Forgive Me For Forgetting You

Empty Spaces

Rin didn't show up the next morning.

Not at visiting hours.
Not with food containers in his hands.
Not with that sharp, unreadable stare that made Isagi's chest ache for reasons he didn't understand.

And the absence was louder than his presence ever was.

Isagi

He kept glancing at the door.
Every creak in the hallway, every set of footsteps that passed—it made his stomach tighten, waiting.
But no one came.

He told himself it didn't matter.
That it was stupid to care whether Rin showed up or not.

But when Reo and Chigiri came by later, chatting softly about how practice was going, Isagi's voice cracked before he could stop it.

"...Did Rin say anything?"

The silence that followed was heavy, sharp enough to sting.

"No," Reo finally said. "He's been... distant."

Isagi forced a smile. But when they left, he curled into the hospital sheets, nails digging into his palms.

Why did it feel like something inside him was unraveling?
Why did he want to cry over someone he wasn't even supposed to know?

Rin

From the far end of the hallway, Rin leaned against the wall, unseen.
He wanted to go in.
Every nerve in his body screamed to.

But every time he pictured Isagi's blank gaze, his voice asking "do I know you?"—
his chest tightened until he couldn't breathe.

So he stayed hidden.
Watching from the shadows.
Letting the distance grow.

Because maybe... maybe Isagi was better off not remembering him.
Better off without the weight of Rin Itoshi dragging him down.

Extra

Sae saw it.
The way Rin lingered but never entered.
The way Isagi's eyes dimmed just a little more each day Rin didn't come.

He clenched his fists.
Because if neither of them moved first...
one of them was going to shatter.

AUthors note 

published this during english :)