"Natsume... are you okay?"

"Yeah..." I smile weakly. "I'm okay, Mikan."

"That's exactly it, Natsume. You don't call me names anymore and your not so cold too. What's wrong really? If you don't mind telling me, then please do, I know it's none of my business but..."

"Don't worry." I say. "I'm just... a little tired is all." I pick up the dead flowers resting on the table and toss them in the trash.

"What are you doing?" Mikan yells as she catches them just in time, "There's still hope you know?"

I blink a couple times and nod. Hope. That's a word I haven't really thought about lately. Like how there could be hope of saving the two of them and hope of no one dying.

But that's a world different from mine.

"Sorry..." I lie, rubbing behind my neck.

"Mm... it's okay. We should do something Natsume. Something fun!" I shake my head and smile.

"You should rest Mikan. You just got out of the hospital."

"You're no fun lately, Natsume" She pouts and I slump down in my chair. Time is ticking...

I only have three weeks left! What am I supposed to do until then? What am I supposed to do?

"Hey? Let's go to the Rec Room, Natsume. I want to play you a song."

My head lifted from my hands. "A song?"

"Don't worry," she chuckles, "I won't sing. I'll play it on the piano, for you."

I rub my hands together and purse my lips. "As long as you don't move too much..." I started and she jumped form her bed, literally, and I panicked as I helped her up.

"No need, Natsume. I want to walk there myself. I've been in bed for a week now and I need to feel the earth at my feet." I stared at her, wide-eyed. She was one weird girl alright. Unlike any other. It made me smile, instantly forgetting my worries.

"At least hold my hand." I mumbled shyly as she held a tight grip on my hand. I couldn't tell at all, on the way there, whether or not it was her sweat on my hand or my own. I couldn't care less if it were hers, but I felt a little embarrassed because I kept thinking it was mine.

"We're here." She tugged my hand. The room was empty now, she pulled me towards the white door again. I stopped and looked back. "What's wrong?"

"Last time I was here... there were a lot of people."

"Oh... those people are from my neighborhood."

"There was also a grandpa that gave me a threatening look when I asked for you." I sighed.

"...? Oh that's my Grandpa's friend! He's always looking out for me..." She avoided my gaze and I looked down at the ground. Her grandpa's dead...

"He passed away a couple years ago..." She mumbled, "He was the greatest." I nodded and led her to the white door. "I love Jicchan the most, it made me incredibly sad when he passed away."

"You don't have to tell me." I muttered.

"I want to tell you though, that Jicchan is a wonderful person. He was the kind of person that inspired me to be who I want to be. To be brave."

"You don't have to be brave right now." I blurted and she stopped. I touched my mouth and frowned.

We stood there, her eyes falling to the floor and my own staring at my feet that seem to get smaller and smaller. She inhaled,

"I do."I look down at the floor, ashamed at my outburst. Why did I have to say that? "I have to be brave for those who don't have the courage to."

I looked up at her and I then I realized something...

As the sunlight lit up the tips of her hazelnut brown hair, her fierce eyes glaring at me, and her lips in a bright smirk, that I may have been wrong about her the whole time.

I thought that she was both, mentally and physically weak. But that's not true at all.

She's the strongest person that I've ever seen before. Even more than my own mother.

"Do you get it now?" She asks me now, "Why I must smile?"

I nod now, "I get it."

"Now you have to tell me something." I smirk.

"What is it that you want to know?" She leaned closer that her breath touched my face. The scent of her hair invading my nose, the pure scent of oranges.

"Why... did ask Hotaru to go out with you if you didn't like her, and why did you break up with her?"

"That's two questions."

"Fine, Why did you ask her to go out with you, then break up with you?"

"Alright, an eye for an eye." I sighed as we entered the room.

Wars about the break any second now and I'm going to lose very badly.