NOVEL NEXT Chapter 153
[Yōhei Nakajima was overjoyed to hear the news. You, the one who had shared it, finally felt a sense of relief.]
[Last November, Reina Nakajima’s health began to deteriorate. By the New Year, her condition had worsened further, and the doctors at Chigusa University Hospital had been urging her to undergo surgery.]
[Yōhei Nakajima approached you cautiously, inquiring about the institute and the surgery. His nerves were on edge, fearing bad news.]
[You assured him that everything was in order and that Reina Nakajima would be transferred to Lilian International Hospital in a week.]
[Elated, he took you out for dinner. Sitting in an upscale sushi restaurant, he spoke with you, curious about how you managed to get Lilian Hospital to accept Reina, especially since nearly every critically ill heart patient was vying for a spot in the experimental surgery.]
[You brushed off his questions, merely stating that you knew someone connected to the program.]
[A week later, Reina Nakajima was transferred to Lilian Hospital to begin pre-surgical assessments and preparations.]
[Two months later, the surgery began.]
A brief memory fragment surfaces.
The protagonist of the memory is not Yuuki Minami but Reina Nakajima.“Dad, is Yuuki here yet?” Reina asked her father as the time for surgery drew near.
“No, I tried calling him, but I can’t get through. I have no idea where he is!” Yōhei Nakajima frowned.
“Didn’t Yuuki-kun say he had something to do today?” Honoka gently patted her husband’s back.
Ibuki Yūko nodded in agreement with her mother.
“I know he’s a responsible kid and wouldn’t disappear for no reason, but today is Reina’s surgery!” Yōhei’s frustration boiled over.
His irritation wasn’t due to resentment toward Yuuki for being absent but rather a transformation of his mounting anxiety about the impending surgery into agitation—a flood of emotions that drowned out everything else and manifested as discontent.
“Yuuki told me last night that he couldn’t see me off to the operating room,” Reina defended the boy she adored. “All the previous patients’ surgeries have been successful. Mine will be too. When I wake up, he’ll be back.”
“There’s still some time before the surgery. He might make it,” Honoka comforted her stepdaughter, pinching her husband’s waist to keep him quiet.
Yōhei closed his mouth, unwilling to let his inner turmoil affect his daughter.
“Okay,” Reina responded softly to Honoka, lying back quietly and waiting.
As the surgery approached, footsteps echoed from outside the room. Reina looked toward the door, her gaze filled with anticipation. But it wasn’t him. It was a nurse with a stretcher.
She lay down on the hard stretcher as the nurse wheeled her toward the operating room. The stiffness of the surface and the wheels’ scraping sound against the floor unsettled her.
Two months ago, her father had excitedly told her she’d been selected for the experimental surgery. She hadn’t felt any joy.
In her younger years, she’d experienced too many cycles of hope followed by disappointment and had learned to remain indifferent. She understood that hope was like a ball tossed into the air; it would always fall back down, hitting her on the head. The harder she hoped, the harder the ball would strike when it came crashing down. The best approach was to toss it gently, without force.
But during the two months at Lilian Hospital, under the doctors’ highly optimistic assurances, she couldn’t help but toss the ball a bit higher. Each toss, her mind was filled with images of Yuuki Minami.
The stretcher turned a corner and entered an elevator. The brief sensation of weightlessness as the elevator descended made her feel as though her life was also plummeting.
“Reina, how are you feeling?” Yōhei and Honoka followed behind the stretcher, asking with concern as they stepped into the elevator.
Reina didn’t answer. The elevator doors opened, and the stretcher rolled down a hallway. Her gaze searched the surroundings, scanning over patients in blue hospital gowns and doctors in white coats. Not him. Not him. Not him…
“Dad, is Yuuki here yet?” She was afraid her weakening body had missed him and turned to ask her father again.
Her voice was soft, too faint for him to hear clearly. She repeated the question.
“No,” her father replied.
She lowered her gaze in disappointment. In what could be the final moments of her life, the boy she loved the most was not by her side.
The boy had told her yesterday that he had something important to do and wouldn’t be able to escort her to the operating room. She had been mentally prepared for this, but as the dreadful doors of the operating room loomed closer, her yearning for his presence grew stronger.
The sound of rolling wheels, her father’s words of comfort, and the chatter of doctors and nurses surrounded her, then seemed to fade away. It felt as if the world had narrowed down to just herself, lying flat as she was wheeled toward the operating room.
The stretcher came to a halt—it had reached the doors of the operating room. She glanced around one last time but still couldn’t find the boy’s face.
The floodwaters that had broken through Yōhei Nakajima’s emotional dam were now surging within Reina Nakajima’s heart. Yet, her unease wasn’t solely because of the life-and-death nature of the surgery—it was also due to the boy’s absence.
Yuuki, where are you right now? Do you even exist?
The operating room doors closed. Two nurses approached to help her change into a surgical gown.
She let the two young women move her body as needed, her neck twisting to scan her surroundings for the person in her heart. She didn’t find him. Her frustration manifested as exhaustion. Closing her eyes, she allowed the nurses to push her into the anesthesia room.
“Relax.”
A familiar voice spoke above her. She tilted her head back and saw the figure that had haunted her dreams.
Despite the surgical gown, mask, and cap covering most of his features, Reina Nakajima recognized Yuuki Minami in an instant.
Those eyes, with their gentle smile and the reflection of her figure within them—there was no way she could be mistaken. The waves rippling through those eyes washed away her frustration, anxiety, and sadness. Reina opened her mouth, wanting to ask why Yuuki was in the operating room. But before the words escaped her lips, she swallowed them.
She feared that if she spoke, this dreamlike reality would shatter like a vibrant bubble under the sun.
“Yuuki.” Her feelings condensed into a single, simple call of his name.
“I’ll be the one performing your surgery,” Yuuki said softly, placing his hand on her cheek.
“Okay.” Reina didn’t hesitate, didn’t question. She was already intoxicated by the dreamlike reunion. As long as she could stay by Yuuki’s side, nothing else mattered.
Her burgeoning love and affection for him gave her a newfound confidence and courage. As long as she was with him, not even death could touch her.
“Now, breathe in,” Yuuki instructed, gently placing the anesthesia mask over her face.
She followed his instructions, breathing in deeply. Her consciousness began to fade, and the image of the boy before her grew blurry and indistinct.
[In the operating room, you appeared before Reina Nakajima. The girl was overjoyed at your presence. You administered the anesthesia and carried her to the operating table.]
[Even in the sterile, detached atmosphere of the operating room, Reina’s sleeping face remained elegant and noble. You made the first incision across her pale chest, revealing her vibrant, crimson heart.]
[The surgery proceeded smoothly; it was the most perfect operation you’d ever performed. After finishing the procedure on her chest cavity, your assistant offered to handle the sutures. You declined and personally completed the final task for Reina Nakajima.]
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