𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐌𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 | 𝗠.𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘂𝘆𝘂

────── thirty-two

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═══ LET FATE RUN ITS COURSE ═══
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Another month passed by since the visit to the hospital in Yokohama. Weekly updates were sent by Seina, although they never contained any news. Junto was still unresponsive and his condition hadn't shown any change, but the heightened brain activity remained. Doctors claimed it was only a matter of time until he would wake up. It could be hours, days, weeks, months. There was no saying how long it would take, but everyone was positive about Junto making a good recovery.

The wounds he had obtained all those years ago had fully healed. Physically, there was nothing wrong with him, yet the doctors couldn't know the full extent until he would wake up and they could run some more tests.

And no one knew the kind of toll it had taken on his psyche.

"What do you think it would be like to wake up from a coma?" Akiko thought aloud.

She was lying sprawled across Chifuyu's bed, too distracted to focus on the maths homework in front of her. Peke J was napping next to her. Blinking and rubbing her eyes as though it would cease the burning sensation of another sleepless night, Akiko yawned and snuggled her face into the cats soft fur, scattering kisses all over his little face.

"I don't know," Chifuyu shrugged, looking up from his spot on the floor, taking Akiko's question as a welcome distraction from his chemistry homework. "That's something you should ask you sister."

Akiko nodded, "You're right. Seina was always very knowledgeable when it came to science and medicine. It was really no surprise that she chose to become a doctor."

"She's pretty cool," Chifuyu admitted, "but she'd be even cooler if she were a vet."

This drew a laugh out of Akiko. "You only say that because you love animals! Have you considered working at a pet shop?"

A smirk spread across his face. "Who do you take me for? 'Course I have! But I'm waiting till high school."

He scooted closer to the bed, leaned his head on it and he stared up at the brunette through his brilliant eyes. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Her eyes returned to the empty page and the worksheet full of problems to solve.

Chifuyu frowned. He wondered why she seemed to avoid giving an answer. "You thought about what you want to do with your life, right? Where you want to go after school and all that?"

"Oh, uh, not really." She brushed the question off, eyes still focused on the blank page as her grip on the pencil tightened, threatening to break the item. "I guess there just hasn't been much time to think about it."

"Or you're too preoccupied with thinking about other people," he called her out.

"What is that supposed to mean? Is there something wrong with caring about other people?"

A sigh slipped through his lips when Akiko took a defensive stance against him. He pushed his own homework to the side before he crawled onto the bed and did the same to hers.

"Hey, I was working on that!"

"No, you weren't. You were in your own little bubble."

Akiko met his eyes with agitation. "Why does it matter?"