Forgive Me For Forgetting You

Too Late...?

(Rin's POV)

His lungs burned.
His legs ached.
His heart was pounding so violently it felt like it was trying to break out of his chest.

But Rin didn't stop.

Not as he bolted through the rain, not as horns blared when he crossed streets, not as the hospital came into view like a final, cruel mirage.

He was too late.

He knew he was too late.

But still, he ran.

"Please," he whispered to no one. "Please don't take him from me."

He didn't know when the love started.
He just knew it had never gone away.
Buried, yes.
Smothered beneath ambition, pride, fear.

But never gone.

The day he punched Isagi—he thought pushing him away would make it easier.
He thought if he hated him loud enough, the feelings would disappear.
But all it did was make Isagi disappear instead.

And now...
now he might never get him back.

The clinic was too white.
Too quiet.

Rin slammed open the front doors.
The receptionist jumped.

"I need to see someone!" he snapped. "Yoichi Isagi—where is he!?"

The nurse's smile faltered.
She checked the clipboard.

"...You just missed him."

The words didn't register.

"He's in surgery," she added. "Started twenty minutes ago. Emotional and memory removal."

Rin's vision blurred.
Not from tears.
From shock.

He stumbled back a step.
"No... no, stop it. STOP IT."
He turned, running down the hallway.

"Sir, you're not allowed back there—!"

Too bad.

He found the room.
Through the window, he saw Isagi.
Lying there. Peaceful.
Cold.

Wires on his chest. Mask on his face.
The petals were gone.
But so was the light.