By A. Z. Arata
The white hospital walls before Sakura's eyes flickered and suddenly vanished. Ren's lifeless body, Aki's sobbing, the sound of the rain—everything shattered like glass.
With a piercing mechanical beep, Sakura opened her eyes.
There were no cherry blossoms before her. There was no Ren. A pungent smell of medicine stung her nose. A plastic tube was inserted down her throat to help her breathe. An indescribable agony throbbed in every cell of her body.
"Doctor! Doctor! She opened her eyes! Sakura is back!"
A familiar female voice, broken by the weight of age, cried out. Sakura looked through blurred vision. It was her mother. But her mother looked so much older. There were silvery streaks in her father's hair. They were both clutching Sakura's hands, weeping uncontrollably.
Sakura tried to speak, but no sound came out. Her mind was still wandering through those school corridors. She thought to herself— "Where is Ren? Did Ren not die? Am I the one who survived?" ###
The Harsh Reality: Three Years of Emptiness
A few days later, when Sakura had recovered slightly, what the doctor and her mother told her made her feel that death would have been far better.
Three years ago, while she was a tenth-grade student, Sakura had suffered a massive head injury in a horrific truck accident on her way to school. Since then, she had been in a coma—a deep sleep. For the last three years, she had been lying in this hospital bed.
That meant—someone named Ren Takahashi had never existed in Sakura's life.
The train journey to Odaiba Island, the guitar melody in Shinjuku Park, the touch of Ren's ice-cold hand—everything was a long, elaborate dream created by Sakura's subconscious mind. When a human brain suffers from extreme loneliness during a coma, it often builds a fictional world for itself. Sakura had done exactly that. Ren was merely an imaginary companion to ease her solitude.
Mental Fragility and the Web of Illusion
Sakura returned home after recovering physically, but her soul was no longer in this world. She would sit in the corner of her room all day. Her parents desperately tried to bring her back to normalcy, but Sakura would only stare out the window.
Occasionally, she would scream— "Mom! Ren is standing downstairs! He's getting drenched, please call him inside!"
Her mother would weep. "Sakura, listen to me... there is no Ren. It's just your mind playing tricks."
Sakura would cover her ears and shout— "No! Ren is real! I heard his heartbeat! He said he would live on in my smile!"
Sakura no longer recognized anyone. She would put on her old school uniform, stand before the mirror, and talk to herself. In her mind, she was still standing under that Sakura tree. To her, the real world was now an unbearable prison, and the world of her coma was her true heaven.
Ending: The Final Farewell of the Cherry Blossoms
One year later.
Sakura was now staying at a mental rehabilitation center. Spring had arrived once again. In the center's garden stood a single cherry blossom tree. Sakura went and sat alone beneath it. She was still wearing that old, blue school uniform, which was now too small for her.
She reached out her hand into the void. A strange brilliance shone in her eyes. She whispered—
"Ren-kun... why were you so late? Look, I'm all ready for the new semester. Where shall we go today? Tokyo Tower?"
A cluster of Sakura petals drifted down from the breeze onto Sakura's hair. Sakura began to giggle. She could see it—Ren was standing before her, wearing that same enchanting smile. Ren had reached out his hand.
Standing in the distance, the nurses sighed, watching Sakura with pitying eyes. They saw a girl talking and laughing with the wind, all alone. But in Sakura's eyes, she was not alone. She was walking toward the blue sky with the prince of her dreams.
When the illusion is more beautiful than reality, humans cling to the illusion.
Sakura Okada never truly recovered. She was lost forever in the world of her beloved 'Ren.'
Like the falling cherry blossoms, Sakura's life withered before its time, leaving behind only the untold story of a tragic memory.
[THE END]