New Year's Eve. A time to celebrate the separation of the past and the future. While all the noises that's going on outside, there's even more tension inside the hospital.
"Mom, what happened to big brother?"
"He... he's in danger..." his mother ran along breathless. They were rushing along the alley floor lined with linoleum.
"Why is he in great danger?" his innocence strum again but his mother had no more time to answer for they were already in front of the room... 721.
They saw the red light atop the door. They knew what's going on inside.
"It's been an hour." a voice boomed behind them. from the shadows, the eye-glassed boy stepped out.
"Shingo, what happened?"
"I... I just don't know." Shingo's eyes seemed to have small veins all around them.
You see, he had been there this afternoon. "I.. I just saw him there frozen, immobilized and... just like a stone, as if he is in a coma."
Marimo, the patient's mother, clamped her hand on her mouth.
"Mom, what is coma?" the little boy inquisitively stated. He pulled on his mother's white blouse but she doesn't feel it anymore.
"Yuhya..." she stuttered. Shingo just bowed low, feeling guilty.
"Hey Shingo..." Alex appeared behind him. He made the former's face him. After seeing the glum expression in his face, he himself seemed to have acquired the look.
"Oh no..." he exasperatedly concluded, the thought dawning on his dormant mind.
"Shit, it just can't be."
"His sickness is already acute. He'd been hiding everything from us."
"But the doctors can do another way. They save a person's life. They can do it.... just don't."
Footsteps rampaged behind them. The young girl who then turned out to be Yuhya's other friend ran for her breath.
"Lilica?" Alex proceeded to support the young girl from her momentary imbalance.
"Yuhya... how is he?" was her sole statement.
They all can offer no reply.
"Mom, what's going on?" The little boy asked rather irritated, feeling that there's something the elders were hiding from him.
Marimo just bowed low so that she's of the boy's level. She hugged him close.
"Huh?" was all he managed to say because of his sheer cluelessness.
"Don't tell me..." Tears fell down the young girl's cheeks.
"Hush, Lilica. Let's just pray." Alex patted her shoulder.
"Don't take him away. Don't be so selfish." the hushed prayer of an adolescent girl mingled with the cheerful noises of the crowd and the cracking of fireworks outside.
"Wow, look at those stars!" the patient's ototo rushed forth to the balcony to have a good look of those so-called stars. He was at the brink of the ninth floor of the building.
"Kouya!" Marimo rushed to save her son, the other half of the most important person in her life.
"No. I will lose one. I can't afford to lose the other now."
The little boy whom she called Kouya just grinned more as more fireworks danced across the sky, his hands reaching out to the dark space.
"Yuhya, my son..."
For Lilica and all the others who were also standng beside another window, these past few days have been a countdown for them. The count-off began when the knew the harsh reality in a blink of an eye... it's been so sudden, through that unfortunate eavesdropping. Each day that had passed, the clock ticked, a countdown for them to hurry up squeezing forty more years of friendship into a couple of days, hours, minutes and seconds. Every dropping of time's unit was valuable, for they can never bring it back and they won't have the chance to tell him what they want. It's counting down to the very end...
... the end of the year...
... and unfortunately, the end of a dear friend's life.
They just can't handle it anymore. Amidst the merrymaking and the booming fireworks, weariness and helplessness abided within their beings. Kami-sama had been so unfair, so unfair to make this countdown run so fast. A moment they were at the number forty, and another they were already at its half.
11:49 in the evening, the red light ticked off. The weary people raised their line of vision to the slowly-opening door. The doctor, bowing down as if hiding his eyes behind his bangs, emerged.
"Doctor?"
"What happened?"
"Is he...?"
They're expecting some light...
The anticipating crowd gathered before him, the lean and seemingly drained doctor.
"Is he?" Marimo inquired and Kouya, the younger brother, looked up at the man wearing a green hospital gown.
The doctor set his sights up to their expectant faces, and dared not to reply. He silently walked away, his presence slicing through their flock.
Silence means grief and acceptance fused into one void emotion.
They felt like crying, but they held it all back and decided to confirm their worst fears.
The door creaked and they saw him.
No, not him, but the numerous tubules that seem to already suffocate him to his end. They seem to be the sole reason why he's slowly fading away...
... slipping through their fingers.
"Yuhya!" Lilica's spring green eyes went as wide as saucers.
"Oh no..." Marimo shivered over the scene.
Everyone was speechless.
"Big brother!" Kouya ran towards the patient who limply lay there.
He stirred slowly, but he can't move any muscle anymore.
"K--Kouya." he finally uttered after a moment of discernment. The others followed on his bedside shortly.
"Akashimite Omedetou, minna." he uttered his greeting, and it doesn't really register as it is anymore.
"Speak no more, Yuhya." Alex looked up the clock. 11:51, it said. This moment, time seemed to run slow.
His pained moan reverberated witht he blasts of RnB music playing outside. Tch, they just don't care.
They could hear his fragile breathing, so fragile that it could just cut away any minute. He's still holding on...
... never letting go.
"I... I am glad." His shallow breathing still made up the words he had wanted to convey. "You're a-all here..."
"Yuhya," Lilica rushed forth to his bedside. The two followed and also settled.
"You three are the best... best friends that I've ever had."
Lilica choked back a sob. Alex looked so sober and Shingo was teary-eyed.
"They just can't afford to see their leader like that, lying in pain and almost buried in tubes.
Fireworks cracked.
Merriment ensued and even grew louder, taunting them.
The speakers were on its full volume.
Alex's favorite rap song was playing.
Lilica managed to hold her friend's --- her koi's --- hand, yet she almost threw it away because it's so cold, very corpse-like in coldness. After adapting to the chill, she still held on...
... Never letting go.
The beeps from his monitor had grown slow, and slower. Marimo looked up. 11:55. People by this time are already outside, anticipating the New Year. They will be never like that from now on, she realized the harsh reality that's about to fall on them.
"Li.. Lilica." his mouth was so pale as if he's been on the cold outdoors for days.
"I... I love you, more than as a friend. You... You've been... my crush ever since we're at... school."
This caused hot tears to flow freely.
"Yuhya..." the light-brown colored hair threw herself and sobbed beside him. She had her hand tightly gripped against his.
"I... I love you too, Yuhya."
The patient looked up.
"Mom..." his voice was so weak and so hurting to hear.
"My son." her tears instantly fell down.
"You... You're the..." he coughed harshly. "... best mom in this world. I'll... I will never forget... I'll never ever forget you."
"Yuhya, I love you, son." she sobbed relentlessly..
"Sorry, Mom... sorry if... if I won't be there, anymore. Sorry if I won't be there when you... when you grow old..." The crying mother could also see her son's tears welling up.
"I... I love you, mom."
"Big brother."
"K-Kouya. Come here." he reckoned weakly.
The little kid who was then marvelling at the stars came.
"What is it, nii-san?"
"Promise me, you'll do good, okay?"
"Yes, I would! But... why are you saying these things?"
The patient just smiled and let him go.
"Mom, why is brother saying those things?" he tugged on her blouse again.
"He... He is just reminding you of what you're supposed to do when you grow up."
"Huh? But he'll grow up with me, right?"
Marimo nodded, her eyes watery. It's painful to hear herself lying.
"Yes... he's just saying that he loves you." she ended.
Little Kouya just grinned and ran again toward the patient.
"I love you too, Yuhya." he smiled.
The one lying down just grinned in return, his pale lips looking more like a thin line across his face.
The weak pulse rang beside them. The green line ran low.
Silence...they awaited. he still smiled and looked above. Seems as if he had nothing more to say.
He had told them everything he would earlier his life anyway, earlier when his body was fully-functional and earlier when everything was better done than said.
His breathing grew shaky and so unstable. It must have been the most unstable was that he had been in his life. They looked up the clock. 11:59, twenty seconds to go...
Fireworks cracked louder.
People hollered outside
Laughter reigned
The speakers were at its best.
Merriment surrounded them, mocking them of what they were missing that night.
"Yuhya..."
"God, Yuhya."
"Don't..."
The pulse monitor gradually deviated. The green line sloped down.
So unstable. So unsure.
He coughed louder. His breath going rapid yet so harsh. The beeps slowed down. His eyes were so wide that one could already see the whites all around.
Beep... Beep...
3
The countdown began
Beep...
2
Beep...
The green line was at its lowest.
"Yuhya, don't..."
"Don't break down..."
"Don't let go. "
"Brother?"
He choked back his breath then his statement softened. So tranquil, so peaceful...
Beep...
1.
He closed his eyes
He resigned himself to the deafening silence, that is, sweet death.
"Happy New Year!" The crowd beamed outside. The merriment was at its peak.
"No... no... NO!" Lilica seemed to melt down the floor. His two teammates turned away so as to not show their watery eyes.
"Yuhya..."
"Brother's sleeping, isn't he?" Kouya looked at the limp form across the bed.
"Yes, he is Kouya..." Marimo wiped her blotchy face. Darn, she just can't tell the truth to his other son that he'll be away and gone... forever
Kouya looked more.
"Then, why are you all crying? Look everyone, he's smiling. He's so happy upon sleeping, as if he's dreaming of happy things."
They looked. Indeed, he is happy, but they view the happening as a total tragedy.
Silence. Lapse of doubt and confusion. Silence. A period of thinking, implying... and acceptance.
The little boy didn't understand.
Or at least later he'd finally get all the pain.
The pain of losing someone.
... and even more than that.
"Happy New Year, brother." was all he said.
NOTES:
1 Kami-sama - God
2 ototo - younger brother
3 Akashimite Omedetou, minna - Happy New Year, everyone.
4 koi - loved one/lover
5 -nii-san - term applied if someone's calling for an elder brother.