50 Chapter 50: Sun

Holding this bouquet of flowers makes me look like I'm going to propose. And the fact that I'm standing before a hospital door very anxiously does not help. The past few days I've been visiting Malinda, she's still unconscious but every time before I go in, I feel like she could already be awake.

When the door opens by itself revealing a small girl in a blue, loose hospital gown and the flower crown I had placed on her head while she was sleeping, that just proves my point.

I smile and stare at Malinda. The moment both of our eyes meet, she throws herself onto me and hugs me tightly. I hesitate before hugging her back, "You're awake."

Malinda lets go first and exclaims, "Rhys!" and continues staring at me, but I sooner realize that she starts to look guilty.

I try to put a serious face and scoff, "Trying to go outside without permission, huh?"

Malinda giggles mischievously, "I want to roam around! This new world looks so extravagant and all I'm doing is being stuck inside this room."

"That's because you're supposed to. Lie down, Malinda. You still haven't recovered." I point to the bed.

Malinda pouts and walks back to the hospital bed, "But I feel fantastic! Seriously, I'm fine!" She twirls around but almost trips before she even faces me again. I catch her just in time with one hand.

When I raised a brow at her, Malinda retreats and lies down.

I sit down at the edge of the bed, "Here, I bought you some flowers. They remind me of your flower crown."

Malinda pouts again and looks away, "Hmph. I've seen you steal those flowers from the garden outside. That is a crime, Rhys. And you tell me that I can't go to roam."

"You were watching me, huh?" Malinda flushed. I continue, "Anyway, stealing a bunch of flowers doesn't really compare to a certain someone who stole my sketchpad every day."

Malinda laughs and grabs the bouquet from my hands, "I suppose it's fair. These flowers are so beautiful." She smells it gracefully.

And so are you.

"And there are way more beautiful things out there. Remember when I explained to you about the magnificence of ramen?" I whip out my plastic bag in front of her and let the ramen cups inside it to drop on the bed.

She gasps and set the bouquet down as she examines the food, "Wow! There are so many. You didn't have to do this for me."

"We aren't even getting started yet. Here, I already have one ready for you." I carefully grab and give her the half-open ramen cup and some chopsticks from the other plastic bag. "You gotta eat a lot so you can get out of here." She looks at the food delicately as her mouth water. I suddenly realize that this is a really big deal because she hasn't eaten anything in forever. "Hold on, you probably don't know how to use chopsticks, I think I have some—"

Then, she naturally arranges the chopsticks on her left hand and chomp away. Wow. When she finishes her first bite, she spoke, "This is fantastic! How could you ever get tired of this?" I smile at her as she continues eating, "Is the world really still capable of beautiful things like these today?"

" You bet. And don't worry, I promise I'll show you all of it. You just have to rest up a bit more, okay?"

Malinda swallows the food and sets the cup down slowly, "You already showed me something I've forgotten." She looks at me shyly, "You made me want to live once more. I never thought that I would feel like this again. I never thought I would feel alive again. Thank you, Rhys, for saving me."

You saved me first.

"Hm?"

"Huh?"

"I… did?"

"Wait, did I say that out loud?"

Malinda laughs, "You are so adorable!" This time, she's still looking straight into my eyes and isn't flustered at all anymore. "I suppose we truly needed and helped one another. We still do."

I return a warm smile.

Suddenly, someone knocks aloud, destroying our moment.

Rose's jaw fell open when she entered and stood frozen.

Aunt Maine was there too, smiling softly, "You're awake! Malinda, right?" Malinda smiles and nods. Aunt continues, "I'm Rhys's Aunt, you can call me Maine. And she's—"

Rose runs up to her and sits beside me on the bed as Malinda exclaims, "Rose!"

Rose replied cheerfully to her, "You know my name! And you're Malinda, the mermaid that Rhys was drawing before!"

"Mermaid?" Malinda laughs, "Drawing?"

Aunt Maine disrupts, "We're all so glad to see you've woken up. Rhys told us you're a dear friend of his and has been visiting every single day. I'm going to call the doctor, rest up, okay?" She leaves the room as my sister and Malina chatters away.

"I've always wanted to meet you Rose. I've seen a video of your dance at your birthday. You are as adorable as your brother!"

Rose blushes, "No, you are, Malinda! You really look like a mermaid. Where in the world did my brother find a mermaid girlfriend?"

"Woah!" I stop her whilst nervously laughing.

Rose giggles and then notices the bouquet Malinda was holding, "Wow! These are so pretty. But it's somehow familiar."

"Yeah, I think we have one of these in Gran's garden."

She snaps a finger, "Oh, I know what this is called! We learned this in science class. It's a cyclamen."

The both of them admire and smell the flowers before Rose suddenly pipes in, "I have to take a picture of you both, and with the flowers too!"

I was suddenly stunned the second she suggests that. And in that second, everything suddenly hit me at once—that Malinda is currently here beside me. She's here with me. She's not trapped in a curse nor a cave that restricts her from doing anything anymore. She's not restricted to live life. Like an actual human being, and for the first time in forever, she can live freely now and do anything anyone could and would do.

And there's nothing stopping her whatsoever, not even a simple camera.

"Hell yeah! Let's do it." I immediately reply.

The two girls both gasp at me, "Rhys!"

"What?"

"Mind your language!" Malinda demands and whispers the second part, "We're with a kid here."

"A mouth who curse is a mouth of dirt!" Rose scolds me, "You taught me that and you don't even follow it."

Malinda chortles.

I snort, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry! I won't do it again Ms. Grumbly."

Rose purses her lips angrily and mumbles, "Don't call me that in front of her."

I roll my eyes, "Are we gonna take this picture or not?"

"You two first!" She stands up and grabs her phone.

When Malinda notices the phone, she goes, "Oh! I've almost forgotten." She pulls something from under her pillow and… it's my phone. "I am terribly sorry for destroying your cellular phone. Although I seem to have revive it shortly after I threw it away." She hands it to me.

I press the power button and it's legitimately alright. I look at her astounded, "Thank you! I can't believe you managed to fix even a phone!"

"What does that mean?" Rose questions.

"Oh, uh, nothing. So, the picture!"

Rose ignored that, thankfully. As she professionally positions the frame for us, I put my hands on Malinda's waist and she got startled. I've never smiled in pictures. I mean, I rarely smile on anything anyway. Or even take any picture. But my lips automatically form a curve while we take the photos. And I also do random poses with Malinda.

Once the first ones were taken, Malinda views the pictures and judges herself, "This is what I look like now? I look incredibly plain! What happened to my hair?"

"You are not plain. You're beautiful, Malinda."

Malinda looks at me again and gets flustered.

"Pause all your flirting and more on the picturing, please! Let's now take some with me. I'll prank all my friends and tell them I was with a famous supermodel!" Rose giggles and sit with us again.

We all face the phone as it changed to selfie mode.

"Say Grumbly!"

Rose elbows me before eventually giving up as we all say it and take more pictures.

It's weird. How much I want this one exact moment to last forever. But at the same time, I want to move forward no matter how horrendous or surprising the future can be. In a way, I feel like both, too. But the one thing I most definitely won't do is to cling onto the past or let it pull me down. Yes, one day, I'll look back at the pictures we're currently taking, but when that happens, I'll just smile for a minute for the moments that had happened and then continue with my day. But for now, right as this moment is happening, I'll make sure to stay in it. And I will continue staying.

-

The End.