I Do Not Dream Of Eating Your Pancreas (IWTEYP x Seishun Buta Yarō)

Chapter 10: A Temporary Truce

We found a park close to the apartment building, Sakuta was wandering around to give the two of us privacy so we could talk. He had offered to stay but I didn't want to make her feel as though we were ganging up on her. She seemed to be in a delicate state currently, I was hoping to avoid tipping the scales in a negative direction.

I could feel her eyes staring through me from across the table that we were sitting at, but found the courage to speak first. I felt that if she had the opening words here, it would not be a pretty sight.

"How did you find me here?" I had so many questions running through my mind, but I had to start somewhere. "I followed you last night, I saw you come in here so I knew if I waited eventually you'd come back out." She let out a small sneeze.

"Did you wait outside all night?" She was still wearing the same clothes I had seen her in the night before, with just a small bag which most likely contained her wallet, and whatever else girls carried with them on a daily basis. She nodded, then corrected herself.

"I found a 24/7 cafe, I couldn't go back home. Not after the news..." She trailed off, tears forming in her eyes again. "What is going on? Why is it that last night Sakura was dead and this morning I got a good morning text from her?"

I froze. So she was aware of what happened, but how? No one else had ever reacted to the day repeating itself, what had changed? "Did you sleep at all?" She let out a sad laugh. "Does it look like I did?"

Her bloodshot eyes looked at me, and then through me again. "Sakura died, but yet she's alive. But you don't seem surprised at all. I want answers, NOW." Her emotions came through at the end, her frustration and pain evident in her voice.

I sighed. Of all the people I expected to explain things to, she was the last one. "I don't quite understand how it all happened, but I've lived through today multiple times now. Each day, I've been the only one aware of it, until now."

She was silent, questions on her mind but waiting for my explanation to finish first. "I was told it has something to do with adolescence syndrome, otherwise this wouldn't be happening. The reason I went to the hospital yesterday was to try and save Sakura from..."

I cut off, unable to say it. Kyoko nodded, perhaps thankful to not be reminded. "I'm not sure how you managed to be stuck too, maybe because you never slept? Or maybe because of how powerful your emotions were after you found out."

She looked surprised at that. "What are you saying, you care that much about her that you got yourself stuck in today? And you say you guys are just friends, or before that nothing at all. What exactly is she to you?"

I thought back to the time I had spent with Sakura, the lows as well as the highs. "I'm not sure I can put it into words. We're not lovers, and we're not dating. But I don't think we have something so simple that we can be considered just friends."

"It's like, finding a light on a dark path that illuminates a world that you never knew was there before. Without her, I'd have no one I could consider a friend. But I can't imagine my life without her in it anymore, she helped me change from who I was to who I am now, even if she would try to say it was my choice all along and she had nothing to do with it."

I looked to Kyoko, and saw tears in her eyes threatening to fall down. "I... I really wanted a reason to hate you." She let out, almost sounding ashamed in herself. "I've known her for years, I've been by her side through countless struggles. I didn't want to see her get hurt by you, when she's already gone through so much."

"I was ready for the day where she would tell me about something bad that you did, but it never came. I hoped for it, desperately waiting for a reason to get you out of her life." She lowered her head. "I'm sorry."