an instance. We’ve written each other so many letters and “get well soon” cards that I can read their messages with ease, no matter how sloppy it is.
Nagisa’s message, written in a bright, pink, glitter pen, says, “hi rin we missed you so much!” without any capital letters or punctuation aside from the large exclamation mark at the end.
Rei’s much neater as always, you can see he put effort in every dot. In purple marker, he wrote, “Dear Matsuoka, I’m glad to see you as healthy as possible again.” He even put his signature underneath the message as if signing a contract.
“Rin, I was so happy to hear everything went well! Congrats and welcome back!” It isn’t singed, but it’s Makoto without any doubt. The cheerful but still polite, and almost motherly, messages always belong to him.
Then there’s Haruka, who wrote with blue ink that smudged on the ends; he always drags his arm over the paper when writing, not leaving the ink enough time to dry. His message is short, but strong, as always. It reads, “You did it. Rin.”
And lastly there’s a handwriting I don’t know yet, and I’m sure it belongs to a person that wasn’t in the room when I came in; Sousuke.
His handwriting isn’t sloppy, but not neat either, he clearly made mistakes and tried to fix them and it resembles the way he sometimes doesn’t quite know what to say.
His message is a little longer than the others, but I can read it without pausing or blinking even once. In dark green marker, Sousuke tells me, “Rin, you made it! You faced your fear and survived it. I’m proud of you, Rin! Now you’re unbreakable! Love, Sousuke.” He ended his message with a little heart, which I didn’t think someone like him would ever do, I love it!
I look up, at the group, and notice how blurred my vision is; the tears keep me from seeing properly. What I can see is that Sousuke’s still not there, and I wonder if the feeling that something happened to him was true after all.
My heart is racing, and tears are starting to dribble over my cheeks, by the time Nagisa chuckles and glances at something around the corner. Nagisa reaches beside him and pulls something towards him, at the same time everyone else steps aside.
There he is.
Sousuke’s standing in the middle of the group, bouquet of paper flowers in his hands. His clothes are so tight I can see his muscles through the white buttoned-up shirt he’s wearing.
His flustered expression matches the color of the wrapping that’s around the origami flowers, and the tie he’s wearing makes his bright, teal eyes sparkle.
“Hi,” he nervously whispers when he sees me and his cheeks get even redder.
Slowly, Sousuke walks up to me and I only now notice how badly he’s trembling. And when he’s standing in front of me, he gets on one knee and presents me the bouquet.
I gasp and feel my cheeks getting warmer with every second that passes.
Sousuke’s face is close to mine now, and we’re at the same height when he’s on his knees. I don’t have to think twice and kiss him right away.
I’ve been longing for the sweet taste of Sousuke’s lips and I’ve been waiting for his warm hands to tousle my hair while we hug.
I missed him so much, and when our lips stop touching I want him to kiss me again.
Sousuke doesn’t kiss me another time, though, instead he nervously chuckles and plays with the paper that’s around the flowers while he says, “I missed you, Rin.”
“I missed you too.” I can’t keep my eyes off of him, and I won’t ever again because I need him near me; that’s what I know after being separated from him for almost a week.
Sousuke starts blushing and tries to hand me the flowers without making it awkward.
He fails; almost dropping the flowers at first and after that getting his fingers tangled up with mine when giving them to me.
I chuckle and hug the flowers tightly before telling Sousuke how much I love him.
“I love you too,” Sousuke says, going in for another kiss.
When our lips part again, I can’t stop smiling.
I glance at my group of friends behind Sousuke and see that some of them are wiping away tears, while others are smiling wide or even clapping softly.
I look back at Sousuke, who’s still on one knee, awkwardly trying to find a way to continue this conversation without making any mistakes.
I chuckle and tell him, “You know you can get back up, right?”
Sousuke’s face gets completely red and he stammers something inaudible.
“I’m too young to marry,” I whisper in his ear. “That’s all.”
It seems that he only now realizes that he has gotten on one knee and told me he loved me, and what it resembles, and he gets on back on his feet in an instance. Awkwardly wobbling from side to side while stammering more inaudible words.
As if agreed on, my friends burst out in laughter and they clap and whoop at us. And before I know it they all come flying at me with full speed. I get pressed in between multiple chests, and I can hear all of them laughing happily while hugging my tightly.
It’s then and there that I realize how lucky I am; not everyone would survive the surgery I just survived. Not everyone has friends like I have, and not everyone has a person they love dearly that loves them back just as much.
Not everyone is unbreakable, but right now while hugging the friends I’ve made in the past years, I know one thing; nothing can possibly make my unhappy again.
Because right now, right here, I’m unbreakable.