Chapter 16

Rin was rushed to the hospital. Yuto met up with Rei and Noa, and they followed the ambulance by car. By the time Yuto arrived at the hospital, her condition was serious but stable. She remained unconscious for an entire week.

He felt guilty.

If only he hadn’t called out at that time. Hell, if only he hadn’t tried to break up with her. She may not have lost her footing and fallen. Perhaps, she wouldn’t have injured herself at all.

Yuto picked up some flowers on the way to the hospital. He made his way up the stairs as he had the previous day, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. He lightly tapped on the door.

“I’m coming in,” he declared, sliding the door open.

A curious Rin glanced over at him.

“Oh, hi, dear!” Rin was sitting up, peeling an orange. She smiled with her usual cheery nature.

Yuto dropped the flowers as he ran up to her, embracing her in a big hug.

“Rin… I was so worried,” he sobbed.

“I’m sorry about that. I guess I fell down a set of stairs and hit my head. Teehee~” she lightly tapped her head. “Seems like I’m more of a klutz than I thought.”

“It was all my fault,” Yuto apologised.

“Well, you were likely on my mind when I fell,” she replied teasingly.

“I’m sorry about that,” he mumbled, unable to make eye contact with her.

“Well, that’s normal for boyfriends and girlfriends.”

“Boy…” He stared blankly at her. “Can I clarify? What do you mean by boyfriend and girlfriend?”

She looked at him with a sincere look.

“I mean us, what else would I mean, silly?” she laughed before pointing at him. “You’re not secretly cheating on me with another girl, are you?”

“Of course I’m not seeing anyone!” Yuto shouted, getting dragged into her banter.

“I know, because we are the perfect couple,” she said, latching on to his arm.

Yuto tried to process her words as he attempted to extract his arm from her grasp.

“Rin, what do you remember about the day of your accident?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She put her finger to her cheek.

“Well, I remember meeting Rei and Noa in the morning.”

Yuto nodded his head.

“Then we went to the maid café and…” she paused as she quickly shuffled through her belongings, pulling out her purse and slipping a Polaroid from it. “You were dressed as a maid and I was a butler.” She held up the picture of her cradling him.

“You didn’t have to remember that part,” a blank-faced Yuto responded, reaching towards the picture, before she snapped her wallet shut and put it away.

“After that, you won Mr Teddy here.” She signalled over to the teddy bear.

“You named him?”

“Of course I named him!”

Yuto decided not to press any further about the teddy bear lest he get dragged into another meaningless bit of banter.

“Finally…” she paused, putting her hands together as her cheeks turned rosy. “You had that lovely message for me on the loudspeaker.”

“And what about after that?” he prodded.

She shrugged.

“I don’t remember, but I must’ve fallen down the stairs.”

Yuto stared blankly at her.

“You remember absolutely nothing else?”

“Nope.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes!” she puffed out her cheeks like a squirrel. “Why are you asking me this?”

He let out a sigh, sinking into the plastic visitor's chair.

The door slid open, and a balding doctor entered, flicking through the notes on his clipboard.

“Well, we have finished the test.” The doctor glanced up, noticing Yuto slumped in the chair. “Should I come back?”

Rin shook her head.

“Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of my boyfriend.”

Yuto’s eye subconsciously twitched, hearing this.

“Alright… based on the test we ran, there doesn’t appear to be anything severely wrong with you.”

“That’s great!”

“But… it appears that, as a result of your head injury, you have developed a case of acute retrograde amnesia.”

Rin smiled, placing her hand against her face. “I’m sorry, you can call me cute all you want, but I already have a boyfriend,” she replied, gripping Yuto’s arm.

The doctor looked at her plainly, not responding to her joke. Yuto felt sorry for the man.

“Do you have any questions?”

“I did… but I forgot…” She pointed her fingers at the doctor, who didn’t acknowledge her joke.

“I’m sorry about her,” Yuto apologised on her behalf. “Would you please explain the extent of the amnesia and whether there are any long-term risks?”

The doctor's expression eased slightly.

“She isn’t likely to suffer any additional memory loss, but she will probably never remember the events leading up to the head trauma.”

“Well, if it is just the fall, I don’t think it matters if I don’t remember,” Rin replied with a shrug.

“You should be discharged in the following few days. If you need anything in the meantime, please call a nurse.” With that, the doctor left the room.

“Did you hear that! I haven’t got anything seriously wrong with me,” she commented, smiling at Yuto. “Just some acute amnesia or something.”

“That’s great,” Yuto replied in a monotone voice. “Rin… I think I need some fresh air.”

She looked confused as he got up and made his way to the door. He glanced back at her.

“Before I go, I wanted to say I’m glad you are alright.” He smiled at her before promptly slamming the door behind him. He made his way to the hospital yard and collapsed on a park bench. He stared up at the clouds as they drifted in the sky.

“Are you ok, boy?” an old woman asked, slowly approaching him.

Yuto merely glanced at her with a deadpan expression.

“Never mind, I’ll just leave you.” She turned around and walked off.

“Acute retrograde amnesia,” Yuto mused to himself before he broke down laughing. If he was going to have a breakdown anywhere, he was glad it was at a hospital.

❤︎ --- ୨୧ --- ❤︎

End of Chapter 16