I am tired.

WAKE YOUR DREAMS

I am tired.

*.·:·.✧.·:·.*

Fanny Natsumi, Zehan's mother came over to Kyoto the next day. When she pushed open the door of the hospital door, she looked at her son who was laid on the patient bed and beside the bed stood Kiyoko blankly staring back at the person on the bed.

There was something unusual with the girl, who seemed to be in some kind of an illusion.

Fanny Natsumi glanced at her son, who seems to be fast asleep. Half of his forehead was bandaged and his right hand was plastered. Tears seemed to well up to her eyes as she saw her son's condition.

When Zehan was in his junior year of his school, he caught a dangerous pneumonia during his finals and had to repeat a year. Fanny Natsumi was always extra concerned about Zehan's health since then.

She could not bear to see her child lying on a hospital bed. She was relieved when she heard from the doctor that there were no internal injuries and Zehan will be alright within three weeks.

Fanny Natsumi stood beside Kiyoko and gently patted on her shoulders.

Kiyoko was startled and then turned to look at her aunt, standing beside her.

"Kiyoko please go home and rest now. What you need the most is rest. I will take care of Zehan. Go ahead."

"Aunty…" Kiyoko fell on her knees. "I am Sorry"

She broke down and clutched the hem of her skirt with her hands. She felt guilty about what happened to Zehan. She could not bear to look into Aunt Fanny's face.

'She must be angry with me.'

'She must hate me a lot now.'

"Kiyoko….What are you doing?" Fanny Natsumi was flabbergasted.

"I am really sorry. It's because of me, Zehan is hurt…I am sorry."

"Kiyoko don't blame it yourself. It was an accident. It can happen to anybody. Silly girl"

"But…"

"Kiyoko…" Fanny lee kneeled down and hugged Kiyoko. "It must have been hard for you. You watched over Zehan all night. You should go home and get some rest. I will go to the house after the evening. And don't blame it on yourself like that, I felt hurt, Kiyoko."

'How can you say like that?' Kiyoko thought. She did not expect such an answer from Aunty Fanny.

Her own mother shouted at her once because her brother caught some cold because of her. She urged that her brother wanted the ice cream but that only infuriated her mother. Kiyoko was given silent treatment by her mother for a whole week.

It was when she was still in middle school.

And after hearing Sakura last night, she had expected something similar would be told by Aunt Fanny, whom she had known only for a few years when she was in junior grade.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It has been about two weeks since Zehan was hospitalized. His hand was slowly getting back to normal and he would be able to come back home within the coming week. He was shifted to the recuperation ward.

Aunt Fanny returned to Tokyo as there was no urgency for her to stay by Zehan and she could not stay out long from her restaurant.

Kiyoko never went inside the hospital room. She would only take a peek at him from the door and then return home. She visited the hospital twice a day.

Kiyoko stood in front of the hospital room. She could see Zehan through the glass pane.

Zehan was sitting, leaning against the bed and Kotaro sat on the chair by the bed.

"Kiyoko…" Tamaka whispered near Kiyoko's ear. Tamaka was standing behind Kiyoko.

Kiyoko shrieked. It was quite loud and many people who were in the corridor turned to look at her.

Kiyoko put her hands on her mouth and then turned to look at the door.

She met Zehan's eyes. He was staring straight at her.

Kiyoko panicked and pushed the bag of clothes towards Tamaka.

"Give these clothes to him."

"Ae… Kiyoko…." Tanaka shouted.

Kiyoko hastily ran away and did not dare to turn her face towards the door.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She stood at the doorway of the house.

She felt lonely as she stood, trying to gather herself while silent tears silently ran down her cheeks. Kiyoko began to hiccup while her tears fell continuously like a steady rain.

'Everything was okay but....'

'Why did I have to fall?'

'If only Zehan wouldn't have been there…'

'Shit'

She dragged her feet towards the couch and threw herself onto it. She threw her hand bag on the table.

"I am tired."

She was tired of everything.

She turned her face to look outside the open window. Her tears left a moist trail on her cheeks, she snuffled.

The window overlooked the huge bougainvillea. Its charming lilac leaves bathed in the early sunshine.

RING~ RING~

Her phone rang. Kiyoko tiredly dragged her body towards the table to take out the phone from her bag.

On seeing the caller ID she lost the mood to even receive the call and threw the phone back inside the bag.

It was her mother.

She was too exhausted to talk to her mother.

The phone rang for a few times before finally returning back to silence.

'The Giosek Art Examination was already over by now.'

Kiyoko let out a sigh. She closed her eyes shut and when she opened her eyes again it was filled with determination.

She was sure about one thing that she has to fix what she had ruined.

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END OF CHAPTER 13