I Quit the Going-Home Club for a Girl with a Venomous Tongue

ybe…”

Since Ugin-chan was also with me, they let me visit the quiet hospital room he was sleeping in.

His face looked peaceful, but seeing the oxygen tube and heart rate monitor made me feel uneasy.
He also looked a little thinner than when I last saw him.
At the thought of his body slowly losing its vitality, my heart started to beat faster.

Ugin-chan sat in a chair beside him as she stared at him quietly.
She noticed me standing still, so she urged me to sit down in another empty chair.

“A few days before he collapsed, he acted really strange.
He kept complaining that he felt sluggish and his headache didn’t go away no matter what he did.
At one point, he started stumbling over his words and couldn’t speak properly.
We found out later that it was a symptom of aphasia… It’s scary… They said that he would lose his ability to speak, read and write…”

Losing his ability to speak, read and write…

Those strong words made my heart sink.

“Do you wonder what his last words before becoming like this were?”

“What were they?”

“‘I wa… To… Ju…’ Do you understand what that means?”

“No…”

“‘I want to drink tomato juice’, that’s what that means.
Seriously, he’s such an idiot! How could he think of a joke in a situation like that? If he wanted to make one, he should at least… At least…” 

Her words were cut short as she shut her mouth and continued to stare at the sleeping boy in silence.
She looked so lonely that it was hard to keep watching her like this.
Inside this quiet room, only the sound of the heart rate monitor could be heard.

The sound was proof that he was still alive.
But no one knew how much longer he could hold on.

Before I left the room and said my goodbye to Ugin-chan, she said this to me,

“Arina-san… My brother… He might not last long… Of course, I believe in him, there’s no way that he would leave me like this, but there’s a big chance that he… In any case, you should think about everything carefully, Arina-san…”

I was too surprised to open my mouth.
Talking about the possibility of his brother’s death like that, even I couldn’t… They were siblings after all.
Her resolve, her pragmatic nature, both of them reminded me of him.
Normally, people wouldn’t say something like that because they were too scared to, but this girl just braved through that.

“Still, whatever your choice is… I’m sure you will do just fine, Arina-san.
Love can make everything impossible possible, after all.”

That grin of hers looked so much like him.

*   *   *

It had been a year since I first met him.
In other words, it was currently autumn.
The application for the entrance exam was over and in a few months, the school year would be over and our exam would begin.

Yet, he still hadn’t woken up.
His condition didn’t change from back in summer.
The silver lining of this was that at least his condition didn’t worsen, if it were, then I would… No, I shouldn’t think of that…

The whole school was talking about the school festival and I inadvertently recalled last year’s festival.
Of course, I had no memories of what happened between me and him back then, but my note said that we went to various places together.
Wasn’t it funny? First, my memories of him didn’t return and now it was his consciousness that didn’t return.
It seemed like fate was playing a prank on us.

What a detestable prank.

More time passed.
It was currently winter and he was still sleeping deeply.

This had became a part of my daily life.