Just a Smile

Yukimura Seiichi walked through the hallways of the hospital with his teammates. He never felt this good since he's being discharged and his surgery; a success. While Niou is talking to their other teammates, he stopped as he caught a glimpse of a young girl in a room sitting silently in a hospital bed looking sideways and out the window. He looked sad staring at her, something inside him is telling him to approach her. He looked at the nameplate beside the door and it reads: Sasaki Reiko. Sasaki looked at him and smiled; Yukimura's heart gave a painful lurch and forced himself to smile back at her.

'Yukimura?' another voice called out to him pulling him out of his thoughts. 'What's the matter?' his vice-captain, Sanada Genichirou asked. Yukimura looked at him and the back at Sasaki as a nurse came in her room. He shook his head.

'It's nothing,' he answered. Sanada nodded, deciding not to pursue the subject further, he felt Yukimura walk past him and peeked in the room his captain is staring at for the past few minutes and saw the girl Yukimura was looking at.

He wasn't surprised when he knew who Yukimura was looking at but he was surprised that the girl's face is pale; his lips formed a frown when he saw an oxygen tank beside her and several intravenous tubes poking out of her body. Not long after Yukimura walked back to his teammates, Sanada followed suit.

A few days after he was discharged from the hospital, Yukimura was back in full-force playing the game he loved with his teammates. He walked from the courts after winning his match six games to three. He sat down on the bench and sighed wondering about the girl he saw days earlier.

'Something is bothering you,' Sanada said standing beside him noticing the worried look his friend is displaying. 'It's Sasaki, right?' he said again but Yukimura didn't answer, Sanada knew that he is indeed thinking about the girl. 'Why don't you go there? Visit her.' Yukimura looked at him with a surprised look in his eyes. He looked away and packed his bag silently.

'I'll leave it to you then…' he answered and left. He tried not to look hurried but to no avail. Not long later, he arrived at the hospital. He looked for her room and knocked lightly. There was no answer. 'Maybe she's asleep…' he thought. He opened the door and saw her asleep on the bed with the oxygen mask on her face. He sighed, feeling relieved. He sat down beside her and just…looked at her, waiting for her to open her eyes. He leaned in closer to her ears.

'Reiko…' he whispered. 'I'm here…'

She twitched and groaned. She struggled to open her eyes weakly. She tried to turn to him and smiled wearily.

'Hey…' he greeted taking her hand in his and brushing her hair off her face with his other hand.

Sasaki and Yukimura had known each other for almost four years, and have been close friends during their three years in Rikkaidai. At the time Yukimura got warded, Sasaki faithfully visited him everyday and sometimes along with his teammates. But she's the one who stays there the longest keeping him company.

But one day, she stopped visiting him. He constantly asks his teammates about her and what happened to her but they didn't tell him. That is until Sanada told him that she passed out in school because of her difficulty of breathing and was brought to the same hospital unconscious. At that very moment, Yukimura felt his heart fall from his chest and he went uncharacteristically quiet. And from that day forward, he started visiting her whenever he can but as the time passed the doctors limited visits from anyone except her immediate family, because of this Yukimura wasn't able to see Sasaki for a very long time that he didn't know that the disease had gotten this worse. Sasaki Reiko, a third year junior high school student at Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku, aged fourteen was diagnosed with acute lymphoblast leukemia—a cancer of the white blood cells. And she has less than a year to live.

Now, after weeks and weeks of being confined in the hospital…Sasaki is now bedridden and constantly relies on an oxygen tank to breathe and she couldn't walk without assistance. Yukimura tried seeing her many times before and after he got discharged but the nurses told him that she's resting or in deep sleep.

He just sat there holding her hand. He didn't know what to say or what to do to make her feel better. He felt her squeeze his hand very lightly. He looked at her and saw her smiling at him, wanting him to smile with her. But he couldn't…not when she's in this condition. He lowered his head, not wanting her to see the tears that had just made their way. He felt her move again, this time she's trying to get up. He shot up from his chair to help her. He sat her up and made her lean on a pillow he place behind her.

'Seiichi…?' she called arduously. He looked at her and tried not to look worried, but still he couldn't get himself to smile. 'Just a smile, Seiichi…' she said. '…please?' his eyes widened.

He looked away thinking about what she said. He looked at her again; she's struggling to stay awake and smiling sweetly at him. His tears fell from his eyes and she saw it.

'I…don't…want to see you…frowning when I go…' she said breathlessly. Yukimura blinked his tears away and tightened his grip on her hand, trying his best to smile at her, but he can't. His heart ached at the words she just uttered. How can he smile when the girl he so loved is dying right before his eyes? But then he recalled the moment he got warded and was told that he wouldn't be able to play tennis again which devastated him and it was Sasaki that made him fight for his life. He breathed deeply.

'I don't want you to go, Reiko.' He said, sobbing. She just smiled.

'I won't be gone…' she answered. 'I'll always be beside you, Seiichi…I promise.' He just stared at her. He felt his heart fall to his stomach just thinking about Sasaki dying and what might happen once she's gone. She took his hand to her cheek; he felt warm tears flowing from her eyes.

'Reiko…' he muttered.

'You're my strength, Seiichi…thank you…for everything…' she said closing her eyes and her hand fell on her lap.

'Reiko…?' Yukimura called but she didn't move. He took her face so that she's facing him but her eyes are shut closed. He shook her, but she didn't even move a bit. 'Reiko…wake up…hey…' she shook her and started to panic. More tears fell as a painful thought struck him.

'No…' he thought. 'No! Reiko…! Open your eyes!' he shouted as the doors opened to let his teammates in. He shook her again roughly as Sanada and Yanagi restrained him. The nurses came in with a doctor.

After a while, Sasaki Reiko was pronounced dead.

At the funeral, Yukimura stood in front of her open coffin. Her father requested that they open her coffin so that everybody can see her. And there she was, sleeping peacefully surrounded by flowers. Her hands are intertwined together with prayer beads. He looked at her; she seemed like a sleeping angel, still smiling as she did…as if she's still trying to encourage him, but whenever he looks at her, the warm streams starts flowing without warning. He took a few steps closer to her and laid a hand on her cold, cold cheek.

'Reiko…' he whispered. 'I'm here…' but she didn't move. He choked and sobbed. 'Reiko…' he whispered again and the cold face under his hand painfully reminded him that she's gone. His knees bucked and gave way, sobbing and crying. Yanagi, Sanada and the rest of the team are there and helped him sit in the corner.

'Her last wish was to see me smile…' he said after a while. Yanagi turned to him with a questioning looks. 'But I didn't,' he said bitterly. 'I was so selfish! I didn't think about her!' Yukimura gritted his teeth angrily.

'But she's still smiling, right?' Yanagi asked making the blue haired boy look at him. 'She's still smiling when she died right?' Yukimura bowed his head, and he knows this. He saw her face the moment she died. 'That just means she's not giving up on you…' he said as he patted his friend's shoulder. Yukimura knows what his friend is trying to tell him, but this is just too much for him.

He stood up and looked at her one last time before they close her coffin. Again, without warning, tears started flooding his cheeks. This time, he tried to keep his balance but in this grief that he's going through, that proved to be a challenge. He stood there as her friends and relatives pay their last respect for the young girl in the coffin. He stepped closer and took out a small doll that he meant to give her on her coming birthday which is only a few days after her death. He approached her and placed the doll inside the coffin beside her.

'At least I didn't forget that it's your birthday today…' he said trying to smile, but he couldn't. But brushed her hair from her forehead and placed a kiss. 'Happy birthday, Reiko…' Sasaki's mother cried when he said that and everyone else is surprised. More tears made their way from his eyes to her face. He stood up and walked away, but to his teammates surprise, he went out the and to a secluded corner where he cried the hardest.

Weeks after the funeral, Yukimura came to the cemetery. And he just stared unwaveringly at her grave with a sad look in his face..

'You should always smile, Seiichi!' said a cheerful voice of a girl in his memory. 'Frowning doesn't suit you. Just a smile, Seiichi…please?' he chuckled and smiled, one he hadn't done since Sasaki died. 'See? You look handsome when you smile. You should do it more often.'

'You win, Reiko…' he muttered, smiling as his tears made their way down his cheeks.

'Yukimura…?' Sanada called and stood beside his friend.

'I can't help it,' Yukimura answered. 'I can't stop the tears. It's been weeks after she died, and yet I still couldn't believe that she's gone.' He sobbed and breathed. Sanada looked away and he couldn't say anything to console his friend. 'I still couldn't let her go…' Yukimura whispered and fell on his knees crying as hard as he could. 'I'm sorry, Reiko…I didn't…I'm sorry.' He apologized as he leaned his forehead against her grave. Sanada laid his hand on his friend's shoulder as Yukimura finally stopped crying.

'Sasaki wouldn't want to see you this way, Yukimura…' Sanada said, surprising his captain. And he knew Sanada knows these kinds of things about her since he was one of her closest friends. 'I'm sure she would've wanted you to move on.' He said and walked away.

Yukimura stood up and wiped off his tears. He looked at the cherry tree just behind her grave.

Flashback

Yukimura Seiichi walked through the line of cherry trees to their school as he saw a girl standing beside the walk way staring up at the cherry trees appreciatively inhaling the spring breeze. The wind picked up and the petals flew all over the place. She saw him standing there and smiled at him.

'Seiichi!' she called cheerfully. Yukimura smiled and walked to her.

End of flashback

'She wouldn't want to see me this way…' he thought looking at the petals falling from the tree. 'Reiko…thank you.' He smiled looking back at her grave and walked away.

end

By: mao