Something was different...
I knew it from the moment I woke up...
The smell of my ward..
was laced with the fragrance of flowers.

“What difference is there in my room?”
I asked the nurse when she brought my breakfast.

“Eh?” She sounded surprised.
Normally I did not talk to her.
I heard her looking around...

“Someone left a flower and a card here.”
She put the flowers and card into my hands and left.

I felt the flower and card...
Who could leave them here... I wondered...
Surprisingly... the words on the cards were the pop-out kind.
I ‘read’ the card...

“Dear Kazuya,
I’m sorry for what I said.
Will you forgive me?”

  The poor guy you chased out”

For the first time in months...
I smiled at his words...

“Ah, you’re smiling. That means you forgive me right?”
His voice sounded right beside me.

I jumped with shock.
When..? How...?  I did not hear anyone coming in...

“I crept in just now.”
He must have seen my confusion, explaining as he pulled a chair next to me.

I masked my face...
I don’t like the feeling of being caught unaware...
It made me feel vulnerable..
Specially now... I couldn’t see others’ expressions...

“Am I that unwelcome?”
He sounded hurt..

“Yes.”
I threw his flowers and card onto the floor.

“Even if I’m unwelcome, you shouldn’t treat the things I gave you like that.  I spent the all night just to make that card you know.”
The next minute the items were back into my lap again...
I presumed he had picked them up.

I threw them down again.
Almost immediately, they landed back in my lap...

This went on for several minutes...
Until.. I’m tired..and stopped.

“Boy, you are certainly stubborn.  But I’m stubborn too.”
 He admitted, slightly pleased with himself.

I decided to ignore him...
and went to stare at my window...

The guy seemed oblivious to my aloofness, he sat down in the chair beside me again.

“Since I know your name, it’s only fair you should know mine too, right?”

I guessed he was grinning as he said this now..
He sounded very cheerful and out-going...

Once..I was like him too...
But...given my conditon...it’s not surprising I changed...

“I’m Ueda Tatsuya .”
He picked up my hand without asking and shook it.

“There, we’re friends now.”
He announced.  I could hear the pleasing note in his voice again.
After that, he told me about himself..
The pranks he played on his family...
The joy of running away from them when he was discovered...

For the first time after the accident...
I’m actually grateful for the fact I’m blind...
It made a lot of things easier...
That I don’t have to admit I’m actually listening to him...

Before I knew it...
It was dinnertime...
He had talked the whole afternoon...

Time seemed to fly past when he talked....
Before that.. Time seemed to crawled..

He left...
I was left alone again...

The silence...seemed overbearing...
His voice.. kept sounding in my head...
Ueda Tatsuya...
What a strange guy....
 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
 

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