The Love of My Childhood Friend, Who Has Overcome a Terminally Ill Diagnosis, Is Overwhelming
I woke up early this morning, just a little earlier than usual.
Since I’d been hanging out with Kanade at the airport until late last night, I was worried I might not be able to get up this morning due to exhaustion, but it seems those fears were unfounded.
“What a lovely morning.”
In fact, I feel better than usual this morning.
Even though it’s the day after I was on the go so energetically, I feel no fatigue at all… On the contrary, my whole body is overflowing with passion. When I thought about the reason for that, the answer naturally narrowed down to one thing.
“…This is thanks to Kanade, too.”
The conversation I had with Kanade at the airport yesterday.
And above all, the conversation I had with Kanade on the train ride home.
Until the day before yesterday, I was focused solely on achieving my goal as soon as possible. That mindset took precedence, causing me to feel anxious and narrowing my perspective considerably.
……But now, a day later, a subtle shift had occurred in that mindset.
It wasn’t that my desire to achieve my goal as soon as possible had changed.
Nor had I developed a desire to lower my standards and take the easy way out.
It was simply that the motivation to achieve my goal—a drive I’d held onto for years, only to realize it had begun to rust—had been renewed thanks to yesterday’s conversation with Kanade.
Why did I decide to become a doctor in the first place? I was able to reaffirm that.
It was clear that this realization was having a major impact on my state of mind.
“I’ll thank Kanade later.”
School… or, given how things have been lately, maybe I’ll run into her at the station.
Anyway, I want to thank Kanade as soon as possible.
“Good morning.”
Suppressing my eagerness, I headed to the living room.
“Good morning, A-kun.”
And there, in our living room… Kanade was eating the breakfast my mother had prepared.
“Well, what a great morning.”
“……”
“A-kun?”
“I’ve missed you, Kanade.”
“…Huh?”
“Huh?”
This is weird.
I’d just spoken my honest feelings, but Kanade… and my mom, too, were staring at me with wide eyes.
“What’s wrong? Both of you.”
“……You.”
“……A, A-kun. Did you miss me?”
Kanade, looking a bit confused, asked me.
“Hm? Yeah. I missed you. Every single second.”
“……I-I see.”
“Wow. You’re so passionate.”
Kanade, still holding a piece of freshly baked bread, lowered her head and fidgeted.
“Kanade, is something wrong?”
“Huh?”
“You’ve been looking down the whole time, and you seem to be feeling a little under the weather.”
“……Ugh.”
I stepped closer to Kanade and touched her forehead.
Instantly, Kanade’s face flushed bright red.
“……You don’t seem to have a fever.”
However, despite the redness of her face, her forehead wasn’t that warm.
If anything, it was a little cool—almost pleasant.
“……A-A-kun. This is embarrassing here, so why don’t we go to school?”
“Huh? Oh, right.”
“Well, then, Auntie. We’re off.”
“See you later.”
My mom just gave us a fed-up look and didn’t even reply to our goodbye.
On the way to the station, Kanade kept her head down for a while.
Is Kanade really okay?
My anxiety just kept growing.
“……Akkun.”
Just as the station building came into view, Kanade spoke up.
“What?”
“……Um. What you said earlier—was that true?”
“……Earlier?”
“You said you wanted to see me as soon as possible, right?”
I felt like the tone of Kanade’s voice had dropped slightly.
“I… wanted to see you too, Akkun. I wanted to see you so, so badly. I snuck into your house while you were sleeping.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. …I don’t want to be away from you, Akkun.”
Kanade quickened her pace and closed in on me.
“You’ll stay by my side forever, won’t you, Akkun?”
Then, her eyes losing their sparkle, she asked me.
“Nah, I can’t do that forever. Hahaha.”
I laughed.
Kanade sure knows how to crack a funny joke.
I mean, wanting to be together forever… if you take that literally, we’d have to chain our wrists together with handcuffs, wouldn’t we?
If that happened, even our daily lives would be nothing but trouble.
Kanade wasn’t smiling.
“…Will you listen to what I have to say this time?”
I decided to get to the point.
“I told you just now. That I wanted to see you soon.”
“……”
“…Thank you.”
“……”
“Thank you, Kanade.”
I bowed my head.
“Thanks to you, I think I can keep going a little longer.”
“……”
“To be honest, I was starting to feel a little discouraged.”
“……!”
“But… you helped me reaffirm why I wanted to become a doctor in the first place.”
“……?”
“I think I just can’t do this without you anymore.”
“……Eh?”
“So, I know I can’t be with you all the time, but I’d be happy if you could stay with me as much as possible.”
……A moment of silence.
“M-mouu. You’re hopeless, A-kun!”
After the silence, Kanade started skipping along cheerfully.
Maiasa
…enemy of all women.
Is what another woman would say. But this bro is just sincerely trying to be useful because of a childhood trauma.