Broken Fragments

Chapter 39: The Second Time Around

Hiroto caught Yuuhi just in time before she collapsed from where she sat. The last notes that Yuuhi played on the piano still echoed in the arena while everyone stood still, waiting for what was going to happen next. In front of all the people in the arena and the people watching the concert at home was Yuuhi, unconscious in Hiroto's arms.

"Yuuhi! Yuuhi! Wake up, damn it!" Hiroto cursed while everyone watched him try to wake her up in vain.

Yuuhi's body was cold and pale. She was lifeless and her cheeks were soaked in tears. Hiroto felt as if he had gone back in time, back to the last day he spent with Kirari. She, too, was cold and pale, but she had a smile on her face, unlike Yuuhi, whose tears seemed to still keep flowing.

The audience began to murmur as a group of medics came in with a gurney. One of them tried to take Yuuhi from Hiroto, but Hiroto slapped the medic's hand away and placed Yuuhi on the gurney himself, instead. Hiroto ran with the medics backstage, still holding Yuuhi's hand.

Subaru watched as Hiroto passed by with the group of medics with Yuuhi on the gurney. Though they ran fast, seeing Yuuhi lifeless with Hiroto holding her hand made Subaru's whole surrounding seem slow. He wanted to go after them and be the one holding Yuuhi's hand, but Subaru had to let go. After all, Yuuhi had let go.

"Everyone, thank you so much for coming to Yuuhi Tsubasa's concert. She's still having health problems as you witnessed tonight. Let us all wish and pray for her safe recovery and hope that this concert really wouldn't be her last. Again, thank you so much!" Chairman Muranishi ran to the stage to calm the ruckus that the crowd was creating.

The Chairman ran to the backstage and grabbed Subaru's hand, dragging him along as they both ran to his car. Without saying anything, the Chairman drove off after they both got settled in the car.

"You're worried, too, aren't you?" the Chairman asked, a little angry as he drove through the traffic.

Subaru didn't answer the Chairman, tilting his head down, instead. The Chairman accurately read his body language and clenched onto the steering wheel.

"Then why didn't you go with the medics, Subaru?!" the Chairman roared, shocking Subaru.

"She's my sister, Chairman Muranishi," Subaru said, still looking down on his feet.

Subaru knew that it wasn't the best time to reveal to the Chairman that Yuuhi was Kirari's twin, making her Subaru's little sister. Subaru thought that Chairman Muranishi was going to pull over, but he still kept driving in a hurry. The Chairman kept driving quietly, not uttering a single word anymore.

When they reached the hospital, they immediately found Hiroto sitting in the waiting area of the emergency room. His hands clenched onto his head, his elbows resting on his thighs.

"Hiroto, we're he—"

"I don't know what to do, Chairman," Hiroto looked up, tears streaming from his eyes.

Subaru and the Chairman's expressions worsened to see that Hiroto was crying. They knew that the situation was worse than they had thought, especially since Hiroto looked like he was going to lose his mind.

"For now, just calm do—"

"I can't, Subaru-san! I don't want to lose her anymore," Hiroto roared at Subaru.

Subaru's anger began to boil from what he heard from Hiroto. The golden-haired boy grabbed Hiroto by his collar and let go of his patience and anger.

"Her? Who are you really talking about here? Are you really talking about Yuuhi? Or are you talking about Kirari?!" Subaru roared.

Hiroto froze, caught in the situation. He didn't know how to answer Subaru's question for his mind had been a total mess recently. Hiroto's eyes, widened and shivering, looked into Subaru's and saw the pain he was feeling. Hiroto backed away from Subaru with the feelings of shame and guilt floating in his head.

"Are you going to run away again?" Subaru asked as Hiroto turned away from them.

Subaru was right. Hiroto was going to run out of the emergency room, out of the hospital, and away from the questions that Subaru had asked. Hiroto was going to escape once again, even though it was slowly killing him whenever he does.

"Stop running away and face everything, Hiroto," Subaru advised, not for himself or for Hiroto, but for Yuuhi.

"You're not the one who's getting hurt the most here."

Subaru walked away from them to calm his anger. Though the Chairman wanted to wait for the doctor in charge of Yuuhi to come out, the Chairman decided to follow Subaru and give Hiroto a chance to be alone. When their figures were gone, Hiroto slowly fell to the cold, hard floor as he reflected on everything.

Meanwhile, outside where Subaru walked out to, the Chairman sat on the bench by the quiet boy and looked at the passing cars. Their red, orange, and white lights were gone right away as soon as the cars passed. Subaru fiddled with his fingers, not knowing how to start the conversation or how to explain to the Chairman what was going on.

"You're probably wondering what we think about Yuuhi's being Kirari's twin sister, aren't you?" the Chairman broke the silence, voicing out what Subaru was thinking.

Chairman Muranishi knew what Subaru wanted to say and what the boy wanted to talk about. The Chairman was also aware that Subaru was having problems trying to voice out his thoughts. After all, the boy is worried of the only family member he had left, who might be in the brink of danger.

"Kumoi-san and I have known since the beginning," the Chairman said, surprising Subaru.

"Whenever Yuuhi auditioned to be an idol, Kumoi-san started crying because she was shocked to see a person who looked so terrifyingly similar to Kirari. We didn't pass Yuuhi for how she looked, though, because my wife and I both knew that it was going to raise suspicions," Chairman Muranishi continued to narrate what happened in the past as he looked at the stars.

"We made the auditions harder and harder to see if Yuuhi was going to quit, but her passion was strong and her determination was unbreakable. So, we passed her and she began to train as an idol."

Subaru stopped playing with his fingers and looked at the Chairman, who still kept his gaze in the stars. Subaru could see the sincerity in the Chairman's eyes and hear the thoughtfulness in his voice.

"At first, I thought she was like Kirari, who was always smiling and was friendly with a lot of people, but Yuuhi was different. Yuuhi was cold and uncaring. She didn't get too close with any of the other trainees or the trainers. She was always alone by herself, either practicing the things she learned or reading books. Whenever we'd try to talk to her, she'd either make a smart comment, not answer, reverse the question, or make a fool of ourselves. Then one day, she realized that we've been observing her from the shadows and came to the office, brave and unemotional."

"Come in," the Chairman continued to type on his computer like always.

"Chairman, I'm going to cut the chase and get to my point," Yuuhi announced as soon as she closed the door.

The Chairman was easily intrigued by Yuuhi's entrance and the tone of voice she used to address him. He looked up to see Yuuhi's sharp blue eyes that seemed to pierce through the streak of sunlight that managed to make its way from the curtains' crack.

"I'm not Kirari Tsukishima and I will never be her."

Though the Chairman had already accepted that Kirari was gone, Chairman Muranishi's heart finally opened up to the fact that Kirari was no longer in reach. He finally accepted that he will never see, hear, or hug Kirari in person anymore.

"Alright," the Chairman replied, trying to keep his tears from flowing out.

"That would be it. Now, if I may excuse myself," Yuuhi slightly bowed before she turned around to leave.

Yuuhi left the Chairman in his office, speechless.

"Later on that day, after I told Kumoi-san about what happened, she began her research after going through the papers that Yuuhi had given us for her auditions. The birth certificate that she gave us was actually a fake because she edited the information she had given us," the Chairman continued from his flashback.

"Kumoi-san began her research on Yuuhi's identity, even going as far as visiting the government office building in Shiroi City. She had a hard time getting a copy of Yuuhi's birth certificate since Kumoi-san isn't related to the girl, but with the help of Yuuhi's aunt, Neko Kurami, Kumoi-san was able to grab a hold of a real copy."

The Chairman scrolled through his tablet-like phone and found an emailed scan of Yuuhi's and Kirari's birth certificates. Chairman Muranishi handed the phone to show Subaru, though the Chairman already knew that Subaru was possibly aware of all the information on both copies.

"Yuuhi only changed her birthdate and birthplace on the birth certificate she gave us to hide the fact that she is Kirari's twin. Everything else was true; the information about her adoptive parents is true, of course."

Subaru handed the phone back to the Chairman and looked up the sky. He also began to look at the stars that the Chairman had been looking at. The atmosphere was quiet once again as both men returned to their thoughts.

"I really wish it was that easy to change identities…to change who we are," Subaru let a tear slip out from his eyes.

"I would've done it in a blink of an eye, so that I'd be the one out there to protect Yuuhi…and love her as a woman once again…not as my sister."

The Chairman placed his hand on the golden-haired boy's shoulder and patted him, offering him comfort. Chairman Muranishi couldn't relate to Subaru's heartbreak, so a pat was all he could give the boy.

Silence continued as Subaru wiped the tears that streamed from his eyes. He closed them as he tilted his head down, releasing his final thoughts on the matter.

"I hope he loves and cares for her more than I did," Subaru sighed, smiling painfully after he finally, once and for all, let go of Yuuhi.

"I really can't believe I'm doing this again," Kumoi-san said as looked at the papers given to her by the doctor in-charge of Yuuhi.

"These kinds of things make me want to believe in such thing as fate," the doctor replied as she took a sip of her coffee.

"I agree," Kumoi-san replied.

Kumoi-san finished reading the papers on the clipboard before she placed them down and let out a deep sigh. She rubbed the top of the bridge of her nose, stressed. It wasn't long until tears streamed out of Kumoi-san's eyes after she took off her eyeglasses. The doctor got up and rubbed the former-idol's back, trying to console her.

"Why do we have to go through this again?" Kumoi-san cried, rubbing her forehead with her finger to illusionary lessen the pain and stress.

"First, it was Kirari. Now, it's Yuuhi?" complained Kumoi-san.

"I don't want it to be the same as before!"

Kumoi-san kept crying harder as she remembered the past. Kumoi-san couldn't do anything for Kirari because she was too late. This time, Kumoi-san was aware that she could do something to help Yuuhi, but Kumoi-san was afraid to make a mistake. As Kumoi-san trembled, the doctor also let go of her tears.

"I don't want it to be the same as before, Saitou-sensei!"

Beep. Beep.

Visitors were finally allowed to look after Yuuhi after Saitou-sensei, the doctor in-charge of her, explained the situation to Yuuhi's guardians.

"Fatigue?" Hiroto thought as he kept his worried eyes on Yuuhi.

"Lies," he murmured.

Chairman Muranishi watched Hiroto laid his head down and hold Yuuhi's hand from the door's small glass window. The Chairman sighed as he turned to Kumoi-san and Subaru, informing them that Hiroto was going to stay with Yuuhi.

"Is it really just fatigue?" Subaru suspiciously asked, still worried.

"Yes. I don't think she ever really recovered from before, that's why," Kumoi-san lied, her hand on Subaru's shoulder to reassure him.

The Chairman suggested that the three of them head to their homes and let Hiroto take care of Yuuhi for the mean time. Agreeing with him, Kumoi-san and Subaru headed out to the Chairman's car and left the hospital.

"Thank you, Chairman Muranishi, Kumoi-san," Subaru greeted them after he shut the car's door.

Before he and Kumoi-san made their way back to their home, the Chairman dropped Subaru off in front of the hotel he was staying in. As soon as they finished their goodbyes, the Chairman drove off and Subaru made his way to his hotel room.

"You were lying, weren't you?" the Chairman asked Kumoi-san, though he already knew the answer based on her tension.

He had known Kumoi-san for a long time, and the Chairman could easily tell whether she was lying or not. He was her manager when she was an idol, then the two of them set-up their own entertainment agency after separating from the Higashiyama Company. The two had been together through thick and thin, eventually creating their own family.

"It's the second time around," stressed, Kumoi-san answered.

"I'm going to lose my mind if we lose Yuuhi, too," she cried again.

The Chairman pulled over to comfort his wife. He unbuckled his seatbelt, turned to her, and hugged her as best as he could from his seat.

"We'll get through this…and make sure that we don't lose her."