Chapter 5- "The Wind smelled like Summer"

The ceiling lights buzz softly.It’s the only sound that reminds me I’m still here.
I’ve grown used to the scent of antiseptic and the distant beeping of monitors. Strange, isn’t it? How something so sterile and cold becomes… routine.

They say I have a weak heart.Something about electrical signals and rhythm. It’s not something I pretend to understand. I only know that it tires me quickly, steals my breath when I least expect it, and that sometimes — just sometimes — I feel like I’m standing on the edge of something I can’t quite see.

But I don’t want pity.

I never did.

That’s why I started climbing the hills near the airport. Even when it hurt. Even when it left me coughing in the grass. I just… wanted to feel the sky above me. Wanted to see the world stretch out as if I were part of it. As if I weren’t tethered to machines or time limits.
That’s where I saw him for the first time.
Akaru.

He was in a taxi, staring out the window like he didn’t really want to be wherever he was going. There was a sort of heaviness in his eyes — not sadness, not really. Just… distance. Like his mind was still somewhere his body left behind.
I didn’t speak to him then.
Not until the second time — on the hill. I was lying in the grass, pretending the clouds were just soft versions of reality. He came walking by, completely unaware I was there. Lost, maybe. Or just wandering.

He didn’t talk much. But when he did, he didn’t lie.That was rare.
I asked if he was from the mainland. He said he came to visit his grandfather. He didn't say much else, but it felt honest.
And for some reason, that made me speak more than I usually do.I told him things I hadn't told anyone outside this hospital.

He never looked at me with pity. That’s why I remember him.
I’m not sure what he thinks of me. But I remember how he looked at the sky the way I do — like we were both searching for something just out of reach.
I don’t know how long I have.

 No one does, not really.But if there’s still time to feel something warm in the wind…If there’s still time to matter to someone —Maybe that’s enough.

Maybe Akaru didn’t come here just to visit his grandfather.And maybe… I didn’t survive all this just to watch the clouds alone.