I glared at the sky as a placed my head on my palm. I put on my headphones and played some horrible song. "Takane? We'll continue lesson tomorrow, see ya." The teacher said as he waved his clipboard and walked out of class. I hit my head on the table and groaned. I still could not get over it. I wanted to but it hurt too much for it to stop. I wished time would stop in this lonely classroom.

It was a month ago before it got lonely. I was stomping along the cracked stone pathway on my way to the school entrance. I remembered stares and whispers reaching my eyes and ears as I walked. Annoying pricks, I thought. "Hey isn't that the Tyrant?" One whispered. "Yeah I think so…" The other replied. I shot daggers at them and they were silenced. The sky was annoyingly bright and birds were annoyingly noisy. It really was not my day. "Ah! Good morning Takane!" I whipped my black twin-tails and looked at the source of the voice. Haruka stood there waving at me with his bed head. "What do you want now?" I spat and kept my glare. "Nothing really. Just wanted to say hi!" He smiled as if I did not seem annoyed. I turned my head again and continued to walk forward. He started chatting on and on about some art gallery he went to. "Hey Haruka, is it really okay to be out on your own?" I asked and elaborated further upon looking at his confused face. "I mean, you're still sick aren't you? What happens if you suddenly faint on the side of the street and no one is there to help you?" He scratched his black hair nonchalantly and replied, "It's fine! I can take care of myself." Haruka had this rare disease that I could not name. It seemed to constantly turn on and off at horrible timings, thus causing him to faint on the spot and look like milk ice-cream. I had no clue what would happen if it got bad.

We got to the classroom some eternities later and I plopped down on my seat. Haruka carefully laid his bag aside and sat down. He took out his already-filled sketchbook and flipped to an empty page. Meanwhile, I took out my headphones, put it over my head and started to zone out. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Haruka staring at me and suddenly turned back to his drawing. I did a quick self-check. Clothes? Check. Face on fire? Check. Headphones? Crap. That was the moment I realized that my headphones were not plugged in. Haruka stared at me again and I was blushing madly. I managed to pick myself up and pinched his cheek. "Takane what are you doing?!" He managed to blurt out before I let go. "You stupid, blanked-face idiot…" I mumbled right to his face before letting go. Haruka rubbed his cheeks gently before the teacher came in. "Okay guys, good morning and today we will learn about how the human digestive system works." The teacher said in a monotonous tone and so began the boring science lesson.

After that class ended after what seemed like forever, I laid my head down and started to sleep. I dreamt of Haruka saying, "Help me…Taka…" before suffocating and dying. I shot up sweating profusely. I looked over to Haruka and saw him sleeping. As if checking if that dream was reality, I shook Haruka's shoulder. Silence yelled at me. "Hey, Haruka?" No response. "Haruka?! Hey! Tell me you're awake! Hey!" I shook his shoulder even more. I went down to his heart and tried to hear it beat.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

It was beating but it was rapidly getting slower. I got up and rushed out of the room. "Someone! Please! Help!" I ran and ran until I ran short of breath. At that moment, my boring science teacher bumped into me. "Hey kiddo! Watch where you're—" He was cut short as he looked at my frantic face. "Please…help…Haruka…!" Then, everything went black.

I woke up to face a white ceiling and sat up. I heard the beeps of a heart monitor and looked around. A nurse came in and said, "Oh! It seems like you're awake dear. You fainted about a day ago and so you are here. I will contact your parents immediately." She left the room with a soft click. I laid my head down on the pillow and sighed. I shot my eyes open and suddenly remembered. "Haruka? What about Haruka?!" I yelled and threw the blanket aside. "He's dead." A monotonous tone replied. I looked at the source and there sat my science teacher. He closed the book he was reading and continued, "He was gone yesterday. The disease got worse and blocked the blood from entering his heart. I'm sorry…" I brought my hands to my eyes and screamed a horrible, painful scream. I imagined him reaching out his skinny hand, constantly crying for help. I imagined me completely immersed in the world of music and ignoring the cries. It was all my fault. If only I had listened, if only I had not been so stubborn, if only it was me! I thought all those dark thoughts while slamming my fist on the bed sheets. My teacher gave me his sketchbook. "He told me to let you look at it." He said and left.

I opened up the neat sketchbook with trembling hands. Many beautiful drawings of flowers, birds and scenery filled it up. However, there were some drawings…of me. There was a drawing of me glaring at the others. Another of a time I was sleeping facing the window. Finally, one of me blushing a dark red. I was nearing the end of it and finally, it showed a picture of him smiling. Red lettering in cursive font made me drop the sketchbook.

"Takane? Thank You."

That was the first time in forever that I ever cried so hard. I remembered my deathly screams and hot tears that rained on my face. I remembered the dark thoughts I had. I remembered Haruka's smiling face and wondered, had he ever felt sad? In my mind, Haruka had always been smiling. Always bright and always insouciant. I hated myself even more after that. What if he had always been sad? What if he had been hating me the entire time? What if…what if he wanted to die? I slapped myself. There was no way Haruka would think like that. He would never have written those two magic words.

I stared at the blue sky with dark eyes as I stood on the school grounds. I never understood him and I never would. He disappeared from this world and I could not bring him back. Even so, I murmured the words I wanted to say, "Thank you. Haruka." A lone tear sled down my cheeks.

I'M SO SORRY FOR NOT POSTING FOR SO LONG ｡･ﾟﾟ･(д)･ﾟﾟ･｡I'm a horrible person I know now shush humans. I got inspired in school so i rushed back home and started doing this. I hope you enjoyed~! (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))