The hospital lights were too bright.
That was the first thing Chifuyu noticed.
Everything was white.
The walls.
The floors.
The ceiling.
Even the chairs seemed colder than they should have been.
He sat hunched forward in the waiting room with his elbows resting on his knees, staring at the floor without really seeing it.
Dakota sat beside him.
For once…
He wasn't holding a game.
He wasn't making jokes.
He wasn't saying anything at all.
Across from them, their parents spoke quietly with Yukinoya's parents.
Chifuyu couldn't hear every word.
But he heard enough.
"…collapsed."
"…tests."
"…worse."
"…should've rested."
Every time one of those words reached him, his stomach twisted.
He looked toward the double doors at the end of the hall.
They had taken Yukinoya through there almost an hour ago.
An hour.
It felt longer.
Much longer.
Chifuyu's leg bounced nervously.
Dakota finally glanced toward him.
Dakota: "You're gonna shake the whole building."
Chifuyu stopped.
For about three seconds.
Then his leg started again.
Chifuyu: "She's fine."
Dakota looked at him.
Chifuyu: "She just got tired."
Dakota didn't answer.
Chifuyu: "Right?"
Dakota lowered his eyes.
Dakota: "I don't know."
Chifuyu hated that answer.
He stood suddenly.
Chifuyu: "I'm gonna ask."
His mother intercepted him before he reached the adults.
Chifuyu's mom: "Chifuyu."
Chifuyu: "What's going on?"
She placed both hands on his shoulders.
Chifuyu: "Why isn't anyone telling us anything?"
His voice rose.
Several people farther down the hall looked over.
Chifuyu didn't care.
Chifuyu: "She just fell over!"
His mother looked toward Yukinoya's parents.
That glance told him something immediately.
They knew.
Not what had happened tonight.
Something bigger.
Something older.
Chifuyu's expression changed.
Chifuyu: "…What?"
No one answered right away.
Dakota stood behind him.
Yukinoya's mother slowly lowered herself into one of the chairs.
Her hands were trembling.
Yukinoya's father remained standing beside her, one hand resting gently on her shoulder.
He looked exhausted.
Older than he had earlier that evening.
Yukinoya's dad: "Chifuyu."
He glanced toward Dakota.
Yukinoya's dad: "Dakota."
He gestured toward the chairs.
Yukinoya's dad: "Come sit down."
Chifuyu didn't move.
Chifuyu: "Why?"
His father stepped beside him.
Chifuyu's dad: "Just listen."
That only made it worse.
Chifuyu reluctantly sat.
Dakota took the seat beside him again.
Yukinoya's parents sat across from them.
For several moments…
Nobody spoke.
Yukinoya's mother looked down at her hands.
Her husband took a slow breath.
Yukinoya's dad: "There's something we should've told you both a long time ago."
Chifuyu's chest tightened.
Yukinoya's dad: "Yukinoya is sick."
Chifuyu frowned.
Chifuyu: "I know."
He gestured toward the hospital.
Chifuyu: "She collapsed."
Yukinoya's father shook his head.
Yukinoya's dad: "No."
His voice softened.
Yukinoya's dad: "I mean she's been sick for years."
Chifuyu stopped moving.
Dakota's eyes slowly widened.
Yukinoya's mother finally looked up.
Her eyes were red.
Yukinoya's mom: "Yuki has severe kidney disease."
Silence.
Chifuyu stared at her.
The words didn't make sense at first.
They sounded like something that belonged to someone else.
Some adult.
Some stranger.
Not Yukinoya.
Not the girl who had thrown snowballs at him yesterday.
Not the girl who had laughed while crashing into a snowbank.
Not the girl who had stood beneath the northern lights.
Chifuyu: "Kidney… disease?"
Yukinoya's dad nodded.
Yukinoya's dad: "It's chronic."
Dakota looked between them.
Dakota: "What does that mean?"
Yukinoya's mother swallowed.
Yukinoya's mom: "It means it's something she's had for a long time."
She pressed her hands together.
Yukinoya's mom: "And it isn't something that simply goes away."
Chifuyu blinked.
Chifuyu: "But…"
He shook his head.
Chifuyu: "She's normal."
His own words sounded wrong the moment he said them.
Chifuyu: "I mean…"
Yukinoya's dad understood.
Yukinoya's dad: "For the most part, she's been able to live normally."
He glanced toward the hospital doors.
Yukinoya's dad: "Treatment helped. We watched what she ate, made sure she took her medication, took her to appointments."
Chifuyu's brow furrowed.
He had never known about appointments.
Never known about medication.
Never known about any of it.
Yukinoya's mom: "There were hard days."
She gave a small, painful smile.
Yukinoya's mom: "But she never wanted those days to define her."
Dakota sat completely still.
Dakota: "How long?"
Yukinoya's father looked at him.
Dakota: "How long has she known?"
Yukinoya's dad: "For years."
Chifuyu's head snapped up.
Chifuyu: "Years?"
His voice echoed louder than he intended.
Yukinoya's mother flinched slightly.
Chifuyu: "We've known her our whole lives!"
His breathing quickened.
Chifuyu: "How could we not know?!"
His father reached toward him.
Chifuyu pulled away.
Chifuyu: "Did everyone know except us?"
Chifuyu's mom: "Not everyone."
Chifuyu: "You knew?"
His mother hesitated.
That was enough.
Chifuyu stood again.
Chifuyu: "You knew?"
Chifuyu's dad: "Chifuyu—"
Chifuyu: "Dad knew too?"
His father's expression tightened.
Chifuyu looked around the group.
Every adult avoided his eyes in a slightly different way.
His face grew hot.
Chifuyu: "That's messed up!"
Yukinoya's mother looked like she might cry again.
Yukinoya's dad: "It wasn't our choice alone."
Chifuyu glared at him.
Yukinoya's dad: "Yuki didn't want you to know."
That stopped him.
Chifuyu: "…What?"
Yukinoya's mother wiped beneath one eye.
Yukinoya's mom: "She made us promise."
Chifuyu stared.
Yukinoya's mom: "She didn't want you or Dakota worrying about her."
Chifuyu: "That's stupid."
His voice cracked.
Chifuyu: "We're her friends."
Yukinoya's dad: "That's exactly why."
He leaned forward.
Yukinoya's dad: "She didn't want to become 'the sick girl' to you two."
Chifuyu said nothing.
Yukinoya's mother spoke next.
Quietly.
Yukinoya's mom: "She wanted one summer where you looked at her exactly the way you always had."
That sentence landed harder than anything else.
Chifuyu slowly sat back down.
His mind immediately returned to the summer.
The creek.
The arcade.
The pool.
The sleepover.
The neighborhood festival.
The mountain.
The snowboarding.
All those times she had stopped.
All those times she had said—
I'm tired.
He had never questioned it.
Why would he?
They were kids.
Kids got tired.
Yukinoya's mom: "Recently… things have been getting harder for her."
Chifuyu looked up.
Yukinoya's dad nodded.
Yukinoya's dad: "The doctors have been watching her closely."
His expression darkened.
Yukinoya's dad: "Her kidneys aren't working as well as they used to."
Dakota finally spoke.
Dakota: "Is she…"
He stopped.
Nobody needed him to finish.
Yukinoya's mother immediately shook her head.
Yukinoya's mom: "This doesn't mean she's dying tonight."
Her voice trembled despite the reassurance.
Yukinoya's dad: "But things are serious."
He exhaled slowly.
Yukinoya's dad: "Her body isn't handling everything the way it used to."
Chifuyu remembered Yukinoya leaning against the railing.
Not finishing her food.
Breathing hard after snowboarding.
Her hand pressing against her chest.
Her mother asking if she wanted to return to the hotel.
Yukinoya saying—
No.
Please.
I don't wanna miss tonight.
Chifuyu clenched his hands into fists.
Chifuyu: "Then why did you let her do all that stuff?"
The question came out sharper than he intended.
Yukinoya's parents didn't become defensive.
That somehow made him feel worse.
Yukinoya's father lowered his eyes.
Yukinoya's dad: "Because she begged us to."
Yukinoya's mom: "And because she's spent so much of her life being told what she can't do."
Her voice broke slightly.
Yukinoya's mom: "We wanted her to have something normal."
She pressed one hand against her mouth.
Yukinoya's dad rubbed her back.
Yukinoya's mom: "She wanted this trip so badly."
The anger inside Chifuyu struggled to find somewhere to go.
At Yukinoya.
At her parents.
At his parents.
At himself.
He didn't know.
Dakota remained silent for a long moment.
Then—
Dakota: "She knew."
Chifuyu looked toward him.
Chifuyu: "What?"
Dakota's eyes remained on the floor.
Dakota: "Not everything."
He thought carefully.
Dakota: "But she knew she was getting worse."
Chifuyu immediately shook his head.
Chifuyu: "No she didn't."
Dakota looked at him.
Dakota: "Then why did she keep saying stuff like that?"
Chifuyu: "Like what?"
Dakota: "That she wanted to remember everything."
Chifuyu froze.
Dakota: "And tonight."
He swallowed.
Dakota: "She told you to remember it."
Chifuyu remembered the northern lights.
Yukinoya standing beneath them.
Green light reflected in her eyes.
Remember this, okay?
His stomach dropped.
Chifuyu: "She was just being weird."
Dakota didn't argue.
That was worse.
Chifuyu leaned forward and covered his face with both hands.
For the first time since arriving at the hospital…
He felt scared.
Not nervous.
Not worried.
Scared.
Truly scared.
⸻
Another hour passed before a doctor finally returned.
Yukinoya was stable.
Those words allowed everyone to breathe again.
She needed to remain overnight.
More tests would be done in the morning.
For now…
She needed rest.
Her parents were allowed in first.
Eventually, Chifuyu and Dakota were permitted to see her.
The room was quiet.
Yukinoya lay beneath white blankets.
The girl who normally took up every inch of space around her somehow looked tiny in the hospital bed.
Her face was pale.
An IV line ran from her arm.
A monitor quietly tracked her heartbeat.
Chifuyu stood in the doorway.
He hated it.
All of it.
Dakota entered behind him.
Neither spoke.
Yukinoya's bag sat on a chair beside the bed.
Chifuyu's eyes immediately found the little golden star hanging from it.
The matching festival charm.
His hand instinctively moved toward his own bag.
His charm was still there.
Beside it hung the wooden mountain token she had given him earlier.
Don't lose it.
He suddenly understood why she'd been so serious.
Chifuyu's throat tightened.
Dakota sat near the foot of the bed.
Chifuyu took the chair beside her.
Minutes passed.
He watched her breathe.
That was all.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
Eventually…
Her fingers moved.
Chifuyu immediately sat straighter.
Yukinoya's eyelids slowly opened.
She stared toward the ceiling for several seconds.
Then her head turned.
Her eyes found Chifuyu first.
Yukinoya: "…Chifuyu?"
His chest tightened.
Chifuyu: "Hey."
She looked toward Dakota.
Yukinoya: "Dakota too?"
Dakota nodded.
Dakota: "Unfortunately."
The faintest smile appeared on her face.
Yukinoya: "Where…"
She swallowed.
Yukinoya: "Where are we?"
Chifuyu: "Hospital."
Her expression changed slightly.
The memories returned.
Yukinoya: "Oh."
She looked toward the window.
Yukinoya: "Did I miss the northern lights?"
Chifuyu stared at her.
Of all the things she could have said…
Yukinoya looked back.
Yukinoya: "What?"
Chifuyu: "You're an idiot."
She frowned.
Yukinoya: "That's rude."
Chifuyu looked down.
His hands trembled.
Yukinoya's expression softened.
Yukinoya: "Chifuyu?"
He tried answering.
Nothing came out.
His vision blurred.
Chifuyu quickly wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
Yukinoya stared.
Yukinoya: "Are you… crying?"
Chifuyu: "No."
His voice cracked.
Dakota looked away, giving him the dignity of pretending not to notice.
Yukinoya tried sitting up slightly.
Chifuyu immediately stopped her.
Chifuyu: "Don't."
She froze.
Something about his tone made her listen.
Chifuyu looked at her.
His eyes were red.
Chifuyu: "Your parents told us."
Silence.
The small smile disappeared from Yukinoya's face.
Her eyes widened only slightly.
But Chifuyu saw it.
Fear.
Not of the hospital.
Not of the disease.
Of this.
Of him knowing.
Yukinoya slowly looked away.
Chifuyu stared at her.
The anger returned.
But now it hurt more than before.
Chifuyu: "Why didn't you tell me?"
For several seconds, Yukinoya didn't answer.
The hospital room was quiet enough that Chifuyu could hear the monitor beside her bed.
A steady rhythm.
Soft.
Mechanical.
Completely indifferent to the fact that his entire understanding of his best friend had changed in a single night.
Yukinoya stared toward the blanket covering her legs.
Chifuyu waited.
He didn't repeat himself.
He didn't need to.
Why didn't you tell me?
The question remained between them.
Dakota sat farther away, unusually still.
Eventually, Yukinoya rubbed her thumb against the edge of the blanket.
Yukinoya: "Because you'd do this."
Chifuyu frowned.
Chifuyu: "Do what?"
She finally looked at him.
Yukinoya: "Look at me like that."
Chifuyu's expression tightened.
Chifuyu: "Like what?"
Yukinoya smiled faintly.
It wasn't one of her usual smiles.
Yukinoya: "Like I'm about to disappear."
The words struck deeper than Chifuyu expected.
Chifuyu: "I don't."
Yukinoya: "You do."
Chifuyu: "Well, you collapsed!"
His voice rose before he could stop himself.
Yukinoya flinched.
Chifuyu immediately hated himself for it.
But the fear had been sitting inside him for hours, looking for somewhere to escape.
Chifuyu: "You knew you were sick."
Yukinoya said nothing.
Chifuyu: "You knew you were getting worse."
Still nothing.
Chifuyu: "You kept running around with us anyway."
Yukinoya looked away.
Chifuyu: "The hiking."
He counted each memory like evidence against her.
Chifuyu: "Snowboarding. Walking around all day. Staying out late."
His fists tightened.
Chifuyu: "And every time I asked if you were okay, you lied."
Yukinoya: "I didn't lie."
Chifuyu stared at her.
Yukinoya: "I was tired."
Chifuyu: "That's not what I mean!"
Silence returned.
Dakota's eyes lowered.
Yukinoya's expression didn't change much, but Chifuyu could tell his words hurt.
He couldn't stop.
Chifuyu: "We're supposed to be friends."
Yukinoya: "We are."
Chifuyu: "Then why was I the last person to know?"
Yukinoya: "Because I wanted you to be."
That shut him up.
She looked directly at him now.
There were tears forming in her eyes, but her voice remained stubbornly steady.
Yukinoya: "Do you know what happens when people find out?"
Chifuyu didn't answer.
Yukinoya: "They start watching."
She glanced toward the door.
Yukinoya: "Did you eat enough?"
Her voice changed slightly, mimicking an adult.
Yukinoya: "Are you tired?"
"Should you be doing that?"
"Don't run."
"Sit down."
"Take your medicine."
"Maybe you should stay home today."
Her smile trembled.
Yukinoya: "Everyone's trying to help."
She looked back at him.
Yukinoya: "I know that."
A tear finally slipped down her cheek.
Yukinoya: "But after a while, it feels like nobody sees you anymore."
Chifuyu's anger began losing its shape.
Yukinoya wiped her face quickly.
Yukinoya: "I didn't want that from you guys."
She glanced at Dakota.
Then Chifuyu.
Yukinoya: "When I'm with you two, I'm not sick."
Chifuyu swallowed.
Yukinoya: "I'm just Yukinoya."
She gave a tiny laugh.
Yukinoya: "The girl who beats you at everything."
Chifuyu: "You don't beat me at everything."
Yukinoya: "See?"
The smallest hint of her usual grin appeared.
Yukinoya: "That's what I wanted."
Chifuyu looked down.
He understood.
That somehow didn't make him less upset.
Chifuyu: "You're still stupid."
Yukinoya: "Probably."
Chifuyu: "Really stupid."
Yukinoya: "Okay."
Chifuyu: "Like unbelievably—"
Yukinoya: "You're ruining it."
Chifuyu's eyes burned again.
He rubbed them hard with his sleeve.
Yukinoya watched him.
Yukinoya: "Don't cry."
Chifuyu: "I'm not."
Dakota: "You definitely are."
Chifuyu turned.
Chifuyu: "Whose side are you on?!"
Dakota thought about it.
Dakota: "Currently hers."
Chifuyu: "Traitor."
For just a moment…
Yukinoya laughed.
So did Dakota.
And Chifuyu, despite himself, let out something halfway between a laugh and a sob.
The heaviness didn't disappear.
But it loosened enough for all three of them to breathe.
Yukinoya looked toward Chifuyu again.
Yukinoya: "I'm sorry."
He stared at her.
Yukinoya: "I should've told you."
Chifuyu wanted to say yes.
Wanted to tell her exactly how angry he still was.
Instead, he lowered his head against the side of her mattress.
Chifuyu: "Just don't do that again."
Yukinoya blinked.
Chifuyu: "Don't scare me like that."
Her expression softened.
Yukinoya: "Okay."
Chifuyu closed his eyes.
Yukinoya didn't tell him that some promises couldn't be kept simply because both people wanted them to be.
⸻
The Kyotani, Yukinoya, and Dakota families had originally planned to leave District 8 two days later.
They stayed another week.
The Golden Festival continued outside the hospital.
Chifuyu almost resented it.
Every morning, he walked through streets that were still full of music.
People laughed beneath golden banners.
Couples crossed bridges.
Children ran between food stalls.
Street performers filled plazas with songs.
District 8 remained beautiful.
Nothing about the city had changed.
Yet Chifuyu couldn't understand how the world could keep moving while Yukinoya was stuck inside a hospital room.
He visited as early as the adults allowed him.
Every day.
Dakota came too, though sometimes his parents took him elsewhere for a few hours. Chifuyu almost never left.
He brought games.
Books.
Snacks she was allowed to have.
Stories from whatever he'd seen outside.
One afternoon, he sat beside her bed with a handheld game between them.
Yukinoya: "You're cheating."
Chifuyu: "How?"
Yukinoya: "You're looking at my screen."
Chifuyu: "Your screen is right there."
Yukinoya: "Then stop having eyes."
Chifuyu: "That's unreasonable."
Yukinoya: "Cheater."
She still teased him.
That helped.
Sometimes she seemed so normal that Chifuyu could almost convince himself the hospital had been some enormous misunderstanding.
Then a nurse entered.
Or medicine arrived.
Or Yukinoya suddenly became too tired to continue talking.
And reality returned.
Every night, Chifuyu tried convincing someone to let him stay.
Chifuyu: "I can sleep in the chair."
His mother shook her head.
Chifuyu's mom: "No."
Chifuyu: "The floor?"
Chifuyu's dad: "No."
Chifuyu: "I'll sleep standing."
Yukinoya stared at him.
Yukinoya: "Please leave."
Chifuyu: "I'm trying to support you."
Yukinoya: "You're annoying me back into good health."
Dakota: "Maybe that's his strategy."
Chifuyu pointed at him.
Chifuyu: "Exactly."
Yukinoya: "Both of you, out."
Still…
When visiting hours ended, Chifuyu always lingered beside the door.
Every night felt wrong.
He hated leaving her there.
On the fourth night, Yukinoya noticed him staring back from the doorway.
Yukinoya: "Chifuyu."
He stopped.
Yukinoya: "I'll be here tomorrow."
He tried smiling.
Chifuyu: "You better be."
Yukinoya: "Bossy."
Chifuyu: "Goodnight."
Yukinoya: "Night."
He left.
Only after the door closed did Yukinoya let the smile disappear from her face.
⸻
Her condition improved enough for the doctors to discharge her near the end of the second week.
Not recovered.
Not cured.
Stable.
Chifuyu learned to hate that word.
Adults seemed relieved whenever doctors said it.
To him, it sounded like another way of saying:
For now.
Yukinoya walked out of the hospital beside her parents.
Chifuyu and Dakota waited outside.
Chifuyu immediately raised both hands.
Chifuyu: "She's alive!"
Yukinoya stopped.
Yukinoya: "What kind of greeting is that?"
Dakota: "He's been rehearsing it."
Chifuyu: "I have not."
Yukinoya: "You're embarrassing."
Her smile looked more like the one Chifuyu remembered.
But she was thinner.
Only slightly.
Most people might not have noticed.
Chifuyu did.
He noticed everything now.
The way she moved more carefully.
The way her father carried her bag.
The way her mother watched her whenever they climbed stairs.
The way Yukinoya became irritated whenever anyone helped too obviously.
That evening, the families finally prepared to return home.
As their train pulled away from District 8, Chifuyu sat beside the window.
The old city slowly disappeared behind them.
Golden lights.
Stone towers.
Canals.
Then forests.
Then mountains.
The trip had lasted nearly twice as long as planned.
Yet when Chifuyu thought about it…
His memories divided cleanly in two.
Before the northern lights.
And after.
Across from him, Yukinoya slept with her head against her mother's shoulder.
Dakota sat beside Chifuyu.
Neither spoke for a while.
Chifuyu looked at the golden charm hanging from his bag.
Then the wooden mountain token beside it.
He gripped both gently.
Dakota noticed.
Dakota: "You gonna stare at those the whole ride?"
Chifuyu: "Maybe."
Dakota looked toward Yukinoya.
Dakota: "She's still her."
Chifuyu glanced at him.
Dakota kept his eyes forward.
Dakota: "You know that, right?"
Chifuyu was silent.
Then nodded.
Chifuyu: "Yeah."
But knowing something and behaving like you knew it were different things.