Chapter 10

Pain brought Hiroki out of his unconscious state. His lungs hurt with each breath while different parts of his body pulsated from the bruising. To his relief, he felt no casts on his limbs or any indication of any broken bones. A miracle.

Underneath his eyelids, tears formed as the realization kicked in.

He survived the car crash.

He lived.

Attempting to move his limbs, they fell back onto bed from the strain. Assuming an ambulance picked him up from the crime scene, he readied himself for a nurse or even a nurse's assistant to catch him awake. To his surprise, he heard no beeping from a heart monitor, but the pinch of a needle of his left arm itched like crazy. Forcing his eyes open, he stared up at a wooden ceiling. No hospital white walls. The lack of pungent cleaner used in hospitals. Curious.

Jerking his head to the side, he saw a large bookcase on the wall, filled with the brim with books. Reading some of the titles, Hiroki scowled, his body didn't cooperate with his desire to bask in the presence of those books. Continuing on giving the room a quick overview, no adornments, no posters, nothing to personalize the room. He saw a door which lead into a basic bathroom.

The door knob jiggled.

Jumping on the spot, Hiroki snapped his head toward the door. A tall young man with shaggy black hair walked through the threshold of the door, carrying a tray on one hand. His stomach growled at the smell of sweetened oatmeal and he salivated at the sight of cubed watermelon in a small bowl. There were two glasses, one filled with water, the other with juice.

The giant's eyes twinkled at the sight of him. "Ah—Hello." He smiled at Hiroki's direction as he closed the door behind him with one hand. He hurried over to Hiroki's side, placing the tray on the nightstand beside the bed.

Hiroki watched this newcomer's movements, making sure that he wasn't a big threat. Although, he couldn't do much in his current state. His body felt like shit. It didn't mean his old kendo skills became rusty after going into teaching. In fact, he still practiced whenever he put aside the time in between his grading and creating new lesson plans.

As he observed this man, deja vu coursed through him. He knew this person. He just didn't connect the face to anyone he knew in his life or a particular name. Having taught multiple students, he tended to forget the name of the student if they did less than exceptional. After all, his brightest students shined above the ones who skimmed enough points to pass and never take his class again.

"I'm pleased to see you're awake." He tutted at the low I.V bags hooked onto Hiroki's arm. "I'm so sorry I didn't come earlier. I became busy on some errands which needed my attention. Not that you weren't important! I rushed back as fast as possible."

All of a sudden, Hiroki bent his head down to cough. Throat scratchy, he cursed under his breath. The guy presented a glass of water in front of him. When he tried reaching for the glass, the stranger insisted on giving it to him.

"Here let me help." The glass was tipped against Hiroki's lips.

Hiroki sipped, soothing his sore throat, before answering. "Why was I not taken to the hospital?"

"There was nothing worth a trip to the hospital."

"That didn't answer my question." Hiroki tried lifting himself off the bed, but he slammed back down, aggravating his injured body. "Fuck."

"Kamijou-san, that wasn't wise."

Hiroki narrowed his eyes. "How do you know my name?"

"Well..." The man rubbed the back of his neck. "You used to tutor me." Hiroki wrinkled his nose, trying to attach a name to this person. Nothing popped into his head. The bright blue eyes did tug a sliver of a memory inside of his mind. "Kusama Nowaki, at your service."

Nowaki spent a considerable amount of time relocating himself into the local hospital. A fair distance away from his cabin, but he thought ahead on wanting no neighbors near his paradise. This fresh new start to their budding relationship needed no outside eyes peering into his life.

Hiroki stayed in an imposed coma, giving him an opening to go along with his project. Once he included the shining recommendation from his mentor in his application, the transfer took no more than a few days. The head of the pediatric department welcomed him with open arms, introducing him to the numerous staff members of the hospital. No one found a flaw in him.

All according to plan.

As Hiroki slept, he cleaned the room he resided in and filled the bookcase with books. Many of the titles were ones Hiroki had an a pending list of books he desired to buy. Nowaki added them in to provide Hiroki some entertainment. Without television, books turned into the source of fun that he knew Hiroki enjoyed.

Noting Hiroki grumbled during the night, he saw it as a sign of him waking up sooner than later. Thinking ahead, he prepared a tray full of breakfast, then ventured toward Hiroki's room. Opening the door, he didn't expect to catch Hiroki looking at his direction. His heart skipped a beat at the sight of Hiroki's warm brown eyes.

Years passed since he last interacted with him, he couldn't think of what to say. Countless topics filtered through his head while he set down the tray on the nightstand. He avoided Hiroki's question about taking him to a hospital. As a doctor, he was more than qualified to nurse his beloved back to health. He planned out an array of ways to keep Hiroki complacent. Drugs were a main staple in his cabinets.

From the sight of Hiroki's weak form, he might not have to use them for a while. He felt guilt for having to slow down his dear one's recovery, but he wanted to have him dependent on him for far longer than usual.

Hiroki's eyes widened after he introduced himself. His heart swelled with hope. Hiroki remembered him! His smile grew at the mere thought.

The room's atmosphere chilled when Hiroki yelled at him.

"You?!"

Nowaki gulped. "Me?"

"How dare you show your face to me you ungrateful son of a bitch!" Nowaki jumped back at the fury showing through Hiroki's tone. He didn't expect him to have the energy after his ordeal. "I spent months, months, giving you my unrelenting time. All those hours wasted!"

Nowaki put his hands up as a sign of peace. Hiroki continued on yelling at him, his voice cracked from the lack of moisture in certain intervals. Pausing, Hiroki resumed his rant while Nowaki tried not to let those words hurt him.

Nowaki placed his hands on his sides when he uttered. "Kamijou-san."

Hiroki stopped in his tirade. "What?" Glaring at him with pure annoyance, he tried making his face like the one he used in his classes. He relished in Nowaki's flinch due to his fierce stare.

Nowaki laid his hands on his lap. "It won't do you any good if you are yelling like that."

Hiroki tried to sit up using his arms, but they gave way because of his weak state. Landing back on the bed, he harrumphed. "I don't give a shit! You ran out on me when I worked hard to tutor your selfish ass. You didn't even have the balls to tell me that you didn't need my services."

Nowaki nibbled his bottom lip, trying to salvage this reunion."It's not that I didn't want to tell you I was leaving, I had to keep to myself for a while because of my circumstances. I needed to work long hours to collect the money for when I entered university and before I knew it I didn't go back." He kept his eyes on Hiroki, noting his anger simmering down to annoyance.

Letting out a deep sigh, his stomach plummeted. Hiroki forgot the day of his confession. His heart clenched. Wanting nothing more than to flee, he forced himself to remain in his spot. It shouldn't have surprised him. Hiroki dismissed his feelings with a flick of a hand and went to shower.

The moment Hiroki rejected him, he realized an immense difference between them. He needed to become an amazing person for Hiroki to consider him as a potential lover. The desire for Hiroki to fall for him fueled him through all of those late nights of studying, waiting for the day where he returned to Japan. Learning English didn't limit him as much as he thought, his old jobs settled in tourist areas where someone knew at least some basic English.

Still, he held himself back from taking the first flight back to Japan. He missed almost two years of stalking Hiroki's movements. Hiroki moved into a new apartment in a better area and no one in the old complex knew of his location. Hiroki kept to himself most of the time which wasn't much of a surprise that he didn't socialize with his neighbors.

An old friend found Hiroki without trouble. She agreed to his request when he lied about losing communication with his lover. As someone who loved romantic reunions, she did this for free and gave him encouraging words at his departure. He felt no guilt about lying to her.

Completing his doctrine and becoming a doctor would impress Hiroki. He heard from so many people that anyone would love to be married to a doctor, maybe this applied to Hiroki as well. Then again, he never got the impression in his short time in tutoring alongside Hiroki that he cared about wealth.

All of this work was in the name of love and nothing was going to stop him from his quest: making Hiroki his lover.

Hiroki winced when he felt a pain on the side of his head, ignoring it, he said. "I don't give a shit, the fact you didn't even tell me anything is just ridiculous. I waited for three weeks to see if you would show up and you still didn't call me."

Nowaki averted his eyes in shame and guilt. His beloved waited weeks before giving up on him. He rubbed his hands together and held the end of his shirt. His disappearing act and dropping contact was a wrong move in his part.

Hiroki huffed when he saw the devastated expression on Nowaki's face. He didn't think his words affected Nowaki since the guy left without notice, if anything he had the right to his fury. He spent numerous hours of his personal time to help this guy.

After his blowout, a load left his shoulders of the whole situation he entered into. From the old anger of Nowaki abandoning his tutoring sessions to but he felt a wave of pain coming from his wounds. He tried hard not to show any pain.

"…I'm sorry."

"You better be, you ass!"

Nowaki watched Hiroki from the corner of his eyes. Hiroki's words stabbed him in the heart, but he remained optimistic. His beloved Hiro-san showed immense patience back then, he'd get over his hurdle.

He spoke loud. "I'm sorry. As I said before, my jobs were overwhelming me and money was tight. The free hours I dedicated to the tutoring sessions went to sleeping enough before going back to work. I became a doctor—I'm sure you can imagine the grueling hours I spent trying to finish my education." He hated having to mask his true reasons, but Hiroki couldn't suspect anything.

Hiroki listened with intent, feeling a little bit bad for Nowaki's hardships. The professor knew no hardship in paying for his education. His parents paid for everything while he attended any class to his fancy. When he found out Nowaki worked a lot of jobs, he placed his assumptions based on his last students: a real lazy person who didn't do any work and wasted his time.

In a way, Hiroki missed having such a competent student like Nowaki and the young man himself. The majority of the ones in Mitsuhashi tested his patience far too often and were not as diligent as Nowaki.

"I understand." Hiroki sighed, rubbing his temples. "You have a life outside of me and you needed to get all the money you could get to pay for your tuition and expenses."

Nowaki bit the inside of his cheek so hard. Ignoring the stinging pain, he focused on his beloved, no, Hiroki. Hiroki forgot his confession and believed his lie. He managed to control his oncoming tears.

Hiroki looked at Nowaki's gorgeous frame and tried not to look at him for too long. After all of these years apart, Nowaki grew into a handsome young man. Tall, dark, and handsome, many attributes people wanted in a man. He wouldn't be surprised if Nowaki had someone in his life. The handsome ones never stayed single for long.

Hiroki commented. "So you became a doctor…isn't that a real hard major to get into?"

Nowaki put on a convincing fake smile on his face. "It was hard, but I studied countless nights and managed to get my credentials. I studied in America for a two year program which I managed to complete in a year. I'm even employed in a hospital, well I'm interning, but I am close in becoming a real doctor."

Hiroki's eyes widened in surprise at how far his old student had succeeded in his life. He was so proud of the guy for not giving up as expected and accomplished his goal. None of his old students strove such heights and succeeded in basking in the benefits.

"Wow..I'm impressed. I have known a lot of people who gave up in becoming a doctor due to the difficulty of the program."

Nowaki's heart fluttered at those words. Hiroki was impressed with him. Hiroki thought that he was better than all those other people who gave up when it got tough.

"T—Thank you." Nowaki blushed. "It was all because of you. You...you instilled my studying methods into me. I looked back to our old tutoring sessions when I wanted to give up." In which, Nowaki kissed a picture of Hiroki or caressed the locket to give him strength. "But I didn't because I was already so close…"

Hiroki nodded his head as he motioned to the cup. "What's in that?"

"Oh, tea!" Nowaki lifted it up and tipped it against Hiroki's lips. "Here you go. Careful, it's still hot."

Hiroki bit back a comment over Nowaki treating him like a child. He managed to lift his arms, but one look into Nowaki's determined eyes and he caved. No use arguing. Blowing the liquid, he sipped some of his tea. His eyebrows scrunched when he realized it was sweetened perfectly. "How did…How did you know I made my tea this way?"

Nowaki chuckled. "Lucky guess? I don't add a lot of sugar to my tea either. I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate a cup full of sugar."

Hiroki sipped more of his tea, his chest warmed up from the intake. "At least one of my students doesn't resent my teaching methods…"

Nowaki asked in astonishment. "What do you mean?"

Hiroki scoffed, making no moves to lift his head off of his pillow. "Considering the fact that a majority of my students act like they are still children, I heard them complain of my teaching methods more than once. They think I don't hear them whispering about me, but rumors travel fast."

Nowaki frowned. "But Hiro-san, you are a wonderful teacher. I wouldn't have gotten this far without your guidance from the beginning."

Hiroki attempted to make himself comfortable through inching his body around. He missed Nowaki calling his old nickname. "There are harder professors at that university, some who don't even teach properly, they should be grateful I am trying to teach them properly. Either way, my class is a requirement. They have no choice but to take it or risk failing in their last year for putting it off."

Nowaki smiled "They will appreciate your teaching eventually, just know that you have proof of your amazing teaching right in front of you."

Hiroki muttered, "I guess."

Nowaki asked Hiroki with a huge grin on his face. "Do you want me to feed you some watermelon?" He took the small bowl from the tray and he scooted closer to Hiroki. "There were some fresh watermelons when I went to the store yesterday. The season is perfect for fruit."

Hiroki despised being babied through someone other than his mother. The water and tea pushed his limits. "So…you weren't here all day with me?"

Nowaki shook his head as he stabbed a toothpick into one of the cut up watermelon pieces. "I had to leave to stock up the fridge since I was busy attending you. I was only gone for half an hour anyway." He held the watermelon piece to Hiroki's lips. "Say ah~"

Hiroki glared at him as he lifted his arm and managed to grab the toothpick from Nowaki. His arm ached from the strain. "I can feed myself Kusama. Even though I am injured, I still have some pride as a man." He ate the piece and he grabbed the bowl from Nowaki.

Nowaki chuckled as he observed Hiroki in the flesh. He was talking to him, interacting with him and Hiroki warmed up to him! They went through a rough start, but he knew everything would turn into smooth sailing from now on.

Hiroki ate the last piece of watermelon before he asked Nowaki. "Where are we anyway?"

Nowaki stiffened. Pretending not to have heard Hiroki, he grabbed a small bowl of porridge. It was lightly sweetened. Hiroki wouldn't complain about the lack of taste. He took the empty bowl of watermelon and placed it on the tray. He hesitated in giving Hiroki the porridge at the sight of his annoyed glance.

"Kusama, where are we?" Nowaki stood up from the bed as Hiroki yelled. "Hey! I know you can hear me! Where the hell are we?!"

Nowaki turned to Hiroki, smiling light. "I'll check on you later Hiro-san, I just remembered I have to do something." He ran out of the door, shutting it behind him, he leaned against the door.

"Kusama! Come back in here and explain yourself! Hey!" Nowaki heard Hiroki screaming inside of the room, he rubbed his eyes in tiredness.

Hiroki would tire out soon.

He turned the key on the door in a slow pace, then pocketed the key. His eyes narrowed, clenching his fists, he placed his forehead against the door. He didn't want their encounter to finish, he waited too long to let Hiroki leave his grasp.

An idea formed in his head.

Smirking, he straightened himself out before he left the area. He wanted to keep Hiroki with him forever and he knew what to do. The idea required Photoshop and a computer.