until our next life | Moon-Tama

III

30 minutes had passed.

the boy hasn't come back yet.

the water that the girl had boiled earlier had turned cold.

the girl sighed , got off of her bed and took the stand with the drug that kept her alive until now with her. 

she went outside to look for the boy but he was not in sight.

"hey , what are you doing outside?" a voice asked from behind her. She looked at her back and found the boy holding 2 cups of ramen.

his legs were shaking and he was sweating from exhaustion.

"hey, if it was that hard , i could have gone down." the girl said.

"no , it's fine." the boy replied.

"what do you mean fine? Look at you , you're sweating like crazy !"

"but hey, at least i walked without my wheelchair. That's a first." he said then walking to the room.

"why? why do you still feel hope?" she asked.

the boy stopped in his tracks without looking back.

"I have no hope in my life. Just like i say, i only have a few months to live. and it stays like that." he said. "but,

you don't need to have hope in only one thing right?" he continued.

the girl widened her eyes.

how she never noticed on such simple things.

she had only thought about her life-span during the past year.

and yet she never noticed the things around her.

thus , she never hoped for anything. As there she thought nothing else were important.

the word hope which she thought was just a trivial thing,

has changed in a way she could never believed.

***

"hey...what did you exactly hope for earlier?" she asked , slowly blowing the hot soup of the cup noodles.

"it's quite simple actually. i hoped to walk even though i can't walk soon. And look ! i did it !" he laughed.

"Don't you feel exhausted? Don't you feel like you want to give up?" she asked.

"Of course. But you could never imagine how good it is to feel to have something that you achieved by your own. Even i were to walk for the last time and sweat like crazy, for me, it's just proof that i did what i hoped for." he replied.

"But i don't feel like i achieved something even if i'm eating this delicious and addictive cup noodles." the girl said ,slurping the noodles.

"I'm sure you'll feel like you achieved something soon." he said.

the girl hummed and they finally ate with silence.

minutes past and they finally finished their dinner. 

"i'm so full. I'll go to sleep first." he said.

"hey, don't go to sleep immediately after you eat. you should let the food inside digest first." she said.

"...alright, let's talk before we sleep." he smiled.

"what do you wanna talk about?" she asked.

"no idea."

there was again a moment of silence for both had nothing to say.

the clock in the room was ticking loudly yet calmly.

"thank you." she said.

"for what?" 

"for staying here with me, for being my roommate, for teaching me the true meaning of hope." she smiled.

"hey, that's what friends are for. let's make these months unforgettable." he said.

"friends...i never had friends before."

"me neither." he smiled.

"if we were to be friends , we should be our first and last." he continued.

"I suppose." she smiled back.

"let's sleep now. good night." he said.

"good night." 

that was the first time in a while for her to bid good night to somebody. 

and for the first time in years,

she was excited for the next day.