A/N: Thank you for such an over-whelming kind response to the first chapter, guys :)

I always try to update weekly, but my internet's always dying. To make up for that, I'll try and release the next chapter sooner. Sounds okay? Now , on to the story!

Mai Taniyama huffed, visibly annoyed. Never in her sixteen years had anyone been so rude to her. As the nurse led her to the right room, her anger dissipated almost immediately, forgetting all about her encounter with Naru (as she had named him).

Mai had been orphaned at a young age, and her homeroom teacher had let her stay with her ever since. The young girl had always been indebted to Megumi-sensei. She was actually here to see Megumi-sensei's daughter Touka, who had been admitted in the hospital the previous day. The 6-year-old girl had had a bout a food poisoning.

Mai pushed opened the door and entered with a flourish.

"Hello, Touka-chan!" she grinned widely.

Touka squealed excitedly on seeing her friend. "Onee-san! You came to see me!"

"Of course I did, kiddo." She said with a smile. She turned towards her teacher, who was standing by Touka's bed. "Megumi-sensei, how is Touka's heath now?"

"She's getting better already, Mai. But aren't you going to school today?" the teacher replied, raising one eyebrow and wiggling her finger at Mai.

"Ahaha…well, I skipped school today." Mai replied sheepishly.

After some reprimanding from her teacher/guardian, Mai agreed to go to school. She waved good bye to them, and left the hospital room. She looked at the door adjacent to Touka's. The brunette slightly opened the door to peek, and found Naru still sitting there, reading a book. He was so engrossed that he didn't notice her slip in. She sat on the sofa placed by the bed.

"Hello? Earth to Naru-chan?" Mai said with a smirk.

Shibuya looked up from his book with the same expressionless face. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, it's nice to meet you too!" she chirped.

He closed his book and placed it on the table by the bed. For the first time, Mai noticed his face fully. He was very, very handsome—she blushed at that.

"What do you want?" Shibuya said, slightly perturbed but amused.

This girl had no sense of self-respect. Usually people would steer clear from him once they heard his insulting tone, but this girl only pressed further.

"Are you always this kind, Naru-chan?" she puffed out her cheeks angrily.

Shibuya let himself smile, if only a little. It was true that he acted rude on purpose, so that people would leave him alone and not bother him with questions about his life or health.

"Well, you're definitely an exception. And my name is not Naru-chan."

Mai leaned forward expectantly, thinking that he was about to tell her his name. But when he didn't, she just stuck her tongue out at him.

"I actually came here to apologise for before, but I think I'm going to stick with my opinion of you being impudent and narcissistic."

Shibuya, or Naru (he winced), had never spoken more than a few sentences with anyone other than his family, but he had a sudden and unusual urge to tease this girl whom he had never met before.

"With your level of intelligence, I'm sure those two words must have been really hard to remember." He said, amused at how she jumped from her seat and placed her closed fists in front of her in a boxing stance.

"Wanna go at it, you jerk?!" she said, with determined eyes.

"But on second thoughts," she said sheepishly, on seeing Naru cross his arms and make a scary face. "You're sick, so maybe another time."

Truth was, she was a little intimidated. Okay, maybe a little more than 'little', she thought seeing Naru's cold eyes.

Naru smirked, a clear victory for him. Mai sat back down on the sofa and crossed her legs.

"So, what are you here for?" she asked him, playing with the hem of her skirt.

Naru winced internally. He hated to talk about his leukaemia, because people treated him with pity and sympathy—and he wanted none of that. He decided to try something different for a change.

"I'm here to warm beds for the patients that come in, because the heating system in this place sucks." He deadpanned.

Mai laughed uproariously at that, falling from the sofa. Naru watched, amused at this stupid girl's antics. He didn't mean for it to be funny, he was being sarcastic. Oh well.

Just then, his oncologist walked into the room. He was tall with hard features, but a kind and handsome face. Mai was still sprawled on the floor, and the doctor didn't notice her. Naru felt a tiny tinge of disappointment for the interruption.

"Good morning, Kazuya-kun. How are you today?" Lin asked.

"Good, Dr. Lin." Naru replied, his placid face back on.

Mai sat up, still on the floor, in a cross-legged position. Dr. Lin still didn't seem to notice her yet, so that was a good thing. "Kazuya? Hm…." She thought.

"Well, I'll be drawing some blood as usual, and here are your platelets." The doctor spoke to Naru, who simply nodded.

Mat sat quietly throughout, thinking to herself. Platelets meant only one thing—leukaemia. She felt a sharp pang in her chest. She hardly knew this guy, but she felt a deep feeling of empathy towards him. After Dr. Lin left, she stood up suddenly, and walked to the bathroom that was directly attached to Naru's room.

As she closed the door behind her, Naru frowned. He didn't want more pity….he really, really didn't. He felt his face tighten as Mai returned.

He expected frowning. He expected sympathetic words or maybe a few tears of pity. But Shibuya Kazuya got none. Instead, Mai smiled. She gave him the brightest and happiest, most infectious smile he had ever seen.

Something inside Naru changed that day, but he couldn't tell what.

"Shibuya Kazuya" he found himself saying, almost unconsciously.

"Taniyama Mai." She replied, with a grin.

"Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia." He told her, baffling himself. Why was he telling a stranger this?

Mai smiled again, and simply asked him "How long?"

Naru was taken aback for a few seconds, though he didn't show it on his face. She was asking how long he had to live. Nobody ever asked him to his face, because they thought that he'd feel bad.

Death seemed imminent to him. He treated it with indifference, and wasn't actually scared.

If only this was true. In reality, Naru felt terrified that his death was approaching. He had never lived a normal life as a normal kid. The thing that scared him the most was that he didn't even have any memories that he'd leave behind—no friends, no adventures….

"Well, about a year or so." He said, a small lump forming in his throat.

Mai simply nodded and walked up and down on the balls of her feet as Naru got off the bed and went to the bathroom to change into his normal clothing. She sighed softly to herself as she looked at the clock. She'd completely forgotten about school. Oh well.

Naru got out of the bathroom, wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and black jeans. He had fixed his hair. Mai blushed brightly….had he fixed his hair because of her?

"What are you still doing here?" he deadpanned.

Okay, it definitely wasn't because of her.

She huffed, "Well, I'm leaving and so are you—so…."

"—you can't help but fall in love with my face," he interrupted, smirking smugly.

"You- you narcissistic jerk!" she yelled in his face, blushing even harder.

"So what do you want?" he asked her with a cocked eyebrow.

"To make your life a little bright!" she quipped happily, as they walked through the hospital hallway. "And make your days count…?" she added, a bit hesitantly.

Naru only hummed in question to himself. Why was she doing this, again? "You want to make my day count?"

"Well…yeah," she looked sheepish.

"Then get me a cup of tea," Naru said, with a straight face.

He watched as she ran off towards the canteen. She tripped on her feet twice along the way, bumped into a person in a wheelchair and finally reached the tea stall. Naru looked on as she stood on her toes, and waved her arms over her head, and bought two cups of tea.

Naru didn't expect her to actually do it, but he could take advantage of her running off, and walk away himself.

But Shibuya Kazuya surprised himself. He waited….although, he waited for more than just Mai and his cup of tea.

He waited for a new lease of life.

A/N: Thank you one again for your lovely reviews and for encouraging me to write more. You guys really made my day…I actually wrote this chapter right away! Please do continue reading, and don't forget to review. Your opinions make me really happy :)

KClare.