The Book of Misfortune: The Blind Painter
Title: The Blind Painter
Author: amsthedamned
Pairing/Subject: Takaki Yuya x OC
Rating: PG
Genre: Tragedy, Romance, Friendship
“Why won’t you look at me?” Yuya asked as he looked onto the painting onto the easel. He lightly stroked the woman’s hair on the rough surface of the canvas.
He sits in a dark room, the only light was the moonlight passing through the dust infested glass window panes. The painting showed of a delicate woman, painted with the most vibrant colours, almost as if she were going to come out of the painting. She wore a white strapless chiffon dress which slowly faded and became flowers as it flared off. Her surroundings her flowers and plants of different varieties and colours, making it bright and full of life. Though, in the painting, the woman was looking down onto an arrangement of flowers and looked away from the viewer.
Yuya looked deep into her eyes, they were the only part in the painting that was lifeless. They were dull and seemed to stare off into space. Yuya had a tear roll down his cheek as he caressed the cheek of the painting.
“Shizuka, why won’t you look at me?”
--X--
“My, isn’t he a sweetheart!”
“He looks just like his father.”
Takaki Yuya groaned as he watched his fickly mother and aunt talk about his newly born cousin. Beside the bed was a stand with a glass case where the baby was sleeping. Here he was sitting on the chair, his legs swing alternately, praying that this talk would be over soon. He had better things to do, like go to a park and play with his friends or paint. Yeah, he loved to paint. He was wasting precious time here in the hospital.
“Oka~…-“ he tried to say as he looked to the two women talking, he was going to use his ‘pleading’ face.
“Yes. Why don’t you go around, Yuya?” his mother told him, without even having to face him. Yuya just looked at her with an eyebrow raised.
“Whatever you say.”
“Go grab some chocolate milk or something.” Her mother told him off. What the hell was he going to do with Chocolate milk? Oh well, he could go off now anyways. He got off the chair and slipped out of the room. The hospital wasn’t as busy as he saw doctors conversing with one another about medical stuff that he had no understanding about. Then there were nurses also talking to one another about patients and conditions.
While walking down the hall, he noticed a few rooms open. Being a curious kid as his excuse, he decided to peek in them. The first room he passed, he noticed an old man rocking in his chair, tubes attached to his nose. Yuya noticed the old man look at him and smile. He took this as an invitation to come in.
“What’s your name, kid?” the old man asked as Yuya came closer. He noticed that he was almost toothless flashing his smile with yellow stars. Yuya twitched a little, seeing how confident this man was.
“Yuya, Takaki Yuya.” He introduced himself. The old man nodded and smiled when he heard the name.
“Interesting name… You know, I’m amazed by Japanese people like you… You know, I have a granddaughter around your age…” he smiled. “She’s a very beautiful girl. She’s also Japanese.”
Yuya noticed that the man seemed to stare off into space when he was looking at him. He also noticed that his eyes were always closed, but he seemed to know and see everything’s presence in the room. He reached for a glass of water and put it back in the exact same spot.
“Hontou…?” Yuya asked, curious about this old man.
“Jii-chan!” a squeaky voice yelled out. Yuya looked to the entrance to see a little girl rush up to the old man and hug him. The old man laughed as he slowly rocked back and forth.
Yuya looked at her, jet black hair framed her delicate face. She had amazing blue eyes which she must have inherited from her grandfather with long lashes. She had a pointy nose and creamy skin. From her height, she looked like she was only shorter than him by a few inches.
“Ah, Shizuka! How’s my favourite granddaughter?” the old man asked, patting the head of the little girl making the little girl smile at her grandfather.
“We just had a check up again today!” Shizuka smiled. The girl turned her attention to Yuya who was just sitting across her grandfather. She had never seen him around before. She smiled, thinking it was a new friend her grandfather made.
“Ah. How did it go?” he asked.
“The doctor talked to mama for a long time. I was waiting for hours!” she complained. Yuya knew that it was impossible for her mother to talk for hours. She wasn’t like his mom whom he knew would literally talk for hours. Maybe she was just bored.
“Ah… So, where’s your mother?”
“Konnichiwa, otou-san.” A middle-aged woman walked in. She looked Japanese mixed with American blood. This must’ve been the daughter of the old man, and Shizuka’s mother.
“Ah, Yoshino.” The old man turned his head to the door as the woman started to walk in. Shizuka smiled as her mother walked in. Yoshino took notice of Yuya who was now feeling awkward about the family gathering that was happening. He prayed that there were no more relatives about to come in.
“Who is this young man?” Yoshino asked, smiling gently towards Yuya. He felt a little embarrassed to be a complete and total stranger in this gathering.
“He’s Takaki Yuya, a new friend I made.” The old man said. “We just met this morning and had a very delightful conversation.”
Delightful conversation? The only thing he said for far was his name. This old man must be crazy then.
“Ah! Souka. I’m Hasekura Yoshino. And this is my daughter, Shizuka.” The woman formally introduced themselves. Shizuka smiled and waved at him as her name was mentioned.
“Ha-Hai. Takaki Yuya desu.” Yuya also introduced himself as he stood up and bowed. Shizuka walked beside him and tugged on his shirt.
“Sugoi! You’re tall!” she said, trying to measure the height difference between them. Yuya looked at Shizuka, she was smaller than him. “Ne, okaa-san! I also want to get tall!” she complained and she pointed at Yuya.
“Nice to meet you Yuya.” Yoshino smiled. She also smiled at Shizuka. “That’s why you have to drink your milk, Shizuka.” She told her daughter and gently smiled.
“Ne, Yoshino. How was Shizuka’s check up?” the old man asked. Yuya noticed how Yoshino’s lips suddenly dropped once the check up was mentioned. Yuya was no expert in facial expression, but he knew that there was something wrong. He looked again at the little kid. What could be possibly wrong with her? Maybe utterly annoying.
“A-ah!” she stuttered, trying to make it sound like everything was ok. Maybe Shizuka didn’t know yet and Yoshino was trying to hide it from her. “Shizuka, why don’t you and Yuya grab something to eat while I talk to grandpa? Is that alright Yuya-kun?” Yoshino politely asked. He noticed that Yoshino had a worried look on her face.
“Hai!” Shizuka chirped pulling Yuya along with her. Yuya didn’t hesitate and went along with the little girl. But things kept running in his mind. “We can go to the hospital canteen!” she said as she dragged him along through the hospital hallways. The two kids left and Yoshino and her father to talk.
“How was it?” his voice serious as he also frowned. He must have seen this coming. Yoshino started to wipe a few tears coming to her eyes.
“Not good. The doctor said it’s progressing faster than usual. They’ve already identified what she’s got.” Yoshino said her breath a little hoarse as she felt sorry for her daughter.
“What is it?” he started to sound worried as well.
“Retinitis Pigmentosa.”
--X--
Yuya and Shizuka sat across one another while they were having a snack. In the canteen were patients and doctors alike all enjoying a simple meal so satisfy whatever hunger. Yuya had himself chocolate milk. He had to admit, he always fell for these. Shizuka on the other hand was having a Vanilla milk shake having the ideology that she would grow tall from drinking milk.
“Why are you here?” Shizuka asked him. She had been asking a lot of questions from when they were ordering to the point when they sat down.
“My aunt gave birth. My mom came to see her.” Yuya replied, taking a sip from his milk. Shizuka looked at him in awe, like she was amazed by what she was saying. He had to admit, this girl was cute.
“Ahh!” she said in awe like she was learning new things. “Ne, is the baby cute?”
“Hmmm…” he thought about it for a while. “Kinda… It was squirmy and squishy though.”
“Demo, babies are cho kawaii!” Shizuka chirped, starting an argument with him. Yuya had no reason to fight back and just agreed with whatever she would say, just entertaining the girl. But in his mind, he was thinking what could probably be wrong with this girl.
“Ne, Yuya-san…” Shizuka called.
“Hmm…?” he rolled his eyes to look at her.
“You’re not going to ask me questions?”
“Why should I?”
“To be fair…”
Yuya seemed taken aback there for a while. This girl was offering to answer whatever questions he had. Wouldn’t it be rude to ask why she was in the hospital?
“Eto…” he scratched the back of his head, trying to think of a question other than why she was here. Shizuka looked at him and tilted her head, curious as what he was about to say.
“What’s your favourite colour?” he asked. An air of awkwardness was felt between them. That seemed like a stupid question to ask. Shizuka just raised her eyebrow. Yuya felt embarrassed. He didn’t know how to socialize with a little girl. He needed to get out more.
“Every colour.” She smiled. It was Yuya’s turn to raise his eyebrow. She liked every colour?
“That can’t be possible. You must have at least on favoured colour.” He told her. Shizuka shook her head.
“That’s just plain mean to the other colours! You have to love all the colours! If God was the artist who created us, then he should’ve only favoured one kind of human being.” Shizuka fought with him. Yuya just kept his poker face. She liked to fight him. She should be debater when she gets older.
“Sou…” Yuya agreed.
“You ask boring questions. Is this how boys socialize?” Shizuka complained. Yuya sighed. What was he going to do? She didn’t look like it at first, but she was so demanding.
“Then tell me, how was your check up?” Yuya asked. Shizuka looked at him like she didn’t hear him.
“Me and my mommy went to an eye doctor.” Shizuka told him. “On random nights ever since a few years ago, I couldn’t see anything at night.”
“That’s natural. It’s dark. You can barely see anything when it’s dark.” Yuya tried to correct her. Shizuka shook her head.
“It’s not like that. You can barely see. You can see anything that reflects on light.” She explained to him. Yuya was amazed. She was a smart kid. “But for the past few nights, I couldn’t see anything. Mommy was scared so she decided to bring me to the eye doctor today.”
“I see…” Yuya was curious as to what the prognosis was. She couldn’t see anything in the dark? This was interesting. The only time he ever went to the doctor was when he was sick with fever. This was the first time he ever heard of something like this.
“And when mommy and the doctor was talking, I heard them say I’m not going to see anything when I get old.” Shizuka frowned. Yuya just nodded like he usually would but she looked at her, a little surprised. This girl was going blind and she knew about it.
“E-eh?” was all he could say. Shizuka looked at him a little annoyed.
“The doctor said I won’t be able to see anymore when I get older!” she said a bit more loudly.
Yuya felt disappointed to her. She was such a nice and smart girl. And what she was going to get in life was she was going blind. He felt sad that those beautiful eyes in the future would no longer see anything anymore.
“You like colours right?” Yuya asked her.
“Hai… nani?”
“If you like, I’ll paint you a picture with many colours…” he offered her. Shizuka looked at him wide eyed. Yuya thought she was surprised. But apparently he thought wrong when Shizuka started to giggle then laugh.
“I never thought you were the artist type.” Yuya kept his poker face when she said that. He sipped on his chocolate milk. This girl saw everything as a joke.
“Forget it.” He said shyly, looking away.
“I would love that!” she said at the same time. Yuya looked at her surprised. She agreed to his preposition. “But,” she added. Yuya looked at her to see her leaning over and holding out her right little finger. “Pinky swear?”
Yuya took her little finger in his and smiled.
“Pinky swear.”
--X---
And all it took was that pinky swear for them to become great friends. Yuya, fully aware of her situation decided to take care of her. Shizuka was also aware of her situations and went to the doctor regularly to have her eyes checked. Yuya would mostly accompany her to these checkups and Shizuka found herself to face her condition even stronger with him by her side.
“Alrighty.” The doctor said, turning off the small flashlight she used to look into Shizuka’s eyes. Shizuka looked at Yuya who was standing right next to the door. He smiled at her, reassuring her that everything was going to be ok.
“Your condition has slowed down a bit. But it looks like you might be experiencing some problems with your vision in the near future.” She stated, sitting down in front of Shizuka. Shizuka’s eyes widened.
“E-eh?” she questioned her, standing up, knocking the chair she sat on off. “I’ve been going under treatment ever since I was diagnosed!” she yelled.
“Takaki-san, please calm Shizuka down.” The doctor requested when Yuya walked over to Shizuka and tried to lessen her reaction. Yuya knew this was going to happen if any bad news broke out. He knew Shizuka had quite a temper when things didn’t go how they were planned or her way.
“I’ve been going under treatments for years…” Shizuka said calmly, looking down. She wasn’t expecting this to happen.
“Yes Shizuka. You have been going under treatment for years, but it doesn’t mean that you’re going to get 100% better. Retinitis Pigmentosa is a very serious disease and there is no found cure for it.” The doctor explained to Shizuka who sat down, holding Yuya’s hand. Yuya also listened carefully to explain to Shizuka’s parents when he brings her home.
“What the treatment does is that it only slows down the progression of the disease, in your case, is pretty advance and is rapidly progressing without the treatment.” The doctor said looking through her file. “If you didn’t go through any treatment, you would be blind by now.”
Shizuka looked like she didn’t want to listen to her anymore. Her worst fear was happening. She might be slowly losing her vision already. She wasn’t ready for it. She hasn’t seen everything the world has to offer.
“So, what’s going to happen to me now?” she asked.
“Your peripheral vision might be starting to get blurry. We’re not a hundred percent sure yet. You can still see clearly right?” the doctor reassured. Shizuka nodded.
“Well, it hasn’t taken any effect to your sight. But, we’re expecting for you to start having blurred visions once in a while.”
Shizuka nodded slowly. She understood what the doctor said. Yuya couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She was one of his closest friends.
“Now, that’s all.” The doctor said. Shizuka stood up and held Yuya’s hand tighter as they both left the doctor’s office. The two decided to have a late lunch at a nearby restaurant where Shizuka loved to eat. Yuya would always treat her out after each check up.
“Oh yes, Yuya, may I have a word with you for a moment?” the doctor asked before the two completely left the office. Shizuka looked at Yuya like she was terrified. Yuya smiled at her for some reassurance. Shizuka left the two alone.
“Yuya, I want to talk to you privately about Shizuka’s condition.” The doctor started off. Yuya sat down on a chair and listened attentively. “I’ve been reviewing her files and her condition each time you both some in for a check up.”
“Is there anything wrong with Shizuka?” he asked.
“Shizuka has this rare disease. It doesn’t occur in females and this happening is a very rare case.” She explained to him.
“But, I read that…” Yuya tried to defend what he knew but the doctor shook her head.
“I know what people say and write about RP, but… it looks like this is a very special and rare case.”
“Does it mean…?”
“Shizuka will completely go blind.” The doctor finally said. Just outside their door, Shizuka was listening to their conversation. She didn’t appear shocked or anything, it was as if, she was expecting this to happen. Though inside the room, it was Yuya who seemed shocked.
“D-demo…!” Yuya tried to say, but was lost for words.
“I’m truly sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. She’s a girl who has Retinitis Pigmentosa. This doesn’t usually happen, and in this case, she’s going all the way.” The doctor sympathized with him. Yuya just couldn’t believe it, but he knew he had to accept it.
“Thank you for telling me this.” Yuya said and stood up. He opened the door to the waiting room to see Shizuka sitting down, waiting for him patiently, as if she never heard a thing.
“Yuya-kun, let’s go?” she asked, smiling and standing up. Yuya took her hand in his and smiled.
“Let’s go.”
Shizuka stared off into the distance, looking at the sites that Tokyo had to offer her. Normally, people don’t appreciate the sites but in Shizuka’s case, she would never get tired. Yuya looked at her. They were both college students now taking up Fine Arts. Yuya majoring in painting. Yuya had influenced Shizuka when he started to show her his artworks. Shizuka found him to be very talented and tried art as well. In the end, they both recognized each other as worth opponents and allies in the art world.
“Ne, Shizuka, you haven’t touched your food.” Yuya said making Shizuka look at him first, then into the cold bowl of Miso Soup.
“Ah… gommen.” Shizuka looked down, a frown plastered on her face.
“Shizuka…” Yuya said, reaching over and holding her hand, a smile on his face. Shizuka seemed jumpy when he held her hand all of a sudden, but smiled when she looked at him. “… everything will be alright.” He re assured her Shizuka smiled, and was glad deep inside her that he was her friend and had supported her throughout this entire ordeal.
“I know.” She replied, her voice low and hoarse.
“I’ll be here always. No matter what happens.” He added, holding her hand even tighter.
“Pinky swear?” Shizuka said, holding out her pinky as usual. It had become a tradition for them to pinky swear whenever Yuya would reassure her that everything would turn out to be just fine. He took her pinky in his own and gave her a gentle smile.
“Pinky swear.”
Shizuka smiled, knowing he was just there to support her.
--X--
Shizuka sat on the couch, clad in a black dress. Her hair was fixed but was not a little messed up in some areas. She just stared into the space infront of her as thoughts ran through her mind. She was clad in a black dress and her eyes were little red and puffy. Her mascara was running down her cheeks as tears were running down her face.
Yuya stood in the corner of their now shared apartment. He had decided to take care of Shizuka ever since of her unfortunate parents’ car crash a few days ago. The funeral had just ended and the couple just arrived a few minutes ago. Yuya didn’t know what to say at the moment. This girl was losing everything dearest to her. She was losing her sight, and not, she had just buried her parents.
“Yuya…” Shizuka cried softly as she turned to her side and face him. Yuya wanted to laugh at what he looked like, but in her condition, he couldn’t bring a smile on his face.
“Yes…?” he asked as he sat down beside her. Shizuka brought the handkerchief to her eyes and wiped her tears away, smudging her eye liner and mascara.
“Why…” she started to question as her crying got stronger. “Why is this happening to me..?”
Yuya had no answer to that. Yuya wrapped his arms around her. What did she ever do to deserve this? Life was being completely unfair to her.
“Why me?!” she cried out loud, hugging him in return and crying her eyes out. Yuya hugged her even tighter, it pained him to see her like this. Yuya just let Shizuka cry her eyes out like that. He didn’t know what to say to the girl who had just lost everything.
“Everything… will be alright.” He reassured her.
--X--
Yuya was getting a little sweaty and tired from his right arm moving through the large canvas. His face was smudged with black paint and even his clothes. He held the brush in his mouth as he used his thumb to smudge some of the painting. He looked at Shizuka who was sitting on the window sill reading a book, the canvas turned on her. He quickly dipped the brush in water and shook the water off, and brushed it on the canvas, spreading the paint.
Shizuka looked at him when she noticed him looking at her. Yuya went back to painting, dipping another brush into the black paint, the mixing it with white then starting to brush it.
“You look like an idiot there… all the brushes in your mouth, and gray paint smudged in your hair.” Shizuka commented, giggling a little.
“I’m a good looking idiot, you gotta admit that.” He countered her after he removed the brushes from his mouth which made Shizuka laugh. It was a beautiful afternoon and the sun wasn’t too high up in the sky making it a bright day yet at the same time not as hot.
“Fine. Whatever you say..” Shizuka said, continuing to read her book.
“Just stay still ok…?” Yuya said as he added some water to the canvas to spread the colour even more and toned down the depth.
“You’re painting me again?” Shizuka asked.
“Yeah I am.” Yuya said as he carefully painted something. “I’m practicing for that painting I’m going to make you. The one I promised you when we were little.” He smiled looking at her again for reference.
“Y-you remember that?” Shizuka stuttered, adjusting the glasses she was wearing to aid her in her reading. It had been over ten years since he made that promise to her. She though he had forgotten already.
“I would never forget!” Yuya chirped happily washing the brush once again. Shizuka realized that this guys has been doing everything for her. He began taking care of her ever since they met and let her move in with him when her parents died.
“Yuya,” Shizuka wanted to ask him something. Yuya stopped painting for a while and looked at the girl by the window sill.
“Hai…?” the response was emphasized a little in the end.
“Wouldn’t I be burden to you?” she asked him. Yuya put down his brush and palette and dipped his thumb in the water; he started to smudge the paint. He had always tried to avoid this question. Shizuka would always beat herself up because he knew she felt guilty that he’s been doing all of this for her. Shizuka looked at him, covered in paint, the
“Wanna see it?” Yuya said, smiling and already holding the edges of the canvas to show it to her.
“Are you mocking me?” Shizuka glared at him, as a reference to the fact that she was going blind. She knew when he was trying to pass something off. Yuya laughed at his joke. Sure it was little mean of him to joke about her condition that way, but he loved her dearly. He lifted the canvas off the easel and showed her the painting.
“Ta-da!” he showed the painting. It showed of Shizuka reading a book by the window sill. It was in a monotone colour scheme. She knew this was rushed as she saw the rough brush marks around the edges, the colours in the other areas weren’t evened out, and he hair in the painting looked a little more messed up. But it was close enough and it was still amazing how fast he painted this. “Well, do you like it?”
She nodded, smiling at his work. He never got tired of painting her. “But maybe,” she started to speak, looking closer to the painting as if she were a critic. The sides of Yuya’s lips dropped. He always felt disappointed when she would critique his work. “… add some colour next time?” she smiled. He felt relieved inside knowing that it was just colours she wanted. He thought maybe she didn’t like the way he painted her.
“Sure.” He smiled, carrying the painting to a corner, to where there were a lot of draft paintings of Shizuka in black and white. Shizuka stood up and followed him to look at the collection of paintings. She smiled looking at all the paintings he did of her. Others were sketches so a lot of sketchbooks were open. She hugged him from behind.
“Oh? What’s this for?” Yuya smiled as he held her hands on him and felt Shizuka rest her head on his shoulder. Shizuka smiled when he held her hand.
“I’m just so thankful for what you are doing…” She whispered and smiled. Yuya turned around faced her fully, wrapping her in his arms as well. He smiled and bit his lip as he looked deep into her eyes. Shizuka giggled and brushed the hair off his face. “You’re sweaty!” she complained when she noticed his hair was a little wet
“Aww! Don’t you like me sweaty?” Yuya teased her hugging her even tighter, not letting her out of his arms.
“Takaki Yuya! Let go of me!” she pleaded. Yuya laughed at the resistance from Shizuka, they both knew no matter much she struggled, she wouldn’t be able to get out of his grasp. She hated him when he would immediately hug her after playing with paint.
“Eh…” Yuya complained when he heard that. Shizuka was still trying to get out of his grasp. “Don’t you like it here in my arms?” he asked. Shizuka shot a glare at him but sighed in defeat. She couldn’t stay mad at him too long. And when he put it that way, she didn’t mind spending the rest of her life in his arms. She felt more comfortable there than in any place else in the world.
“Ne, Yuya-kun…” Shizuka smiled looking at him. Yuya raised an eyebrow. Normally, she would be hatching a plan about something to get him back. He needed to be careful now. Who knew what was in this woman’s mind.
“Hmmm…?” he asked, a little unsure of himself.
She laughed and turned her head away, laughing as if she was thinking of something funny. Yuya felt like she was thinking of something funny he must have done.
“W-what is it?” he asked, now wanting to know what was running through her mind. Shizuka started to even laugh even more and louder this time. Yuya got really curious.
“It’s nothing…” she tried to stop laughing, covering her mouth and looking away. But Yuya could still see she was laughing.
“Eh!” Yuya complained like a kid. Shizuka bursted in laughter; making him even more curious.
“I just remembered,” Shizuka finally, still trying to hold her laughter back. “… weren’t we like this before…?” she asked him, smiling. Yuya didn’t know what she was talking about at first, then he remembered about their first date. He smiled when he thought of that moment. It was one of his most precious memories with Shizuka. Yuya leaned in, their foreheads touching, and smiled at her.
“You are the most precious thing to me. I would die if I lost you…” Yuya whispered in a soft voice. He did this whenever he decided to tell he something sweet to her.
“I know…” she smiled, looking deep into his eyes.
Yuya slowly leaned in, and kissed her.
--X--
Where should I start?
The flesh? No…
Hmm… The roses? No, that’s not it!
The sunflowers? Definitely not!
Yuya couldn’t decide where to start. He had already done an outline on a canvas and he was already thinking of the correct shared and colours for each part. But he didn’t know where to start painting. His outline looked messy and really unprofessional. He was dying to paint this already.
“Maybe the eyes…?” he thought to himself, and looked at his colour palette then back at the painting. He shook his head, he wanted to finish this painting before Shizuka would go blind. He knew Shizuka wasn’t saying anything at the moment, but she’s already having a hard time seeing things. And at night, she completely goes blind already.
Yuya’s been worrying each night, what if Shizuka would suddenly wake up being blind. He has been grateful everyday when she woke up, that she was still able to see. It broke his heart whenever he would think that one day-
Clank! Shatter!
His train of thought was interrupted when he heard a shriek with what sounded like utensils falling onto the floor and glass breaking. He dropped everything he held and ran to the kitchen where he knew Shizuka was washing the dishes.
“Shizuka!” he yelled in panic when he arrived. He found Shizuka kneeling on the floor, holding onto the kitchen counter crying. Beside her were a few broken plates on the floor and scattered utensils.
“Yuya-kun! Stop it please! It hurts!” Shizuka said, burying her face into her hands and crying even more. He rushed over to her side, not minding the mess that was there. Shizuka instantly hugged him and buried her face in his chest, still crying. Yuya was getting nervous about her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her.
“I- I…” she stuttered, her voice hitching.
“What is it Shizuka? Tell me?” he knew it had come, and he didn’t want to accept the fact. Not yet.
“I can’t see anything anymore.”
It didn’t take long for Yuya to bring Shizuka to her ophthalmologist. When they got into the hospital, Shizuka was immediately carried away into a room to fully diagnose her condition. He waited impatiently outside her room as the doctor was looking as to what had happened to her.
“Yuya…” the doctor stuck her head out of the room. He looked up to see the doctor motion him in. He stood up like he was instructed to see Shizuka lying on a bed, with a couple of bandages wrapped around her eyes. It looked like Shizuka was asleep.
“It came faster than expected…” the doctor told him. “We weren’t expecting her to go blind for another year.”
“She just suddenly went blind…?” Yuya asked, looking at the frail girl lying on the bed. She instantly shot up when Yuya spoke.
“Yuya-kun!? W-where are you?” she said, as she stretched out an arm, trying to find where Yuya was. He walked up to her and held her hand protectively, intertwining their fingers. “Yuya-kun…” Shizuka smiled when she used her other hand to feel Yuya’s face. Yuya gently held that hand as well.
“It suddenly developed. I have never heard of a case like this. It was like, the disease fought back her treatments.” The doctor explained. “Her eyes were very painful when she went blind.” The doctor said, sitting on the bed right in front of Shizuka. She started to untie the knot behind her head and slowly unravelled the bandages.
“The pain of her eyes is gone…” the doctor said, removing the bandages completely. Shizuka’s eyes closed, but she slowly opened them. Those blue orbs that reflected the radiance of the person, once full of life, finally went dull. It looked scary at first. It was a dull shade of blue mixed with oranges and red, then black spots all over.
“Shizuka…” Yuya heard his voice crack. So this is what a person with RP looked like. Shizuka looked straight on, as if she was trying to think or look for something.
“Shizuka, the pain gone?” the doctor asked.
“It feels so different… from seeing everything, to seeing nothing in one second.” Shizuka commented, as if, from the time she got blind, the life got sucked out from her.
Yuya from this point on was scared.
--X--
“Shizuka, you need to eat.” Yuya said sitting down beside the blind girl. Shizuka looked straight on, her hand slowly moving and feeling the table to find her chopsticks. She moved her hand a bit to the right and found it, she positioned her hand with the chopsticks and lifted the plate. Yuya was amazed by how she carried herself, it was like she had been preparing for this moment.
Yuya had taken Shizuka the day after she was pronounced officially blind home to where he knows she would be safe and take care of her. He had become a struggling artist a bit since he lacked in paintings to sell since he’s been concerned with Shizuka’s condition.
Shizuka took the sushi between her chopsticks and carried it to her mouth, putting the whole thing in. Yuya had prepared her a glass of water just in case something might happen to her.
“Ne, Yuya-san, you’re being too worrisome.” Shizuka smiled after she swallowed the sushi when she heard Yuya put a glass on the table. Yuya had been scared of her eyes at first. It wasn’t natural. But, it looked Shizuka could pull it off somehow.
“I just really love you.” He told her, holding her hand and intertwining his pinky to hers. Shizuka felt the grip of it and intertwined hers as well. Yuya brought their hands to his face and kissed Shizuka’s hand. “I promise you, I shall never leave you.” He looked at her. He wanted her to look back at him but alast, those times will just be but a memory.
“I know you wouldn’t.” Shizuka replied, smiling. But her eyes seemed like they were hiding something behind that blindness.
“Eh?” he questioned.
“If you really didn’t like me, then you wouldn’t have even done all these things for me.” Shizuka told him. “And for that, I am really grateful I met you.” Shizuka said, her free hand reaching for Yuya’s face and caressing it. She closed her eyes at her fingers traced his features and in her mind, she pictured what he looked like now.
“Shizuka, you got it wrong.” Yuya told her which made Shizuka stop for a moment and look puzzled. “I don’t like you, I love you.” He corrected her.
When Shizuka heard that, she had this unbearable pain in her heart.
--X--
Yuya for the past few days had been hunted down by art collectors, wanting his paintings ever since he decided to take a break to take care of Shizuka. He hadn’t realized he had been gone for so long. They were looking for a painting, a grand masterpiece for his comeback. Yuya knew what he was going to show as his comeback.
He stared at the canvas, so far, he had already painted the female’s flesh in the painting and the base for the background. He was still thinking what else could be added to make it more realistic and full of life. He looked at his supplies. He was already low. He had left some of the paint open and not it had dried.He noticed his brushes were already worn out and he needed to get few more.
“Shizuka…” Yuya stepped out of his room and saw Shizuka sitting by the window sill, her favourite spot. Shizuka turned her attention to him when she heard him speak.
“Nani?” she asked.
“Ne, I’ll be just going out for a while.” Yuya told her and approached her. Shizuka felt Yuya’s presence in front of her and turned her head to face him. “I just need to buy art supplies.”
“Ah… sou.” Shizuka agreed. “You can go ahead. I’ll stay here no worries.” She told him. Yuya looked a bit worried about her. He would be leaving her for the first time ever since she had gone blind.
“Are you sure you can manage?” he asked.
“I was able to see before. And I know every nook and cranny in this place. I’m sure I can manage.” Shizuka gave him a sweet smile. Yuya noticed that this was the first time she had actually given him a real smile ever since she went blind. Maybe she was already getting used to it.
“Do you need anything before I leave?”
“Uhmm…” she pondered. “A pen and paper maybe?”
“A pen and paper?” he questioned.
“I just miss the feeling. I just want to feel the hold a pen and the touch of paper.” Shizuka lied, her true intentions unknown by Yuya. Yuya nodded and grabbed a pen and paper and put it in Shizuka’s hand.
“Is there anything else that you need?” he asked.
“Come here…” Shizuka motioned him to come. Yuya closed in and Shizuka leaned in, and slowly kissed him. Yuya felt something that there was more to the kiss and he felt that Shizuka had so much passion and love for him. He kissed her back and after a moment he pulled away.
“What was that for?” he smiled.
“I really love you…” Shizuka replied. Yuya felt that he was missing something when she said that; in his mind it had a second meaning. He didn’t know what was going on in Shizuka’s mind right now. “Just promise me… you’ll finish that painting…” Shizuka told him.
Yuya felt a pain in his heart when she said that. He planned to paint that for her, but it resulted in a total failure when Shizuka finally went blind, and his painting was still in the planning stage by then.
“I am so sorry you never got to see it…” he said sadly. Shizuka noted the sadness in his voice and she herself too felt saddened. She didn’t know whether it was for something she was about to do or because she really felt sorry for the efforts of Yuya.
“It’s not your fault…” Shizuka tried to comfort him. “… I was meant to be blind. So be it.”
“Why does it have to be you?” he questioned. “What did you eve-“
“Yuya,” Shizuka interrupted him. “Love is blind. Literally.” She joked, trying to make the atmosphere lighter. Yuya laughed and got her joke.
“Fine.” He surrendered the argument. “I’ll see you later then?” kissing her lightly on the lips.
“Ok.” Shizuka said, pecking him on the lips once again. Yuya stood up and walked to the door. He opened it and glanced back at Shizuka who started tapping on the paper and looked like she was thinking of what she could write. He smiled before finally leaving her.
Shizuka was left there, she felt her eyes watering when she heard the door close. The rhythmic tapping of the pen sounded like the beat of her heart. Her fingers traced the paper to see the size to know where she could start. Her mind was running with a lot of things she knew she was going to regret. But, it left her no choice. She lightly started to write on the paper, expressing her deepest thoughts in just a few words. She felt tears drop onto the paper as she wrote and her crying started to get harder. Once Shizuka was finished, she folded the note and left it on the table. Even though she was blind, she still knew the layout and position of the apartment.
She suddenly felt cold all over when she left the note.
“Sayonara… Yuya-kun…” she whispered.
--X---
Yuya dug in his pocket with hardship as he tried to look for the keys to his apartment. He felt coins, crumpled paper and other junk in his pocket. He smiled when he finally found his keys and inserted it into the keyhole and opened the door. The door clicked open and creaked as it slowly opened. Yuya picked up the bags with his art materials and entered the house.
“Shizuka!” he called out. “I’m home.”
No one greeted him but silence.
“Shizuka!” he called out once again, putting his newly bought materials on the table. “Shizuka…?”
Yuya felt his heart pound faster, thinking what impending doom might’ve happened to Shizuka. He ran to the bathroom, thinking that maybe she had accidentally locked herself in. No one was inside. He ran to the art room; still no Shizuka. He finally ran to her room. He swung the door open to find Shizuka lying on the bed, fast asleep.
“There you are…” Yuya sighed in relief and slowly approached Shizuka’s bed. He smiled as he sat down beside her and looked at that angelic sleeping face of hers. Her head rested to her side and both her ands rested on her tummy. “Shizu-“ Yuya stopped when he noticed that Shizuka was just lying still. He noticed that her chest wasn’t moving either.
“Shizuka…?” he tried shaking her. Still, no response from the girl.
“Shizuka…!” he shaked her a little harder, trying to wake her up. Shizuka’s hand straightened out and an empty bottle fell. Yuya picked the bottle up and noticed that it was the medication Shizuka was taking before she completely went blind. Last time he checked it, the bottle was full of pills. Yuya looked back at Shizuka, still no motion from her.
Yuya didn’t want to speculate what was happening with her. He sat down once again beside her and touched her face.
She was getting cold.
He tried to look for pulse. Her neck, her wrist, he even tried to listen to her heart beat. Still, no rhythm was found from Shizuka. Yuya felt his eyes watering when he realized that there was no heart beat. His hands started to shiver, and his mind was going wild.
Shizuka was dead.
--X--
Yuya,
I know that my writing is not understandable, but please, try to bear with me.
These last few years with you have been the greatest in my entire life. I really want to stay with you until the end, but, I fret that I may be a burden to you. I know that we’re running low on resources. I know what you must be thinking…
THIS IS NOT THE REASON.
The real reason is because I’ve been so depressed ever since I lost my eye sight. And no matter what we do, it will never come back. I always dreamt that one day; I could start a family of my own with you. But I realized that it was just a dream and will remain just a dream.
I decided to wake up to reality.
I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I know you’ll never leave me.
And please remember, even if I am gone, I still love you no matter what.
Your loved one,
Hasekura Shizuka
Yuya looked at the piece of paper over and over again. She had committed suicide a few weeks ago. He noticed that there were blotches of drop marks in the letter, making some parts of the writing very hard to read. And even though that she had gone blind, her handwriting was still beautiful as before. He deeply sighed. He was surrounded by silence in a dark place. He had found this right beside Shizuka’s body.
“Yuya…” he heard a familiar voice call him. He turned around to see a tall good looking man standing by the doorway. He wore very formal business attire that looked good on him. He had light skin and dark hair. This was his friend and art director, Inoo Kei.
“Kei. What brings you here?” Yuya hid Shizuka’s note in his pocket.
“The gallery is looking for new works of yours.” Kei told him and looked at the area. It was run down and ransacked. Paint was spilled all over the floor and sketches were ripped and scattered everywhere. Kei noticed that Yuya had grown thin and weary already, despite his young age. And even though Yuya had been living in a pig sty, he noticed that he sat in front of a painting; the good news to him was it was unharmed in any way.
“I’m working on one, can’t you see?” Yuya spat back referring to the painting he was working on. It had much colour now and it seemed to be so full of life.
“I see.” Kei smiled. It wasn’t something he had seen before and he could refer to this as Yuya’s greatest comeback. “It’s very beautiful. I love your concept. When will you be able to finish it?”
“Soon, I’ll give you a call.” Yuya said, mixing red with a little black as he started to paint the roses with the correct shading.
“Ok. Yuya, I know you’ve been depressed with Shizuka’s death.” Kei started off. Yuya for a minute stopped painting when Shizuka’s name came up and continued like nothing happened. “And I am really sorry for it. I truly am.”
Yuya looked at him with a brow raised. Kei noticed that he had bags under his eyes and he had a puzzled look on his face.
“What do you mean Shizuka’s dead? She’s still alive.”
Kei knew there was something wrong.
--X--
Brrrrt.
Brrrt.
Brrrrt.
Brrrt.
Kei mustered up the strength so shift to his left and grab his phone. He looked at the number that was calling him and immediately answered it.
“Hello..?” he answered quietly as the woman beside him started to shift a little, and he did not want to wake her up.
“Kei… Shizuka…” he heard a depressed voice on the other end. “She won’t look at me.”
“N-nani..?” Kei was confused with what he was talking about.
“Shizuka… she won’t look at me. I messed up. The painting… she doesn’t want to look at me…” Yuya sounded angry at the same time like he was about to cry.
“Yuya…” Kei massaged his temple. How many times did he have to tell this guy the truth? “Shizuka’s been dead for a month now…”
“She isn’t dead!” he immediately spat back. Kei was alarmed by this. Yuya in his mind really believed that Shizuka wasn’t dead. He heard Yuya keep on repeating that line before Yuya hung up. Kei knew that there was trouble brewing and he immediately got out of bed and decided to go to Yuya’s place.
--X--
“Why won’t you look at me?” Yuya asked as he caressed Shizuka’s face in the painting.
“Did I disappoint you?” he asked, but there was no answer from the woman.
“I wonder…” he trailed off as tears started to gather in his eyes. “What if I didn’t meet you? Would you still be blind? Would you end up living with another artist? Would you be happy?”
All those questions he asked, but received no answer. Yuya couldn’t take it anymore; he knew that this was going to be his greatest final masterpiece ever.
--X--
“Yuya!” Kei immediately barged the door open with a few policemen. He had been worried about what would happen to Yuya and decided to bring some help along with him. Everyone entered the apartment unit carefully and started searching for Yuya. The place had grown to be quiet and felt of depression as Kei walked through the living room. He noticed random sketches and paintings of Shizuka everywhere scattered and torn apart.
“Yuya!” he called once again. “Come out!”
“Sir.” A policeman called over looking sad. Kei immediately went over. He noticed it was Yuya’s room. As he was standing by the door, he noticed a red pigment on the floor. He wished it was just red paint. He nervously opened the door, only to find his worst expectation.
Takaki Yuya had killed himself.
Kei closed his eyes and turned his attention away. It looked like Yuya had shot himself in the head. The policemen called for medics to be here and carry the body away. Kei sat down on the couch, and ran a hand through his hair, a dear friend had just died. What was happening to the world?
“Sir, you might want to see this.” A policeman called Kei as he motioned him to come. Kei noticed that he was inside the art studio of Yuya and decided to see what was there. Kei entered the room. “Over there sir.” He said and pointed to a painting.
Kei was in awe when he saw this. He had finally finished it and it looked like one of his best works ever. He peered in at the bottom left cornr and saw Yuya’s signature on it as well as the title.
“The Blind Painter…”Kei read aloud.
---END---
Author: amsthedamned
Pairing/Subject: Takaki Yuya x OC
Rating: PG
Genre: Tragedy, Romance, Friendship
“Why won’t you look at me?” Yuya asked as he looked onto the painting onto the easel. He lightly stroked the woman’s hair on the rough surface of the canvas.
He sits in a dark room, the only light was the moonlight passing through the dust infested glass window panes. The painting showed of a delicate woman, painted with the most vibrant colours, almost as if she were going to come out of the painting. She wore a white strapless chiffon dress which slowly faded and became flowers as it flared off. Her surroundings her flowers and plants of different varieties and colours, making it bright and full of life. Though, in the painting, the woman was looking down onto an arrangement of flowers and looked away from the viewer.
Yuya looked deep into her eyes, they were the only part in the painting that was lifeless. They were dull and seemed to stare off into space. Yuya had a tear roll down his cheek as he caressed the cheek of the painting.
“Shizuka, why won’t you look at me?”
--X--
“My, isn’t he a sweetheart!”
“He looks just like his father.”
Takaki Yuya groaned as he watched his fickly mother and aunt talk about his newly born cousin. Beside the bed was a stand with a glass case where the baby was sleeping. Here he was sitting on the chair, his legs swing alternately, praying that this talk would be over soon. He had better things to do, like go to a park and play with his friends or paint. Yeah, he loved to paint. He was wasting precious time here in the hospital.
“Oka~…-“ he tried to say as he looked to the two women talking, he was going to use his ‘pleading’ face.
“Yes. Why don’t you go around, Yuya?” his mother told him, without even having to face him. Yuya just looked at her with an eyebrow raised.
“Whatever you say.”
“Go grab some chocolate milk or something.” Her mother told him off. What the hell was he going to do with Chocolate milk? Oh well, he could go off now anyways. He got off the chair and slipped out of the room. The hospital wasn’t as busy as he saw doctors conversing with one another about medical stuff that he had no understanding about. Then there were nurses also talking to one another about patients and conditions.
While walking down the hall, he noticed a few rooms open. Being a curious kid as his excuse, he decided to peek in them. The first room he passed, he noticed an old man rocking in his chair, tubes attached to his nose. Yuya noticed the old man look at him and smile. He took this as an invitation to come in.
“What’s your name, kid?” the old man asked as Yuya came closer. He noticed that he was almost toothless flashing his smile with yellow stars. Yuya twitched a little, seeing how confident this man was.
“Yuya, Takaki Yuya.” He introduced himself. The old man nodded and smiled when he heard the name.
“Interesting name… You know, I’m amazed by Japanese people like you… You know, I have a granddaughter around your age…” he smiled. “She’s a very beautiful girl. She’s also Japanese.”
Yuya noticed that the man seemed to stare off into space when he was looking at him. He also noticed that his eyes were always closed, but he seemed to know and see everything’s presence in the room. He reached for a glass of water and put it back in the exact same spot.
“Hontou…?” Yuya asked, curious about this old man.
“Jii-chan!” a squeaky voice yelled out. Yuya looked to the entrance to see a little girl rush up to the old man and hug him. The old man laughed as he slowly rocked back and forth.
Yuya looked at her, jet black hair framed her delicate face. She had amazing blue eyes which she must have inherited from her grandfather with long lashes. She had a pointy nose and creamy skin. From her height, she looked like she was only shorter than him by a few inches.
“Ah, Shizuka! How’s my favourite granddaughter?” the old man asked, patting the head of the little girl making the little girl smile at her grandfather.
“We just had a check up again today!” Shizuka smiled. The girl turned her attention to Yuya who was just sitting across her grandfather. She had never seen him around before. She smiled, thinking it was a new friend her grandfather made.
“Ah. How did it go?” he asked.
“The doctor talked to mama for a long time. I was waiting for hours!” she complained. Yuya knew that it was impossible for her mother to talk for hours. She wasn’t like his mom whom he knew would literally talk for hours. Maybe she was just bored.
“Ah… So, where’s your mother?”
“Konnichiwa, otou-san.” A middle-aged woman walked in. She looked Japanese mixed with American blood. This must’ve been the daughter of the old man, and Shizuka’s mother.
“Ah, Yoshino.” The old man turned his head to the door as the woman started to walk in. Shizuka smiled as her mother walked in. Yoshino took notice of Yuya who was now feeling awkward about the family gathering that was happening. He prayed that there were no more relatives about to come in.
“Who is this young man?” Yoshino asked, smiling gently towards Yuya. He felt a little embarrassed to be a complete and total stranger in this gathering.
“He’s Takaki Yuya, a new friend I made.” The old man said. “We just met this morning and had a very delightful conversation.”
Delightful conversation? The only thing he said for far was his name. This old man must be crazy then.
“Ah! Souka. I’m Hasekura Yoshino. And this is my daughter, Shizuka.” The woman formally introduced themselves. Shizuka smiled and waved at him as her name was mentioned.
“Ha-Hai. Takaki Yuya desu.” Yuya also introduced himself as he stood up and bowed. Shizuka walked beside him and tugged on his shirt.
“Sugoi! You’re tall!” she said, trying to measure the height difference between them. Yuya looked at Shizuka, she was smaller than him. “Ne, okaa-san! I also want to get tall!” she complained and she pointed at Yuya.
“Nice to meet you Yuya.” Yoshino smiled. She also smiled at Shizuka. “That’s why you have to drink your milk, Shizuka.” She told her daughter and gently smiled.
“Ne, Yoshino. How was Shizuka’s check up?” the old man asked. Yuya noticed how Yoshino’s lips suddenly dropped once the check up was mentioned. Yuya was no expert in facial expression, but he knew that there was something wrong. He looked again at the little kid. What could be possibly wrong with her? Maybe utterly annoying.
“A-ah!” she stuttered, trying to make it sound like everything was ok. Maybe Shizuka didn’t know yet and Yoshino was trying to hide it from her. “Shizuka, why don’t you and Yuya grab something to eat while I talk to grandpa? Is that alright Yuya-kun?” Yoshino politely asked. He noticed that Yoshino had a worried look on her face.
“Hai!” Shizuka chirped pulling Yuya along with her. Yuya didn’t hesitate and went along with the little girl. But things kept running in his mind. “We can go to the hospital canteen!” she said as she dragged him along through the hospital hallways. The two kids left and Yoshino and her father to talk.
“How was it?” his voice serious as he also frowned. He must have seen this coming. Yoshino started to wipe a few tears coming to her eyes.
“Not good. The doctor said it’s progressing faster than usual. They’ve already identified what she’s got.” Yoshino said her breath a little hoarse as she felt sorry for her daughter.
“What is it?” he started to sound worried as well.
“Retinitis Pigmentosa.”
--X--
Yuya and Shizuka sat across one another while they were having a snack. In the canteen were patients and doctors alike all enjoying a simple meal so satisfy whatever hunger. Yuya had himself chocolate milk. He had to admit, he always fell for these. Shizuka on the other hand was having a Vanilla milk shake having the ideology that she would grow tall from drinking milk.
“Why are you here?” Shizuka asked him. She had been asking a lot of questions from when they were ordering to the point when they sat down.
“My aunt gave birth. My mom came to see her.” Yuya replied, taking a sip from his milk. Shizuka looked at him in awe, like she was amazed by what she was saying. He had to admit, this girl was cute.
“Ahh!” she said in awe like she was learning new things. “Ne, is the baby cute?”
“Hmmm…” he thought about it for a while. “Kinda… It was squirmy and squishy though.”
“Demo, babies are cho kawaii!” Shizuka chirped, starting an argument with him. Yuya had no reason to fight back and just agreed with whatever she would say, just entertaining the girl. But in his mind, he was thinking what could probably be wrong with this girl.
“Ne, Yuya-san…” Shizuka called.
“Hmm…?” he rolled his eyes to look at her.
“You’re not going to ask me questions?”
“Why should I?”
“To be fair…”
Yuya seemed taken aback there for a while. This girl was offering to answer whatever questions he had. Wouldn’t it be rude to ask why she was in the hospital?
“Eto…” he scratched the back of his head, trying to think of a question other than why she was here. Shizuka looked at him and tilted her head, curious as what he was about to say.
“What’s your favourite colour?” he asked. An air of awkwardness was felt between them. That seemed like a stupid question to ask. Shizuka just raised her eyebrow. Yuya felt embarrassed. He didn’t know how to socialize with a little girl. He needed to get out more.
“Every colour.” She smiled. It was Yuya’s turn to raise his eyebrow. She liked every colour?
“That can’t be possible. You must have at least on favoured colour.” He told her. Shizuka shook her head.
“That’s just plain mean to the other colours! You have to love all the colours! If God was the artist who created us, then he should’ve only favoured one kind of human being.” Shizuka fought with him. Yuya just kept his poker face. She liked to fight him. She should be debater when she gets older.
“Sou…” Yuya agreed.
“You ask boring questions. Is this how boys socialize?” Shizuka complained. Yuya sighed. What was he going to do? She didn’t look like it at first, but she was so demanding.
“Then tell me, how was your check up?” Yuya asked. Shizuka looked at him like she didn’t hear him.
“Me and my mommy went to an eye doctor.” Shizuka told him. “On random nights ever since a few years ago, I couldn’t see anything at night.”
“That’s natural. It’s dark. You can barely see anything when it’s dark.” Yuya tried to correct her. Shizuka shook her head.
“It’s not like that. You can barely see. You can see anything that reflects on light.” She explained to him. Yuya was amazed. She was a smart kid. “But for the past few nights, I couldn’t see anything. Mommy was scared so she decided to bring me to the eye doctor today.”
“I see…” Yuya was curious as to what the prognosis was. She couldn’t see anything in the dark? This was interesting. The only time he ever went to the doctor was when he was sick with fever. This was the first time he ever heard of something like this.
“And when mommy and the doctor was talking, I heard them say I’m not going to see anything when I get old.” Shizuka frowned. Yuya just nodded like he usually would but she looked at her, a little surprised. This girl was going blind and she knew about it.
“E-eh?” was all he could say. Shizuka looked at him a little annoyed.
“The doctor said I won’t be able to see anymore when I get older!” she said a bit more loudly.
Yuya felt disappointed to her. She was such a nice and smart girl. And what she was going to get in life was she was going blind. He felt sad that those beautiful eyes in the future would no longer see anything anymore.
“You like colours right?” Yuya asked her.
“Hai… nani?”
“If you like, I’ll paint you a picture with many colours…” he offered her. Shizuka looked at him wide eyed. Yuya thought she was surprised. But apparently he thought wrong when Shizuka started to giggle then laugh.
“I never thought you were the artist type.” Yuya kept his poker face when she said that. He sipped on his chocolate milk. This girl saw everything as a joke.
“Forget it.” He said shyly, looking away.
“I would love that!” she said at the same time. Yuya looked at her surprised. She agreed to his preposition. “But,” she added. Yuya looked at her to see her leaning over and holding out her right little finger. “Pinky swear?”
Yuya took her little finger in his and smiled.
“Pinky swear.”
--X---
And all it took was that pinky swear for them to become great friends. Yuya, fully aware of her situation decided to take care of her. Shizuka was also aware of her situations and went to the doctor regularly to have her eyes checked. Yuya would mostly accompany her to these checkups and Shizuka found herself to face her condition even stronger with him by her side.
“Alrighty.” The doctor said, turning off the small flashlight she used to look into Shizuka’s eyes. Shizuka looked at Yuya who was standing right next to the door. He smiled at her, reassuring her that everything was going to be ok.
“Your condition has slowed down a bit. But it looks like you might be experiencing some problems with your vision in the near future.” She stated, sitting down in front of Shizuka. Shizuka’s eyes widened.
“E-eh?” she questioned her, standing up, knocking the chair she sat on off. “I’ve been going under treatment ever since I was diagnosed!” she yelled.
“Takaki-san, please calm Shizuka down.” The doctor requested when Yuya walked over to Shizuka and tried to lessen her reaction. Yuya knew this was going to happen if any bad news broke out. He knew Shizuka had quite a temper when things didn’t go how they were planned or her way.
“I’ve been going under treatments for years…” Shizuka said calmly, looking down. She wasn’t expecting this to happen.
“Yes Shizuka. You have been going under treatment for years, but it doesn’t mean that you’re going to get 100% better. Retinitis Pigmentosa is a very serious disease and there is no found cure for it.” The doctor explained to Shizuka who sat down, holding Yuya’s hand. Yuya also listened carefully to explain to Shizuka’s parents when he brings her home.
“What the treatment does is that it only slows down the progression of the disease, in your case, is pretty advance and is rapidly progressing without the treatment.” The doctor said looking through her file. “If you didn’t go through any treatment, you would be blind by now.”
Shizuka looked like she didn’t want to listen to her anymore. Her worst fear was happening. She might be slowly losing her vision already. She wasn’t ready for it. She hasn’t seen everything the world has to offer.
“So, what’s going to happen to me now?” she asked.
“Your peripheral vision might be starting to get blurry. We’re not a hundred percent sure yet. You can still see clearly right?” the doctor reassured. Shizuka nodded.
“Well, it hasn’t taken any effect to your sight. But, we’re expecting for you to start having blurred visions once in a while.”
Shizuka nodded slowly. She understood what the doctor said. Yuya couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She was one of his closest friends.
“Now, that’s all.” The doctor said. Shizuka stood up and held Yuya’s hand tighter as they both left the doctor’s office. The two decided to have a late lunch at a nearby restaurant where Shizuka loved to eat. Yuya would always treat her out after each check up.
“Oh yes, Yuya, may I have a word with you for a moment?” the doctor asked before the two completely left the office. Shizuka looked at Yuya like she was terrified. Yuya smiled at her for some reassurance. Shizuka left the two alone.
“Yuya, I want to talk to you privately about Shizuka’s condition.” The doctor started off. Yuya sat down on a chair and listened attentively. “I’ve been reviewing her files and her condition each time you both some in for a check up.”
“Is there anything wrong with Shizuka?” he asked.
“Shizuka has this rare disease. It doesn’t occur in females and this happening is a very rare case.” She explained to him.
“But, I read that…” Yuya tried to defend what he knew but the doctor shook her head.
“I know what people say and write about RP, but… it looks like this is a very special and rare case.”
“Does it mean…?”
“Shizuka will completely go blind.” The doctor finally said. Just outside their door, Shizuka was listening to their conversation. She didn’t appear shocked or anything, it was as if, she was expecting this to happen. Though inside the room, it was Yuya who seemed shocked.
“D-demo…!” Yuya tried to say, but was lost for words.
“I’m truly sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. She’s a girl who has Retinitis Pigmentosa. This doesn’t usually happen, and in this case, she’s going all the way.” The doctor sympathized with him. Yuya just couldn’t believe it, but he knew he had to accept it.
“Thank you for telling me this.” Yuya said and stood up. He opened the door to the waiting room to see Shizuka sitting down, waiting for him patiently, as if she never heard a thing.
“Yuya-kun, let’s go?” she asked, smiling and standing up. Yuya took her hand in his and smiled.
“Let’s go.”
Shizuka stared off into the distance, looking at the sites that Tokyo had to offer her. Normally, people don’t appreciate the sites but in Shizuka’s case, she would never get tired. Yuya looked at her. They were both college students now taking up Fine Arts. Yuya majoring in painting. Yuya had influenced Shizuka when he started to show her his artworks. Shizuka found him to be very talented and tried art as well. In the end, they both recognized each other as worth opponents and allies in the art world.
“Ne, Shizuka, you haven’t touched your food.” Yuya said making Shizuka look at him first, then into the cold bowl of Miso Soup.
“Ah… gommen.” Shizuka looked down, a frown plastered on her face.
“Shizuka…” Yuya said, reaching over and holding her hand, a smile on his face. Shizuka seemed jumpy when he held her hand all of a sudden, but smiled when she looked at him. “… everything will be alright.” He re assured her Shizuka smiled, and was glad deep inside her that he was her friend and had supported her throughout this entire ordeal.
“I know.” She replied, her voice low and hoarse.
“I’ll be here always. No matter what happens.” He added, holding her hand even tighter.
“Pinky swear?” Shizuka said, holding out her pinky as usual. It had become a tradition for them to pinky swear whenever Yuya would reassure her that everything would turn out to be just fine. He took her pinky in his own and gave her a gentle smile.
“Pinky swear.”
Shizuka smiled, knowing he was just there to support her.
--X--
Shizuka sat on the couch, clad in a black dress. Her hair was fixed but was not a little messed up in some areas. She just stared into the space infront of her as thoughts ran through her mind. She was clad in a black dress and her eyes were little red and puffy. Her mascara was running down her cheeks as tears were running down her face.
Yuya stood in the corner of their now shared apartment. He had decided to take care of Shizuka ever since of her unfortunate parents’ car crash a few days ago. The funeral had just ended and the couple just arrived a few minutes ago. Yuya didn’t know what to say at the moment. This girl was losing everything dearest to her. She was losing her sight, and not, she had just buried her parents.
“Yuya…” Shizuka cried softly as she turned to her side and face him. Yuya wanted to laugh at what he looked like, but in her condition, he couldn’t bring a smile on his face.
“Yes…?” he asked as he sat down beside her. Shizuka brought the handkerchief to her eyes and wiped her tears away, smudging her eye liner and mascara.
“Why…” she started to question as her crying got stronger. “Why is this happening to me..?”
Yuya had no answer to that. Yuya wrapped his arms around her. What did she ever do to deserve this? Life was being completely unfair to her.
“Why me?!” she cried out loud, hugging him in return and crying her eyes out. Yuya hugged her even tighter, it pained him to see her like this. Yuya just let Shizuka cry her eyes out like that. He didn’t know what to say to the girl who had just lost everything.
“Everything… will be alright.” He reassured her.
--X--
Yuya was getting a little sweaty and tired from his right arm moving through the large canvas. His face was smudged with black paint and even his clothes. He held the brush in his mouth as he used his thumb to smudge some of the painting. He looked at Shizuka who was sitting on the window sill reading a book, the canvas turned on her. He quickly dipped the brush in water and shook the water off, and brushed it on the canvas, spreading the paint.
Shizuka looked at him when she noticed him looking at her. Yuya went back to painting, dipping another brush into the black paint, the mixing it with white then starting to brush it.
“You look like an idiot there… all the brushes in your mouth, and gray paint smudged in your hair.” Shizuka commented, giggling a little.
“I’m a good looking idiot, you gotta admit that.” He countered her after he removed the brushes from his mouth which made Shizuka laugh. It was a beautiful afternoon and the sun wasn’t too high up in the sky making it a bright day yet at the same time not as hot.
“Fine. Whatever you say..” Shizuka said, continuing to read her book.
“Just stay still ok…?” Yuya said as he added some water to the canvas to spread the colour even more and toned down the depth.
“You’re painting me again?” Shizuka asked.
“Yeah I am.” Yuya said as he carefully painted something. “I’m practicing for that painting I’m going to make you. The one I promised you when we were little.” He smiled looking at her again for reference.
“Y-you remember that?” Shizuka stuttered, adjusting the glasses she was wearing to aid her in her reading. It had been over ten years since he made that promise to her. She though he had forgotten already.
“I would never forget!” Yuya chirped happily washing the brush once again. Shizuka realized that this guys has been doing everything for her. He began taking care of her ever since they met and let her move in with him when her parents died.
“Yuya,” Shizuka wanted to ask him something. Yuya stopped painting for a while and looked at the girl by the window sill.
“Hai…?” the response was emphasized a little in the end.
“Wouldn’t I be burden to you?” she asked him. Yuya put down his brush and palette and dipped his thumb in the water; he started to smudge the paint. He had always tried to avoid this question. Shizuka would always beat herself up because he knew she felt guilty that he’s been doing all of this for her. Shizuka looked at him, covered in paint, the
“Wanna see it?” Yuya said, smiling and already holding the edges of the canvas to show it to her.
“Are you mocking me?” Shizuka glared at him, as a reference to the fact that she was going blind. She knew when he was trying to pass something off. Yuya laughed at his joke. Sure it was little mean of him to joke about her condition that way, but he loved her dearly. He lifted the canvas off the easel and showed her the painting.
“Ta-da!” he showed the painting. It showed of Shizuka reading a book by the window sill. It was in a monotone colour scheme. She knew this was rushed as she saw the rough brush marks around the edges, the colours in the other areas weren’t evened out, and he hair in the painting looked a little more messed up. But it was close enough and it was still amazing how fast he painted this. “Well, do you like it?”
She nodded, smiling at his work. He never got tired of painting her. “But maybe,” she started to speak, looking closer to the painting as if she were a critic. The sides of Yuya’s lips dropped. He always felt disappointed when she would critique his work. “… add some colour next time?” she smiled. He felt relieved inside knowing that it was just colours she wanted. He thought maybe she didn’t like the way he painted her.
“Sure.” He smiled, carrying the painting to a corner, to where there were a lot of draft paintings of Shizuka in black and white. Shizuka stood up and followed him to look at the collection of paintings. She smiled looking at all the paintings he did of her. Others were sketches so a lot of sketchbooks were open. She hugged him from behind.
“Oh? What’s this for?” Yuya smiled as he held her hands on him and felt Shizuka rest her head on his shoulder. Shizuka smiled when he held her hand.
“I’m just so thankful for what you are doing…” She whispered and smiled. Yuya turned around faced her fully, wrapping her in his arms as well. He smiled and bit his lip as he looked deep into her eyes. Shizuka giggled and brushed the hair off his face. “You’re sweaty!” she complained when she noticed his hair was a little wet
“Aww! Don’t you like me sweaty?” Yuya teased her hugging her even tighter, not letting her out of his arms.
“Takaki Yuya! Let go of me!” she pleaded. Yuya laughed at the resistance from Shizuka, they both knew no matter much she struggled, she wouldn’t be able to get out of his grasp. She hated him when he would immediately hug her after playing with paint.
“Eh…” Yuya complained when he heard that. Shizuka was still trying to get out of his grasp. “Don’t you like it here in my arms?” he asked. Shizuka shot a glare at him but sighed in defeat. She couldn’t stay mad at him too long. And when he put it that way, she didn’t mind spending the rest of her life in his arms. She felt more comfortable there than in any place else in the world.
“Ne, Yuya-kun…” Shizuka smiled looking at him. Yuya raised an eyebrow. Normally, she would be hatching a plan about something to get him back. He needed to be careful now. Who knew what was in this woman’s mind.
“Hmmm…?” he asked, a little unsure of himself.
She laughed and turned her head away, laughing as if she was thinking of something funny. Yuya felt like she was thinking of something funny he must have done.
“W-what is it?” he asked, now wanting to know what was running through her mind. Shizuka started to even laugh even more and louder this time. Yuya got really curious.
“It’s nothing…” she tried to stop laughing, covering her mouth and looking away. But Yuya could still see she was laughing.
“Eh!” Yuya complained like a kid. Shizuka bursted in laughter; making him even more curious.
“I just remembered,” Shizuka finally, still trying to hold her laughter back. “… weren’t we like this before…?” she asked him, smiling. Yuya didn’t know what she was talking about at first, then he remembered about their first date. He smiled when he thought of that moment. It was one of his most precious memories with Shizuka. Yuya leaned in, their foreheads touching, and smiled at her.
“You are the most precious thing to me. I would die if I lost you…” Yuya whispered in a soft voice. He did this whenever he decided to tell he something sweet to her.
“I know…” she smiled, looking deep into his eyes.
Yuya slowly leaned in, and kissed her.
--X--
Where should I start?
The flesh? No…
Hmm… The roses? No, that’s not it!
The sunflowers? Definitely not!
Yuya couldn’t decide where to start. He had already done an outline on a canvas and he was already thinking of the correct shared and colours for each part. But he didn’t know where to start painting. His outline looked messy and really unprofessional. He was dying to paint this already.
“Maybe the eyes…?” he thought to himself, and looked at his colour palette then back at the painting. He shook his head, he wanted to finish this painting before Shizuka would go blind. He knew Shizuka wasn’t saying anything at the moment, but she’s already having a hard time seeing things. And at night, she completely goes blind already.
Yuya’s been worrying each night, what if Shizuka would suddenly wake up being blind. He has been grateful everyday when she woke up, that she was still able to see. It broke his heart whenever he would think that one day-
Clank! Shatter!
His train of thought was interrupted when he heard a shriek with what sounded like utensils falling onto the floor and glass breaking. He dropped everything he held and ran to the kitchen where he knew Shizuka was washing the dishes.
“Shizuka!” he yelled in panic when he arrived. He found Shizuka kneeling on the floor, holding onto the kitchen counter crying. Beside her were a few broken plates on the floor and scattered utensils.
“Yuya-kun! Stop it please! It hurts!” Shizuka said, burying her face into her hands and crying even more. He rushed over to her side, not minding the mess that was there. Shizuka instantly hugged him and buried her face in his chest, still crying. Yuya was getting nervous about her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her.
“I- I…” she stuttered, her voice hitching.
“What is it Shizuka? Tell me?” he knew it had come, and he didn’t want to accept the fact. Not yet.
“I can’t see anything anymore.”
It didn’t take long for Yuya to bring Shizuka to her ophthalmologist. When they got into the hospital, Shizuka was immediately carried away into a room to fully diagnose her condition. He waited impatiently outside her room as the doctor was looking as to what had happened to her.
“Yuya…” the doctor stuck her head out of the room. He looked up to see the doctor motion him in. He stood up like he was instructed to see Shizuka lying on a bed, with a couple of bandages wrapped around her eyes. It looked like Shizuka was asleep.
“It came faster than expected…” the doctor told him. “We weren’t expecting her to go blind for another year.”
“She just suddenly went blind…?” Yuya asked, looking at the frail girl lying on the bed. She instantly shot up when Yuya spoke.
“Yuya-kun!? W-where are you?” she said, as she stretched out an arm, trying to find where Yuya was. He walked up to her and held her hand protectively, intertwining their fingers. “Yuya-kun…” Shizuka smiled when she used her other hand to feel Yuya’s face. Yuya gently held that hand as well.
“It suddenly developed. I have never heard of a case like this. It was like, the disease fought back her treatments.” The doctor explained. “Her eyes were very painful when she went blind.” The doctor said, sitting on the bed right in front of Shizuka. She started to untie the knot behind her head and slowly unravelled the bandages.
“The pain of her eyes is gone…” the doctor said, removing the bandages completely. Shizuka’s eyes closed, but she slowly opened them. Those blue orbs that reflected the radiance of the person, once full of life, finally went dull. It looked scary at first. It was a dull shade of blue mixed with oranges and red, then black spots all over.
“Shizuka…” Yuya heard his voice crack. So this is what a person with RP looked like. Shizuka looked straight on, as if she was trying to think or look for something.
“Shizuka, the pain gone?” the doctor asked.
“It feels so different… from seeing everything, to seeing nothing in one second.” Shizuka commented, as if, from the time she got blind, the life got sucked out from her.
Yuya from this point on was scared.
--X--
“Shizuka, you need to eat.” Yuya said sitting down beside the blind girl. Shizuka looked straight on, her hand slowly moving and feeling the table to find her chopsticks. She moved her hand a bit to the right and found it, she positioned her hand with the chopsticks and lifted the plate. Yuya was amazed by how she carried herself, it was like she had been preparing for this moment.
Yuya had taken Shizuka the day after she was pronounced officially blind home to where he knows she would be safe and take care of her. He had become a struggling artist a bit since he lacked in paintings to sell since he’s been concerned with Shizuka’s condition.
Shizuka took the sushi between her chopsticks and carried it to her mouth, putting the whole thing in. Yuya had prepared her a glass of water just in case something might happen to her.
“Ne, Yuya-san, you’re being too worrisome.” Shizuka smiled after she swallowed the sushi when she heard Yuya put a glass on the table. Yuya had been scared of her eyes at first. It wasn’t natural. But, it looked Shizuka could pull it off somehow.
“I just really love you.” He told her, holding her hand and intertwining his pinky to hers. Shizuka felt the grip of it and intertwined hers as well. Yuya brought their hands to his face and kissed Shizuka’s hand. “I promise you, I shall never leave you.” He looked at her. He wanted her to look back at him but alast, those times will just be but a memory.
“I know you wouldn’t.” Shizuka replied, smiling. But her eyes seemed like they were hiding something behind that blindness.
“Eh?” he questioned.
“If you really didn’t like me, then you wouldn’t have even done all these things for me.” Shizuka told him. “And for that, I am really grateful I met you.” Shizuka said, her free hand reaching for Yuya’s face and caressing it. She closed her eyes at her fingers traced his features and in her mind, she pictured what he looked like now.
“Shizuka, you got it wrong.” Yuya told her which made Shizuka stop for a moment and look puzzled. “I don’t like you, I love you.” He corrected her.
When Shizuka heard that, she had this unbearable pain in her heart.
--X--
Yuya for the past few days had been hunted down by art collectors, wanting his paintings ever since he decided to take a break to take care of Shizuka. He hadn’t realized he had been gone for so long. They were looking for a painting, a grand masterpiece for his comeback. Yuya knew what he was going to show as his comeback.
He stared at the canvas, so far, he had already painted the female’s flesh in the painting and the base for the background. He was still thinking what else could be added to make it more realistic and full of life. He looked at his supplies. He was already low. He had left some of the paint open and not it had dried.He noticed his brushes were already worn out and he needed to get few more.
“Shizuka…” Yuya stepped out of his room and saw Shizuka sitting by the window sill, her favourite spot. Shizuka turned her attention to him when she heard him speak.
“Nani?” she asked.
“Ne, I’ll be just going out for a while.” Yuya told her and approached her. Shizuka felt Yuya’s presence in front of her and turned her head to face him. “I just need to buy art supplies.”
“Ah… sou.” Shizuka agreed. “You can go ahead. I’ll stay here no worries.” She told him. Yuya looked a bit worried about her. He would be leaving her for the first time ever since she had gone blind.
“Are you sure you can manage?” he asked.
“I was able to see before. And I know every nook and cranny in this place. I’m sure I can manage.” Shizuka gave him a sweet smile. Yuya noticed that this was the first time she had actually given him a real smile ever since she went blind. Maybe she was already getting used to it.
“Do you need anything before I leave?”
“Uhmm…” she pondered. “A pen and paper maybe?”
“A pen and paper?” he questioned.
“I just miss the feeling. I just want to feel the hold a pen and the touch of paper.” Shizuka lied, her true intentions unknown by Yuya. Yuya nodded and grabbed a pen and paper and put it in Shizuka’s hand.
“Is there anything else that you need?” he asked.
“Come here…” Shizuka motioned him to come. Yuya closed in and Shizuka leaned in, and slowly kissed him. Yuya felt something that there was more to the kiss and he felt that Shizuka had so much passion and love for him. He kissed her back and after a moment he pulled away.
“What was that for?” he smiled.
“I really love you…” Shizuka replied. Yuya felt that he was missing something when she said that; in his mind it had a second meaning. He didn’t know what was going on in Shizuka’s mind right now. “Just promise me… you’ll finish that painting…” Shizuka told him.
Yuya felt a pain in his heart when she said that. He planned to paint that for her, but it resulted in a total failure when Shizuka finally went blind, and his painting was still in the planning stage by then.
“I am so sorry you never got to see it…” he said sadly. Shizuka noted the sadness in his voice and she herself too felt saddened. She didn’t know whether it was for something she was about to do or because she really felt sorry for the efforts of Yuya.
“It’s not your fault…” Shizuka tried to comfort him. “… I was meant to be blind. So be it.”
“Why does it have to be you?” he questioned. “What did you eve-“
“Yuya,” Shizuka interrupted him. “Love is blind. Literally.” She joked, trying to make the atmosphere lighter. Yuya laughed and got her joke.
“Fine.” He surrendered the argument. “I’ll see you later then?” kissing her lightly on the lips.
“Ok.” Shizuka said, pecking him on the lips once again. Yuya stood up and walked to the door. He opened it and glanced back at Shizuka who started tapping on the paper and looked like she was thinking of what she could write. He smiled before finally leaving her.
Shizuka was left there, she felt her eyes watering when she heard the door close. The rhythmic tapping of the pen sounded like the beat of her heart. Her fingers traced the paper to see the size to know where she could start. Her mind was running with a lot of things she knew she was going to regret. But, it left her no choice. She lightly started to write on the paper, expressing her deepest thoughts in just a few words. She felt tears drop onto the paper as she wrote and her crying started to get harder. Once Shizuka was finished, she folded the note and left it on the table. Even though she was blind, she still knew the layout and position of the apartment.
She suddenly felt cold all over when she left the note.
“Sayonara… Yuya-kun…” she whispered.
--X---
Yuya dug in his pocket with hardship as he tried to look for the keys to his apartment. He felt coins, crumpled paper and other junk in his pocket. He smiled when he finally found his keys and inserted it into the keyhole and opened the door. The door clicked open and creaked as it slowly opened. Yuya picked up the bags with his art materials and entered the house.
“Shizuka!” he called out. “I’m home.”
No one greeted him but silence.
“Shizuka!” he called out once again, putting his newly bought materials on the table. “Shizuka…?”
Yuya felt his heart pound faster, thinking what impending doom might’ve happened to Shizuka. He ran to the bathroom, thinking that maybe she had accidentally locked herself in. No one was inside. He ran to the art room; still no Shizuka. He finally ran to her room. He swung the door open to find Shizuka lying on the bed, fast asleep.
“There you are…” Yuya sighed in relief and slowly approached Shizuka’s bed. He smiled as he sat down beside her and looked at that angelic sleeping face of hers. Her head rested to her side and both her ands rested on her tummy. “Shizu-“ Yuya stopped when he noticed that Shizuka was just lying still. He noticed that her chest wasn’t moving either.
“Shizuka…?” he tried shaking her. Still, no response from the girl.
“Shizuka…!” he shaked her a little harder, trying to wake her up. Shizuka’s hand straightened out and an empty bottle fell. Yuya picked the bottle up and noticed that it was the medication Shizuka was taking before she completely went blind. Last time he checked it, the bottle was full of pills. Yuya looked back at Shizuka, still no motion from her.
Yuya didn’t want to speculate what was happening with her. He sat down once again beside her and touched her face.
She was getting cold.
He tried to look for pulse. Her neck, her wrist, he even tried to listen to her heart beat. Still, no rhythm was found from Shizuka. Yuya felt his eyes watering when he realized that there was no heart beat. His hands started to shiver, and his mind was going wild.
Shizuka was dead.
--X--
Yuya,
I know that my writing is not understandable, but please, try to bear with me.
These last few years with you have been the greatest in my entire life. I really want to stay with you until the end, but, I fret that I may be a burden to you. I know that we’re running low on resources. I know what you must be thinking…
THIS IS NOT THE REASON.
The real reason is because I’ve been so depressed ever since I lost my eye sight. And no matter what we do, it will never come back. I always dreamt that one day; I could start a family of my own with you. But I realized that it was just a dream and will remain just a dream.
I decided to wake up to reality.
I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I know you’ll never leave me.
And please remember, even if I am gone, I still love you no matter what.
Your loved one,
Hasekura Shizuka
Yuya looked at the piece of paper over and over again. She had committed suicide a few weeks ago. He noticed that there were blotches of drop marks in the letter, making some parts of the writing very hard to read. And even though that she had gone blind, her handwriting was still beautiful as before. He deeply sighed. He was surrounded by silence in a dark place. He had found this right beside Shizuka’s body.
“Yuya…” he heard a familiar voice call him. He turned around to see a tall good looking man standing by the doorway. He wore very formal business attire that looked good on him. He had light skin and dark hair. This was his friend and art director, Inoo Kei.
“Kei. What brings you here?” Yuya hid Shizuka’s note in his pocket.
“The gallery is looking for new works of yours.” Kei told him and looked at the area. It was run down and ransacked. Paint was spilled all over the floor and sketches were ripped and scattered everywhere. Kei noticed that Yuya had grown thin and weary already, despite his young age. And even though Yuya had been living in a pig sty, he noticed that he sat in front of a painting; the good news to him was it was unharmed in any way.
“I’m working on one, can’t you see?” Yuya spat back referring to the painting he was working on. It had much colour now and it seemed to be so full of life.
“I see.” Kei smiled. It wasn’t something he had seen before and he could refer to this as Yuya’s greatest comeback. “It’s very beautiful. I love your concept. When will you be able to finish it?”
“Soon, I’ll give you a call.” Yuya said, mixing red with a little black as he started to paint the roses with the correct shading.
“Ok. Yuya, I know you’ve been depressed with Shizuka’s death.” Kei started off. Yuya for a minute stopped painting when Shizuka’s name came up and continued like nothing happened. “And I am really sorry for it. I truly am.”
Yuya looked at him with a brow raised. Kei noticed that he had bags under his eyes and he had a puzzled look on his face.
“What do you mean Shizuka’s dead? She’s still alive.”
Kei knew there was something wrong.
--X--
Brrrrt.
Brrrt.
Brrrrt.
Brrrt.
Kei mustered up the strength so shift to his left and grab his phone. He looked at the number that was calling him and immediately answered it.
“Hello..?” he answered quietly as the woman beside him started to shift a little, and he did not want to wake her up.
“Kei… Shizuka…” he heard a depressed voice on the other end. “She won’t look at me.”
“N-nani..?” Kei was confused with what he was talking about.
“Shizuka… she won’t look at me. I messed up. The painting… she doesn’t want to look at me…” Yuya sounded angry at the same time like he was about to cry.
“Yuya…” Kei massaged his temple. How many times did he have to tell this guy the truth? “Shizuka’s been dead for a month now…”
“She isn’t dead!” he immediately spat back. Kei was alarmed by this. Yuya in his mind really believed that Shizuka wasn’t dead. He heard Yuya keep on repeating that line before Yuya hung up. Kei knew that there was trouble brewing and he immediately got out of bed and decided to go to Yuya’s place.
--X--
“Why won’t you look at me?” Yuya asked as he caressed Shizuka’s face in the painting.
“Did I disappoint you?” he asked, but there was no answer from the woman.
“I wonder…” he trailed off as tears started to gather in his eyes. “What if I didn’t meet you? Would you still be blind? Would you end up living with another artist? Would you be happy?”
All those questions he asked, but received no answer. Yuya couldn’t take it anymore; he knew that this was going to be his greatest final masterpiece ever.
--X--
“Yuya!” Kei immediately barged the door open with a few policemen. He had been worried about what would happen to Yuya and decided to bring some help along with him. Everyone entered the apartment unit carefully and started searching for Yuya. The place had grown to be quiet and felt of depression as Kei walked through the living room. He noticed random sketches and paintings of Shizuka everywhere scattered and torn apart.
“Yuya!” he called once again. “Come out!”
“Sir.” A policeman called over looking sad. Kei immediately went over. He noticed it was Yuya’s room. As he was standing by the door, he noticed a red pigment on the floor. He wished it was just red paint. He nervously opened the door, only to find his worst expectation.
Takaki Yuya had killed himself.
Kei closed his eyes and turned his attention away. It looked like Yuya had shot himself in the head. The policemen called for medics to be here and carry the body away. Kei sat down on the couch, and ran a hand through his hair, a dear friend had just died. What was happening to the world?
“Sir, you might want to see this.” A policeman called Kei as he motioned him to come. Kei noticed that he was inside the art studio of Yuya and decided to see what was there. Kei entered the room. “Over there sir.” He said and pointed to a painting.
Kei was in awe when he saw this. He had finally finished it and it looked like one of his best works ever. He peered in at the bottom left cornr and saw Yuya’s signature on it as well as the title.
“The Blind Painter…”Kei read aloud.
---END---