I woke up once again, hearing the footsteps of my beloved. "Ericchi~ Breakfast's ready!" I got up from my bed and headed downstairs to where Nozomi was. While I was heading to the kitchen, I took my time strolling down where many pictures frames hung from. Graduation day, my confession to her, our first date, sleepovers, a picture of us on Maki's vacation house, and many many more. I ran through my fingers of the last photo by the last step of the stairs. It was when I asked her out in marriage... It was the happiest day of our life. Except the wedding that will happen in October this year though.
I giggled at the very thought of being married to Nozomi. The thought of being with her forever is very wonderful that it will never go away. As I walked through countless photos in the wall of the living room, I can hear her softly humming to a very familiar song back when we were in high school. The melody so perfect, that gets stuck in my head, yet it always gets me through the days.
I remember it like it was yesterday, when we were writing the lyrics of that song. One by one we wrote the words we sang. We held on that paper and pen, pouring out our very emotions. It was like writing our very own story. And we hang our memories one by one on the wall.
I remember when I asked her that question when I proposed to her.
"All I need to know is where to start. So please take my hand and show me where to start, tell me where forever starts. And never will I ever, let you go..."
I walked through those photos with memories, when we were writing a story, when we hang these photos on the wall and the last one... One of those very precious moments. When we were laying down a grassy land, counting all the stars we saw. Then I remember something...
I entered the dining hall and saw nothing but a letter on the table.
"Ah, they were just memories after all..."
After saying those words, I felt I was stabbed in the heart. I never notice my tears were falling until they fell down my hands. "Ah, what the heck... Nozomi won't be glad if I cried right now." I chuckled bitterly as I wiped my tears that just flowed freely a while ago.
Shakily, I grabbed the letter and read what was on the front. "Sorry if this letter is late hehe... "_v " I giggled at the message for a bit. Then I opened the letter after I wiped some of my tears.
"To my dearly beloved, Ericchi!I am sorry if this letter was delayed, by the moment you received this, I might be not by your side anymore... Haha, sorry without any further ado, I will explain to you what happened to me... But first of all, Ericchi...I am sorry... I'm very very sorry... I don't want to leave you. Trust me, I wanted to be by your side forever too. I want to show you where forever starts too. But unfortunately, my time has gone quite faster than I have expected..."
I touched the paper that had brittle parts, I could feel that Nozomi was crying when she wrote this message. I trembled with great despair knowing that she was hurting.
I don't ever wanted to tell you because you, Ayase Eli, are very stubborn and sometimes, it gets through my nerves. Kidding aside, you're really stubborn so I just kept it to myself because I don't want to burden you and I know you will stop at nothing just to save me. I have an incurable disease and I'm sorry for not telling you, it was sudden, well not really since it was before I started studying at Otonoki. I thought it was cured by the time I entered highschool, but when I got my test results 2 years ago, I had only a few years left to live. And I didn't expect that it'll be earlier. I didn't wanted to leave you like this, I still wanted to spend time with you.You've given me hope, but you've got to let go Ericchi, I know it's taken it's toll on you. Deep in your heart, I know you're hurting... I want you to let go.We've already written our story, we sang our song, we hung all of our photos on the wall. All of these precious moments, the day we counted stars,Never forget them, even though they are just memories...From, Your One and Only,Nozomi(P.S. Chocolates for meals is a no-no! Eat something else!)
After reading the letter, I just let all of my tears pour down. As same as the way she left me all those memories, I recounted all those.
"They're memories after all..."
So yeah... Anyone need a box of tissues? *throws a box*