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For the past three months, Megumi Fushiguro's world had been reduced to the four walls of a semi-private hospital room. He'd been here too long, so long that he'd had the number of tiles on the floor memorized.
His body felt heavy, as if made up of wet sand. Every breath took more effort than it should, as his heart was failing.
He'd begun to ignore the "get well!" cards from his classmates weeks prior, as he felt they were now nothing but premature obituaries. The doctors would talk about efficacy, stabilization, and priority lists. But all Megumi heard was, "You're running out of time."
He had spent his whole morning just staring at the vitals monitor, watching the jagged green line of his own existence, wondering if this was all that was left.
The clipboard at the end of Megumi’s bed felt like a death sentence. Waitlisted. He didn't have months anymore; his doctors said he now only had weeks.
On the other side of the hospital room, a nurse was helping another boy Megumi's age. He'd just recently arrived, and apparently his condition was deemed mostly minor. "Fushiguro?" The nurse asked. Megumi looked up at her as she continued. "This is Yuji Itadori. He's going to be your neighbor for a bit. Be nice to each other, okay?"
Before Megumi could say anything, the nurse pulled the privacy curtain shut to perform an intake exam, leaving Megumi to just listen to the muffled noises of vitals being taken and papers being shuffled. He decided to try and go back to sleep.
After a while, he was jolted awake by the sound of the rings on the curtain moving along the metal rod.
"Hey!!" He heard. The other boy, Yuji, was sitting up, smiling. "Your name's Fushiguro, right?"
"…Yeah?" Megumi stated. "Yeah, it is. Why?" he asked.
"Well, I'm gonna be here probably a few days…so I thought I'd get to know my new roommate!"
Megumi sighed. He didn't like talking to people. He found it very stressful. "Well, you got a bad match then." He said grumpily. "I hate people…" he murmured the last part to himself…
Yuji didn't seem bothered by the rejection. He let out a short, bright laugh. "Hating everyone sounds like a lotta work." He said, leaning back against the pillows on his hospital bed. "I'd say I'm pretty hard to hate!"
"Oh my god…" Megumi sighed out in frustration.
"So what kind of foods do you like, huh? I like lots of foods…the last great snack I had was a really great bag of chips from the corner store!" Yuji smiled still.
"I can't have things with salt like that." Megumi explained, thinking about the last time he had had chips. "It's bad for my condition."
"Ohh…" Yuji's smile faltered a little. He felt bad for Megumi. That's no fun…" He looked back at Megumi, who had closed his eyes again. He didn't seem talkative, so Yuji decided to stop and let him rest for now.
In the middle of the night, Megumi awoke, unable to fall back asleep. He stared at the curtain that had Yuji behind it, thinking about him. He seemed quite nice, and he was just trying to make Megumi feel better. Maybe he'd been too harsh. He felt guilty now.
He wondered if Yuji was awake. Probably not. After all, it was so late.
"Hey…." he said quietly. Not loud enough for anyone to hear. He scoffed at himself. Obviously, that wasn't enough. Why would he be so quiet? "Hey." He said again, louder this time. In response, he heard the other's bedsheets rustle a bit. He'd woken up Yuji, and now he felt a little guilty for that, too.
"Hmm…?" the other boy asked sleepily. "What's up…?"
"Oh, sorry. I was just wondering if you were awake," Megumi explained. "You can go back to bed now.."
"No, it's okay. You sound like you've been awake for a while. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I just can't sleep."
. . .
There was an awkward silence.
Yuji slowly opened the curtain again, trying not to make too much noise in the night. He looked at Megumi, head tilted slightly and curiously. He saw he was hooked up to many different machines and was visibly unwell. "Hey…" He asked. "I have a question for you!"
Megumi looked at him curiously. He stared at him, waiting for him to ask what he had to ask.
"If you could be anywhere instead of a hospital right now…" Yuji began, "where would you wanna go?"
Megumi thought for a moment. There's lots of things he used to enjoy, like occasionally bike riding or reading books. "Maybe...maybe walking my dogs."
"Wow, you have dogs?! That's cool! Do they have names?" Yuji grinned. He loved dogs.
"One is Shiro, and the other is Kuro."
"I…assume one's white and one's black?"
"Yeah." Megumi smiled a little, for the first time in a long time. It was a little unconventional, now that he thought about it. But the names were always fitting in his mind.
They kept talking for a long, long time. They conversed about their favorite foods, their favorite seasons, and their hobbies. Eventually they began to doze off, calling it a night.
"Goodnight, Fushiguro.." Yuji yawned before lying down. Megumi looked at him with his eyes half-closed, about to fall asleep himself.
"...Goodnight to you too, Itadori." He said, before closing his eyes and drifting off.
The next morning, the nurse had dropped off a plastic bin of different crafts. Before Megumi was up, Yuji had already unpacked it and begun working on a bracelet-making kit.
By the time he woke up, Megumi saw that Yuji had already made a plethora of bracelets and necklaces. A lot were from random TV shows and manga, and some had phrases or just wordless colored beads.
"Oh, good morning, sleepyhead," Yuji said to him as he noticed he was awake. "I'm making bracelets."
"I see that…" Megumi sat up. He looked at the bin, but he didn't feel up to doing any crafts right now. He watched as Yuji threaded the beads. But to his surprise, Yuji wasn't making just any bracelet. He was making one that said "Megumi" on it. Was it…a gift? Megumi didn't know they were on a first-name basis!
"What's that?" Megumi pointed to it.
"Oh, this? Megumi's someone from a TV show." He smiled. "Why, you know her?"
"No, I just…" Megumi said awkwardly, a little disappointed. "My name is Megumi."
Yuji's eyes widened momentarily, before he burst out laughing. It made Megumi feel even more embarrassed than he already felt.
"Well," Yuji held the bracelet out to Megumi. "You can have it, if you want, Megumi."
Megumi leaned forward and reached out to grab the bracelet. He looked at it for a long while, before slipping it onto his wrist alongside his hospital wristband. "Thank you."
Megumi continued to watch Yuji make jewelry, before sitting up a little straighter. "Hey..can I….can I make one?" He asked. Yuji nodded, passing him some supplies. "Sure! The more the merrier."
Megumi looked down at the box of beads and string, pausing before he picked out some beads. Pink, orange, red…all the colors that seemed to match the boy in front of him. He picked out a "Y" bead, then a "U" bead, then a "J" bead.
After a moment, he'd strung together a nice 'Yuji' bracelet for his roommate. He stared at it, a bit shy to give it to the boy.
"Hey…" He said. "Here."
He tossed Yuji the bracelet. Yuji caught it swiftly and looked at it. "Oh, wow! It's my name! Thanks!" He smiled and put the bracelet on. They now had matching friendship bracelets. It's so dumb and cheesy, Megumi thought. But he didn't take off his.
That afternoon, Megumi woke up from his nap to see an alarming sight. Yuji was suddenly no longer stable and well, his heart in a bad condition. A few nurses and a doctor surrounded him behind the curtain that sat between his bed and Megumi's, and Megumi could hear them urgently talking.
"What's going on with him?" Megumi sat up.
"Oh, he's going to be alright." One of the nurses peeked out from the curtain and assured him. "It's just a little unexpected issue. No need to worry."
Megumi sighed and nodded, glad it was nothing serious.
"We're going to have to move him to a more serious department." He heard the doctor say. His heart sank a little. He'd just made a friend, and now he was going away all of a sudden?
He tried not to think about it too much. He wasn't the type to get all sulky about a loss.
Days and days passed without Yuji. Megumi stared down at his bracelet, unable to stop thinking about him. He hoped he was alright. He wanted Yuji to make a full recovery.
"When we get out, let's do all sorts of fun stuff together!" Yuji had told him that night they first had a conversation. Megumi looked forward to that. He'd get his heart transplant, recover, and spend time with Yuji.
The door opened, and one of the doctors came in. He sat down on the stool next to Megumi's bed.
"I have wonderful news for you, Fushiguro." He smiled. "We found a compatible donor for you."
Megumi's eyes widened. It sounded almost too good to be true. "Wait, for real?" He asked.
"Yes!"
"Could...could you let Itadori know for me?" He asked hopefully. The doctor frowned.
"Well…we have some bad news, too," he sighed.
"What do you mean? What is it?"
"Yuji Itadori passed away last night," the doctor said.
…What?
"He's the donor we found compatible with you."
Megumi nearly had his heart fail him then and there. Yuji was gone? The sweet boy he'd met all those days ago, who'd given him gifts and kept him company and always made sure Megumi felt alright? He was gone.
Megumi stared at the floor in horror.
No way…
"We're aiming for surgery in the next six hours, okay?" The doctor said, smiling before leaving the room.
Megumi always told himself he wouldn't care about who was giving their heart away for him. But poor Megumi had given away his heart, too. He'd given it away to Yuji, and now Yuji was physically giving his heart away to him.
He kept staring at the floor after the doctor left, his heart pounding in his ears. He never expected this to happen. He didn't want Yuji to die. It should've been me, he thought. HE was supposed to be the one that was near death. The one that barely had any time. Not Yuji Itadori. Yuji only had a 'minor issue.' So why did he have to die instead?
He was simply devastated. He felt so horribly guilty. He felt he was committing a selfish act by taking Yuji's heart for himself. If he could die to revive Yuji right now, he'd do it.
After his surgery, he felt physically better than he had in months. It was easier to breathe, and the "wet sand" feeling he used to be made up of was gone. But he hated it.
He felt like a haunted house, having the other boy's heart in place of his. Every time he felt his heart beat, he was reminded that Yuji is cold so he can be warm.
While recovering, he decided he couldn't just sit in a room anymore. If Yuji had given him this heart, he had to do the things Yuji could no longer do.
He tried (very awkwardly) to be "nice" to the people in the hospital as a tribute to Yuji. He took that same bracelet kit that Yuji had shared with him and used the last of it to make bracelets for other patients, telling them. "When you get better, you should do all sorts of things."
On his final day at the hospital, it didn't feel like something to celebrate. It felt like he was stealing the exit that belonged to someone else.
However, at the very least, that "someone else" was now a part of him.
As he headed for the exit, he passed by a hospital room. He saw two boys, sharing a conversation.
Saying all the things they'd do together when they got out.
He felt a little sad, but he hoped the best for them, as he walked out the door healthy and alive.