Love Sick

Time Lost

When Rin came back from the vending machine, Makoto was sitting in the hallway, looking devastated. He tossed him a can-coffee, since he assumed Makoto would be here a while. Makoto barely caught it, regarding it blankly.

"You're prepared..." He tried to force optimism into his words, but it wasn't working out.

Rin sat next to him and he finally broke down.

"How could this be happening?" He cried, rubbing the tears from his eyes.

Rin held in his own emotional buildup, this moment was Makoto's.

"He won't even graduate, and it's so soon..." Makoto took a breath, "I just- I just don't think I can do this much longer."

"Oi..."

"A few weeks at most, Rin. That's all we have left."

"Oi!" Rin stood up, spinning on him,

"stop talking like this, you will make it through this, both of you. Haru is trying to keep up, of course he is, now you do your part-"

"This is so unfair-"

"Life is unfair, Makoto! People push through. I didn't ask for my dad to die, OK? It still happened, and I still kept going." He quieted down, suddenly noticing all the stares. "You need to stop thinking about the tragic end and focus on the present. Make Haru enjoy the rest of his time with you, make yourself enjoy it."

Makoto looked stunned.

"Now go take a walk." Rin shooed.

The giant wiped his eyes with his sleeve and walked away, Rin watched him.

Just as he was about to take a seat a woman stepped out of the room. She looked at him, regarding the baggy biker pants, skin-tight gray shirt and sandy hair.

"Did Tachibana-Kun just leave?"

He nodded.

The woman glanced at her clipboard, "are you 'Rin Matsuoka?'"

"Yes."

"You can come in." She stated.

Rin followed her inside.

Haru was lying on the bed with an oxygen mask over his face, a heart monitor beeped next to the bed. He looked deathly pale, and more fragile than ever.

The woman took a seat and nodded for him to take the chair by the bed. Rin obliged and she began to explain the situation.

"It appears Nanase-Kun has had an allergic reaction to his medication. We will be stopping the use of this medicine." She said, her face saddened.
"We don't have an alternative medication created to cure the AML. I'm sorry, we predict a few weeks left, maybe less."

Just as Makoto had guessed, whatever months Haru had had were reduced to weeks. Rin nodded, he knew it was useless to press for a solution.

The woman stood up, and left, giving him a sympathetic look.

Not long after she was gone, Makoto came in, he looked at Haru on the bed and said nothing.

Rin got up and left to give him a minute, taking the seat outside. He didn't know how long it had been, he was stating blankly at the wall, but when he got up to check on the two, he noticed Makoto asleep, holding Haru's hand. Haru's oxygen mask was gone, he hadn't noticed someone coming in to take it off.

His phone was going off on the table beside them. Rin opened the door to get it before it could wake them up, to find it already playing a voicemail from Makoto's mom.