Disclaimer – I do not own KHR and neither do I own the song "Darkness eyes" by DBSK/TVXQ (a huge fan of them, woohoo).

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Twelve Months

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How many years has it been… since the day she last stood on her own feet? How long has it been… since the last time she ever had a true friendship with another person her age for a period longer than 2 to 3 weeks? When was the last time she had been out of this bed?

Sophia recalls back. It should be about 2 or 3 years ago since she last got out of the bed and walked on her two feet. It should be about ten years since she was hospitalized for being a host of an incurable disease; for hosting chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

And as for having lasting friendship, it's all nothing but a distant concept to her.

Friends? Whatever would she need them for? She knows that she would be nothing but dust and ashes in the future and it's all a matter of time. In fact, she hopes that the time would come soon and claim her pitiful soul that is begging for rebirth. It has been more than enough for her. Therapies after therapies, specialists after specialists – this never ending vicious cycle that doctors use to try 'keep her alive' is nothing but a torture for her.

Why won't they stop for once and let her go in peace? She doesn't understand. One less person on this ugly face of the world means one less person to feed. All those food and money wasted to 'try keeping her alive' would be more of use to those hungry children in Africa or something.

Why?

A knock on the door interrupts her thoughts and someone familiar enters.

"Oh, it's you," she says without emotions as a teen boy walks up to her bed. The boy nods silently and places a thick book gently on her lap. Sophia picks up the book and reads the title out loud, "The encyclopedia of Physics…" and she flips the book to the back cover, "… 49 dollars and 99 cents. Hey, did you steal this book or something?"

"No," the boy states flatly, his facial expression never once change even though his sister just accused him. "As a matter of fact, I got myself a fairly high paying job."

The patient burst out laughing. "You? Got a 'fairly high paying job'? What in the world were you hired for? Do you really get paid to piss someone off?" She pauses for a moment and then she adds, "Just out of curiosity, who hired you?"

The boy with the big frog hat remains silent throughout the whole tease. And when his sister finally cools down, he says, "Varia – an assassination squad in the underground community."

Once more, she starts to laugh out loud again, till her sides starts to hurt, "Oh, yeah. Your boss is some retarded person with guns and wouldn't hesitate to blow someone's brains off. And your direct supervisor is some asshole who loves to give commands."

Fran stares at her unemotionally and nods.

Her laugh dies down and she collects her composure, "Okay, whatever. Just don't get yourself caught, kay?" Her brother gives her another nod and Sophia dismisses her brother, claiming that he is now disturbing her 'meditation' time, which he is more than happy to comply with.

He never likes to visit his noisy sister.

When the door clicks shut, all of her tense muscles relax subconsciously. These kinds of visits, especially with Fran, or any form of human interaction always make her uneasy. Sophia wonders if she could ever live up to the fake personality that she has created in the future, when she is no longer as energetic as she is now. The all-too-bright smile and the all-too-cheerful laugh that she always had when people talked to her are constantly draining away her already limited energy.

But that doesn't seem to stop her from doing it. In fact, she hopes that it would drain away the number of days or months or years left in her lifespan. Her current way of living is just too pitiful to ever continue for the rest of her remaining months/years. There are countless of times that she hopes to find herself not being able to open her eyes the following morning.

However, fate just doesn't let her have it her way. The irony in life states that the more one wants something, the more likely one doesn't attain it. And of course, it applies to her as well.

If she was to die slowly and lonely as fate wants, why not just let it be?

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I seek in the dark because there is no light here, and the feelings deep in my heart have died

There's darkness on my eyes, so I'll continue wondering in the valley of dreams

I search for answers that I couldn't see yesterday, today, or tomorrow

Where should I... Where on earth should I go?

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Okay, I was inspired by the show called '1 litres of tears' and decided to write a tragic story. I decided to add an OC in because I couldn't bring myself to curse one of the KHR characters with some incurable disease. Oh, what a kind person I am. For that, can you give me a review with a cherry on top please?

Fine, fine, I know this is a short chapter to the extreme (Ryohei, anyone?), but I just want to see what you people think about this idea and if I should continue… or to just chuck this in one of my folders and to be forgotten for eternity. Oh well. I shall stop here. Do give me a heads up if you think that I should continue. Thanks (: