ᴄᴏᴜᴘʟᴇ's sʜɪʀᴛ.

January 23, 2014. She sprinted the moment she got out of the car. A smile plastered on her lips while hiding a small paper bag behind her. She knocked on the windows and he unlocked the doors for her to get inside. She showed him what she bought and when he noticed that it was a shirt, he realized that she was wearing the same one. He let out a soft laugh before planting a kiss on her lips. It was their fifth anniversary as a couple. They have been together since they attended the police academy.

"Wear it?" She asked and he unbuttoned his shirt to put it on. She held onto the bullet proof vest he handed, placing it on her lips as she helped him buttoning the couple's shirt. He gave her another kiss on her lips and she squished his cheeks between her palms.

"It looks good on you and I got your right size." She smiled gently and he held her hands to place kisses on the back of it. She could feel that he wanted to tell something but then, they heard the radio beeping. He immediately took it and volumed it up.

"Taiki, we should go now. The whole building is empty." His current partner radioed but he saw a certain light flickering as if they were following a pattern or sending a signal to someone. He looked at her and gestured that he will be back after some minutes, so she just nodded.

He quickly went out of the car and ran towards the building. They received a tip from an anonymous person that there will be a transaction later that night, so the team sent them to the location to keep on guard. Five minutes had passed and she noticed that he forgot to wear the bullet proof vest again, so she grabbed it and followed him inside the building. Her eyes widened when she suddenly heard a gunshot.

"Taiki.." She muttered and then, she dashed. She looked for him all over the place and when she arrived at the basement, she saw him lying down on the floor, unconscious and drowning in his own blood.

"No.. Taiki, please. Wake up." She started crying while trying to stop his gunshot wound on his chest from bleeding. She didn't hear the footsteps from behind, so she fell on top of him when someone hit her head with an iron pipe.

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

The beep from the heart rate monitor was the only thing that kept the whole room alive. The door opened and the nurse walked in to check on her vital signs. There was still no progress on her condition. As someone who tracked her condition for eight years, it was frustrating that she was still not waking up. They called her Sleeping Beauty. Aside from her family, only the closest friends were the ones who visited her. It was rumored that her boyfriend of five years was already dead but her family wished not to talk about it anymore.

"Your brothers visited you earlier. I found out that your second brother will get married soon. Would you like to attend his wedding?" The nurse asked the Sleeping Beauty. She didn't respond as the nurse finished checking her vital signs.

The nurse stretched her arms up as it was already midnight. She got the graveyard shift and it was already her habit to take coffee during midnight. The moment she put her hands down, she accidentally stumbled upon the metal cart, making the medical equipment fall on the floor. She sighed and started picking it up one by one. She looked under the bed and saw that the scissors were there. She tried to reach for it but she couldn't get it. Her heart started to beat so fast when the bed creaked. She quickly backed out and saw that her patient was sitting on the bed, trying to pick up the scissors.

"S-sensei!" She screamed as she ran out of the room to call for the doctor-in-charge. The Sleeping Beauty kept on reaching for it but since she was under persistent vegetative state, she fell on the floor instead. She couldn't move her body that much.

When the doctor and nurse arrived, they found her clutching on the bedpost while trying to stand up. They carried her back to the bed and called her family since they needed to know that she was finally awake. She stared at them while they were running tests on her. They carried her to the wheelchair and brought her to the other room for the other tests. After that, they brought her back to her room so she could have rest. Her eldest brother, Sekai, asked her if she was feeling fine and she just nodded.

"What happened to me?" She asked them but they couldn't answer her question. She waited for their answers but she received nothing but forced smiles. She was sure that they were hiding something from her but she didn't force them to tell her because it might be something that she doesn't want to remember.

"The nurse said you will get married already, Nii." She said to her second brother. He nodded and smiled. She realized that her brothers were already in their thirties. It means they should have their own families soon. She smiled at the thought of taking care of her future nephews and nieces. It would also be nice if she will have her own children.

"How about Aniki?" She asked once again and Sekai just let out a soft chuckle, knowing that he will not get married soon because he is too busy with his work and hobbies. Another figure arrived and it was her second brother's fiancée. After almost a decade, she finally saw the woman who caught her second brother's heart.

"Ren, this is Fuyu. She will be your sister-in-law." Sho introduced his bride to her and she smiled at them. Somehow, she felt empty. She felt that something was missing but she didn't know what it was. The doctor suggested to her to take a rest already and she followed.

A week had passed and she was sitting inside the interrogation room. The detectives showed a photo to her but all she did was to shake her head. She doesn't know the man they were asking. Even if she tries to rack her brain about the man, she can't remember him. She stood up and walked closer to the blinded windows. She wanted to cry. She felt suffocated. Her heart is tightening up. She took a deep breath as she tried to speak up.

"If I remember anything, I will tell you right away. The man in the photo, I don't know him. He is not part of my life. He is not part of my memories." Tears started to fall from her eyes and they all kept their mouths shut. She quickly wiped it and they released her.

She forced her feet to walk out of the police station. She felt relieved when she saw Sekai waiting for her outside. She threw herself in his arms and poured out her remaining tears. As the youngest among them, she was vulnerable when she couldn't handle things anymore. The older one comforted her and made her feel that he was there to support her decisions, either going back or not going back as a police detective. She knows that her family will be there for her no matter what happens.