"Oh can you tell I haven't slept very well since the last time that we spoke."
Hiro still can't sleep at night. He shuffles around his bed and often lies on his side and stares at his brother's bed, void of his sleeping and peaceful body. His eyes burn from the strain of staring hard in the darkness at his brother's cap.
Hiro remembers when it flew off of his brother's head when he ran back inside the university in his attempt to save the professor. It was in vain, Hiro thinks, neither got out alive. He can feel the tears build in the corners of his eyes and slip down the side of his face. Soon it's full out sobbing and he struggles to catch his breath and be quiet for his aunt's sake. Hiro doesn't want to worry her further, cause her more pain than she's been through.
The pain in his heart becomes bigger with each passing second and he prays that this is just a nightmare, that he'll wake up in the morning to Tadashi getting ready for his classes or to his big brother ruffling his hair and kissing his forehead as he leaves quietly to not awake Hiro and then when he gets home in the afternoon, Hiro would tell his big brother all about his horrible dream and they'd laugh it off. Tadashi would probably say something along then lines of, "I'm here to stay, nerd, for a long time like a leech."
Just like every time, Hiro is painfully disappointed and he doesn't know how much longer he can cope; how he's supposed to move on from his brother's death. How can he readjust his life from the Hamada brothers to the only Hamada? How can he go on when his brother isn't able to?
Hiro can feel panic swell up inside him and he can't breathe. The darkness becomes a blur and he's gasping for air desperately; his small frame begins to shake once again, just like every night ever since his brother's death and he struggles to steady his breathing, to calm himself and trick himself once again into thinking, "This is just a horrible dream, just a horrible dream, horrible dream," and he becomes calm once again.
This happens again for the next three days until it all begins to unfold.