Chapter 158

Surprises

It was Airu.

I felt my blood rushing back down to my toes.

Surprise turned to disappointment. My dreams crashed into reality.

“Oh. It’s just you.” I muttered.

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Surprises

“Just me?” She looked appalled. “You asked me to come didn’t you?”

I realized what I must have sounded like and apologized. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I’m joking.” Her teeth was gritted a second ago but she relaxed and threw me a warm smile.

She grabbed my arm and led me inside.

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Surprises

My heart fell as soon as I saw Aoi.

Asleep.

Soundless.

Silent.

Still.

Was she just sleeping?

Maybe if I went to wake her up her eyes would flutter open in surprise?

Maybe she would hug me tightly and tell me everything was alright?

Maybe she would kiss me and apologize softly in my ear, for being away for so long?

But I guess what could I have expected?

Why would God do me a favour?

I’m nobody. I’m a speck of dust in the universe. Why listen to me?

“Here I’ll take the cake.” She offered. I turned away from Aoi and passed her the box.

For a second, holding the cake, she paused, looking lost.

I arched an eyebrow at her. “Are you okay?”

She seemed to jump out of her trance and shook her head.

“Sorry.” She said, before returning to set the cake on the table.

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Surprises

The others arrived slowly one by one, half an hour later.

Somehow, I never thought a birthday party could carry such a sombre mood.

I couldn’t help but wish that we could all make jokes, laugh and smile together.

I could only wish for the day when Aoi could laugh together with us again.

Someone got out a video camera and started putting the party on tape,

so we all had to brighten up for the video.

“She can watch this when she wakes up.” Someone said.

When she wakes up. When will that be?

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Surprises

There were lots of flowers that day.

There weren’t enough vases to put the flowers in,

so we emptied a few water bottles and jars and filled them up with water.

It was probably the most appropriate present to give to someone who was in coma.

Birthday cards were coupled with get well cards.

I tried to smile every time someone came in and presented Aoi with her birthday gift.

But I could only get sadder.

I wanted to tell them all, “Forget this.” and cancel the party.

I tried to remind myself that the doctor said she would wake up soon.

But it didn’t really make a difference to me.

My friends though, they tried their best to keep bright cheery smiles and laughter.

But they weren't in the same situation.

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Surprises

Eventually though, even I warmed up to their attempt to create a celebratory mood.

“Ah, thank you, Hideki.”

I said on behalf of Aoi, who was lying there still and silent.

We smiled down at her quietly. There was a pang of pain.

I didn’t realize hosting a birthday party here would be depressing.

Maybe I shouldn’t have done this.

He passed me the birthday gift. It was wrapped.

“Open it.” He told me with a smile.

I paused and looked down at it.

The ten of us who were already gathered in Aoi’s cramped hospital room,

watched me struggle to get the wrapping paper open.

I knew Aoi-chan would see the video and laugh at me fighting with the wrap.

Carefully, I delicately unraveled it, so Aoi could receive the gift in perfect condition.

With the wrapping paper gone, I could see that it was a CD. Aoi’s favourite artist.

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Surprises

Her favourite musician. YUI.

I remembered now how we used to listen to her songs over and over again, from morning to night.

We would belt out the lyrics as loud as we could.

Somehow those songs held some sort of magic.

It always placed dreams in our hearts, hoping for the future, inspired to face tomorrow, courageously.

Every listen we gave, it filled us with new strength.

I remembered how Aoi held these songs dear to her heart.

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Surprises

Aoi once told me the story of YUI’s life.

How she studied hard in school and worked multiple part time jobs until she fell sick. How she arrived in Tokyo by herself, with nothing but a guitar, fighting for her dreams of being a musician. How she wrote her own songs, played lives on the streets, even though she was only a scared ordinary girl. Every step of the way she fought with all her strength. She fought on by herself. She didn’t lose her hope. She didn’t lose her dreams.

Aoi strived to be like her.

I realized now that Aoi had been so strong. Even to the last moment. Stronger than what I noticed.

She had YUI’s fighting spirit.

Do I?

Chapter 166

Surprises

“Seiji?”

I must have tuned out.

“Yeah?” I turned.

It was Yuusuke.

Chapter 167

Surprises

He stood at the doorway, clearly uncomfortable. All ten pairs of eyes were on him.

Takashi interrupted the silence, “What are you doing here?”

Ever since that night at the hospital, it wasn’t the same with Yuusuke.

He held me accountable for the accident, and was determined to ignore me.

For everyone else though, he was the bad egg in the group.

I couldn’t hate him though.

I too, blamed myself.

I agreed with him wholeheartedly.

If only he realized it.

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Surprises

“Oi, Yuusuke. Thanks for coming.” I said.

All the remaining nine pairs of eyes turned to me in dumbfounded surprise.

Yuusuke too looked surprised.

I grinned at him. “Aoi would be happy.”

He gave a weak smile.

Then suddenly, he bent over.

“Sorry.”

I realized he was bowing.

“Sorry for saying those things.” He paused.

“I wanted to apologize for a while now, I just didn’t know how to.”

“Forget it."

They all gave me a weird look. But I could feel my friends relax.

The tension in the air disappated suddenly, as suddenly as Yuusuke had showed up.

I saw flickers of smiles which turned into chuckles. Suddenly, we were grinning ear to ear.

“Baka!” Soshi called out to Yuusuke, who was still at the doorway.

“You could’ve came earlier. You should’ve known we'd forgive you.”

I heard stifled laughter and beaming faces.

Isn’t this great Aoi? Thanks to you, everyone’s okay now.

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Surprises

It was time.

We turned off all the lights and lit the candles on the cake.

There were sixteen of them, flickering gently,

dancing like little stars on a clear night sky.

In silence, it looked like a candlelight procession, honouring a past memory.

We couldn’t leave it be so, so I glanced at everyone in the room, now around Aoi’s bed.

Quietly we counted to three. One. Two. Three.

Chapter 170

Surprises

“Happy Birthday to you...Happy birthday to you...”

The sound of the birthday song chorus echoed through the small room.

At that moment, our hearts united, and with one voice and one song we sang to Aoi.

The machine that monitored Aoi’s heartbeat beeped softly,

like a quiet metronome leading us through the song.

Suddenly, it fluttered and picked up pace. I nearly stopped singing but no one else noticed.

I glanced at the monitor which now read 43.

It picked up! I looked at the others in panic.

What did this mean?

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Surprises

Out of the blue, it dawned on me.

“When you speak to her, do you ever notice her heart rate changing?”

I had shaken my head.

“In a comatose state, she still has responses.

Especially to someone important in her life.

In her heart, she has strength and hope.

So she has a high chance of waking up.”

Those had been the doctor’s words.

I felt a shiver run up my spine. This was Aoi’s response! She was listening to us!

All of a sudden, my heart felt warm, like there was a hand on it,

a gesture to say that I was not alone.

Aoi was listening.

Aoi was here with us.

She is alive.

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Surprises

The song ended as quickly as it had started.

But within the last few seconds, I realized something new.

Every day I was learning something new.

As if Aoi was taking the time to teach me something every day.

As if God had teamed up with Aoi to let me learn something.

I glanced at the monitor.

The softly beeping metronome was now reading 35.

It had returned back to normal.

It had returned back to normal, but little pieces of happiness still hung in the room with all of us.

I could feel the smiles in the room. We were all here for Aoi.

It wasn’t just me.

I wasn’t so alone any more.

Together we were here for Aoi.

I could feel it in the air.

Just like the candles,

if I could hold on to these sparks of happiness,

it would be enough to light a room.

It was more than enough.

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Surprises

The candlelight cast a warm golden glow on her quiet face.

She looked angelic, bathing in a heavenly halo.

They waited for me to blow out the candles in the place of Aoi.

As I took a breath and moved closer, someone gasped.

“Oh my God! Aoi-chan!” Someone cried in surprise. What happened? “Look!”

I turned towards the bed.

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Surprises

I half-expected to turn and see her sitting upright, in a daze. I could see it in my mind.

But when I turned, she was still lying on the bed.

“She’s…”

Then I saw.

The candlelight briefly caught and sparkled on her face. There was without a doubt what we saw.

There was now a single teardrop on her cheek, trickling slowly, ever so slowly.

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Surprises

“Aoi?!” I heard myself shout, my voice echoing around the room.

I rushed to her side without thinking and took hold of her shoulders.

They were soft and warm to the touch, her body limp in my hands.

“Aoi! Wake up!” I cried.

I shook her shoulders as lightly as a could, afraid to hurt her.

One more tear trickled out of her eye,

a glittering, sparkling piece of moonlight,

a dozen drops of diamond light thrown in all directions.

I gently brushed her tear away with my fingers.

“Aoi?” I whispered.

I didn’t care that everyone was watching.

I just knew somehow she was closer to waking up than before.

Wake up Aoi!

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Surprises

“Seiji…” I felt a warm hand on my arm.

I turned to see Airu looking at me with deep concern written all over her face.

I knew what she meant.

I stepped away from the bedside and hung my head, unable to look at anyone.

The disappointment on my face was probably there for all the world to see.

I had thought she had woken up.

Every time I had such high hopes,

only to have them dashed again and again.

I could only take comfort knowing that she cried tears.

Because she heard our song. I knew she was listening.

And she was closer to waking up than before.

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Surprises

“Thanks for coming guys.” I said as they filed silently through the door.

They gave me quiet smiles and told me to get some rest.

After what had happened, they thought it might be best if I had some time alone, and helped me pack up.

I could feel my friends’ concern for me. It would be okay.

They knew how I felt. They too were here for Aoi. They were here for me too.

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Surprises

Before Akira left, he handed me the tape from the camcorder.

"Here's the video...maybe she can watch it...

you know, when she wakes up."

"Yeah." I thanked him and he returned a grin.

With that, my friends disappeared down the hall.

The party was over.

All was silent again.